by Olumide Goodness Adeyinka
I COULD easily predict President Barack Obama’s speech at any time because I have studied the man and can close-to-perfect imagine what he thinks on issues. I did not give him any support in 2008 since my allegiance was with the Clintons. My wife did, as did many of my friends. It was strange how a ‘blackman’ (as I was called – I do not believe I am a black man by any standard of coloration, so I refer to myself as a brown man) could not seize the ‘moment’ to vote Barack Obama then. I think the hang of the loss of Hillary was heavy on me and the game of politics seems too dirty for my liking.
Over the years though, I have not only loved the approach of Barack Obama to governance (which is not a full endorsement to all his ideas) but the simplicity with which he carries the office as the most powerful human being in the world by every natural standard. The hatred of the NRC as a party, and the slander and reprehensible mannerism of most of its popular media chowderheads makes me to like Obama more. 2011 was very different for me.
So, speeches by Obama is always interesting and I believe the one given today January 21, 2013 remains his best in rallying the masses of America to a robust nationhood. I then believe that other nations would have lessons to learn on how to mobilize the people and what makes United States of America great. Here are lessons for nations with some emphasis on my country Nigeria. I will take some gems and amplify it in all simplicity for understanding.
1) “We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or the origins of our names. What makes us exceptional – what makes us American – is our allegiance to an idea, articulated in a declaration made more than two centuries ago”.
I believe my fatherland Nigeria can borrow the wisdom of what defines a nation there. It is not our different languages, or our regional cultures that should define us but our allegiance to an idea articulated in our independence as a nation in 1960. There are no challenges we have had as a nation that is not so common to others who are great, so we can either feed on what should separate us or solidify what should unite us – the idea of the greatest nation from the sub-sahara Africa.
2) “Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality could survive half-slave and half-free. We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together”.
Slavery might be what America had to overcome, ours definitely will be different and it is. It is not slavery of color but the slavery of the mind, the slavery of servitude to hegemonic insanity, the slavery of cultic invasion of our democratic aspiration, the slavery deprived labor force, the slavery of encumbered bureaucratic practices and so on. Whatever the slavery, we must realize a nation cannot be built on a social foundation of injustice, unfairness, and lack of equity. These we must fight to birth a nation.
3) “Through it all, we have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s ills can be cured through government alone. Our celebration of initiative and enterprise; our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility, are constants in our character”.
We must continue to criticize our governments, we must not relinquish that skepticism but we must build private initiatives and enterprises with corresponding hard work to solve most of our society’s ills. Government must be defined in our circumstance in Nigeria. The almighty posture of government and the sacredness of entitlement of the president/governors is one major problem of my land Nigeria.
4) ” This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together”.
All nations shall have their tested period of crises but what they do with it determines how they are defined. Nigeria has had its own civil war where many were killed with reckless inhumanity, but we cannot continue to bruise the old wounds and fester it with demands and conditions. We must learn from the great the wisdom of closing the past no matter how terrible its history is and foster a resilient resolve to build a nation that would make the dead proud of the living. America had a civil war too, but everyone talks about tomorrow now.
5) “For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class”
Class war has never made it in people’s history and would never make it in this new world age. The idea of very few stealing the prosperity of the masses is contradictory to nature and how it works. In Africa, and especially my original country Nigeria, it is must be sounded with bold tone that greed, avaricious lifestyle and opulence are only combustive materials for a vicious revolution by the people. I pray it is not too late but I doubt my prayers.
6) ” We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher. But while the means will change, our purpose endures:
Does anybody need to be told that we have an evolving and dynamic human interactions and what can be called the norm. Government needs to evolve as our societies changes, so should how we prepare for the future in our laws and citizen involvement. In Nigeria, the idea of “Immunity clause” is not only strange but criminal. The excessive remuneration of our legislators is egregious, so is the gap between the take home of junior and senior officers in the public service. Do we really need a bicameral legislative houses just because it is popular? There are questions we must rise to ask ourselves and be sincere in our postulations for a fair future.
7) “We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law”
Here is one that makes me cry! The single major responsibility of government is to ensure the citizens are not only safe but feel safe to carry out the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. Unfortunately, this is one conundrum we have in most African countries. In Nigeria, the citizens have never felt unsafe like the last 10 years. It is either the government bully force of wiping out a town or the emergence of hateful militancy that seems to be a major way to become wealthy. Religious Boko Haram and high end official corruption has exposed our people to a naked insecurity of all time, yet our laws are spelt out to defend us on both but our government officials remains the active practitioners of both illegalism. Nigeria must wake up to the strength of arms and the rule of law to emancipate our society or we die as a nation and a people.
I will stop here for now.
* Olumide G Adeyinka 01/21/2013 (can be reached at nigardgroup@yahoo.com)