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Gayle Smith Nominated for USAID, Global Community Speaks
by The Times Of Africa MagazinePresident Barack
Obama lately proclaimed the nomination of top White House aide Gayle Smith to
take over the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The statement
has drawn mixed results from the global community, particularly criticism
received from the African continent.
The NY Times
recently described Smith as a longtime development and Africa specialist in the
Clinton and Obama administrations.” If confirmed by the Senate, Smith will
oversee the disbursement of millions of dollars of American assistance around
the world. Her experience working as an aid worker and journalist in northern
Ethiopia during the famine and war that devastated the region in the 1980s will
serve her in this role.
The announcement
has also received much criticism, one of them being from Howard French, a
veteran journalist and author, who reported from African for several years. In
a series of tweets, French called Smith “a disasterbacle in Africa policy,”
adding that “she’s often fought for wrong things, esp [sic] authoritarianism.”
He also castigated Smith as representative of a Washington establishment that
he accuses of “near complete intellectual bankruptcy” on Africa.
Ghanaian
economist George Ayittei said that her appointment would “rankle democracy
activists in Ethiopia and Eritrea,” citing her close relationship with the
leaders of these countries since their rebel days. “Upon assuming power, [they]
turned out to be crocodile liberators and crackpot democrats – even though,
former Pres. Bill Clinton praised them as the ‘new leaders of Africa.’
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