THE WHITE HOUSE�After a whirlwind African weekend with an ambitious agenda of diplomacy and peace talks, President Bill Clinton headed for home Aug. 28, with little more than memories of his second visit to that continent in two years.

The president spent two days in Nigeria�the most important leg of his trip�during an official state visit which was aimed at bolstering the 15-month-old democratically elected government of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Mr. Clinton then traveled to Arusha, Tanzania to help prop up a faltering peace effort brokered by his friend and retired South African President Nelson Mandela, aimed at ending the seven-year-old genocidal ethnic war in neighboring Burundi that has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 civilians.

After addressing a joint assembly of the Nigerian Senate and House of Representatives; then visiting a small rural village; Mr. Clinton closed his brief visit with a speech to a group of business leaders, where he announced that the U.S. would make Nigerian exports eligible for duty-free export to this country.

Nigeria, Africa�s most populous and arguably most powerful nation, was conspicuously left off Mr. Clinton�s historic six-nation itinerary in 1998 to protest nearly two decades of military dictatorship. At that time Mr. Clinton became the first sitting U.S. president to travel to so-called "Black African" countries, those south of the Sahara Desert.

Under President Obasanjo, who had been jailed during the regime of Gen. Sani Abacha, who died of a heart attack last year, Nigeria�s status has grown from being a "pariah to a partner."

"I am here because of your fight, your fight for democracy and human rights," Mr. Clinton told the joint assembly, "for equity and economic growth, for peace and tolerance, your fight is America�s fight and the world�s fight."

But the country is also sharply divided along religious and ethnic lines. In a nod to Nigeria�s three major ethnic groups, President Obasanjo gave Mr. Clinton three African names during a state dinner. Mr. Clinton can now call himself "Sodangi," a Haussa name meaning "lover of people;" "Okoro," the Ibo name for "man of the people;" and "Omowale," Yoruba for "child that has returned home."

Like the Ibos did more than 30-years-ago, several of Nigeria�s northern Muslim states�which include the Haussa�are threatening secession from the Nigerian union. Thousands of Muslims protested Mr. Clinton�s visit, saying he would object to the implementation of strict Islamic, or "Sharia" law that many local officials have decreed.

In Kano, one of eight states that have embraced Sharia since civilian rule returned to Nigeria in May 1999, Muslims held peaceful protests through the major streets in the city, chanting anti-American slogans and burning the effigy of the American president, Kano State Gov. Rabiu Kwankwaso said in a published report.

Since the Islamic code was first introduced in Zamfara State, more than 2,000 people have been killed throughout the country in clashes between Muslims and Christians.

Other important items on Mr. Clinton�s agenda included support for Nigeria�s ongoing peacekeeping efforts, especially in Sierra Leone; millions of dollars in increased U.S. aid to support education and to fight AIDS; and to enlist Nigeria�s assistance in increasing world oil production, in order to stabilize prices at home.

For his part, Mr. Obasanjo told the U.S. leader that Western countries have a moral responsibility to ease Nigeria�s debts, which he said stand at almost $32 billion. In Nigeria, as in other poor countries, he warned, the debt burden is so great it prevents economic development.

"I make a special appeal to you also to appropriate funds for debt cancellation for Nigeria," Mr. Obasanjo told Mr. Clinton at the National Assembly.

While Mr. Clinton declined the invitation to cancel the $1 billion U.S. portion of Nigeria�s foreign debt, he did promise to intercede with the Paris Club of creditor nations to reschedule some of the payments. "Nigeria shouldn�t have to choose between paying interest on debt and meeting basic human needs, especially in education and health," Mr. Clinton said.

At a visit to a women�s health center, Mr. Clinton reiterated his call for more aggressive action throughout the continent to battle AIDS. "In every country, in any culture, it is difficult, painful at the very least embarrassing to talk about the issues involved with AIDS," he said.

"But is it harder to talk about these things than to watch a child die of AIDS? We have to break the silence about how this disease spreads and how to prevent it," he continued. "AIDS can rob a country of its future. I know you are not going to let that happen to Nigeria."

AIDS is now the leading cause of death in Africa. The U.S. government will spend $9.4 million this year for AIDS and HIV infection prevention and care in Nigeria, $8.7 million for polio eradication, and $2 million toward the prevention of malaria.

Mr. Mandela had hoped Mr. Clinton would join 12 African leaders as they witnessed a peace agreement between Burundi�s Tutsi-controlled minority government and Hutu rebels representing the majority population.
Despite months of intensive negotiations the Burundi talks stalled however when the two main rebel fighting groups reportedly failed to show up in Arusha, firing instead on Bujumbura, Burundi�s capital.

Clinton administration officials distanced the U.S. leader�s visit from the hoped-for signing ceremony, describing it instead as a show of support for Mr. Mandela, according to published reports.

"We see the Burundi peace process as ... ongoing," Susan Rice, assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, told reporters traveling with the president. "The best we can hope for is an outcome that takes the process a large step down the road. In any case, the United States will continue to support the efforts of President Mandela."

After a few hours in Tanzania, Mr. Clinton flew to Cairo where he met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during a refueling stop, where he discussed the status of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.