The anti-African Obama and the game of catch-up
I used to be a major fan of American President Barrack Hussein Obama; I am no more. To me, Obama remains a dyed-in-the-wool quintessential American politician, no different from any other Caucasian president, and a complete product of the western imperialist machine. It was natural to feel a sense of affinity with Obama because of the colour of his skin, but the initial romance has subsequently worn off.
I am impressed (and disappointed with Nigerians on the other hand) that at a time when Nigerians have been moaning, debating and grovelling for weeks on US President Obama’s ‘snub’ of Nigeria in his Africa tour (with opposition elements even listing this as one of the many failings of the GEJ administration), our counterparts in South Africans protested his visit on legitimate grounds: drones in the Middle East, the continuing Cuban impasse, failure to completely close Guantanamo Bay, and forceful regime change/military intervention in Africa without consultation. I daresay if President Obama can base his ‘judicious’ choice of Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania on the perceived strength of their democracies and avoid Nigeria and Kenya (the land of his ancestry and living relatives) based on corruption and human rights abuses, respectively, then Africans can also make it known that he isn’t welcome based on similar principles.
Obama’s recent trip to Africa, in my own opinion, is an attempt at catch up. The Chinese president made Africa the destination of his first foreign trip; Obama, however, waited until his second term to pay a proper visit to the continent (the less than 24-hour trip to Ghana in 2009 doesn’t count in my view). China’s strategy is not unfounded: African economies have remained the fastest growing in the world and as at the last check Africa still possessed a lot of in-demand natural resources, from iron ore to timber to cocoa, gold, diamonds, oil and gas, cotton, etc. Just think of it and Africa has got it (except for resident quality human capital, that is). Under the watch of the first ‘African’ president of the United States of America, China-Africa trade outstripped that of the US for the first time in history and is estimated at a significant $200 billion annually, doubling current US-Africa trade.
The foregoing forms the basis of my claim that President Obama isn’t here because of his love for Mother Africa, but because he understands that he and the USA which he leads have come late to the party and the Chinese are very busy helping themselves to the largesse.
On the political front, the Obama administration is guilty of hypocrisy (as is usual with western governments anyway), by being comfortable with dictators and authoritarian/oppressive and corrupt regimes, as long as they promote American interest, and sponsoring regime change (as in the Libyan case) without any consultation with Africa and its leaders (by Africa and its leaders I make reference to the African Union). The annual $1.5 billion granted to the Hosni Mubarak dictatorship in Egypt simply because they were America’s strongest/closest Arab ally in the Middle East was more than the annual assistance given to all sub-Saharan African countries combined. In addition, the granting of $12 million in military aid to the 23-year-old autocracy of Tunisia’s Zine el Abidine Ben Ali shortly before the Tunisian revolt confirms my thesis.
With the foregoing narration, the Kenyan-Kansan has shown he deserves no special affection just because of the colour of his skin (even though I will still support the Democratic Obama administration against any Republican government … for selfish reasons as well). And I hope Ndi Okereke-Onyuike isn’t similarly disappointed.
Ibekwe-Uche writes from Lagos.
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