KOUYATE ON OAU ELECTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 001927

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/30/2011
TAGS: PREL NI OAU ECOWAS
SUBJECT: KOUYATE ON OAU ELECTION

Classified by Ambassador Howard F. Jeter, reason 1.5 (b/d).


(C) 1. Summary. Ambassador met with ECOWAS Executive
Secretary Kouyate on July 27. Kouyate briefly handicapped

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the recent election for the final Secretary General of the
OAU after discussions of other issues. He claimed that he
had been vigorously opposed by Qadhafi of Libya, and was
leading in the vote count very late in the proceedings, until
an unnamed Head of State turned against him. Kouyate also
discounted any effort to appoint him to a second term as
ECOWAS Executive Secretary. Disappointed at his failure to
win the OAU election, he said he has no immediate plans for
his future. End Summary.



2. (C) Ambassador Jeter met with ECOWAS Executive Secretary
Lansana Kouyate in Abuja on July 27. After discussions on
accreditation of the American Ambassador to Nigeria to the
ECOWAS Secretariat, and review of several regional issues
(septels),Kouyate handicapped the recently-concluded
election of the final Secretary General of the OAU. Kouyate
claimed that he had been leading in unofficial vote counts up
to the final hours of the vote. "Qadhafi was against me," he
said, due to Qadhafi's very poor relations with President
Conte of Guinea. Kouyate also suggested that an unnamed Head
of State, previously his supporter, turned against him at the
last minute, costing him significant support among other
states.



3. (C) Speaking briefly on his own future, Kouyate said he
would soon begin to "look around," but had not really focused
yet on his next professional incarnation. He discounted the
possibility of serving a second term as the Executive
Secretary of ECOWAS, noting that the tradition had been two

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successive terms for each ECOWAS nationality at the helm of
the Secretariat, and he had been preceded by another Guinean
national, Edouard Benjamin. (Comment: President Obasanajo
has off-handedly told us that he would like to see Kouyate
continue for another term, but this is probably an indication
of Obasanjo's high regard for Kouyate, rather than a GON
intention. End Comment). Kouyate made no mention of a
possibility he had disclosed to us previously, that of Prime
Minister in Guinea (which he had dismissed at the time, given
what he considered his problematic relationship with Conte).



4. (C) Comment. Kouyate, obviously disappointed by his
failure to be elected OAU Secretary General, kept a stiff
upper lip with us, focusing on the issues at hand within
ECOWAS and the Secretariat, and laughing, somewhat ruefully,
at his defeat in Lusaka. He genuinely appears to have no
immediate plans for the future. End Comment.








Jeter