16 Jul 2009 |
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Barak Obama. The product of a nupital association between an American woman and a sojourning black Kenyan man who died throughly frustrated by his society ,his acclaimed brilliance notwithstanding. Raised partly by his mother and partly by his grandmother, Barak blossomed into the first black president of the United States of America. As his picture was being flashed around the world shortly after being sworn in as the 44th president of United States of America, that of his half brother George, who by simple Mendelian theory must have received the same stuff that makes Barak tick via Y chromosome from the same father was being flashed around the world having been arrested cavorting with hemp smokers in a harsh Nairobi slum -George is only a victim of his society as much as Barak is a beneficiary of his-different strokes for two brothers! Obama’s campaign for the presidency of United States of America transcended an appeal to Americans only. It was universal .It generated followership as Jacksonian as it was unprecedented in the annals of political stardom. Though the rest of the world could not cast votes for him,he nonetheless recieved universal goodwill. This; despite the limitation of frontiers and national sovereignties, effectively conferred on him a uniquely universal mandate to lead the world at a time of daunting economic and political challenges. So far he has lead the world well-forget the cynicism of the far right and the hubris of wannabes. Africa was not spared by the Obama Pandemic. The hubris and swagger that greeted his victory across the continent was as if a deserving son of the continent had been freely elected by fellow Africans to lead a continent groping for direction. The extent was that Kenya, his ancestral State declared a public holiday in unconscious celebration of a glaring evidence of a people sacrificing their best on an alter of national foolhardy nay State apoptosis. The irony herein is that Kenya then was healing from a fatal injury inflicted by electoral malfeasance of failed leaders vaingloriously basking in inebriation from success rightly belonging elsewhere. How could they have seen that Obama’s emergence was enabled by the very process they perpetually repudiate-free and fair elections. In exercise of a mandate freely bestowed on him by a predominantly white race, Obama decided to visit Africa, choosing Ghana as his port of call while leaving out our big Nigeria and even his genealogical fatherland, Kenya. The determinant of his choice of destination though unspoken was fairly guessable. Strangely; his decision made in the interest of Obama’s country and national values triggered a flurry of intellectual protest and criticism in my dear country Nigeria. The local media has been awash with cynicism from commentators. I do not know what makes us feel more entitled to Obama’s recognition or State visit than Ghana. Even if we were, and Obama’s decision to visit Ghana before Nigeria amounted to a violation of protocol, our reaction - to the decision of one country’s president to visit another has been at best petty .This to me appears to have done us more harm than the actual snubbing. We have portrayed ourselves as a people suffering from an acute attack of low self esteem seeking to cure our self inflicted malady by association. In venting our anger for being snubbed by Mr Obama, we unintendedly elevated Ghana deservedly above our country and as if the preceding scenario was not enough harm to our national ego, Obama’s exercise of his right to free speech and opinion through his well intended frankness towards Africa drew no less criticism. Our response have been typically Nigerian, rejecting Obama’s well known observations with a stale strategy of justifying failure with slavery and colonialism. Some even branded him imperialistic for daring to be truthful to his unworthy ancestral continent. As we continue our clowning, Ghana is revelling in her new status; the beautiful bride of established democratic nations, the emerging epitome of egalitarianism in a jungle famous for voodoo politics, wars, diseases and famine- status achieved by doing things the right way. Soon she will completely overtake us like south Africa emerged from the dark days of apartheid to leave us behind and we will continue to wallow in our self deceit, that fatal flaw of mankind that seem to have found the most comfortable place among Nigerians.Wheather, we like it or not, Obama has made his point, whether we accept it or not does not tear Obama’s Christmas’s cloth! Come to think of it, He merely reiterated an age long truism known to all of us. Since Obama appeared on the world stage, a false sense of consanguinity among Nigerians has encouraged unfounded expectation, expectation that he will lower the bar; that he will condescend to a pitiable pedestal of understanding our ineptitude. The sense of disappointment is therefore understandable as Obama’s strategic decision to avoid Nigeria and Kenya is; for nobody worthy of the degree of goodwill and acceptance Obama enjoys will knowingly fall into any sentimental booby -trap. Obama as a beneficiary of a near utopian phenomenon would have disappointed the world if he had sanctified the rampant illegitimacies in our land with his personality. He would have been the biggest victim of advanced legitimacy fraud in the hands of men weighed down by budden of legitimacy crisis but a man riding on a legitimacy and incredible acceptance roller coaster has shown that he knows better. Contrary to the position of most African, Obama is an evidence of the intrinsic good in human civilisation, an indictment of our satanic clannishness which hitherto has prevented the emergence of true leaders all over Africa, the white race's response to our unending blackmail. Granted he is a stuff of legends, his fate would not have been any better than that of his half brother if he had been taken back to Kenya by his father. Obama is therefore an albatross onto African leaders who for so long a time have didactically bandied the diabolical dogma of slavery and colonialism as being at the root cause of the problems of Africa. President Obama’s position on African Leadership couldn’t have been more succient.Sadly however; many a Nigerian commentator’s reaction at best has been reactionary. Such reminds me of the frank essay, “The African’s Apprehension of Reality” written by Late African States man and Scholar, Leopold Seder Senghor in which he examined our nature as Africans to shy away from reality against the Westerners nature of dissecting reality no matter how tough for the sake of developing himself and his immediate society. In my opinion, we should rather be praising President Obama for having the courage to say it as it is rather than attempting a futile explanation of failure for anybody familiar with world developmental indices and statistics would easily see the pathetic state of sub-Saharan Africa .On the ground, there are readily, the physical evidence of regression. No electricity, deliberately grounded refineries, Staffless hospitals, Poor citizens, dry taps, Impassable roads, insecurity and lawlessness to mention but a few, resulting from Voodoo leadership by a few thoroughly satanised leaders. We are trapped in a maze of hopelessness waking up with fatigued ambitions and sabotaged hopes which believe it or not will continue to feed our complex and confusion yet we question Obama’s admonition of African leaders. In characteristic emptiness, we have loquaciously sustained a grandiose sense of self importance over time but finally, our cookies have begun to crumble .Our leaders are beginning to reap the fruits of their rascality as seen in the ceaseless reprimand and shabby treatment being meted out to them everywhere. While it is understandable to see politicians downplay our plight in self defence, it is worrisome seeing ordinary Nigerians exercise shallow patriotism in defence of our leaders; for Patriotism easily mutates into, reactionary tendencies or fundamentalism if it shoots beyond the bound of common sense and prudence. President Obama does not owe Nigeria any debt of state visit or any other thing for that matter and if our size is the only attribute we can boast of, it is the business of Mr Obama as the Leader of world’s greatest capitalism to see the potential for American interest in our land. Truth is that it has gotten so bad that we have started to beg for recognition and friendship. The worst is yet to come!
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