MILLS MOVES QUICKLY TO CONTROL LEVERS OF GOVERNMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ACCRA 000024

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/W

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/12/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM KDEM ECON GH
SUBJECT: MILLS MOVES QUICKLY TO CONTROL LEVERS OF GOVERNMENT

Classified By: POLCHIEF GPERGL for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

1.(SBU) SUMMARY. President Mills has moved quickly to
establish his authority over key security and economic
ministries, naming NDC party loyalists to serve as interim
heads of the Ministries of Defense, Interior, and Finance.
Mills' 2004 running mate, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, will be
interim head of the Ministry of Interior, while retired
Admiral E.O. Owusu Ansah will oversee the Ministry of
Defense. A trio of economic technocrats, including Dr.
Kwabena Duffour, Togbe Afede and Moses Asaga, will supervise
the Ministry of Finance. Mills also made his first three
permanent appointments (subject to parliamentary approval),
naming former Brigadier General Joseph Nunoo Mensah to serve
as his National Security Advisor, Mahama Ayariga as
Presidential Spokesman and James Bebako-Mensah as Secretary
to the Cabinet. Other ministries will be headed by their
respective Chief Directors or senior civil servants until
further notice. Hannah Tetteh, spokesperson for the Mills
transition team, said the appointees will only have
supervisory roles until substantive ministers are approved.
Ghana's constitution requires Ministers to be vetted by a
parliamentary committee, a process that normally delays the
sitting of a cabinet for weeks following an election. Mills'
interim ministers show a combination of loyalty and
government experience. END SUMMARY


2. (C) Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, named to the sensitive
Interior Ministry, is one of Mills' most trusted confidants
and was NDC vice presidential candidate during Mills'
unsuccessful 2004 run for office. Mumuni is a lawyer and was
Minister of Manpower during the Rawlings years. He is an
ethnic Adoni, from northern Ghana. The Ministry of Interior
contains the Ghana Police Service, the Narcotics Control
Board, Immigration and the Prisons Service.


3. (C) One of Mills' more interesting choices was his
selection of Brigadier (rtd.) Joseph Nunoo Mensah as his new
National Security Advisor. Mensah was twice Chief of Defense
Staff, first in 1979 and then in 1982. He was also a member
of the Provisional National Defense Council which overthrew
the government of Dr. Hilla Lyman in 1981, but he resigned
less than a year later due to differences with Jerry
Rawlings. Until 2006, he had been a long-time member of the
New Patriotic Party (NPP),and in 1998 he managed Nana
Akufo-Addo's unsuccessful attempt to become the party's
presidential candidate. Over time, Mensah became
disenchanted with the NPP, which he saw as too corrupt and
too biased toward the ethnic Ashanti. (Note: Others view him
as a political opportunist willing to switch sides when
advantages to do so. End Note.) He is still close to former
President Rawlings-- a meeting with Rawlings during the
campaign led to the Kufuor government's decision to ban
Mensah from military facilities. Mensah was also present
when Rawlings met December 27 with A/S Jendayi Frazer.


4. (C) Vice Admiral (rtd.) E.O. Owusu Ansah was named by
Mills as interim head of the Defense Ministry. Ansah served
as Commander of the Navy from 1996 to 2001, an appointment he
received from former President Rawlings, with whom it is
believed he remains close. Ansah received advanced training
in the U.K, and is remembered for his efforts to modernize
and professionalize Ghana's navy.


5. (C) Mills has named three technocrats with NDC histories
to be interim managers of Ghana's Finance Ministry. The team
will be headed by Togbe Afede, a former academic, banker, and
traditional leader from the Ho area in the Volta Region.
Mills previously had named Afede to his transition team.
(Note: Under Ghana's constitution, traditional leaders are
prohibited from partisan political positions. End Note.) Dr.
Kwabena Duffour is a bank CEO, who also has an interest in an
insurance company. He was Governor of the Central Bank, but
left that position in 2001 when the NPP came to power.
Duffour is reportedly a major financier for the NDC. Moses
Asaga has served in parliament since 1996, is an economist by
training, and was Deputy Finance Minister under Rawlings.


6. (SBU) Former President Rawlings was quick to praise
Mills' appointments, particularly those involving the
military and security services. Rawlings, through a
statement signed by an aide, said that he was certain that
the "noble Generals would work to restore the quality of
discipline of the security services to the levels they left
it."


7. (C) COMMENT. Ghana's constitution allows the president to
name up to half of his cabinet ministers from outside of
parliament, so it is likely that some of those named as
interim managers will reappear later as substantive ministers

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or senior advisors. Mumuni, for example, is close to Mills
and likely to have a prominent role in the new government. As
a northerner and a Muslim, his appointment would help provide
regional and religious balance. Mills has appointed interim
ministers with experience in their fields, showing a desire
on his part to quickly gain control over the bureaucracy,
which after eight years of NPP rule is seen as suspect by
many in the NDC. The police and security services,
especially, are staffed with officials appointed by the NPP,
and their loyalty will be a concern to the new government.
Mills' recent appointments all received their public service
experience under former President Rawlings. As Rawlings was
President for most of the 1979-2000 period, and founded the
NDC, anyone with NDC sympathies who has substantive
governmental experience will, to some degree, have a
connection to Rawlings. The next few months will tell how
past loyalties to Rawlings realign to the new president.
TEITELBAUM