AMBASSADOR MEETS GHANAIAN PRESIDENT KUFUOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 ACCRA 000892 SIPDIS CDR USEUCOM FOR GENL WALD/POLAD SNELL FROM AMBASSADOR YATES TREASURY FOR ALEX SEVERENS USTDA FOR BRYCE TERNET MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP, FOR ROD NORMAN E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/08/2015 TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL GH PHUM ECON EAID TO EPET EINV SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR MEETS GHANAIAN PRESIDENT KUFUOR REF: ACCRA 845 B) ACCRA 870 C) ACCRA 519 D) ACCRA 857 E) ACCRA 658 Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY AMBASSADOR MARY C.YATES FOR REASONS 1.5 (B,D) ¶1. (U) This message has an action request (see para 18). ¶2. (C) Summary: Ambassador Yates had a lengthy, private conversation with Ghanaian President Kufuor on Thursday evening, May 5. They discussed the current situation in Togo, his NPP party,s loss of the first bi-election of his second mandate, increased conservatism in Ghanaian Muslim communities, deregulation of oil pricing, corruption, NPP political grumblings, Former President J.J. Rawlings, and the Ambassador,s summer departure. President Kufuor indicated he is seriously considering accepting the invitation from the Corporate Council for Africa for its June Baltimore summit. Post will try to ascertain as soon as possible about Kufuor's travel in order to follow up on other senior meetings in Washington if he were to come. Request AF/W assistance in exploring possible meetings. End Summary. ¶3. (C) Following the May 5 State dinner for the NEPAD (New Partnership for African Development) summit for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme in Accra, President John Kufuor asked to have a private conversation with the Ambassador. He had postponed their meeting 10 days earlier on the eve of his travel to Asia, so this was possibly a substitute. He began the very informal forty-five minute discussion, which occurred at the Ambassador's residence, by diplomatically expressing his regret about her pending departure. Highlights of the subjects discussed follow: -------------- On Togo -------------- ¶4. (C) The President is concerned about Togo but reaffirmed his belief that the way forward now is with the newly elected President Faure Gnassingbe. He volunteered that he had met with Togolese opposition leader Gilchrist Olympio just that week, indicating Ghana was in a dialogue with the opposition in part to express concerns about violence. He mentioned that Olympio was headed to European capitals and was not sure when he would be returning (this tracks with Olympio's readout to �A;Polchief in ref A). ¶5. (C) Kufuor went into some detail about Gnassingbe,s education (Sorbonne, and in America),calling him a young man who understood how the wider world worked. Kufuor repeatedly said Faure was someone with whom ECOWAS could work, which was reminiscent of the line of his brother, the Defense Minister, reported last week (Ref B). The Ambassador queried whether Kufuor thought Faure was really in charge of the country or whether it was the same repressive security services as in the past decades under his father. Kufuor did not deny that the same security services are operating. However, he was convinced that young Faure has the power. "He is the elected president." Kufuor expressed confidence that the leaders of West Africa could bring him along. ¶6. (C) Kufuor said the porousness of the Togo border is of great concern, noting that in the past few weeks he had been briefed by his own services of at least 80 points along the Ghana-Togo border which were used for smuggling. He complimented his own Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) for the good work they are doing to track the increased smuggling. This concern seemed to be primarily economic in nature, and he singled out increased smuggling of Chinese goods. The Ambassador explained the assistance the U.S. has given Ghana with its border protection, but he indicated they need more. -------------- On the Lost By-Election and the Muslim North -------------- ¶7. (C) In a previous conversation with the Ambassador in March before the election, Kufuor indicated that the April 21 Asawase by-election in his home Ashante region would be an important test for his New Patriotic Party (NPP) since the constituencies in this new Kumasi district were primarily in poor Muslim areas (called "zongos"). The NPP had done poorly in similar districts throughout the north in the December 2004 election. Despite Kufuor's intervention of replacing the female candidate with a male Muslim just weeks before the election, the NPP lost this ballot by a significant margin. ¶8. (C) In our post-election meeting, the President downplayed the significance of this loss. He regretted that the new district had been formed with such heavy predominance of "zongos" but said that his party was working hard to reach out to Muslim populations. At one point he spoke with a bit of bravado that the NPP was making progress with the politics of the North because moderate Muslims were supporting the NPP. He was confident that in the future more Muslims would support the NPP, although he did not understand why they could have voted against him in 2004 because he had a Muslim vice president. ¶9. (C) The Ambassador asked the President for his observations and insights into the growth of fundamentalist Islam in Ghana. She said in her travels in Ghana since 2003, she had noticed some changes in Northern Muslims, like the growing number of women fully covered in black headscarves and clothing. He said that there are clear changes within the Muslim community, including growing internal strife. He expressed concern over the growth of conservative Muslim groups in general but particularly in Kumasi. The poor "zongos" are filled with young people who are not educated. They only follow what they are told by the Imams. He agreed that he had seen an increase in the use of headcoverings during his widespread election campaign travels. He also repeated what he said in the March 9 meeting, that Iran was making in-roads in Ghana, in good part because of itinerant preachers and poverty. When asked if he felt the Ghanaian government was getting closer in trade and other relations with the Iranian government, he responded with a strong no. -------------- On Deregulation -------------- ¶10. (C) The Ambassador raised deregulation of oil pricing at the early May Mini-Consultative Group Meeting with a dozen Ghanaian