Funke Aboyade
11 November 2008
column
Lagos — Few moments in history, at least thus far in my lifetime, can beat that of the announcement in the early hours of last Wednesday that declared Senator Barack Obama winner of the 2008 US presidential elections. The release in 1990 of President Nelson Mandela ranks as one of those rare moments and I'd always thought nothing could top that. How wrong! I still remember where I was when Mandela walked out of 27 years of incarceration a free man; I was glued to the TV, completely overwhelmed by emotion, weeping profusely. They were tears of joy. Who'd have thought that could have happened and apartheid officially dismantled in one's lifetime?
Last week, as with millions if not billions all over the world, I was glued to my TV once again. The moment was indescribable. This time I didn't shed tears, not because I wasn't overcome by emotion, but because I had become spent having shouted and screamed myself hoarse. I was delirious, giddy with excitement and pride. The tears simply could not come. By the time Obama came out to speak and accept his mandate, I could only watch, absolutely overwhelmed. Not as an American, but simply as a part of humanity. At that moment, we were all Americans.
I watched, speechless and overcome, as black, white, Latino, Asian, male and female cheered at news of his victory.
Few times in a generation is the world blessed with leaders who inspire, who galvanise, who energise, who seek to serve and who enkindle hope. And for me, a leader of my own generation.
Charismatic, determined, consistent, competent, focused, change agent, gracious every step of the way, especially so in victory, from the first time the world took notice of him at the Democratic Party convention four years ago, to his subsequent emergence as a Senator, Barack Obama was a breath of fresh air. In a multi-cultural nation such as the United States with racially charged issues stemming from its history of slave trade, it was a tough balancing act not putting non-black voters off by the mere perception that he might court black voters by playing the race card. On the contrary, Obama did the hitherto impossible. In a nation with challenges of race, culture, age, religion and politics, he managed to pull together people of different suasions. In a 21-month long campaign often marked by divisiveness, name calling, lack of respect and mud throwing from opponents within his own party as well as the Republican Party, the man of history did not falter and remained gracious; indeed, the mud could not, would not, stick.
Truly, Obama is a transformational figure, a bridge builder.
The crowning glory, the icing on the cake, for me, was the fact that Obama is a black man. For anyone - black, white, red or yellow - with a sense of history, it was a moment to cheer.
Who'd have thought that in one's lifetime, a black man would occupy the presidential seat of the most powerful nation on earth?
Permit my effusiveness, but what a glorious day! What a momentous day! What an historic moment!
And McCain's immediate speech conceding defeat. How gracious! How dignified! How statesmanly! He was having none of the booing of Obama by disappointed party faithful. The man went up several notches in my esteem.
No doubt the GOP will have a lot of time to review what went wrong, where they missed the boat. It wasn't simply a case of fighting and inevitably, losing a battle against an unstoppable phenomenon; their politics of fear, of hate, of racial division, of mud raking put many off and ensured they alienated many voters in the process. No doubt it will emerge a stronger party after the internal house re-ordering and agonising.
Of course, eight disastrous Bush years, an unnecessary war in Iraq and a recession tottering towards a depression didn't help the Republicans either. But they did help facilitate an Obama presidency.
Already, some are fretting that Obama may not be able to match his powerful and inspiring rhetoric. I have no such doubts. This is a man with a sense of history; indeed he is history itself in the making. He knows that. He will perform.
And since his election victory? Obama has got cracking, working for the American people. Receiving briefings from intelligence agencies, forming his administration no interminable wait there and, with unimpeachable credentials. Those who will help him pull the country out of its biggest economic crisis since the great depression and restore America to greatness. No job for the boys here. No talk of 'sharing' office and 'compensating the boys' as if a call to high public office is an official call to help one's self to the public till.
George W. in a generous congratulatory speech promised to ensure a smooth transition and kept to his words swinging into action immediately. For the first time in a long time, I actually felt some respect, even sympathy, for the man. He's been (deservedly, in my view) battered and bruised on all sides and a direct result of his policies was the whopping voter rejection of him and his party which ensured a landslide for Obama. With his legacy and place in American history suspect, Bush can't be a happy camper right now but still, he is doing his duty determinedly.
For those Africans who somehow assume automatically that an Obama presidency means he must somehow attach a lot of importance to us, I am under no such illusion. In fact, I would have to ask, why should he? So what if his father was African? We should get over ourselves real quick and realise that America's self-interest will always come first. If we want closer economic ties or benefits from her, then we have to earn her respect, it's as simple as that.
All said I have to doff my hat to American democracy. Imperfect as it is, it works. In spite of, and maybe even because of, seemingly insurmountable obstacles It has today produced the best of the best.
