There’s more than democracy in Obama’s Ghana visit

The White House is touting Ghana’s democratic development as the main incentive for the two-day visit by President Barack Obama that commences on Friday.

But controversial or delicate matters – such as the US Africa Command (Africom), narcotics trafficking and Ghana’s oil deposits – will almost certainly be on the agenda for the US leader’s talks with Ghanaian President John Atta Mills.

Gerald LeMelle, head of an advocacy group in Washington, is among critics of President Obama’s emerging Africa policy who suspect that military and resource considerations factor into the choice of Ghana as the African-American president’s first destination in black Africa.

“There are rumblings that the real reason the administration chose Ghana is two-fold: Ghana’s discovery of oil in 2008 and perhaps more importantly, the geographically, economically, and politically strategic advantage of establishing Africom’s headquarters there,” Mr Lemelle, the director of the Africa Action NGO, said earlier this week. More

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