Daily Independent (Lagos)
Daniel Kanu, Austin Oboh, Rafiu Ajakaye and Olisemeka Obeche
11 November 2008
analysis
Barack Hussein Obama sitting in the White House as President of the United States of America is arguably one of the wonders of the 21st century - one that has changed the direction of world politics forever.
But that is not the only reason the entire world celebrates Obama and America as indications have since shown.
Beneath the ecstasy is the feeling that the people of colour have proven they can hold their own in the white world. Perhaps greater than that is the optimism in Africa that the victory signals a turn-around for the black race, the supreme percentage of whom is located in this part of the globe.
Africans were glued to the satellite while the campaign lasted. And so did other people of colour across the world - all of whom erupted in wide jubilation and celebration when Obama outpolled Republican Party's John McCain his opponent at the end of last Tuesday's election to emerge America's first black President.
For black Americans, the election is a page-turner, a blessing as the name Barack implies, and a good tiding to the terrified world, as signified by his middle name, Hussein.
Obama was born on August 4, 1961, and was until now the junior United States Senator from Illinois and presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2008 presidential election.
He was born at the Kapi'olani Medical Centre for Women & Children in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Snr., a Luo from Nyang'oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya, and Ann Dunham, a white American from Wichita, Kansas.
His parents met while attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was a foreign student. They separated when he was two years old and later divorced. Obama's father returned to Kenya and saw his son only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982.
For Africans Celebrating Obama for other reasons a shocker may be in the waiting. While the campaigns lasted, from January through to November, Africa got negligible mention; and Obama visited every other continent but Africa.
Analysts say Obama had to avoid playing the African card, if he must get white votes. African-Americans account for only 10 per cent of the United States of America's 300 million people.
Regardless, Africans are united in their view of Obama as one of their own, but differ on how much his presidency could impact on the continent considered the least developed in the world. Talk of the reparation and official apology for centuries of slave trade. Talk of the expectation of policy change towards fatherland. Talk of fair trade. The expectation is sky-high.
Home Front Challenges
As election day approached, both presidential candidates were reportedly given a CIA briefing, sketching out the shape of the world the winner would inherit. At the end of an exhausting and sometimes terrifying list of global threats, Obama took a deep breath, according to someone familiar with his session, and said: "Good grief, why do I want this job?"
Now, the job is his, and he has until January 20 to prepare himself and his staff before taking on a troubled world. Obama has, of course, been preparing for years. Analysts say he has approached foreign policy in the same cool and strategic manner he handled the long campaign. By the end of the race, there were 300 foreign policy experts - divided up into groups by region and issue - brainstorming for him.
That huge think tank moved from campaigning to transition mode weeks before election day, so that it would be ready to break to the surface as soon as the votes were counted.
The new president-elect is said to be anxious to avoid the mistakes of Bill Clinton and George Bush, who took months to get their policies and staff in place while the world changed around them. Some reports from the Obama camp suggest a national security team could be named any moment from now.
Meanwhile, a plunge in Wall Street stocks provided a sharp reminder of the scale of the financial challenges facing Obama as gloomy economic data fuelled fresh fears of a deep, prolonged economic recession.
Obama owes a large slice of his electoral success to the global financial crisis. Exit polls found that 62 per cent of voters put the U.S. economy as their number one issue - while 85 per cent of Americans termed themselves 'worried' about the direction of the economy.
Last Wednesday, amid celebrations, the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled more than 5 per cent, or 486 points, to 9,139, more than eliminating penultimate Tuesday's 300-point rise, the biggest election day gain since 1984.
Monthly employment figures showed that 157,000 jobs disappeared during October, as service sector activity contracted sharply. The numbers reinforced the bleak outlook soon to be inherited by Obama, who faces plummeting real estate prices, seesawing stocks, failing banks and a crisis-stricken U.S. automobile industry.
His first act will be to select a Treasury Secretary, America's equivalent of Nigeria's Finance Minister, who will be responsible for spending the $700 billion banking bail-out fund; and will need to be a credible name. Candidates are said to include the Clinton-era Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and the former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, a close economic adviser to Obama who is possibly too old at 81. A third widely tipped candidate is Timothy Geithner, president of the Fed's New York branch, who has won plaudits for his cool-headed involvement in supporting teetering Wall Street institutions.
Even before his inauguration, Obama observes say will be pivotal in negotiating a stimulus package to kick- start economic activity. Already the House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, wants a $100 billion programme that would include money for states to create employment by building new transport links, schools and public facilities.
It could involve food stamps for the poor, relief for people struggling with mortgages and, possibly, a round of tax rebate cheques.
For Dean Maki, an economist at Barclays Capital in New York, the U.S. economy is expected to contract by 2.5 per cent in the final quarter of the year: "Given the majorities the Democrats have in both houses, it might be easier to agree on a stimulus bill. It could be passed before Obama even takes office, but he will have a role in shaping the legislation," he said.
Next on the list of reforms will be regulation. The U.S. treasury has spent $250 billion buying stakes to part-nationalise struggling banks. But critics say few strings have been attached to these handouts.
In a speech earlier this year, the president-elect declared that 'old rules' and 'old institutions' needed reform to fit the changing shape of the financial system: "Our free market was never meant to be a free licence to take whatever you can get, however you can get it."
In all that he does, analysts believe Obama will need to be diplomatic. In an economic environment of extreme twitchiness, the new president's intentions will be scrutinised as never before they maintain.
Those are the local challenges before Obama. Add that to national security and guard against terrorist attacks, as has been predicted by the United States' Head of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell.
Pitched against the uphill tasks, how far can Obama go in helping the African continent from which America, by all means possible, hopes to get 25 per cent of its energy requirements by 2015?
Forlorn Hope In Africa?
Africans are not celebrating Obama for the sake of it. Neither was Mwai Kibaki, Kenya's President, saying 'we are proud of your roots' for nothing. Such joy is informed by a world of expectations, hope that Africa would fare better under an Obama presidency. Would that be?
Can Obama in any way influence democratic culture on the continent replete with sit-tight leaders and notorious for fraudulent electioneering processes, unlike the one that produced him?
Asked what Obama's victory means for Africa, former Nigerian Representative at the United Nations, Arthur Mbanefo, said his presidency would not bring any major shift that would result in any radical change for economic benefit for the continent.
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