ABUJA, Nigeria - British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Thursday that African poverty could have serious ripple effects on Western economies and security, as he began a tour aimed at promoting a new partnership between the struggling continent and the world's wealthiest nations.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Blair said it had become apparent that instability in one corner of the world affected security and prosperity thousands of miles (kilometers) away.
"Politics is global. The threats of weapons of mass destruction, religious fanaticism and terror can't be escaped," Blair said at a rare joint session of Nigeria's upper and lower houses of parliament.
"There is no leafy suburb far from the reach of bad things and bad people. Not in my country, not in yours."
World leaders had a duty to act to help resolve Africa's woes, Blair said.
"It is a down payment on a decent future for us all," he said, dismissing criticism that his goals in Africa were idealistic.
"The cynics say: Why should we succeed now where we have failed to make progress before? But that is what they have said throughout human history. If we had listened to them, we would still be in the dark ages," Blair said.
It was the British leader's first visit to Africa's most populous nation, a country rich in oil, but plagued by violence and poverty.
As he delivered the address, Blair was visibly sweating in the sweltering House of Representatives chamber, where officials apologized for the chronically malfunctioning air conditioners. Elsewhere in the vast complex, some toilets did not work, and a few offices had been looted of furniture.
Blair's weeklong visit to Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana and Sierra Leone comes ahead of a June G-8 summit in Canada, where an ambitious aid and investment initiative for Africa will be considered.
The New Partnership for African Development — spearheaded by continent heavyweights Nigeria, South Africa and Algeria — offers a package of trade and aid initiatives, coupled with help to end civil wars and improve governance across Africa.
Blair said Thursday that Africa and the West have "the best chance in a generation to make this work."
Earlier, he met with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo for 1 1/2 hours at the sprawling white Aso Rock presidential villa, where he was welcomed by an honor guard of 101 troops in ceremonial green uniforms and a military band that played both national anthems.
The talks focused mainly on the development initiative. But the two leaders also delved into regional issues, agreeing on the need to press for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe has cracked down on the media and opposition groups ahead of a March re-election bid.
Many Nigerians — preoccupied with recent tragedies in the country's largest city, Lagos — were not aware of Blair's visit. But some of those who had taken note hoped Blair would forgive Nigeria's staggering debt, accumulated by the country's corrupt and brutal former military rulers.
"Electricity and water are being given to some of us for the first time, but it is going slowly for others because the government says it doesn't have necessary funds," said Friday Daniel, a cleaner at the legislature.
Nigeria earns billions from oil exports every year, but most families survive on less than dlrs 200 a year. The government also owes about dlrs 30 billion to foreign creditors, including Britain.
Blair said Britain was "prepared to consider debt relief for Nigeria" once the West African nation had established a "clear track record of economic reforms."
Nigeria is wracked by political, ethnic and religious divides that regularly flare into violence. Thousands have been killed since Obasanjo won 1999 elections ending 15 years of brutal military rule.
Just last week, a series of explosions at an army munitions depot in Lagos lead to the deaths of more than 1,000 people. Days later, unrelated ethnic clashes broke out in the city, killing about 100 people.
Before meeting with Blair, Obasanjo warned in an unusually emphatic speech to politicians that continued bloodletting threatened Nigeria's young democracy.
"We appear to be steadily losing ground to the suffocating influences of violence and lawlessness in the conduct of our political affairs," Obasanjo said.
The violence threatens "the survival of the democratic system ... and our unity and oneness," he said.
Blair flew to former British colony Ghana on Thursday evening for the second-leg of his tour. President John Kufuor welcomed him at Accra airport, and hundreds of people waited outside, some clinging to a wire fence, to catch a glimpse of the British premier.
Blair was treated to a display of local dancing, and water was poured on the ground in a traditional ceremony to wish him well during his visit.
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