A presidential spokesman said Nigeria would continue to support the African Union's mission in Darfur, despite the weekend attack in which 10 troops were killed by rebels.
Some said they were afraid to go to bed at night for fear of being attacked.
But the creation of a new, combined operation with the UN, he said, must depend on other African countries playing their part.
These people desperately want peace and want to be represented at negotiations later in October.
Urgent talks are going on about how to strengthen the force.
Key questions
Hot tempers
Former US President Jimmy Carter, who is also one of the elders, said the talks needed to be more inclusive.
Jimmy Carter told the BBC that talks with Sudan's President Bashir were "constructive".
He said $100m of the promised compensation money would come from Sudan's government and $200m would be a loan from China.
Mr Carter said the payout would "help rebuild and repair the damage that has been done" in Darfur and that it was "a clear indication of [President Bashir's] commitment".
Sudan promised to pay $30m in compensation to Darfur under the terms of a 2006 peace agreement signed with just one rebel group.
Other rebel groups rejected the offer, saying it was too low and remained dissatisfied when it was later raised to $100m.
But following news of the compensation offer, the SLM's spokesperson in London, Yahaya Bolad, said that "safety and security" was the first issue his group wanted dealt with.
"There must be security on the ground first. UN troops must be deployed from Western countries: from Nato, from USA, from Australia - with other hybrid forces, because AU forces failed to protect themselves and they also failed to protect civilians," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.
"[A] gesture of goodwill is not in terms of money; it is in terms of security and in terms also for holding the people who committed the war crimes," he said.
On the second day of the elders' visit to Darfur, tempers flared when the former US president had an altercation with security officials after being barred from meeting an elder in North Darfur.
"I don't think you have the authority to do so. We are going to go anyway," Mr Carter is reported as shouting to Sudanese security men.
He later agreed to a compromise to meet the representative at a different location, AP news agency reports.
'Outgunned'
A human rights organisation says it has evidence that Darfuris who have been sent back to Khartoum by the UK government have been tortured.
THE ELDERS South Africa's Archbishop Desmond TutuFormer US President Jimmy CarterChildren's rights advocate Graca MachelVeteran UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi
THE ELDERS South Africa's Archbishop Desmond TutuFormer US President Jimmy CarterChildren's rights advocate Graca MachelVeteran UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi
The Aegis trust says that a number of Darfuris were severely abused and assaulted in Sudanese detention after being declared failed asylum seekers and deported by the British authorities.
"There's no provision yet to make sure that people who are not at war, the civilians who live in this country who want peace, will be represented at Tripoli.
In Darfur, the Nigerian general in charge of the AU force, Martin Luther Agwai, said his troops were outgunned and outnumbered by rebels and militias.
"And how will their representation be chosen? Those are very, very important questions." The situation on the ground is now much more complex than it was when the failed Darfur peace agreement was signed last year.
The new, combined AU-UN force of 26,000 troop and police is supposed to be deployed by 1 January 2008 but Gen Agwai said few African countries had the resources to be effective.
Some say there are as many as 28 rebel factions.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu told the BBC it was essential that the international community made the new peacekeeping force fit for its purpose.
President Carter warned that participants would have to be patient if they wanted to reach a proper peace deal, adding that Darfur's problems would not be resolved in a few days, or even a few weeks.
"We need to have the hybrid force deployed as quickly as possible. It's awful that it should be allowed to be here when it is so inadequately equipped."
The Elders also urged the international community to speed up the deployment of peacekeepers, to get them into Darfur sooner rather than later.
About 7,000 AU troops from 26 countries are currently patrolling the region, an area roughly the size of France.
Gen Agwai said he did not expect improvement in the situation on the ground until the 26,000-strong joint AU-UN force is deployed.
At least 200,000 people have died and some two million forced from their homes during the four-year conflict in Darfur.
