During the summer of 2009, Barack Obama visited Accra, Ghana, during his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as president of the United States. At the time, I served alongside a small group of veteran Ghanaian policy experts offering advice to John Atta Mills, then Ghana’s president. During one of our meetings, talk turned to Obama and whether he intended to use the historic nature of his visit — the first American president of African descent coming to Africa — to announce new policy initiatives or aid packages that would dwarf the substantial efforts of his predecessor, George W. Bush. One after another, my fellow advisory council members predicted big things, major things.
Read Full Article »