ministers, donors, World Bank, and IMF reps encouraging Ghana to adhere to its deregulation plans, protect its budget, and begin the process of removing government from setting fuel prices. This intervention was also on the agenda of the postponed scheduled Presidential meeting. Kufuor returned to this subject in our May 5 discussion, reaffirming his government's commitment to the petroleum deregulation process. He said that his government had already taken the difficult step of raising the oil prices by over 50 percent, had worked hard on a realistic budget and would continue with the deregulation process. (Note: The British High Commissioner had told the Ambassador that the President had called him to a meeting just prior to the Asian trip to pass the same message. This indicates a commitment has been made at the highest level.) -------------- On Corruption -------------- ¶11. (C) The Ambassador's earlier conversation with Defense Minister Kufuor, on corruption (ref B),may have been the real reason for this late night call. The Ambassador had expressed her concern about the growing number of allegations and experiences of corruption that the embassy was hearing about from a variety of businessmen, NGOs, and diplomatic colleagues. President Kufuor's response was unlike his brother's, who took our corruption concerns seriously but blamed the NDC opposition for accusations and undermining the government. The President asked the Ambassador to give him details, cases and specific allegations, saying he would look into them personally. ¶12. (C) The Ambassador asked why he had approved at least four ministers in his new government who had corruption charges exposed in their parliamentary vettings. (Many in the media and diplomatic circles have been asking the same). He defended each one of the ministers in some detail (a speech which had surely been given before). His most curious defense was of Roads and Transport Minister Richard Anane, since new damaging press articles emerged this past week with additional allegations. Kufuor applauded this minister's results and pointed to the huge road projects, completions and successes indicating that sacking people like this did not make sense. In this case, he was rewarding Anane's performance while acknowledging the man had some problems with his private life. He said that he sincerely would like to know about specific corruption cases so he could have them investigated. The Ambassador suggested a possible investigation of the ports, a consistent focus of complaints about pervasive corruption. She said that while businesses and NGOs found it difficult to get their goods through, corruption at the ports might lead to bigger problems making the country more vulnerable to security and terrorism threats. -------------- On Political Grumblings and J.J. Rawlings -------------- ¶13. (C) The President was candid about internal political grumblings in his party and the future of the NPP's political cohesiveness. He spoke about his future and legacy and what he wanted to accomplish in the first two years of his second term. He is aware that some donors and outsiders are concerned that actions are not being taken swiftly enough, and was defensive about this pointing out that it takes any government time--even America--to select new ministers and put together a budget. He was proud of the February budget deliberations. He acknowledged that he has current ministers who are already "running" for president which also complicates political activities. ¶14. (C) Kufuor raised the subject of former President Rawlings, and the Ambassador told him exactly what she told his brother. She said that at public meetings at the recent APARC Africa Presidential Archives and Research Center Conference in South Africa, the former President was relatively constrained regarding complaints against Kufuor's government; however she knew Rawlings had spoken about Kufuor government's corruption to conference participants privately. -------------- MCA, New Airlines,... -------------- ¶15. (C) The President chided the Ambassador about being tough on him over the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) progress, and she responded that she only wanted the MCA compact to progress, due diligence to be successful and a signed compact completed. She complimented his personal engagement and the establishment of the new Ghanaian MCC team complete with experts and private sector representatives who seemed to be making headway. She also informed him that an MCC team would be once again in Ghana working the next week. He seemed confident in the new team and in the success of the Ghanaian compact. ¶16. (C) In the President's musings about Ghana's potential and his desire to see real economic growth, he raised the situation of Ghana's airline connections. He said Ghana can and will become the transit hub of West Africa. He said that Ghana International Airlines (GIA) and North American Airlines (NAA) would be coming on line as reported (Ref D). He also confirmed that he was working directly with President Mbeki (Reftel E) on Fifth Freedom rights to allow passenger access in Accra to South African Airways, pending new summer flight scheduling with direct access between Accra and the U.S. He repeated that he has taken the airline business out of the Ministry of Roads and Transport and moved it to the Presidential offices in the castle, which reflects his personal interest in making these connections a reality. -------------- On Possible June Washington Travel -------------- ¶17. (C) The Ambassador mentioned the invitation from Corporate Council on Africa's Stephen Hayes to President Kufuor to speak at the June 22 CCA luncheon in Baltimore. Trade Minister Kyerematen had earlier indicated he and President Kufuor were considering attending. The President said he hoped a serious group of business persons from Ghana would attend and could meet with serious U.S. investors. The Ambassador said that her embassy was already coordinating with Minister Kyerematen and would be delighted to help arrange his schedule and meetings if he were to come to the U.S. Kufuor asked if there would be any possibility of meeting with President Bush and Secretary Rice. The Ambassador said she would pass the request on and make every effort once we knew his decision about travel. ¶18. (SBU) Request for AF/W action: Can AF/W ascertain whether there would be any chance of a brief meeting with President Bush and Secretary Rice if President Kufuor were to come to Washington approximately June 20-23? YATES