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Confessions of a regime change hitman

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IN 2004, John Perkins’ book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man was published.
The book gave an insider’s account of what goes on behind the scenes in the great halls of power.
Perkins gave an account of his career where his main assignment was to convince leaders of underdeveloped countries to accept substantial development loans for large construction and engineering projects that would primarily help the richest families and local elites, rather than the poor, while making sure that these projects were contracted to US companies.
Later, these loans would give the US political influence and access to natural resources for US companies.
Its 2017, and the US’ appetite for the developing world’s resources has not been sated.
While governments are now in the know of how the US and her allies’ financial aid is intended to indebt and not develop, new tactics are being employed.
Instead of setting up offices that specialise in ‘lucrative’ financial loans and economic reform packages, the current trend involves the use of political action organisations, whose sole purpose is to link power players in the West with possible political allies in the developing world for future transactions.
These middle-men, who disguise themselves as political activists working to spread democracy in the developing world, are best portrayed by Vanguard Africa.
So why the change in tactics?
The rhetoric surrounding the need to democratise Africa has been making rounds since most African states gained independence. Through the use of NGOs and other non-political actors, the push for democracy in independent Africa was targeted at influencing the continent’s inhabitants to distance themselves from the liberation struggle movements.
Instead of dwelling on economic independence, discourse was pushed towards political freedoms and rights, which of course were not the focus of new Governments that were seeking to build infrastructure such as schools, clinics, hospitals, roads and provision of electricity, among others.
Therein lies the challenge for any reputable African politician; how does one fight for the need to alleviate the people out of centuries-induced poverty and marginalisation, against a backdrop of machinations by ‘superior’ states which have resources and machinery that are capable of an octopus-like grip in the affairs of your country?
The chronicles of a regime change agent
When it comes to regime change, sowing dissent, propping activists and opposition political parties on the continent, look no further than Jeffrey Smith, Joe Trippi and Christopher Harvin.
Smith and his colleagues are the new hitmen, fighting to push back the alleged democracy recession on the continent.
Smith has worked for the ‘who is who’ when it comes to influencing African politics, including Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Freedom House, National Endowment for Democracy, Young African Leaders Initiative, Institute for Democratic Alternatives in SA and UNESCO.
Trippi began his political career working on Edward M. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1980 and has worked on numerous presidential, gubernatorial, senate and congressional campaigns in the US and around the world since.
He worked on US democratic presidential candidates Howard Dean and John Edwards and on Morgan Tsvangirai’s 2008 campaign.
Lastly, Harvin is a founding partner at Sanitas International, a global strategic communication, public affairs, digital media and political advisory firm based in Washington DC.
He was recognised as one of the top public relations practitioners under 40 and has served the White House and has held senior communications and public affairs positions with the US Cabinet Secretaries, Members of Congress and the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
Harvin has provided political and communications counsel and support around the world to include US Presidential, Senate and Congressional campaigns, international corporations, opposition candidates and their parties and dozens of foreign heads of state and sovereign governments.
What is clear from these three men’s resumes is that they are not to be trifled with when it comes to brokering backroom political deals.
It is against this background that the three men are being accredited as kingmakers in The Gambia 2016 elections that were won by Adama Barrow.
According to the media, these three men, through their organisation, Vanguard Africa, were instrumental in the toppling of Yahya Jammeh from power.
For years, the three have been cultivating relationships with potential ‘clients’ across the continent.
In The Gambia’s case, Smith was a well-known figure among political activists and through this clout that saw him mobilising The Gambian opposition.
The culmination of this relationship was the coup when Smith convened three major Gambia opposition candidates in New York and behind closed doors. They hammered out details for electoral reforms, new constitutional term-limits and presidential age caps.
On top of this, Vanguard Africa worked behind the scenes using the media to set the agenda to spotlight The Gambia’s elections.
A country with a population of about two million people strangely found itself receiving extensive coverage from press organs from the Washington Post, Reuters, Associated Press, Deutsche Welle, The Guardian and many others.
Social media was also ablaze with the Gambian election trending on twitter.
In fact, through Vanguard Africa, the opposition had a platform to use the global media to ‘tell its story’ such that it appealed to the global audience.
One wonders how much of this coverage told the real Gambia story.
Come election day, Vanguard Africa was also co-ordinating a parallel voter tabulation system which it then disseminated on social media; all this from the comfort of their Washington DC office.
While the internet had been shut down, information concerning the election was coming from Vanguard Africa.
The group’s tweets covered voter turnout, district tallies and the situation on the ground.
Its sources included a network of dozens of Gambian volunteers aligned with the opposition, who were stationed at polling centres throughout the country to monitor the count.
In the aftermath, Vanguard Africa, in particular Smith, has become another ‘white saviour’.
With various elections coming up in southern Africa, it would come as no surprise that Vanguard Africa has already chosen its next target.

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