It was a momentous event when on February 3, 1960, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told the (white) South African Parliament that the game was up.

Macmillan did not pull his pu nches when he told the apartheid parliament that their belief system had become an anachronism as it had no place in the modern world.

"The wind of change," said Macmillan, "is blowing across this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it." Macmillan's admonition was from the heart. He spoke as a white man, a kith and kin of those assembled, and as a conservative politician. Macmillan was the leader of a conservative party which until then was unwavering in the belief that the sun would never set on the British Empire. Nevertheless, "the times they are changing," as the American bard Bob Dylan memorably intoned, and reality had to be accepted. Or, as the British rock band The Rolling Stones were to say a few years further down the road: "You can't change time but time will change you."

The 1960s represented a clash of forces. Between those who held on to an increasingly untenable past and those who wanted to herald a new dawn. Nigeria was to gain flag independence some eight or so months after Macmillan's historic speech. Many other African countries rapidly followed. It was as we all now know, a false dawn. Virtually everywhere, the dreams of independence was not to be realized. Decades after flag independence, the story remains the same in country after country. This being the betrayal by the ruling elite of the mandate of trust reposed in them. Rather than reaping the expected dividends, a bewildered people found that they had exchanged one set of colonialists for another. When of course the khaki boys took over from the 'big men,' betrayal turned into rape. The history of Africa's underachievement just went from bad to horrible.

Decades after Macmillan's stringent call for a wind of change, the first African-American to be elected head of the most powerful nation on earth, Barack Obama, was moved to call for a second independence. If, as the empirical evidence clearly indicates, flag independence had failed to deliver the goods, now is the time to move a motion for the second 'real' independence. It is quite telling and appropriate that Obama's virtual motion was moved in the portals of a parliament whose members had at least been genuinely elected in a free and fair election. In this regard, as everyone acknowledges, the strong institutions of that beautiful country have bucked a dismal trend. Apart from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia - and recently war-torn Sierra Leone - the democratic deficit everywhere else is really disgraceful. Elections where and when they are held follow the same pattern. This being 'do or die,' a litany of woes, beatings, maiming, killings, ballot box snatching, blood and thunder. In tragic-comic Nigeria, election petitions tribunals are still trudging their way through two years after the elections were held.

If africa is to face the future it should make Obama's speech as the key reference point. Important as the speech is, Obama was not saying anything new. Virtually everything advocated had been stressed many times over in our own country by people like Anthony Enahoro, Wole Soyinka, Gani Fawehimni, Olisa Agbakoba, Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa and Claude Ake, amongst a legion of others. What is important about the speech is that Obama spoke as a black man, a man of colour. Any sensible man or woman of colour cannot but be disappointed by Africa's perennial under-achievement. Having established his locus as an American of clearly established African ancestry, Obama did not pull his punches and the performance was sotto voce.

It is impossible to pin the old bum rap of mendacious self-indulgence on Barack Obama. Here is no whitey giving you a condescending sermon from the mount, the man has a Kenyan father. Obama has clearly put people like Mugabe in a tight corner. It is no longer possible to rant and rave about the white man barring your progress. The dad of the fellow in the White House hailed from Kenya. Obama was quite right to insist upon a quid-pro-quo in return for assistance. There is hardly any point in giving any aid, assistance or steering investment in the direction of countries 'ruled' (they are hardly governed) by a demented kleptocracy.

Here at home in our own Nigeria the demented kleptocracy were put in a pickle by Obama's speech. Why on earth did Obama refer to countries that have corrupt figures at the head of the ports authority? Who on earth could he possibly be referring to? Has someone, somewhere, been regaling him with tales about dirty deals and skullduggery? Obama s. speech fired the heart of every democrat from Cairo to the Cape. The fight for a second real independence must commence in earnest. Civil Society has its work cut out to help to build strong institutions. At least we can say that we have a friend in the White House.

At the heart of the cold war, President John F. Kennedy put himself on the front line when he proclaimed Ich bien ein Berliner - 'I am a Berliner'. Obama has similarly proclaimed his support for civil society and all those fighting for the entrenchment of democratic values, constitutionalism and the rule of law in Africa. In February 1960, the apartheid Prime Minister Verwoed was visibly discomfitured by Macmillan's great speech signaling change. His response was characteristically ungracious. The liberation forces had to knock sense literally into the skulls of his collaborators, heirs and successors. It is to be hoped that all this will not be necessary in the second liberation struggle. It is to be hoped!

It should signal a new dawn. Start packing your bags Prof. Maurice Iwu and collaborators, tough luck son, the game is up and it wasn't even fun while it lasted.