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Mrs Linda Thomas-Greenfield —Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs of USA

The Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs of
the United States of America, Mrs Linda Thomas-
Greenfield, has lauded the successful conduct of
Ghana’s election petition hearing by the Supreme
Court.
She said this had demonstrated how far Ghana had
come with democracy.

The Assistant Secretary was answering questions
from the Daily Graphic in the areas of partnership,
which the United States of America has with Ghana,
during a video conference beamed live from the
State House, Washington, USA, in Accra on Thursday.

Supreme Court Judgement
“We have a very strong partnership with the
government of Ghana – we are very very pleased
with the results of the Supreme Court decision,
where Ghana had free fair elections and it was
confirmed by your court and it was accepted by the
opposition,” Mrs Thomas-Greenfield said.
“I think that says a lot about how far Ghana has come
as a democracy and how strong Ghana’s democracy
is. So again, we look forward to working with Ghana.

We have lots of investments in Ghana. Ghana is a
recipient of a Millennium Challenge Corporation
compact.
“We again encourage the people of Ghana to
continue to move forward as a strong democracy and
as a model on the continent and particularly in the
region of West Africa,” she said.

Power Africa project

Responding to another question on a US$7 billion
power project, dubbed “Power Africa,” to assist Africa
deal with its frequent power outages, Mrs Thomas-
Greenfield said the initiative had already begun and
the United States lead agency, USAID, was already
working with private companies in six countries for a
start.
She said the energy office in the State Department
and Economic Office were all partnering institutions
in Africa to develop the initiative.

“I think this is going to be an initiative that will have
widespread impact, because with power companies
will be able to invest, with power, children are able to
go to school, with power, hospitals are able to
function, so this is major for Africa,” she said.
Mrs Thomas-Greenfield said while it would take some
years for the impact of the five-year project to be felt,
it would take a lot of work.

Young African Leaders Initiative
She also spoke about another initiative of the United
States of America for Africa’s significantly high youth
population.
Dubbed the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI),

Mrs Thomas-Greenfield said it would involve three
months of training on leadership for selected youth
in the United States, during which the youth would
be expected to develop relationship across borders
and talk to each other during conflicts and also put
into practice what they learn in their various
countries.

“African youth have been the victims of conflict all
over Africa, they have been the victims of recruiting,
they have been victims of violence and we want to
see young Africans also be beneficiaries of prosperity
in Africa,” she said.

“So the Young African Youth Initiative that the
President announced in June when he was in Africa is
our effort to start addressing the youth barge and
helping in developing the capacity of youth to take
on leadership roles in the future, whether it is in
politics, the private sector, academics. We are hoping
over the next month to start the recruitment process
for a leadership forum for young African leaders that
will be held next summer in the United States,” the
Assistant Secretary said.

Gay Rights and Same Sex Marriages

On gay rights and same sex marriages, she said;
‘The United States believes that all people are
created equal,’ Thomas-Greenfield said.
‘
I am an Africa American, I have gone through the
experience of being in a country where there were
questions about that, so for us, it is unequivocal that
regardless of people’s sexual orientation, regardless
of their gender, we want all people to be treated with
all the rights and protection of human rights that we
expect from all countries.’

‘So we are prepared as United States with very
strong values in this area to work with countries in
Africa to help them develop legislation that will
provide human rights to its people.’

Thomas-Greenfield said the United States would be
willing to help Ghana develop legislation to protect
the rights of LGBT people.
A Constitutional Review Commission recommended
in July last year that the country’s Supreme Court
should decide the issue of whether homosexuality
should be legalized.

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama has been
more diplomatic when it comes to making public
statements about homosexuality than his
predecessor John Atta Mills but he supports keeping
homosexuality a crime.

However at least one of his ministers supports the
decriminalization of homosexuality.
Gender Minister Nana Oye Lister’s appointment to
that role was attacked by Christian groups over her
support for LGBT rights.

Commenting on Zimbabwe’s recent elections, she
said; “We were disappointed with the election. While

it was violent free, we are not convinced it provided
an opportunity for all Zimbabweans to express their
views in the election and again we would be
reviewing our sanctions in light of that.”

Responding to a question on corruption in Nigeria,
the Assistant Secretary said “Corruption is a cancer,
it thwarts a country’s ability to prosper and we are
working with the Nigerian sector, with its justice
sector to ensure Nigeria builds the infrastructure and
the capacity to deal with issues of corruption.”

“I think it goes without saying, that Nigeria’s
prosperity has been affected by corruption. It is a
reputation that Nigeria will have a hard time living
down and we hope that we are able within the next
few years to work with the government to ensure
that those individuals who are involved in corruption
are held accountable in the legal system of Nigeria,”
she said.
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