President Urges Expansion of Aid Program
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 18, 2008
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania, Feb. 17 -- For a president in his last year in office, heading overseas is one sure-fire means of getting away from that annoying election campaign to pick his successor for a little while. Or is it?
Turns out the folks President Bush is visiting have been following the contest back home almost as much as the Americans have -- thanks to a favorite son, of sorts, in Barack Obama, whose father was born in neighboring Kenya. They watch his speeches on the news, debate his chances with friends and ask visiting Americans about the latest developments.
"Everybody's warm about Obama," said Caroline Kessy, 48, who runs a shop that sells wood carvings in the Mwenge shantytown market here. "Africa would get a good image if one of us, one of our blood, could be one of your leaders."
Ali Gamba, 44, who owns another shop with wooden elephants and giraffes, said he thinks Obama would change the world economy and bring peace to the globe. "We watch him every day through television," Gamba said. "I'm excited."
But Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete understands the difference between a would-be president and the real thing. And so when a reporter asked Kikwete, during a joint news conference with Bush on Sunday, about African enthusiasm for Obama's candidacy, he diplomatically played it down and heaped praise instead on the president who had just given him a five-year, $698 million aid package.
"Of course, people talk with excitement of Obama," Kikwete said. But he added, "For us, the most important thing is, let him be as good friend of Africa as President Bush has been."
As for Bush, he seemed unenthusiastic about being upstaged. "It seemed like there was a lot of excitement for me -- wait a minute!" he said with a laugh. "Maybe you missed it."
Actually, it would be hard to miss it here in Dar es Salaam, where the streets are thronged with people waiting to see the president wherever he goes.
For Bush, who has made fighting AIDS, malaria and poverty in Africa a signature of his presidency, the unalloyed adulation he has encountered since arriving in Africa over the weekend for a six-day tour has been a rare warm bath after years of popular discontent at home.
Bush spent his second day on the continent here inspecting his handiwork, touring a hospital where two new wings were built with U.S. money and sitting down with AIDS patients who are doing better because of medication provided by the president's program. First lady Laura Bush helped launch a program to assist orphans of parents who had AIDS and presided at the donation of an ambulance to a hospital.
The president used the occasion to appeal to Congress to reauthorize and increase funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, without tampering with controversial elements such as its emphasis on abstinence.
"It's a program that's been proven effective," Bush said in front of the State House, the presidential residence. "And I understand there's voices on both ends of the political spectrum trying to alter the program. I would ask Congress to listen to leaders on the continent of Africa, find -- analyze what works, stop the squabbling and get the program reauthorized."
Bush launched PEPFAR in 2003 with $15 billion over five years, the largest investment to fight a single disease in history, and now wants to spend $30 billion over the next five years. Congress supports the program, but reauthorization has been bogged down by grievances over specific aspects, chief among them a requirement that one-third of money spent on prevention go to teaching abstinence until marriage.
Bush defended the program, citing the program's defining philosophy as ABC -- "abstinence, be faithful and condoms." Although abstinence is part of it, he said it is not the only priority. "It is a balanced program," he said.
Tanzania is one of the biggest beneficiaries of PEPFAR. By the end of the year, the United States will have provided $817 million to combat AIDS here. About 96,700 people are receiving anti-retroviral medication and 745,000 are receiving various kinds of care. U.S. money built two wings at Amana District Hospital, which Bush visited Sunday.
Bush and Kikwete on Sunday also signed a $698 million, five-year contract under the president's Millennium Challenge Account to rebuild roads, expand electricity generation and provide more clean water, the largest such contract since the program began. The program is intended to steer money to countries that reform themselves and fight corruption. Just a week before Bush arrived to sign the contract, Kikwete fired his prime minister, who was linked to a shady government contract.
Bush's reception here has been dramatic. Everywhere he goes, his route is lined with thousands of people. Billboards all over town bear his picture with words of thanks. Dancers at various ceremonies wear his face on sarongs.
Bush enjoys popularity in Africa that he could only dream of back home. About 82 percent of people surveyed in Ivory Coast, 72 percent in Kenya and 69 percent in Ghana express confidence that he does the right thing in world affairs, according to the Pew Global Attitudes Project.
By comparison, just 40 percent of Tanzanians expressed confidence in him, according to the polling. But that was still higher than in any Arab, Asian, Latin American or European country surveyed, including longtime U.S. allies such as Britain, France and Germany.
Kikwete left little doubt where he stands. "Different people may have different views about you and your administration and your legacy," he told Bush. "But we in Tanzania, if we are to speak for ourselves and for Africa, we know for sure that you, Mr. President, and your administration, have been good friends of our country and have been good friends of Africa."
No matter who may come next.
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