OBAMA SOOTHES AMERICA LEFT AFRICAN LEADERS TO SEEK PEACE
Peace on earth is what we need from our political leaders. Obama played his part after bullets pierce the tenuous rivalry between Democrats and Republicans in United States. Most of the members in both parties praised his soothing role. As some of us watch him console the people, we also watched Ebele emerged as Presidential candidate in a peaceful voting and counting by the People Democratic Party in Abuja, Nigeria. Even the Action Congress of Nigeria agreed by voice vote on Ribadu as their Presidential candidate. Peace between Ebele, Buhari and Ribadu.
Ebele, Buhari and Ribadu as presidential candidates must mirror the achievement of brother Obama, not duplicate riot claiming the same happens in United States. Africa can lead the rest of the world in peaceful coexistence. As it is, we are not the example the rest of the world look up to. We still have a democratic standstill in Ivory Coast. They wish the countries they look up to keep peace will not disappoint them as in Rwanda. If the coming election in Nigeria goes well, Ghana and a few African countries have company of peaceful election process in Africa.
We were proud of the way Ghana conducted its election and learned from its past bloodletting of Rawlings; warning others to think before they deprive us of someone like Nkrumah again. He had his faults, and not every Ghanaian agreed with him when he was in power. Nkrumah’s focus and energy went beyond Ghana and more into Africa. Lessons have to be learned so that political opportunists do not take advantage of our desire for good leadership.
Before we celebrate the soothing truce across the ocean, we must not forget how we became so unruly. Only those without loved ones and those deprived of their bread winners by political violence in the name of votes or bullets, do or die, ethnic clashes, turf fights and abortion rights know the real pain of their loss. We all felt it when the fate of a little girl like ours or an old man, in the wrong place at the wrong time is cut down by bullets. Unfortunately, not only does it happen in our local areas, it also happens in countries we hold as the gold standard.
This little nine years old girl hardly known beyond her neighborhood was not a princess or a queen but her aspiration to serve her country was cut short by a deranged mind we have come to know in every corner of the world. These mental cases always align themselves to some extremist views upon which they want to gain notoriety as reward for their dastardly act. When we see the innocents fall to their hail of bullets, we all feel violated no matter our culture.
Some of us were around the age of the nine years old when the torture and the death of Patrice Lumumba touched us. Those that pledge to go into public service because of Lumumba then have been discouraged by the violence involved while those that can dare, took it on. Those that give us inspiration may be our neighbors or those in other countries that have been selfless in their duties. We wish we could duplicate the same success in our own communities.
Political maturity and civilized discussion in Africa and outside of Africa by today super powers is necessary in a civilized world. The day President Kennedy was assassinated, Zik that called United States of America God’s own country shrunk his view of American peaceful coexistence. After that was Martin Luther King assassination. The pictures coming out of U. S extremists in both political parties these days are not pretty to those of us in love with its type of democracy.
As we look up to United States, we see distressing sign hoping that the pendulum has swung as far as it could and that cordial relationship and civilized engagement will return to the political arena. It may and may not has to do with the way President Obama accomplishment is ridiculed and diminished after only two years so that the opposition party can take over. In the process everyone irrespective of political persuasion has been hurt.
There may also be a selfish reason, mainly that we prefer United States to these new emerging powers from Asia where liberty and individual freedom are not paramount to their economic growth. As these Asian powers spread their wings into Africa snatching long term contracts that have to be paid for by our raw materials, we may miss the advantage we strive for to negotiate in our self interest as equal and opposite partners with both East and West.
Of course the religious zealot would always claim the world is coming to an end. Well, let them go first, we will join them later. The average American may not care very much about the rest of the world because America is it, but the rest of the world is fascinated with American culture. In the days of world extremist and religious mass destruction, it is hard to trust other countries but the goodwill of people worldwide must not be surrendered or defeated by evil forces.
It may be far off in distance, or close to our nose, violence repulses us. When we see oil disaster in the United States Gulf areas, we wonder about our own oil creeks; in Kosovo we wonder about Biafra war, in Lebanon we wonder about Jos senseless killings. The faces of Tucson Arizona in United States reminds us of beautiful people maimed and killed by no fault of theirs because extremists have taken over civilized discourse of how to shape our political camps.
Africa share many cultures with United States and for these Kenya and Tanzania were bombed as the Twin Towers. If others countries were bombed in Africa because we share cultures with the East, a continent that refuse to modernize and nationalize its own culture would be in rumbles. There is nothing wrong with sharing culture with the rest of the world, what is wrong is having none of our own. Fortunately, African peaceful culture and hospitality will never die in the rural communities where most of our people live.