Moseley-Braun's Nigerian Trip Only Her Latest Stumble
Web-posted: Tuesday, Aug. 28, 1996
Originally printed: Thursday, August 22, 1996
hen Carol Moseley-Braun beat Sen. Alan Dixon, many women wept tears of
joy.
Politically, 1992 was called "The Year of the Woman," and the brightest
star of the many triumphant female candidates was Moseley-Braun.
She had come out of nowhere, a little-known local officeholder, to
challenge a powerful incumbent.
And not only was Dixon a middle-age white guy--and we know how awful they
can be--but he had voted to confirm Justice Clarence Thomas, the hated
oppressor of the feminist heroine Anita Hill.
So Moseley-Braun's victory was hailed as an inspiring symbol of what a
strong, independent-minded female person could do.
"We are all sisters in this struggle," a feminist leader said, "unified in
the empowerment of women."
Another said: "Voters see those in power as corrupt, and those in power
have traditionally been men. Voters are looking for change, and voting for a
woman is as much of a change as you can get."
Boy, oh, boy, is the joke on them.
It now appears that Moseley-Braun is that most embarrassing of female
symbols--the woman who is manipulated and used by some shrewd, masculine guy.
In this case, the guy appears to be Kgosie Matthews, a mysterious figure
who used to be Moseley-Braun's fiance, campaign manager and constant
companion.
He was also a hired agent, it turned out, for the government of Nigeria.
And if you follow the news, you know that Moseley-Braun is in all sorts of
political trouble because of her weird fondness for Nigeria, its ruthless
dictator and his family.
Just about everyone who pays attention to such matters seems to agree that
Gen. Sani Abacha is a genuine rat who orders critics jailed, tortured or
murdered. He's also a thief, skimming state funds that should be used to help
impoverished Nigerians.
So our government wants sanctions imposed on Nigeria, as do other countries
that have some regard for human rights.
But what does Moseley-Braun do? She makes a secret trip to Nigeria, where
she is chummy with the dictator Abacha and his wife.
And who does she go there with? Of course, her former fiance and campaign
manager, the mystery man, Kgosie Matthews, who now lives in South Africa.
It's not the first time. Right after she was elected to the senate, she and
Matthews hopped over to Africa for what she described as a "vacation," thus
skipping the senate's indoctrination for new members.
We don't know what kind of relationship Matthews has with the dictator and
his government, or whether he is still on their payroll. Since he is now a
resident of South Africa, he doesn't have to register as a foreign agent, as
he did when he lived here.
But we do know that Moseley-Braun is about the only member of Congress who
keeps insisting that Nigeria's government is misunderstood and that we ought
to try being nicer.
We also know that her ex-fiance, with whom she still travels and shares
ownership of a Chicago condo, used to be on Nigeria's payroll. He's not saying
if he still is. He's never been one for saying much of anything.
He never said much when some of Moseley-Braun's female staff members
accused him of sexual harassment.
And he didn't say much when it was learned that while running
Moseley-Braun's campaign, he put it deeply in debt while paying himself a
handsome $15,000 a month.
This Kgosie is one cool operator. And he's surely considered quite the
wheeler-dealer in Nigeria if he can trot out a friendly United States senator
who lets herself be put in direct conflict with this country's diplomatic
policies.
But as she once said in a speech, Kgosie was her "knight in shining
armor."
Do suits of shining armor have deep pockets for the fat billfold?
Moseley-Braun has made the whole goofy situation even worse by not being
able to make up her mind about why she went there.
In one breath, she says that as a senator, she is expected to make foreign
trips. In the next breath, she says she went there to express her sympathy for
a death in the dictator's family.
Then, she decides that, no, it was not a senatorial journey, it was
strictly a vacation on her own time. That makes sense--who goes to Disney
World when there is Nigeria?
She was asked who paid Kgosie's expenses. She said she had no idea and
would not ask him. You would think that former lovers and current condo
partners would share secrets of their expense accounts.
None of this adds to Moseley-Braun's reputation as a U.S. senator or a
feminist heroine or to her chances of being elected to a second term.
But maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe there is something bigger involved
here.
At the end of "Casablanca," when Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman parted,
Bogie said: "We'll always have Paris."
So after the next election, maybe Kgosie will say to Moseley-Braun: "We'll
always have Nigeria."
