Canadian PM Pushes Governance Message in Africa

By Diadie Ba

DAKAR (Reuters) 12 april 2002 - Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien hammered home the message on Friday that African leaders must keep their houses in order if they expect foreign money for a revival plan, officials said on Friday.
Chretien was in Senegal on the last leg of an African tour ahead of a Group of Eight summit that will look at how the world's most powerful nations can help the poorest continent escape the margins of the global economy.
So-called peer pressure is a key element of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), which aims to attract massive Western investment with promises of democracy and good governance.
Chretien emphasized the importance of African leaders keeping an eye on each others' respect for democracy and human rights when he met Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade and NEPAD coordinators in Dakar, officials said.
"Peer review is a very important thing and there is no reason why it shouldn't work," one Canadian official told Reuters.
African leaders are to meet in Senegal's capital next week to discuss proposals they will make to a summit of the G8 group of industrialized nations and Russia in Canada in June.
The plan, the brainchild of the presidents of South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal and Algeria, estimates that Africa needs $64 billion a year of investment.
Chretien and other Western leaders have said they consider aid for Africa as not just charity, but investment in global security to prevent failed states that could become nests of crime and terrorism.

SEEKING COMMITMENT

But before coming up with cash for the latest scheme designed to revolutionise Africa, they want to make sure of the commitment of leaders to change a continent with a poor record on human rights, democracy and fighting corruption.
Chretien has welcomed Nigerian and South African backing for Commonwealth sanctions against Zimbabwe over President Robert Mugabe's re-election last month -- widely condemned as fraudulent -- as a positive example of peer pressure.
To try and solve another African crisis, Wade has invited Madagascar's rival presidents to meet in Dakar next week to try to break an increasingly violent deadlock on the island through talks on the margins of the NEPAD summit.
Wiseman Nkuhlu, chairman of NEPAD's steering committee, told reporters after meeting Chretien on Friday that the Canadian prime minister had been encouraged by the quality of leadership he had found during his visit.
"On his side he is committed to making sure that we get a positive response (from the G8)," Nkuhlu said.

Chretien began his tour in Morocco last week and has also made stops in Nigeria and South Africa.