And us here? To start with the last point, our President-elect would have since been busy receiving well wishers, party bigwigs, brown-nosers, political jobbers, dodgy groups with even dodgier-sounding names and acronyms, political godfathers and the like, all in one steady, long and unending stream, right up to his swearing in. Then, unprepared, or perhaps overwhelmed, by a position he never even desired in the first place, would have spent an eternity announcing his cabinet.
In our ruling party, the self-styled biggest party in Africa (so?), those who genuinely sought the office of the President were bullied into stepping down for one whose biggest ambition at that point, by his own admission, was to return to the lecture room.
I suppose it's no crime not to be charismatic, nor be able to inspire people on the scale of an Obama or Mandela or a Lee Kuan Yew, but frankly, tough challenges such as we're facing presently, with a disillusioned populace, call for such leaders. Leaders who will engender hope. Self-effacing and taciturn, forgive me, just don't cut it.
And in a free and fair election the losing side or displeased incumbent President would, would, would June 12 ring any bell?
All told, we have a lot to learn from US democratic processes - forget what our loquacious Maurice Iwu has been quoted as saying, that they could learn a thing or two from us! (could someone please tell him to put up or shut up, he's getting on my last raw nerves!). The endless trips of our legislators and executives at federal, state and even local government levels to the US ostensibly to learn how they do things there have been mostly jamborees with no genuine desire to put to use anything learnt on those trips. Besides, those trips are really unnecessary. The world wide web is a wonderful little invention; I'd recommend it to them. It's a more efficient way of achieving those ends. It's cheap and cheerful too.
Is it too late for President Umaru Yar'Adua? No. He can still shake things up a bit in the time left and fire on all fronts. He can still earn our, at least my, respect.
For now, let me continue to savour this absolutely wonderful moment in history. A moment when the world stood as one with the United States and we all became Americans.
Still on Iberia
My column in the last two weeks on Iberia has continued to generate a lot of reactions. Last week, I received a telephone call from Madrid from Mr. Santiago de Juan of Iberia's International Press Office during which he was anxious to clarify that the airline was not racist and did not discriminate against passengers on its Nigerian route. He was also anxious to emphasise that the average age of their aircraft is just 7 years. He was pleasant, polite and eager to set the records straight. We spoke at length and I was impressed that they at least took the trouble to exonerate their brand. He subsequently followed up with a letter which is reproduced below.
NCAA has also written me a second time to assure they are investigating.
Will keep you posted.
Iberia Líneas Aéreas de Espa-a would like to comment on the article by Ms Funke Aboyade published in THISDAY Newspaper on Tuesday October 28 2008 about Iberia's service between Lagos and Madrid.
In the article certain inaccurate observations were made. The most damaging is the assertion that Iberia 'reserves its old and uncomfortable planes for the Nigerian route.'
Iberia uses two kinds of aircraft: for its international flights: the Airbus 340 for transatlantic flights and the Airbus 320 for all of our destinations in Europe, Africa and Middle East. This means we use the same kind of aircraft for our Lagos-Madrid route, as we do for other destinations within the same range, such as Moscow-Madrid or Tel Aviv-Madrid.
It is not correct to that say Iberia discriminates against Nigerian passengers. The type of aircraft used for the Lagos-Madrid route is the same that flies to other destinations of similar distance.
Iberia would like also to point out that the airline's fleet is among the youngest in Europe, with an average age of seven years, and the maintenance division of the company is the ninth largest in the world, something that accounts for the reliability, safety and quality of our aircraft. We reiterate that the assertion that we fly old airplanes is just not true.
Iberia would also like to stress that our goal is to offer Nigerian passengers the opportunity to fly to all of Europe as well the Americas at competitive prices. Today we offer some of the most competitive fares on the routes we fly, a fact acknowledged by the Author. We do so without compromising safety or security.
In order to achieve our twin objectives we have to deploy our fleet optimally to account for passenger load factors and the distances flown.
Iberia strives to maintain the highest standards and provide its passengers with a happy and pleasant flying experience. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our passengers flying from Lagos to Madrid. It is our commitment to facilitate and strengthen the relationship between Nigeria and Spain and to improve the service we offer to all those who choose Iberia for their trips between the two countries.
We look forward to welcoming Ms. Aboyade on board our flights in future.
Post script: Upon reflection after our discussion, I however felt that his explanation that the airline flies the same type of aircraft on all its similar middle haul routes didn't adequately address the issue of seat configuration and passenger comfort on the Lagos route. It would be interesting to see if those other routes have the same issues. I sent him an email and his response is reproduced below:
Thank you for contacting me.
The business class seats configuration is exactly the same as four the other European and Middle East routes. The fact is that the airplane that is flying, let's say,â-‚from Lagos to Madrid is then used for another routes and the other way around, which means the configurations needs to be always the same for every route.
Regards
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