Emma Okocha
30 October 2008
column
"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible."-George Washington, The first President, United States of America.
"First, we wish to reiterate the importance of educating yourselves about the teaching of the Catholic Church and the candidates' positions to the best of your ability. As teachers of the faith, the Catholic bishops of the United States have articulated the Church's teaching on important issues affecting public policy in our country in Forming Conscience for Faithful Citizenship....
The Catholic Church proclaims a consistent ethic of life that covers a wide range of issues : Human life, the family, global solidarity, social Justice, environmental stewardship, etc.
While all these issues are important, the intentional destruction of innocent human life is an intrinsic evil that can never be supported and the protection of human life from conception to natural death is preeminent among our moral values."
"Most Americans are citizens of two kingdoms. They're loyal Americans, but they're also people of faith. Thus, their patriotism is tempered by their loyalty to a God who transcends all national and international boundaries....
True patriotism exists where citizens love their country enough to hold it accountable. That means working to make certain that the president we have elected and the government we have created live up to the words of our creeds and the dreams of our poets and our prophets." -Oliver Thomas, 'Ten Things Your Minister Wants To Tell You.(But Can't Because He Needs The Job).'
North Carolina, the first in flight, but well known to the folks here in Cary, Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte, as the Tobacco state is breaking for Obama. In more than a week stay, we have moved around and reading from "our own internal polls" and matching the results with the trends as indicated with the coverage of the early voting it may be save to say that we may be approaching a landslide.
Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill are counties that are hosting the famous "Research Triangle." The steady surge over the years have found this particular population increasing to include recent immigrants who are descending to North Carolina with different philosophies, contrasting mind sets different from the core interests of the original natives, who came here a long while ago to grow Tobacco.
Raleigh boosts of very high student population as seen in Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina. Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all times is an alumnus of this campus.
Last week my crew and I had the honour to pay our courtesies on, professor emeritus of UNC, Professor Chike Edozien, the Asagba of Asaba. He regretted he would not be around to witness the final days of the historic elections as he was rushing home to Nigeria.
However, he took time to reveal to us that out of the pioneer four indigenous Nigerian professors he is the only surviving professor still around and still loves to spend time in the Ivory Tower environment like UNC Chapel Hill. On that score, Vanguard asked him to name those early four Nigerian Professors. His Royal Father named Professor Ajose as the first Nigerian Professor.
Professor Dike who was the Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan was the second. The late Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, Professor Eni Njoku recruited from Cambridge with PhDs in few other subjects was the third, he said. 'I was fourth and still the only one out of the four still alive".... the Royal Highness proclaimed.
He was very fullfiled that as the pioneer Dean of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, he recruited Professor Odeku to start up the department of Neuro Surgery at Ibadan. He disclosed that at the tine he asked Professor Odeku to return to Nigeria there was no provision for him or his specialty. Professor Odeku was the first African Professor of Nuero Surgery, he said.
He also volunteered he was instrumental to offering Professor Lambo the job of joining the College of Medicine and as a result, Ibadan has the best department of Psychiatry in Africa. Professor Edozein talked about his original concept of "Centres Of Excellence" which by some forty years ago was a position paper he was invited to write for the World Health Organization.
He advised the world body to concentrate on Ibadan College of Medicine and pour in all the required resources to that College. He argued that instead of duplicating or spending scarce resources establishing many health centers that may not make the standards, the WHO should build up Ibadan and make the medical college the best with the best quality standards comparable to any other in the world.
On the debit side, he was disturbed that inspite of all his and contemporaries' sacrifices and hard work, tribal tendencies invaded UI and the effect was so bloodcurdling that even his Yoruba wife from a predominant family in Ogun State was approached to spy on him!
The good old faithful Obi Nwanyi, a proud daughter of the Akees would not yield and rather followed the pioneer, world recognized Biochemist to fulfil his golden destiny. His other contributions leading to the take off of the Teaching Hospitals in Enugu and the Benin University, are stories for another day. Professor Edozein thrilled by the Obama insurgency is hoping that Nigerians would involve more educated and committed young people in their politics.
From Chapel Hill we left His Royal Highness and rode towards the airport to Durham. Durham is home to the Blue Devils, the College Basketball legends. US Olympic CoachMike Krzyzewski is still the head of the Duke's College Basketball program. Durham, Raleigh and the specialist colleges of UNC ,Chapel Hill, University of Carolina State and Duke all are situated within the famous 'Research Triangle'.
This is the IT brain and Laboratory research centre that has congregated the best information brains and scientists from the universe. When the fiery old Senator and the surviving political lion of the Kennedy dynasty was diagnosed with brain cancer it was to Duke hospital that the family went for surgery.
In my Hotel away from the action packed Research Triangle at Hampton Hilton, in Cary, there are many new blue colour workers who have recently moved from the economically drained states like Michigan and are taking jobs as receptionists, etc here. I asked Kayle Armour, the kind receptionist, who she voted for, in the on going early elections in North Carolina.
She did not mince words. "Obama, and that's because the Liberals are coming in here from outside the states, and this year 'we gonna win it.' Kayle who moved from Michigan is attending college at University of North Carolina. She disclosed that the Democrat ground game is taking advantage of the One Step Early Voting.
Kayle revealed to Vanguard that the party's Get Out And Vote machine and agents provide transport to students in the campuses and persuade them to register if they are not. Once they register they are again persuaded to go ahead and vote on the spot. Those who had registered are asked to vote as early as possible.
These have given the Democrats some lead among the students who ordinarily come from outside the state. Already, the Durham county has registered a record of over 59,000 votes. In the Wake county, the officials confirm to Vanguard that over 135, 000 have already voted .
As we move it from North Carolina to Virginia and West Virginia and to other swing states during these last final stretch it is imperative to pause and sketch the contrasts and the differences between these two historic candidates and their expected strategies and end games down to the end.
For Senator Barrack Obama, it has been his major objective since his first memorable speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, 2004, to repaint the National political landscape from strictly Blue and Red States to somewhat new colorations .
With what the Vanguard has witnessed travelling the Appalachian region and back to the swing states, we maintain as we reported two weeks ago, that some of these swing states after November 4, may no longer carry the red flag.
Emerging at a time of a major depression, Senator Obama if the polls prove themselves right, would not only win the Presidential elections, but may win the elections so decidedly.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
