US embassy cable - 01ABUJA1927

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