By Che Oyinatumba "
 Published
November 12th, 2008
Let me state it clearly, I was in support of McCain in the
just concluded USA election.
I wanted McCain to win so that USA will collapse, as it was
obvious that USA under Bush was heading to isolation that
would have killed the super power and make another super
power emerge. Now I am forced to explain my silent support
for Obama. Obama’s victory has given USA a breathing space
to reinvent herself and continue her global domination. How
I wish McCain won. Poor Obama, he will spend the good part
of his first year clearing up the mess Bush left from Cuba
to Iraq . It won’t be an easy run for Obama.
I also supported Obama because he is a Blackman. He has
shown that there is nothing wrong with the colour black but
bad leadership in Africa is responsible for our
backwardness. My support for Obama though in a the daring
attitude of his audacity of hope and in him, we now know
that you can be your dream, if you wake up and walk towards
it, organize and not waste your time kneeling or bowing to
the East but finding in your history those ideologies that
made you great. As a Pan-Africanist, I support Obama because
he has incarnated the ideas of Malcolm X and Martin Luther
Jr. Finally the blacks in USA can sing free free free at
last thank God we are free at last. Obama’s victory is an
icing on the years of struggle by the slaves and sympathetic
slave owners. Now the Blacks can stand up tall and look
anyone in the face and say I am an eagle, I am a champion,
YES I CAN be all that I want to be.
Apart from these, the question is, what lesson will
Nigerians learn from this unprecedented victory?
The group that need to make maximum gain from this victory
are the minority groups in Nigeria , especially ndi igbo
from South East Nigeria . Like the USA slaves, ndi igbo has
suffered in this country, especially after the civil war.
Come 2015, there MUST be a Nigerian President of an Igbo
extraction. Did I hear you say ndi igbos are not united?
Same was the plight of the blacks in USA until Obama
tirelessly organized and motivated the younger generation of
Americans to come out and vote for the first time in their
life. The Igbo should go beyond reading Obama to sound
Obioma and start a nationwide movement that will get a
credible Ibo candidate to clinch Aso Rock. Like the
African-American, there is no State of Nigeria where the
Igbo man is not found. If only ndi igbo can organize and
work their dreams in a new credible face of a new breed, not
these ex-this and that with civil war mentality of the
vanquished but with a post June 12 mentality. Ndi igbo can
because igwe bu ike and ebe obi di out there is no mountain
the igbo man can not climb. The young igbo leaders should
understudy Obama and galvanize the youths around him and
form a national movement and not the current elitist SA
jobs!
Another thing that has to be learnt from Obama’s victory is
the perfection of their electoral system. When was the last
time an incumbent political party lost to the opposition?
Prof. Iwu of INEC claimed he schooled in USA yet these
golden values did not rob off on him. There was no election
tribunal where all manner of SMS messages will be exchanged
between petitioner and the judge. Nigeria should evolve a
system that spews out election results so fast that there
won’t be time for Mr. Fix to thinker the result. YES WE CAN,
we did it in June 12 and given the political will we can
repeat the feat again.
The younger generation of Nigerians, should learn from this
victory of Obama, as it shows that YES WE can be all that we
dream to be, if we keep our parts correct. Imagine if the
Republicans uncovered a careless dirty deal by Obama as a
young man. It would have been the end of a dream. In
Nigeria, we do not have those who dream to be this or that,
all we have are group of money miss road, who after getting
rich, think that the next elusive trophy is political power.
The time has come to ask any politician soliciting your
vote, what does he have to offer.
Furthermore, political parties in Nigeria should be financed
by those who believe in the manifesto of that party. The era
of government giving subvention to political parties should
be done away with. The younger generation (0-60) should
start demanding for a political space to draw the Nigerian
of their dreams. We cannot still be shackled with nightmares
of these blind leaders. This is a country where leaders of
the youth wing of most parties are old men well over 65.
Nigerian Youth, Obama has broken the jinx. Stand up and be
counted. YES YOU CAN.
Nigeria should also learn that elections are run on issues
and not ethnic cum racial divide. The Global Financial
crisis played into Obama’s calculation. Like Nigeria under
Obasanjo and PDP for 8 years, Bush brushed aside all known
economic theories and put everything in the war against his
former business partner called Osama Bin Laden. As a result,
the citizens wanting to continue in their soft life rebelled
against Bush and gave a rebel vote to Obama. In the next
years to come, this victory of Obama, will remain a subject
of political analysis. Pundits will be theorizing over what
McCain did wrong or not but what cannot be taken away from
Obama, is that he is a grass rooter, an orator and a man
whose speeches inspire hope. When last did you hear a
Nigerian politician’s speech how much more move the people
to revive their faith in the country.
Nigerian politicians should start tabling their agenda on
the table rather than relying on power shift, party
affiliation. YES Nigeria has what it takes to be great only
if we can organize, YES WE CAN live in a country where we
shall be rewarded according to the content of our character
and not the stretches of tribal marks on our faces.
As we celebrated Obama, please spare a thought for Nigeria ,
a country abundantly blessed yet cursed with bad leaders
|
