Barrack
Hussein Obama, the first ever black President of the most powerful nation in
the World in history, was born to a white American Mother-Ann Dunham, and a
black Kenyan father- Barack Obama [Senior], a United States trained Economist.
His both parents (now late) met as young college students at the University of
Hawaii.
Obama
who incidentally is one of the youngest persons to emerge President of the
United States of America in 2008 at the age of 48 as the 44th President in
United States of America, was educated in some of the best schools even though
he grew up only with his mother since his father left them and returned to
Kenya where he became a government economist before his demise reportedly in a
car accident.
In
a mini biographical sketch downloaded online, President Obama attended Columbia University, but found New York's
racial tension inescapable. He became a community organizer for a small Chicago
church-based group for three years, helping poor South Side residents cope with
a wave of plant closings. He then attended Harvard Law School, and in 1990
became the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review.
Obama
reportedly turned down a prestigious judicial clerkship, choosing instead to
practice civil-rights law back in Chicago, representing victims of housing and
employment discrimination and working on voting-rights legislation. He also
began teaching at the University of Chicago Law School, and married Michelle
Robinson, a fellow attorney.
Eventually,
Obama’s phenomenal spell in politics began when he was elected to the Illinois
state senate, where his district included both Hyde Park and some of the
poorest ghettos on the South Side.
Little
wonder then that Obama is seen as the friend of the poor especially when during
the campaigns, his rich rival Governor Romney was caught on tape castigating
poor Americans for dodging payment of tax and even stated that almost 47
percent of Americans don’t pay income taxes.
Obama’s
re-election on November 6th 2012 could be considered a tough victory since he
fought a very tasking electoral battle against one of America’s finest rich men
and a former Governor Mr. Mitt Romney of the Republican party just as the
election is now considered one of America’s most expensive electoral contests
in history with over six billion United States Dollars going down the drain
which in the estimation of a certain American economist interviewed by the
Cable News Network (CNN) could comfortably be distributed to six out of every
seven persons in the world at the rate of one United States Dollars per person.
America’s campaign funding mechanisms are however water tight and transparent.
Substantially,
the just concluded election was focused on the thematic issue of the declining
economy of the United States even as the eventual winner and the incumbent
President came under considerable pressure for failing to keep to virtually all
of his noble electoral promises which he rode on to defeat senator John McCain of the Republican
party in the 2008 presidential poll which became a landmark/watershed event for
producing the first ever African- American president for the united States of
America.
Few
months before the November 6th 2012 poll, the influential The Economist magazine of the United States ruled out the
possibility of President Obama’s re-election on merit considering what the
editorial team saw as Obama’s colossal failure to deliver on any of his lofty
electoral pledges since four years of becoming President.
For
instance, the September 1st-7th 2012 edition of The Economist magazine reduced the reasons why Obama may lose his
re-election bid into one major issue- for importantly failing to create new
Jobs and save the United States economy from a free fall.
According
to The Economist; “Three million more
Americans are out of work than four years ago, and the national debt is
$5trillion bigger. Partisan gridlock is worse than ever: healthcare reform, a
genuinely impressive achievement, has become a prime source of rancor. Business
folk are split over whether he dislikes capitalism or is merely indifferent to
it. His global-warming efforts have evaporated. America’s standing in the
Muslim world is no higher than it was under George W. Bush, Iran remains
dangerous, Russia and China are still prickly despite the promised resets, and
the prison in Guantanamo remains open.”
The Economist wrote further; “The defense of Mr. Obama’s record comes
down to one phrase: it could all have been a lot worse. He inherited an economy
in free fall thanks to the banking crash and the fiscal profligacy that occurred
under his predecessor; his stimulus measures and his saving of Detroit
carmakers helped avert a second Depression; overall, he deserves decent if
patchy grades on the economy. Confronted by obstructionist Republicans in
Congress, he did well to get anything through at all. Abroad he has sensibly
recalibrated American foreign policy. And there have been individual triumphs,
such as the killing of Osama bin Laden.”
For
us in Africa, Obama’s emergence as the first ever black American President was
interpreted to mean that our continent and our largely impoverished citizens
may witness advancement and development given that the United States apart from
being the world’s richest economy also ranks as the largest trade partner of
much of Africa.
Obama’s
last four years has however being anything but good for Africa just as most
analysts say Africa under Obama suffered the worst neglect in the framing and
implementation of the United States foreign policy.
Andrew
Beatty, an analyst who contributed a well researched work to the Africans
review online was of the considered opinion that Africans never benefitted much
from the last four years of the Obama administration.
Mr. Beatty
recollected that when President Obama paid his first post election visit to Africa
beginning with stop in the West African country of Ghana, the united States
President told Africans in very lucid terms that as a man with African blood
running in his veins, his administration would work to better the situation of
the citizenry of Africa who are facing widespread poverty; corruption;
terrorism; lack of proper democracy and totalitarianism. But did he fulfill these
wonderful solemn pledges? The writer replied in the negative.
Andrew
Beatty however offered possible raison‘d’être for why Obama’s Africa’s dream
are largely still unrealistic.
He
wrote thus; “But as America’s Great Recession deepened, wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan trundled on and the Arab Spring exploded, sub-Sahara Africa found
itself in a familiar spot; on the back-burner.”
With
his re-election, President Obama in his victory speech also indicated in very
subtle way that Africa may indeed not benefit from his second term just as
crude oil rich nations like Nigeria, Angola that currently rank as trading
partners of the United States may lose out given that Obama has showed clear
determination to free America from excessive dependency on foreign crude oil
resources.
His
second term may be used to developed alternative sources of energy such as the
green energy and if this scientific aspiration is achieved, Africa’s and
Nigeria’s prized asset-crude oil will inevitably witness a decline in
international price. Already, political elite of Nigeria have reportedly stolen
over $400 billion from crude oil revenue since the last three decades.
Addressing
his supporters after his re-election was confirmed, President Obama said;
“Tonight you voted for action, not politics as
usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. And in the coming weeks
and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of
both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together – reducing our
deficit, reforming our tax code, fixing our immigration system, freeing
ourselves from foreign oil. We've got more work to do.”
Writing under the catchy title of “The
rich and the rest of us” The Economist edition of October 13th-19th
2012 also indicated that Obama’s second term would be devoted to solving the
rising inequality in America and this disclosure is another indication that
Africa may not witness much assistance from the Barack Obama’s second term
because he has shown remarkable readiness to practice the wise saying that
“Charity begins at home”.
The Economist magazine had written thus; “Over
the past 30 years incomes have soared both among the wealthy and the
ultra-wealthy. The higher up the income ladder, the bigger the rise has been.
The result has been a huge, and widening, gap-financially, socially and
geographically-between America’s elite and the rest of the country”.
What Barack Obama’s re-election should truly
mean for Africa is that Africans must work hard to bring the needed changes in
our collective fortunes by fighting corruption, mounting pressure on the
political elite to abide by the tenets of accountability and transparency
before looking up to the United States of America for the big brother
assistance.
* Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, Human Rights
Writers’ Association of Nigeria, blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
7/11/2012
No comments:
Post a Comment