As I was saying, yes, three days shy of one month from today, Americans will, for the first time ever wake up each day for at least the next 1,460 or so days, to the truth, the reality, that the First Family of the United States of America consists of a man, a woman and two girls – all black, all men of colour. They will see happening in their lives, before their very eyes one of those things that could only have happened in a Hollywood production; or the prodigious imagination of Eddy Ugbomah who several decades ago, produced a film with the title, The Black President. They will have to continually pinch themselves to see if they are awake!
So will leaders of the nations of the world. Each time, one of those summits hold, they will see, the unprecedented sight of a man of colour seated in the elevated seat they had gotten used to seeing a white man. They will wonder: is there a mistake somewhere? This isn’t a meeting of Foreign Ministers, is it?!
And so, like it or lump it, Senator Barack Stephen Obama, the African-American whose father was from the minority Luo tribe in Kenya; product of a marriage that was not made in heaven; who has no executive experience in governance; who is a first-term Federal senator having served earlier only in the senate of the small state of Illinois, an erstwhile improbable candidate, an outsider, if ever there was one, will be the most powerful man in all the world from January 20, 2009.
It reminds me of a devotional piece I read recently. Written by Bill Crowther, it reads like this: “No one watching Britain’s Got Talent (a popular televised talent show) expected much when mobile phone salesman Paul Potts took the stage. The judges looked skeptically at one another when the nervous, unassuming, ordinary-looking chap announced he would sing opera—until Potts opened his mouth.
He began to sing Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma”—and it was magical! The crowd roared and stood in amazement while the judges sat stunned in tearful silence. It was one of the greatest surprises any such television program has ever had, in large part because it came wrapped in such an ordinary package. In the Old Testament, the rescuer of Israel arrived at the battlefield in a most unlikely form—a young shepherd boy (1 Sam. 17). King Saul and his entire army were surprised when David defeated Goliath and won the day. They needed to learn the way that God looks at people. He said to the prophet Samuel, “The Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (16:7). If we judge others only by their outer appearance, we might miss the wonderful surprise of what’s in their heart.
As I was saying, yes, three days shy of one month from today, Americans will, for the first time ever wake up each day for at least the next 1,460 or so days, to the truth, the reality, that the First Family of the United States of America consists of a man, a woman and two girls – all black, all men of colour. They will see happening in their lives, before their very eyes one of those things that could only have happened in a Hollywood production; or the prodigious imagination of Eddy Ugbomah who several decades ago, produced a film with the title, The Black President. They will have to continually pinch themselves to see if they are awake!
So will leaders of the nations of the world. Each time, one of those summits hold, they will see, the unprecedented sight of a man of colour seated in the elevated seat they had gotten used to seeing a white man. They will wonder: is there a mistake somewhere? This isn’t a meeting of Foreign Ministers, is it?!
Yes sir, nothing in our world would ever be the same again! Man had been grappling with the elements and winning, but as all Christians know or should know, the Bible already described those ones as “the beggarly elements of this world” meant to be subdued. So, as momentous as man’s landing on the moon was, as significant as the march of space exploration with the $100-million International Space Centre already 10 years out there; as noteworthy as transplants of organs of the body are, this beats them all. It beats them all because it represents the end of one of the world’s many “original sins”: slavery, the domination of man by man; the idea that one man has dominion over another!
It has already been said that, hope in the breast of the youth, the female, the otherwise disadvantaged will be more audacious as ever; that “yes we can” is the new song and dance of even the not-so-bold, that “change” is no longer just a slogan; that the days of glass ceilings, wherever they exist are numbered.
Welcome to the Obama phenomenon! It’s like an unstoppable train which only manages to slow down at each station for the smart to jump into like the “molue” on Lagos streets. The young, the old are jumping aboard, enthusiastically, ecstatically, joyfully. A new passion for life and living is aboard in the nooks and crannies of the earth. It is indeed one of the most momentous times in the history of the world. It is indeed a great privilege to be alive at this juncture!
But as I said in this column before, “I do not share the ecstasy, the euphoria of the majority…” I do not share the feeling that an Obama presidency in the United States will make much impact on the most fundamental issues that will define the ultimate destiny of man. As a Nigerian of Yoruba extraction, there is a kind of déjà vu feeling rising slowly in my bosom. Come with me please as I reflect on an episode in the contemporary political history of the nation of Nigeria.
In 1993, Nigeria held an election which has now gone into history as her freest and fairest up until then and since. It is a settled part of her history that the election was won by a well-known international businessman turned politician, M.K.O. Abiola. But that election was annulled, that is cancelled, to be recorded as having never happened, by the military junta in power which supervised it.
Now, MKO, as he was widely known, was a Yoruba man, from an ethnic group, which in spite of all its education and administrative savvy, had never produced a Head of state in this vast African commonwealth. Predictably, the Yorubas, you may recall, were incensed. They took it as an injustice done to them. A titanic struggle ensued. This is not the place to examine the tactics and strategies employed in the struggle, but it was sustained for so long that two governments, one a diarchic interim contrivance, the other fully military and venal, later, the establishment caved in and decided to right the wrong done the Yorubas.
Somehow, the erstwhile president-elect died in the military’s detention. This was shortly after the head of the junta that usurped his office and locked him up had also departed in circumstances said likely to the pornographer’s delight. And so some one else had to be found from the Yoruba group. The result was only two Yorubas contested the election held in 1999. Of course the establishment’s choice won. The result was the second coming of a former military head of state, a general who became President Matthew Olusegun Obasanjo.
In spite of initial reservations that Obasanjo was not their choice since the majority obviously preferred the opposing candidate, Olu Falae, there soon developed a love affair between Obasanjo and his kinsmen.
What applied to Yorubas also applied to the Christian community. Except in the ceremonial capacity of the First Republic and stints under military rule, no Christian had ever been President of the nation. So, with Obasanjo, a Baptist who proclaimed that he was born again in prison where he had for a while even been on the death row, Christians saw a brother at the helm. From prisoner to president became a singsong among Christians who saw a miracle of biblical proportions in the development.
So, Abuja Federal Capital Territory attracted Christian leaders. Benny Hinn, Reinhard Bonnke and others all came to see and pray for the man who made it from the prison cell to the palace throne. The world conference of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship held in the city.
Expectations were high both among the Yorubas and among Nigerian Christians. Yorubas expected their son to reflect the values they represent in the style and content of his governance. Christians expected the enthronement of Kingdom principles in policy making and execution. What did they get? Were their expectations met?
(Continues Next Week).
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