Global Policy Forum

By Emeka Nwankpa

President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday in London urged leaders of the Third World whose countries are still weighed down by the debt burden to pursue transparency and prudence as a condition for debt relief.

He spoke while fielding reporters' questions at a briefing shortly before the opening of a mini-summit of the South-South countries, saying that he endorsed the recent slash of oil prices by OPEC as an uncontrolled price system might jeopardise the economies of developing nations.

He said that an uncontrolled rise or decline in the price of crude oil was neither good for producing countries nor their consuming counterparts, hence the need to peg the price by the oil cartel. He noted that OPEC would next month at its summit in Venezuela decide to peg the price between a maximum of $28 or $22 at the minimum, adding that either of the options would automatically reduce the production quota by about 500,000 barrels to push the price to a maximum or increase the quota by the same margin in order to put the price at the minimum of $22.

Obasanjo said member countries of OPEC took the decision in the interest of the world's economy and called on developing countries to maintain a disciplined management of their financial resources as a way of securing debt reprieve from their creditors. "One basic condition by the developed countries for the debt cancellation is good behaviour as a debtor nation," he said, explaining that mismanagement or apparent lack of transparency would certainly not impress the creditors.

Obasanjo also yesterday in London led his counterparts from South Africa, Malaysia, Algeria and Jamaica to a crucial deliberation on the need to forge greater cooperation among developing countries in the face of the globalisation process being pursued by the developed nations.

At a 35-minute press conference addressed by the group at the expansive lawn within the Abuja House, the new official residence of Nigeria's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom located at No. 2 Campden Hill, off Nothing Hill Gate in London, the leaders expressed the need for countries south of the technological divide to come closer and share experiences towards meeting the challenges posed by the present times, especially globalisation.

Obasanjo, whose plane arrived the Heathrow Airport and was received by the High Commissioner, Prince Bola Ajibola, set the tone of the meeting when he said there was no other time than now for developing countries to address issues of commonality with a view to arriving at a position formidable enough to withstand obvious threat to their survival.

According to him, nations currently weighed down by the debt overhang had found themselves in double jeopardy with efforts and plans by the industrialised nations to exert more pressure with a view to extracting more concessions.

His Malaysian counterpart, President Mohammed Mahathir, who is the current chairman of the South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) spoke in a similar vein, saying that countries of the South needed to work together to share common knowledge and common notes particularly with African countries in view of the obvious commonality of interests among them.

The Algerian leader who is the immediate past chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) President Abdulazeez Boutefleka disagreed with a notion that there appeared to be a growing confrontation between the developed countries and their developing counterparts, saying that the on-going globalisation process seriously being pursued by the developed world called for reasonable dialogue. He contended that in view of the apparent big gap between both worlds, there should be a greater need for dialogue as a necessity to stave off any semblance of conflict.

President Obasanjo spoke on the meeting: "This meeting is the first as a coordinating council. Here (in London), we are reviewing what we arrived at in Havana, including the mandate given to us to be forwarded before the G8 in Japan and to review the decisions of the G77 on certain key issues which we have been able to do. We will also work out the programme of the coordinating council for the immediate future and evolve a focus of programme for the future," he said.

On South African President Thabo Mbeki's absence Obasanjo said: "His absence could not be a ploy as you (a reporter's question) have said to divide the house. As you know, he (Mbeki) is a man of integrity and of great commitment to this cause. He has also expressed South Africa's steadfast commitment to the objectives of this meeting and has indicated his readiness to join us at our next meeting in Washington soon," he said.

At the mini-summit yesterday was a former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Sir Shridat Ramphal, whose presence was said to be one of the fresh strategies by the group to effectively coordinate the G77 resolutions.

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