Some four years ago, after President George Bush had ruledAmericafor good eight years, a young Afro-American by name Barack Obama emerged on the scene to ask for the coveted presidency of the world’s most talked about country- theUnited States of America,USAfor short.
Because he is a black American, the whole ofAfricaas much as I know, threw their weight behind him. Not only their weight but also their wealth and life. I remember some people inNigeriatried to raise funds for his campaign just to see if, by both prayers and physical funding, a black man could assume the presidency of theUSA.
Since after Martin Luther and Jersey Jackson, no black man had come close to occupying the seat of the world’s most coveted presidency. Barack Obama represented change from the status quo, something away from the monotonous white guys who had since monopolized the American Presidency.
Soon, Obama t-shirts, face caps, car stickers and even street fliers and banners were all over the the place. Soon, the Barack Obama phenomenon became a household discourse. CHANGE was the operative word. No one talked about experience or even antecedent. All the world was rooting for was change. Let a black man occupy that seat for a change. After all, the whites have become arrogant by assuming that the American president is the policeman of the whole world so much so that they stay in America and decide which countries’ presidents are ruling well or not and should be changed or allowed to continue in office.
Once an American president says a thing,Britain,FranceandGermanywill follow suit and so doSpainandItaly. Thanks for the emergence ofChinasince theSoviet Unionwas dismembered, to offer a little voice of dissent or divergence. With our prayers, Barack Obama won the election and assumed the presidency of the world’s most powerful country-USA.
I remember seeing blacks weep for joy during his inauguration, that in their lifetime, the arrogance of the whites had been halted by a black man. With Obama, the blacks called the whites’ bluff.
The quantum of popularity and support with which Barack Obama came to power was enough to cause the world, if possible, to ask for a constitutional change to allow for a third and perhaps fourth term for the American presidency. Obama was expected to be a quintessential black role model.
The question today is has Barack Obama lived up to expectation? Is he still so popular and widely accepted even among the blacks that trooped out to vote for him? Today, are all those voices clamouring and calling for his re-election? WHERE DID BARACK OBAMA GO WRONG? Here was a man who was largely believed to be a Christian which actually made churches inNigeriato organize night vigil prayers for his success to usher in change inAmerica. Barack Obama simply proved that he is not divine and that his black connection notwithstanding, he is still American.
He continued the George Bush policy of dethronement of governments considered either unfriendly or disloyal toAmerica. To crown his mischief, he dabbled into the vexatious issue of gay marriage and passed it into law thus disappointingAfrica. He did not stop there. He also delved into what Christians dread as “666” phenomenon, by tagging every American to a radioactive substance to be injected into their bodies, especially their foreheads which Christians believe is anti Christ. Indeed, Obama has ushered in the era of the mark of the beast long prophesied in the bible. He attracted disenchantment. Today, Barack Obama who to Africans, hitherto, should have continued his second term bid unopposed is struggling to remain afloat. Opinion polls inAmericashow him running neck to neck and side by side with his white challenger Mitt Romney with no degree of certainty as to his emerging victorious at the end of the day. Many Nigerians especially of the Christian extraction today, wish he fails in his re-election bid, all because Barack Obama has not managed popularity very well. He has run foul of and betrayed expectation. “Hosanna” has again given way to “crucify him” but this time with good justification. The world has come to realize that there is much more to change than the dramatis personae.
The Barack Obama who removed Gadaffi even when he was popular among Libyans is unable to say a definite word aboutSyriawhere evil is on the ascendancy on a daily basis.
The truth is that today, Obama is neither carrying the world’s support for him nor their prayers.
Indeed there is more to change that, it should no longer be rushed at and embraced without verification of the real contents and contexts.
Maybe if he manages to win re-election, he will correct all bad impressions and perhaps go ahead to do even better, but suffice it to say that for now, there is an air of disappointment and consequent loss of enthusiasm hanging over the Obama presidency.
This scenario is only comparable to the APGA ascendancy of the governorship ofImoState. The PDP had enjoyed a clear eight years uninterrupted governance under Achike Udenwa and was set to enjoy another eight years under governor Ikedi Ohakim before the bubble burst and things took a dramatic turn around.
