Buhari in America, Obama in Africa

Buhari had a good outing in America. The positive fallouts of that visit should manifest in the coming months. One thing that foreign watchers have pointed out is that the visit convinced them that with Buhari what you see is what you get. He wasn’t too interested in political correctness or euphemisms. He laid it […]

Buhari had a good outing in America. The positive fallouts of that visit should manifest in the coming months. One thing that foreign watchers have pointed out is that the visit convinced them that with Buhari what you see is what you get. He wasn’t too interested in political correctness or euphemisms. He laid it all out on the table. There really was no surprise answer to questions. He was brutally frank even if he did not go all out to be disagreeable.
Buhari chose the world stage to restate his resolve to reinvent Nigeria. The world believed him when he said he was being very deliberate in every action he took because the situation on ground was much worse than anticipated. Indeed from the revelations making the rounds already, it was impossible to anticipate the level of criminality perpetrated by some key officials of the former government. Even though he is aware that he has been nicknamed “Baba Go-Slow” by the opposition and other impatient compatriots, he was not going to be stampeded into naming a cabinet. By September the full complement of appointments would have been made, he said.
I am amused at the attempt by hirelings of the un-mourned past administration to twist everything Buhari said in America to give a sectional tinge to his world view. These same people who stood akimbo while a few villagers turned President Jonathan to an Ijaw president have been trying their damnedest to portray Buhari as a man on a vengeance mission. When asked whether those who did not vote for him should also expect to benefit from his government, he answered candidly that it was impossible to alienate any section of the country because the constitution has already guaranteed inclusiveness in governance and he was committed to his oath of office to be president of all Nigerians.
He noted truthfully that those who worked and voted for change would of course benefit directly as implementers of the APC programmes but that his government would be fair to all. “If I marginalise a certain group of people because they didn’t vote for me, then I have already contradicted myself and I’m sure people would be quick to pick that against me”, he said.
The cyber-mob of the opposition PDP does not accept that the 2015 elections are over. They have continued their campaign of calumny. Nothing learnt. When, during the interactive session at the United States Institute of Peace, the president said he wanted to take one question at a time, they refused to see the humour in the man’s candour but instead chose to say that the man was going senile and that his memory was failing.
My favourite quote of the Buhari visit was this one: “I will, as President, lead from the front, but all Nigerians, including the opposition parties, civil society organisations, business and religious leaders, public servants, labour unions, the youths and professional associations, all have important roles to play to get our country back on a sound economic footing.” Meaning: We all own this change.
A U.S.-based Nigerian, Willie Fola Ojo, advertised his own proud moment of the Buhari visit on Facebook as follows: “Something happened during President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Washington; and you have to be a details-buff not to have missed it. It was before the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US Senate and House of Representative Tuesday in Washington. We knew there was no way President Muhammadu Buhari would blitz through Washington without the question on how he will embrace same-sex marriage…. I am not sure exactly who posed the question to him; but I know how Buhari responded. He said; “Sodomy is against the law in Nigeria, and abhorrent to our culture”. Bold, frank, and SMACKDOWN! All the Senators and Representatives kept quiet! No follow-up question … no long sermon on the breach of fundamental human-rights and gay rights, no threat of sanction … After my President spoke, they all kept quiet! It was an affirmation that this presidential authority is SMACKDOWN respected! Waoh!”
Back home, yesterday’s looters are on the prowl using their ill-gotten wealth to recruit cyber and street level warriors to cause disaffection with the hope that the government will be kept busy quenching fires instead of corralling the thieves of yesteryear into jail. Something tells me that the jails will soon be full, courtesy of fallouts from current investigations. By then those who are chanting ‘Baba Go-Slow’ now will start screaming ‘Baba Too-Fast’. I can’t wait for the trials to begin.
Aha, Barack Obama, as US President, has finally visited the land of his father’s birth. As usual, he did a good job of selling America’s values and its version of capitalism. But he failed to persuade Africans that sodomy is a human right. His contention that, “As somebody who has family in Kenya and knows the history of how the country so often is held back because women and girls are not treated fairly, I think those same values apply when it comes to different sexual orientations”, was treated with polite disdain.
Without doubt, Obama’s visit to Kenya, Ethiopia and the African Union headquarters will further boost American businesses and strengthen multilateral collaboration. But for me, it was his reunion with family members in Kenya that struck a chord. From his grandfather’s third wife, Mama Sarah Onyango Obama (Granny Sarah), through his half-sister, Auma, to other relatives who had journeyed to Nairobi to be with him (as he couldn’t visit the family homestead in Kogelo), it was a turn of events that could have done credit to the greatest fable ever told – Our Son, Their President.
No wonder a Kenyan comic said the real meaning of OBAMA is, “Original Black African Managing America”.