Kwame Nkrumah
JF-Expert Member
- Dec 2, 2008
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- New Ghana WikiLeaks Revelations: Ghana's former President was a drug adiicy
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[h=1]Thread: New Ghana WikiLeaks Revelations: Ghana's former President was a drug addict.[/h]
- [h=6][/h]
- [h=2]New Ghana WikiLeaks Revelations: Ghana's former President was a drug addict.[/h]Co n f i d e n t i a l section 01 of 02 accra 004941
e.o. 12958: Decl: 07/31/07
tags: Prel pinr pgov gh
subject: A close look at ghana's president rawlings
ref: Accra 01142
classified by edward brynn, com, reason 1.5(b) and (d)
¶1. (c) summary: The netherlands' departing ambassador
to ghana, hein princen, spent a full week-end in close
quarters with j. J. Rawlings, and came away both
fascinated and a bit unnerved. Princen's spouse, a
trained social worker, saw incontrovertible evidence of
drug use by the president. Rawlings complained that his
advisors keep him in the dark. His wife was present,
and rawlings was deferential towards her, but it was
clear that they are seen together only for family
reasons or reasons of state. Princen found rawlings
tired of his public persona and easily persuaded that
people were working behind his back. Rawlings seems
caught between a desire to bring his chief of state
tenure to a close on one hand, and a lively fear of the
consequences of so doing on the other. Princen saw
rawlings' newest eminence grise up close, and did not
like his baleful influence in the area of ghanaian
economic policy. End summary.
¶2. (u) the setting: Very occasionally rawlings invites
an accredited diplomat to join his family for week-end
relaxation and conversation on the modest but
comfortable presidential yacht anchored in volta lake
one hundred miles northeast of accra. (the last honoree
was american ambassador kenneth brown on the eve of his
departure in mid-1995.) also present were rawlings' six
children, presidential advisor anthony aidoo (more
later), an unnamed german engineer/boat captain, and a
couple of military staffers. Guests so honored are
enjoined not to discuss the adventure inside ghana, and
princen assured me that i alone (in ghana) was privy to
what follows.
¶3. (c) the private persona: Ambassador princen's wife
concluded emphatically that rawlings is a drug-user.
Periods of high-level energizing were followed by
rawlings' disappearance for thirty minutes, and upon his
return he was subdued and even mellow. He perspired
profusely at short notice, and consumed large quantities
of non-alcoholic drinks. Princen reinforced my own
impression that rawlings' attention span has shortened
of late. But the princens found the president open,
indulgent towards his children, and extremely
deferential - even obsequious - towards his spouse. The
tenor of their conversation reinforced the widespread
impression that they see each other only in public or in
the context of this retreat to lake volta. (rawlings
said this was the first family gathering this year.)
rawlings watched videos, listened to music, and chatted
up his guests simultameously. Princen noticed what all
of us observe as interlocutors: Rawlings' incredible
inability to recall names, even those of advisers
constantly at his elbow.
¶4. (c) rawlings' circle of advisors: Since
presidential and parliamentary elections last december
we have pushed the theme that president rawlings seems
to have been stripped of a circle of confidants whose
collective weight, while far from brilliant, appeared to
moderate rawlings' tendency to overact at first evidence
of some unpalatable development. We are now well into a
new phase, where it appears that the president is far
from well informed as to what transpires in his name.
He was manifestly out to lunch on the png of our public
affairs officer in may. World bank and imf visitors
complain that he seems profoundly uninformed on economic
matters, even as his minister of finance is seen by
financial experts inside and outside ghana as alarmingly
incompetent. Into the vacuum has moved anthony aidoo,
whose conspiratorial demeanor encourages dark
speculation about his malign influence on rawlings.
Aidoo is known to us principally for his entrenched
leftist leanings, his anti-imperialist rhetoric while a
professor at cape coast university, and his affection
for the likes of qadafi and castro. Ambassador
princen's opportunity to watch aidoo at close quarters
was far from reassuring. Aidoo seemed to reinforce
rawlings' fears that senior government officials were
conspiring to hide things from the president. Aidoo's
obsequious behavior towards mrs. Rawlings also
reinforced the impression here in accra that she is in
some degree responsible for the alienation of the
president's traditional friends, with aidoo now filling
the void.
¶5. (c) impact on economic policy: According to princen
the only sustained substantive discussion focused on
ghana's current economic problems. Princen was
intrigued to see rawlings nodding in assent at aidoo's
pronouncement that high inflation was caused by
irresponsible elements in the private sector, and that
the private sector should find a solution. Aidoo also
fed rawlings the notion that the north carolina summit
on ghana's competitiveness in the global marketplace was
a camouflaged attack on rawlings' national democratic
congress. Princen remonstrated, but he thought with
limited effect. Princen did gain rawlings' attention by
registering impressions circulating in accra that the
world bank and imf are increasingly dissatisfied with
the performance of both the incumbent minister of
finance pepprah and the larger economic policies of the
post-december government. Rawlings responded by lashing
out at members of his own government - some were cited
by name - who deliberately conceal problems from his
attention. Rawlings built up a head of steam on the
ghana electrical commission's announcement two weeks ago
that rates would rise up to 300, retroactive to may 1;
this was designed to destabilize his government, he
thought. The larger impression, however, was that
president rawlings was not well informed of recent
unsettling economic trends.
¶6. (c) comment: The impressions registered above are
those of a veteran career diplomat (previously
ambassador in peru and now off to sri lamka) whose
confidential observations on other occasions have held
up well. Princen's observations echo impressions i
recorded earlier this year (reftel). If they hold
water, we must see in them a giant step backwards if
close confidants like anthony aidoo are prejudicing the
president against the trade and investment initiative
launched at chapel hill in early june. And, in a larger
arena, if as a result of fatigue or isolation or
unhealthy personal practices president rawlings fails to
exercise leadership skills during his second
constitutional term, there might be deleterious
repercussions for all that touches on the economy: The
growth of democratic institutions; the continuation of
an era of domestic peace; the emergence of a private
sector able to invite significant outside investment and
play a positive role in the global economy. Ambassador
princen noted that rawlings plans to mark my own
departure with a similar week-end adventure. But as it
now stands that may not come soon, leaving much time for
anthony aidoo to brew a poisonous potion in the castle.
Brynn
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