Des Wilson

Nothing, they say, succeeds like success. So it is with the recent electoral revolution success which swept through America and the rest of the world. Fake pollsters, political pundits, spiritualists, stargazers, known electoral fraudsters and fame seekers have all claimed they knew Obama was going to win. Some have quoted the Bible as glory of their knowledge of the outcome. Today everyone is basking in the euphoria of an outcome each person claims they had made possible. That is what happens when a heaven arranged event takes place. Everyone becomes a history maker and a winner. Even Comrade Oshiomole's supporters couldn't resist shouting Obama! Obama!! Obama!!! at his inauguration recently.
The name Obama whom language experts and analysts tell us means 'crooked' or 'bent' has already become a magic word worldwide especially here in Africa where we specialize in making wars against brother and organizing fraudulent elections. Mothers now name their children, male or female, Obama. Even the Japanese whose city Obama means nothing close to the Kenyan word also made a big celebration out of the Obama phenomenon.
There is a lot of interesting things about the man, Obama which has made him a record maker. He is the first black man to contest and win a major party primaries in the United States. He is also the first black presidential candidate of a major US political party. He is the first American of African descent to be elected president as well as the first man of mixed race to be elected president. And he is the first black president. The first list can go on and on.
But Obama is an unadulterated American; and many of those who think he will pursue an African policy seem not to understand American politics. He cannot be an African president of America because his mentality, psyche and general outlook are American except his skin colour which he shares with many Africans. Here is an African-American president 'manufactured' by white America. He is an elected president today because God willed it. The build-up to the election showed clearly the hand of God.
Before the elections, the economic, political, environmental and social disruptions and scams afflicted the US. The disastrous Bush policy: 'You're either with us or against us' during the Iraqi War, the 'old' and 'new' Europe rhetoric of the war monger Donald Rumsfeld alienated many of America's friends and at home, these made the Republican Party candidate a lame duck of some sort.
The polls had consistently shown that Obama was a clear favourite of most Americans although mainly white female Americans, young persons and the rainbow coalition of Hispanics, Asians and African Americans supported him. Conservative, white, male Americans did not think much of him. But even among the white male voters who voted for him, he was seen as a white American trapped in a black body.
It is in this context that I believe that Africans must lower their expectations about a possible miracle for Africa predicated on a new American Africa policy. If anything better than the present situation happens then we should thank our stars. In America, it is not enough to have a black skin in order to have a pro-Africa policy. It is all about a mentality and a mix of economic and political interests.
We can see his revolutionary verve turning to the Middle East-Iraq, Afaghanistan, Israel and Iran-traditional battlegrounds of American political duplicity. It will be business-as-usual as America tries to carry out its usual balancing act between oil supply (Arab) and economic interest (Israel) at home. Russia will pose a new challenge in the emerging new cold war fought in the airwaves and flexing of military might as it happened recently in Georgia. European relations will be strengthened on the basis of a new reconciliation and papering over political cracks arising from the Bush faux pas.
For Africa, it will continue to be Tokenism. But surely, the bullying, all powerful world policeman will mellow down a bit of its aggression while remaining symbolically threatening. North Korea and Cuba may not find an immediate respite. In all these, there are indications that the world's most powerful military power may be going through some kind of political menopause. Let it not be said when the history of this situation is written that it was a Blackman that presided over America's decline-the fall of the American empire.
The road to world economic recovery will take a little while but the foundation will be put in place. If however, our fears become misplaced, then it is possible that in four years America will be America again the land of big dreams and opportunities. The image of an ogre will take a little while to go away if Obama does not pursue a policy of reconciling with the rest of the world. The Democratic Party control of the American Congress will not be an advantage to Obama as the same conservative establishment issues will always prevail.
And going back to the Obama phenomenon, I hope the many Nigerians and other Africans who saw how tribalism failed the tribal interests in America will learn something from it. We saw how the majority voted the so-called minority into power. It is not that the American system is without flaws but we did not hear of ballot stuffing, ballot snatching, candidates being disqualified on the eve of elections, 'EFCC' arresting opposition candidates and charging them for phoney offences, 'INEC' declaring non-candidates victorious in fraudulent elections, and things being organised to snuff out the lives of opponents. Did we learn any lesson? It seems to me that apart from those whom Iwu assisted to become what they are today, there is no one who would question the integrity of that election which threw up Obama as the man of the moment. Yet it was reported in the popular press that the voodoo priest of INEC had urged the Americans to come and learn something from our electoral process. It is only an evil man that can ask people to come and learn from an evil process! Some other organizers of the shameful fraud and rape of the people's rights are probably waiting for another opportunity to declare that 'there is no perfect election anywhere' as a way of justifying their fraud. The question to ask: is there anything the mutely land of political parties can learn from the selection process rather than just declare that we are in a learning process? If Chana, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Liberia can conduct credible elections then Africa's most populous and perhaps most endowed nation must be ashamed of itself.
One thing I expect Obama to do for Africa is to create an unfavourable climate in his country to stop national thieves from going to hide their loot in his country. That way he may not need to offer any aid to any of them. These national fraudsters must remember John F. Kennedy's admonition that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable.