Pleading Poverty, Namibia Leader Asks Bush for Help

Namibian President Sam Nujoma, describing his three-month-old republic as one of the world’s poorest nations, appealed to President Bush on Tuesday for increased American aid and invited U.S. private investment in agriculture, health and housing projects.

Dismissing World Bank figures that depict Namibia’s per capita income as among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa, Nujoma said: “We are truly one of the poorest people on this Earth, truly among the least developed in the world.”

Nujoma, a former guerrilla fighter who once espoused Marxist economics, said his government welcomes private investment and guarantees that foreign businessmen can take their profits out of the country in convertible currency.

“The private sector is essential to the economic development of our country and the government aims to ensure it a more dynamic role,” he said. “We see the private sector as the engine for growth and prosperity.”

Nujoma, who was inaugurated March 21 as Namibia’s first president after leading a 23-year armed struggle against South Africa’s colonial rule over the largely desert region, slipped into the White House almost unnoticed for his brief meeting with Bush and Secretary of State James A. Baker III.

The low-key reception he received in the United States contrasts sharply with the adulation heaped on Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid leader making his first visit to North America.

The two men have similar backgrounds.

In 1960, both were actively struggling against South Africa and its racial policies. But during the 27 years Mandela spent in a South African jail, Nujoma was in exile, waging an often violent battle against the Pretoria government.

South Africa eventually acceded to demands for Namibian independence, and Nujoma’s South-West Africa People’s Organization won 57% of the vote in U.N.-supervised elections last November. The country is one of very few in Africa with a multi-party democracy.

Welcoming Nujoma to the White House, Bush expressed a “keen interest . . . and respect for the way you’ve taken hold and (are) running things.”

“We have great respect for that because it wasn’t easy,” Bush added.

Nujoma told Bush that he wants to show his gratitude for the support of Americans during the struggle for independence.

Talking to reporters after his brief Oval Office meeting, Nujoma said that he had asked for an increase in the $10-million foreign aid allocation already approved for Namibia. Asked to characterize Bush’s response, Nujoma said: “Quite positive.”

He declined to say how much more Namibia needs, however, because “when you are asking for assistance, you don’t demand.”

Earlier, Nujoma told a small group of reporters that his nation, about twice the size of California, was left with a budget deficit of about $250 million by the departing South African colonial administration. He said that the deficit “must be resolved before real development programs can be executed.”