As the world especially the black community keeps celebrating the fulfillment of Civil Rights Leader, Martin Luther King Jr’s wish expressed 45 years ago, it is time for African leaders to reflect on what made Barrack Obama’s journey to the White House so electrifying. It was not just because of the peculiarity and commitment to his campaign promises, but also to a large extent due to his reputation as one who can be entrusted the uphill task of leading a people to sound decisons and achievements.
By Irene Zih Fon
The importance of personality is echoed in the historic speech by Dr King on August 28, 1963 which highlights that the worth of men “...should not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” That speech which was delivered during the American Civil Rights Movement which spanned from 1955-1968, marked reform movements in the United States geared towards abolishing racial discrimination against African Americans.
Similarly, the African Continent needs reforms in the leadership of people who are so blessed with natural talent and resources, but whose potentials to excel are often limited partly due to the corrupt regimes that govern them. The capability of individual citizens to find ways of overcoming such hindrances through poverty-alleviation schemes and fighting other societal ills is another issue altogether. The focus here is the role of African leaders in fulfilling their obligations, not to be forever contented with their ability to amass wealth rather than share it or to feed on their power-hungry ego.
Barrack Obama’s lineage to Africa might be helpful in making African politicians see the possibility of identifying with his abilities, rather than consider it a western issue. Mr Obama’s humble background and troubled childhood with his parents’ seperation when he was aged two and later divorce, does not in itself justify his remarkeable personality. The difference he made which the world celebrates and which should be emulated, is his ability to rise from these ‘obstacles’ to becoming who he wanted to be-and then returning to relate to those who have been where he has been, and helping them to get to where he is.
Such attitude is very lacking among most African leaders(with a few exceptions), who once they touch the helm of power turn to either forget or refuse to remember the basic needs of the average middle-class in their societies. Obama was born to a teenage mother, abandoned by his father at age two and raised in a small apartment by his grandparents. He later went to college and graduated from Columbia University in New York with a political science degree in 1983, but moved on to instead work as a community organizer with low-income residents and on public housing development in Chicago. The American people thus saw him as someone who ‘gets’ what it means to worry about such issues which still affects them.
Obama won the presidential race because voters perceived that he, and not McCain, genuinely care about and will address middle-class economic struggles. He offered understandable policy solutions and Americans believed he can deliver the goods. In Obama’s health plan for example, every American wll have access to good quality medical care services. The self-employed and small businesses will buy affordable health coverage that is similar to the plan available to members of congress...there he goes again-linking the big guns with the commoners!
Nevertheless one of the greatest lessons for African leaders from Barrack Obama’s victory, is the virtue of accepting wins by opposition parties in elections with grace. © The Entrepreneur Newspaper 2008. All Rights Reserved
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