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Bono calls on African leaders to stamp out corruption
By MOHAMMED BASHIR
AP
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - Irish rocker and activist Bono has decried corruption in Africa, telling finance ministers that they must strive for "more transparency, not more bribes."
The 46-year-old U2 frontman spoke to reporters Sunday at a meeting of finance ministers from across the continent in Nigeria's capital of Abuja. His comments came just a few days after the U.S. State Department called on Nigeria to make anti-corruption efforts a priority.
Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer, but many of its people say the oil profits fail to trickle down.
U.S. State Department official Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a House committee Thursday that anti-corruption efforts in Nigeria have met with some success - particularly in recouping money from former officials and in narcotics - but the "corrosive impact of corruption" continues to hinder the government.
Bono said: "Every corrupt transaction involves two parties, maybe more."
Bono added that Western nations need to keep their pledges of debt relief, malaria eradication and education for African nations.
"We make promises that we fail to keep. That is our corruption," Bono said, saying U.S. funding for AIDS drugs in Africa could fail to pass the Senate.
Bono is on a 10-day tour of Africa that's already included stops in South Africa, Rwanda, Lesotho and Tanzania. He also plans to visit Mali and Ghana.
On last Africa stop, Bono pledges fight over trade
By Lesley Wroughton
Reuters
ACCRA (Reuters) - After a successful campaign to cancel the debts of some of the world's poorest countries, rocker-activist Bono is about to take on the world's powerbrokers to improve the terms of trade for Africa.
On the last stop of a six-nation African tour, Bono said on Wednesday there was a new mood of optimism on the continent and new entrepreneurs were emerging, but farm subsidies and other trade barriers in large markets like the United States and Europe were blocking progress.
In an interview with Reuters, Bono said he recognized taking on the trade issue on behalf of Africa was not going to be easy.
"We're up against vested interests and big powerful lobby groups," he said after touring a market in the capital Accra.
He also said he and other trade activists would need to get better at explaining to U.S. and European farmers how their agricultural subsidies were hurting African producers.
Bono hopes his involvement will help give Africa a voice at the World Trade Organization's global Doha Round of talks, currently stalled over agricultural issues.
"The social movements will give us political muscle and that makes it doable, but it is going to be a big fight," he added.
On the Africa tour Bono has visited textile and apparel factories in Lesotho and Tanzania where businesses have closed and jobs were lost because of the phasing out of the Multi-Fibre Agreement, which gave Asian producers greater access to developed markets as quotas under the agreement were scrapped.
In Mali, he visited a cotton-growing community to see the direct impact of U.S. cotton subsidies, which African cotton producers say depress world prices and ruin their economies.
"SWORD OF DAMOCLES"
In Ghana, Bono said uncertainty over the future of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which gives developing countries preferential access to the United States market, was hanging like a "Sword of Damocles" over the head of African countries.
Earlier in the day, the rock star met Ghanaian businesspeople to better understand constraints on businesses.
"People need aid because there is still poverty but more important for everyone is the need for trade," he told his audience. "Africa should be able to create an alternative to the sort of Chinese domination of the apparel sector," he added.
The U2 lead singer played a key role in marshalling popular support for debt forgiveness for some of the world's poorest countries and used his fame to influence world leaders in personal meetings.
In June last year the Group of Eight industrialized countries agreed to write off the debts of 18 countries, most of them in Africa, and double aid to the continent by 2010.
At a meeting with Bono on Wednesday, Ghana's President John Kufuor praised the rock star's work for Africa but told him that increased trade had to go hand-in-hand with aid to address the continent's underlying poverty.
"Our part of the world is in transition and it will take some muscle to keep up the changes," he told the rock star after a meeting. "With the right policies and some encouragement, we will be able through partnerships to compete. For Ghana to get to such a position we will need some aid," he added.
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