KRL International and the Brenthurst Foundations manipulate local observers to the Ghana elections
Nana’s acceptance speech (Dec 2016): “I thank the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), for their important work”
Deploying 8,000 observers across all regions and all 275 constituencies, CODEO was Ghana’s largest domestic observer group for the 2016 presidential election. CODEO also verified the accuracy of the presidential election results as declared by the Electoral Commission.
CDD-Ghana is one of CODEO’s founders. CDD-Ghana serves as the CODEO’s secretariat and provides it with technical and logistical support. Gyimah-Boadi is a member of CODEO Advisory Board.
E. Gyimah-Boadi is founder and former executive director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana). According to Gyimah-Boadi, CDD-Ghana is an independent, non-partisan policy research and advocacy organization.
1. Riva Levinson & KRL International
E. Gyimah-Boadi has a very close relationship with Nana’s campaign manager and lobbyist Riva Levinson and her company KRL International.
On 11 December 2016, four days after the elections, Riva Levinson posted a photo of her, Chris Beaty, managing director of KRL, and Gyimah-Boadi on social media. Gyimah-Boadi replied to Levinson’s post, praising KRL’s “brilliant team of professionals” for „doing battle on the side of my heroes in Africa”.
At the time Levinson, Beatty and the rest of KRL team were Nana’s election consultants, while Gyimah-Boadi was supposed to be an “independent” and “non-partisan” observer of the elections.
Riva Levinson and Chris Beatty worked directly with CODEO in 2016. The main donors of CODEO are Washington-based USAID and NDI. Both organisations were heavily lobbied by Riva Levinson’s KRL international on behalf of Nana Akufo-Addo in 2016.
On 22 March 2018, Riva Levinson was awarded an honorary degree in Doctor of Laws by the University of Ghana. Levinson gave a speech, dedicating her lectures to E. Gyimah-Boadi.
Nana’s lobbyist and campaign manager described Gyimah-Boadi as “a Ghanaian hero”, “a man on a mission”, “African democracy’s godfather”, her “dear friend”, her “mentor”. Levinson called Gyimah-Boadi’s wife “a dear friend”, too.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw8myk5mkwg (min. 17.40-20.02)
Riva Levinson frequently lauds E. Gyimah-Boadi on social media, calling him “Africa’s foremost political scientist”, “a man of great integrity and character”, proposing him for the Nobel Prize for Peace.
E. Gyimah-Boadi is co-founder and chairman of the board of directors of Afrobarometer. On 24 November 2020, Riva Levinson and Johnnie Carson (Levinson’s close friend and associate, and leader of international observer delegation to the 2016 elections in Ghana) became members of the newly created International Advisory Council for Gyimah-Boadi’s Afrobarometer.
2. The Brenthurst Foundations
E. Gyimah-Boadi is also a very close associate of Nana’s foreign backers the Oppenheimer family-funded Brenthurst Foundation.
In July 2018, Gyimah-Boadi attended a Brenthurst-sponsored meeting in Italy, at the luxurious Villa la Collina on Lake Como.
See: Gyimah_Boadi_Lake_Como_2018.pdf
On 21 January 2019, Gyimah-Boadi’s CDD Ghana hosted an event featuring Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia, Brenthurst Director Greg Mills and Brenthurst Chairman Olusegun Obasanjo. Bawumia launched a book published by the Oppenheimer-funded Brenthurst Foundation. Titled “Democracy Works: Rewiring Politics to Africa’s Advantage” and authored by Brenthurst’s Greg Mills, Olusegun Obasanjo, Jeffrey Herbst and Tendai Biti, the book provides “lessons” on how African nations should organize elections and adopt policies from Western countries.
Gyimah-Boadi, who presided over the programme, declared himself “really proud to be affiliated with the Brenthurst Foundation, the premier think-tank for Africa’s economic development”. He added: “We at CDD-Ghana and the Afrobarometer, and I personally share considerable ideological, philosophical and methodological affinity with the Brenthurst Foundation”. Gyimah-Boadi recommended the book to students and all academic institutions.
Video: https://twitter.com/gyimahboadi/status/1087415737956864001
On 27 May 2020, E. Gyimah-Boadi was the official host of the Afrobarometer virtual book launch of “The Asian Aspiration : Why and How Africa Should Emulate Asia — and What It Should Avoid”. “The Asian Aspiration” is the most recent book authored by Mills and Obasanjo and published by The Brenthurst Foundation.