Ikedi Ohakim had only finished his first four years just like Obama had done and was campaigning for the second four years when hatred brew from every corner against him. Everything he did was seen from the negative perspective. The once welcomed “OCHINANWATA”- the boy king, soon became “IKIRI”; an animal notorious for its vice-like grip on any substance and never let’s go. With the IKIRI mentality, Ikedi Ohakim thought that his re-election was a matter of time but time proved him wrong. He even boasted that he would beat his opponents with a wide margin but that was not to be. WHY? In the middle of his first term just like Obama, his policies and those of his advisers and aids ranging from environmental control to Local Government Management became a sad sore on the people of Imo state. The same is still happening today in the APGA government.
Those two departments have become even more notorious than in the days of Ohakim. Poor Imo state!!!
The governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha was ushered in with very high hopes just like Barrack Obama, for a better Imo state since the man himself announced that Imo must be better, which actually drew people to him.
Today there are more tears dropping on the ground and more sighs going up to heaven that one would ask where are the Christian brethren with all the night vigils?
Did they only pray for the emergence of the government without praying for continued good governance?
Our environment is in shambles because of refuse heaps all over and our local government system has become completely eroded that people are wondering and asking if the people is government are really thinking of 2015 elections.
No one is sure today that those young men and women who danced round the streets of Owerri for days and nights to usher in the Owelle change phenomenon will still be in the mood to do so should they be asked for a show of solidarity as things stand presently.
The APGA governance in Imo state represent change which was applauded and welcomed.
With the events of today, has that change not proved a costly venture just like the Obama case. Has the outcome of change met with expectations to make people shout ‘EUREKA’?
All the IROMA staff deployed to the local governments system were sent away after change came. The 10,000 jobs victims who were mass-sacked after change came are still languishing the fact that they have a genuine case not with standing.
The only change in the employment sector today is that there are many more unemployed hands milling around the city than were previously.
Today it is either IBC retirees are protesting or ITC workers and perhaps the Water Board, all threatening to go on strike.
Just like the Obama case, the hard truth about governance is that when your enthronement is hinged on the expectations of change, you either fulfill it or betray it. Unfortunately, it is still change either way.
This articule is written on the even of the American election where a once popular candidate who was ushered in with pomp and pageantry is struggling to remain afloat and possibly win again. Win or lose, Barrack Obama will remain a veritable lesson for politicians and elections.
If anyone takes an analytical look at the result of some recently concluded elections in some states inNigeria, it will be clearly observed that there is a marked voter apathy. Year 2015 might be worse if there is nothing to show for year 2011.
If an experiment proves disastrous, a repeat performance, if care is not taken will be catastrophic.
Our Igbos believe that it is only when the journey through a road proves beneficial that a return journey through it becomes advisable. My late father who was noted for philosophical sayings once said that if he sends an old woman to buy him some commodities twice from the same market then she should know that she did well in the first outing.
Ikedi Ohakim who was silent for some time and many people believed that he had either gone on exile or into hiding is today seen constricuosly in many outings.
I heard that in one of such outings, the crowd there gathered to sing with IKIRI and lets do more for him and the man danced. If that was an act of vindication, then the people must have tacitly apologized to the man they so much vilified.
That the man danced with smiles on his face and at the end gave out some money to the people, speaks for itself because, his security men stood by and watched with amusement and at the end the man entered his car and left amidst ovations.
The man would be telling himself that Imolites like the proverbial ‘Ogori” younglady has married two different husbands and could compare and contrast the difference between the real and the imagined. Was Ohakim and failure, the answer is No. The man was simply suddenly disliked because of many phenomena ranging from the rumoured through the imagined to the displayed and voiced.
Has Owelle Rochas failed, the answer is also No but all we are saying is that judging from the events before, during and after his election in 2011; to whom much was unduly given, much more is expected, two years after.
Did Barrack Obama fail? Only the American voters verdict will tell at the end of election and for how well the Owelle will acquit himself, only 2015 will tell.
