Obama Goes To Ghana Because Nigeria Powerfully Rejects US AFRICOM!

NewsRescue.com
The United States President, Barrack Obama is scheduled in July to visit Ghana in his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since resuming office [1]. His choice of Ghana and not his fathers homeland,- Kenya or the democratic Nation- Nigeria the most populous sub-Saharan African Nation, the lead player in African security and politics and a world major economic contributor, supplying the US one quarter of its oil imports, raises obvious questions.

Is it all about AFRICOM, the US African central military command? Can the Presidents visit to Africa be centrally hinged on politics and US military interest? Well this is rather a pre-answered question. Of course the choice of nation to visit by the President of the United States must be in his best National interest. The US has never been shy of declaring its untold support for its military campaigns, and this is not less expected with the race with China for increasing economic and military control of fertile Africa.

The President of Nigeria, Musa Yaradua not too long ago on visit to the United States declared a sort of support for AFRICOM, but shortly after returning to Nigeria he fully retracted this misinterpretation as he called it of his statements in the White house, as being his support of a military presence only if completely controlled and supervised by the African National leaders themselves and only if for training purposes only and not as autonomous bases. His statement:

“I did not accept AFRICOM in my discussions with Bush. I asked for assistance and told Bush that we have our plans to establish bases for African countries. We asked for training on weapons and training to establish our bases to be managed by our people.” “Seven countries in the Gulf of Guinea will be involved,” he stated. The president said he asked for training from the US government. The US insisted it can only render help through its AFRICOM base in Stuttgart, Germany, said Yar’Adua. In a chat last night with members of the Nigerian press in Washington, DC, Maduekwe said the country’s position on the issue of foreign troops in Africa has always been firm.

“There is no u-turn on the part of Nigeria or the President. Nothing has changed.” “What happened is a clearer articulation of US position. The convergence is that we have had long experience of training and sharing of information and if AFRICOM is about training and cooperation then we have no problem with that component.” “If it is about capacity building, training and logistics we will work with them. But, no country or military is going to come and us like an occupied territory. That will not happen.” “I can promise you that you will not see American soldiers or marines on the streets of Lagos or Abuja or anywhere in Nigeria running around with guns or a building with AFRICOM signpost on it.” Maduekwe said. [2]

Ghana AFRICOM

Many African Nations including Botswana, Algeria, Libya, Morocco and South Africa in addition to Nigeria, have declared their full, unambiguous opposition to the AFRICOM US military installations. Ghana on the other hand has been more receptive of AFRICOM and the US looks forward to consolidating and expanding this strategic military presence in that country as we see here in this opinion:

I think the previous US government and the AFRICOM establishment were far more comfortable working with the previous NPP government, not so much for ideological reasons, but because the NPP government was reliably corruptible. And I’m sure AFRICOM, which already has a robust presence, will try to expand in Ghana. The corruption quotient remains to be seen for the new government. I am a little bit optimistic, and very worried. I think the intentions of the present government are good for now, but the drug money and the coming oil money will be powerful forces encouraging corruption. And, with special thanks to the Kufuor government, corruption is seen by many in Ghana as the way government and business “works”. Not that there was no corruption before, but in the last eight years it was encouraged, and grew exponentially.

Drugs were one of the reasons Yates visited Ghana. As I have written before, drugs are the tool AFRICOM will use to infiltrate into Ghana. It is thanks to the counter effective US “War on Drugs” that the drug trade has moved to West Africa. The primary beneficiaries of the War on Drugs have been defense and security contractors, the same folks who are looking to AFRICOM for more contracts. [3]

Diminished Role

So the primary question appears to be more than obviously answered. In the twentieth century it’s all about National interest and Military control. The new question is- who needs who more? Does Nigeria need the US more or does the US in its new quest to restore its economy and global image, need help from powerful, rising so-called third world Nations more? As CNN reporter, Fareed Zakaria’s recent book captioned- ‘ The Post American World’ [4], describes- the US is losing its position as the worlds most powerful Nation, as Countries Like India and China compete with and surpass the US. The US failures in economic and military campaigns have increasingly decreased their importance as world policy determinants, and their might is almost virtually tied to their military capacity and their economic prominence, also almost exclusively to arms sales. Rising powers like Iran thump their fingers in the US’ face and conglomerate to create powerful alignments. The Non Aligned Nations [5], and the European Union parallel and diminish US role as a major world player.

So perhaps the conclusion of this is that- as the US just did, it is time Africa looks out for its best economic and strategic interests in selecting its alignments… or way past time.

Video:

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