Network Africa Online

Mission of Mercy

Contributing Editor Dave Chukwuma notes that
security issues dominated George Bush's Africa tour

School children, government workers, market women, and street peddlers lined the streets of Monrovia last February to welcome United States President George W. Bush and his entourage to Liberia. It was President Bush's last stop in a five-nation African tour that took him to Tanzania, Rwanda, Benin and Ghana.

For Liberia, it was also the first visit in three decades by an American President to the country. (President Jimmy Carter visited Liberia in 1978). Before the visit, Donald Booth, the U.S. ambassador to Liberia, moved to douse high hopes, saying that Liberians should not expect new initiatives or commitments. Still, many Liberians had high expectations for President Bush's visit because of the historical ties between the two countries.

Liberia, the oldest independent country in Africa, was founded by free American slaves in 1847, and today Liberia is considered a strong U.S. ally. Bush first touched down at Liberia's Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia before being flown in an American helicopter to the smaller James Spriggs Payne Airport within the city itself, where Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was on hand to receive him.
The US President subsequently received a kolanut from a chief, a traditional Liberian welcome.

Stressing the historical ties between Liberia and his country in a speech at the Barclay Training Center in Monrovia, Bush said the United States was working to lift the burden of debt from Liberia so that Liberia "can leash its potential and the entrepreneurial spirits of its citizens."
“Though we are over four thousand, five hundreds miles away, I feel pretty much at home here," he said. He also spoke of the "great" leadership of Liberian President Sirleaf. "I am proud to called her friend, and I am proud of the work we are doing together to help the people of this nation build a better life," Bush said.

As he had done during his stops in Benin, Ghana, Rwanda and Tanzania, the American president emphasized the importance of getting a "good education," announcing that the United States will provide one million text books over the next year as well as desks for at least ten thousand Liberian children by the start of the new school year. He also assured that Washington will continue to support the training of the army of Liberia to be a "source of security instead of a source of terror."

But for a president whose foreign policy has been dominated by Iraq and the war against terrorism, and who is leaving office in eleven months' time, Bush's February Africa tour was, perhaps, his last strategic opportunity to show the world what he calls his mission of mercy - trying to rid Africa of HIV/Aids and Malaria.

Sure, there were strategic considerations as well. Including showing China that it is not the only power that can sign investment deals with African nations, and cementing friendly relations with West African countries. West Africa is expected to produce a quarter of America's oil by 2015. For the US president, moral and national security considerations go together. Therefore, by ending hopelessness, a wealthy can eliminate the conditions which breed extremism, thus nation making America safer.

Yet Bush's visit was complicated by the unresolved question of where the planned US military command for Africa Africom would be located, and what exactly it is for. To many Africans, it sounded like a plan for American military expansion into their territory to safeguard US interests. The president used his visit to Tanzania to showcase the work America is funding to combat HIV/AIDS.
The US has spent $15bn (£7.7bn) over five years in 15 countries, most of them in Africa, buying life-saving drugs. But the 'ABC' (which stands for Abstinence, Be faithful, and use a Condom) focus of the policy has made it unpopular with Democrats in the US congress, analysts say.

Encouraging people not to have sex as a way of preventing the spread of Aids is unrealistic, say many Democrats, who are threatening not to authorize the president's $30bn programme to combat Aids over the next five years. Accordingly, Bush used his Africa tour to do some long-distance lobbying. He was aided by the Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who warned that if Pepfar, the presidential programme for fighting Aids, was not renewed, there would be more orphans in his country, and it would be a recipe for disaster. But in Ghana, the American president was challenged by concerns about how abstinence can work when people have multiple sexual partners.

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Bush's visit was also about highlighting what the White House regards as African success stories, like Ghana and Tanzania, and the need to support fragile countries emerging from conflicts - Rwanda and Liberia.
Also, there was no escaping the continent's ongoing troubles such as the tribal violence which has riven Kenya and left the White House fending off questions about Bush's record as a peacekeeper in Africa.
However, in Rwanda Bush highlight how the nation is recovering from the 1994 genocide which shocked the world, and underscored American efforts to help end the conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur.

The US has called what is happening in Darfur "genocide", and Bush admitted that his decision not to send US troops there meant he had to live with the UN leading the peacekeeping efforts - slow and bureaucratic, he observed critically. By committing $100m to help train and equip African peacekeepers bound for the joint UN/African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, he hopes to speed up the deployment.

Recurring Decimal-- Vice President Dr Goodluck Jonathan, (l) discussing with President Ijaw National Congress, Prof, Kimse

The Sudanese government has objected to the use of non-African troops in the force, yet not all the African peacekeepers had the right equipment - hence the US move. Similarly, the lukewarm response in Africa to Bush's idea of a US military command headquarters in Africa was evident during his visit. It has been seen as a fig leaf for US troops in Africa, which could be poised to defend strategic interests like oil in, for example, Nigeria.

In Ghana, the US president tackled the issue even before he was asked about it, saying that rumors that he was coming

here to build military bases were "baloney". White House officials say Africom is about training African peacekeepers, and co-coordinating US efforts to help the continent. But many African nations, from South Africa to Ghana, see it as a threat to their sovereignty.

The US support for Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia to put down the Islamic opposition is seen as the kind of mission which could be launched from Africom. So far only Liberia, arguably Washington's staunchest ally on the continent, has offered to host Africom, and some say that Bush chose to visit Liberia for this reason.

Even then, President Sirleaf said she doesn't think Africom will be based on the continent in the near future. "I believe given the concerns expressed by many African leaders, the U.S. has decided to keep the base in Germany for now," she said.

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