US embassy cable - 05ACCRA892

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 
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