Tie loosened, shirt unbuttoned, jacket off, President George W. Bush swung to
the beat, gyrating hips like a seasoned professional.
The appreciative audience cheered and applauded madly, even if wife Laura had
initially looked on slightly aghast as the US President leapt off his seat
in answer to the challenge of the swaying bottom of a Liberian woman’s dance
of welcome.
No need to worry. Here in Liberia, on the final leg of a final African trip of
a waning presidency, Mr Bush was among friends and, ever a seasoned
politician, he knew it.
Whatever happens in the rest of the world, and how he must wish it could see
him in the same light, Mr Bush’s legacy in Africa is secure. A man who did
not know where Amsterdam was seems to have found a home on the most obscure
continent of the world.
Here, President Bush is the president who visited more times than any other in
living memory and handed out millions in aid packages, which even if linked
to the agenda of the Christian Right, were met with grateful hands.
On a week long visit, much of it out of the limelight while the rest of world
was transfixed on the battle to be his successor, Africa has shown its
gratitude. He renewed promises of friendship and handed out some $500
million in aid and throughout the five-nation trip, which ended yesterday,
was received with genuine warmth and appreciation.
In Benin, the government declared George W Bush day a national holiday. In
Tanzania, where he handed out mosquito nets and embraced nurses, tens of
thousands lined streets to wave goodbye.
In Ghana, a motorway was named after him and in Rwanda, where his democratic
predecessor Bill Clinton is blamed for not intervening to stop the 1994
genocide, he was listened to sympathetically as he spoke passionately of the
need to end tribal conflicts in nearby Kenya and Sudan’s Darfur region..
He reserved the best to last. When he flew into Liberia he became the first
sitting president to visit a country, set up by freed American slaves in
1820, for three decades. The two countries flags are almost identical,
except the Liberian one has one star to America’s 50. The most widely used
currency is the dollar.
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, known as “Ma” to her followers, knows only
too well her election to the Presidency in 2005 of Africa’s oldest republic
would not have been possible without Mr Bush’s decision to send US marines
to the country two years earlier.
On this visit he gave away one million text books and desks for 10,000 school
children. In return, he was granted the freedom of the capital city of
Monrovia, itself named after a US President, James Monroe.
Flying home and reflecting on popularity probably unthinkable anywhere else in
the world, a jubilant President Bush told accompanying reporters: “I would
say this is one of the most exciting trips of my presidency. You saw the
crowds, you saw the enthusiasm.”
No doubt reflecting on how different it all could have been, he then shared
the comments of Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete. “He said, ‘I hope the
next president is as good as this one.’”
