OBAMA and AFRICA'S ENEMIES

Within my biological make-up, emotions mixed with joy, I beamed a hopeful smile with tears cascading down my cheeks as I watched President-elect Barack Obama delivering his heroic speech during the Democratic Party Convention in Denva in august 2008 prior to the world’s most celebrated election, even though our own indefatigable Professor of Rigging, ah!... sorry, Professor Maurice Iwu tried unsuccessfully to poke hole in the said election. I wiped my tears and I embraced the gospel of “The Change We Need” being preached by Obama. With Obama at the helms of affairs of the world, I began to see myself as a new person who would contribute to the emergence of a happier Africa and a peaceful world at large. I could remember vividly when the results of the elections were announced, I spent about 30 minutes appreciating the God Almighty for making ‘The Change We Need’ possible. On November 5, 2008 , New York Times succinctly captured Obama’s victory at the polls in an emotional headline: “ Racial Barrier Falls as Obama Wins”. I muttered to myself that I could also make a change in our depraved generation full of individuals with unbecoming atavistic antecedents.

No doubt, Obama is my role model any day, any time but the events of the last couple of weeks have raised dust as to his sincerity in ‘The Change’ he preached. Please don’t call it political statement, hence you would misconstrue me. However, my faith in Obama remains unshaken. Some weeks ago, I read it in yahoo news that Obama has appointed Paul Volcker, Lawrence Summers and Tim Geithner as Economic Adviser, National Economic Council Director and Treasury Secretary respectively. As an ardent follower of Obama’s Presidency who has gotten unwavering inspirations from Obama’s Dreams of my Father and Audacity of Hope, I swiftly sought the profiles of Obama’s economic heavyweights who would help Obama neutralize the current global financial meltdown.

Geithner worked with George Bush as the President of New York Federal Reserve, hence a central figure in the current global credit crunch. Geithner served in Henry Kissinger’s consulting firm during the mid 1980s, joined the Reagan-Bush administration in 1988 and then worked for Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin in the Clinton ’s Treasury Department during the 1990s. The biggest error Geithner committed was the popular first round ineffectual Wall Street bail-outs in 2008, in which he bailed out J.P. Morgan in a day and surprisingly failed to foresee the catastrophic impact of the demise of Lehman Brothers Investment Bank on world’s financial dealings the next day. Geithner who claimed that credit market innovation should help to make markets more efficient and more resilient and better able to absorb stress surrendered to willful blindness when he said: “we cannot turn back the clock on innovation or reverse the complexity around risk management. We do not have the capacity to monitor risk outside the banking system. We cannot identify the likely sources of future stress to the system and act preemptively to diffuse them.” Then I ask, why did Obama give him such pressing job?

Lawrence Summers once gained infamy as a crusader of African genocide and environmental racism. In 2006, he lost the race to become Harvard President. His failure was attributed to his crude and controversial understanding about sexism. Summers wrote that women could not do Mathematics and Sciences. As environmental racist and World Bank Chief Economist, Summers wrote: “I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that. I have always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly under-polluted, their air quality is vastly inefficiently low.” What has Africa-Obama’s origin, done to this man?

Born in 1926, Volcker is one of the living Africa ’s economic enemies. Wall Street Journal described him as a Cigar-Chomping Banker (1979-1987) who jacked up interest rates and tipped the United State (US) into the deepest recession since the Great Depression. He was famous for what was known as Volcker Shock in the 1970s that brought a sharp rise in the world’s interest rates and a sustained appreciation of the dollar. Owing to the Volcker Shock, Africa was nearly squeezed to death. When fielding questions from journalists, Volcker said: “ Africa was not even on my radar screen.” Again I ask; what has Africa done to Volcker? President Jimmy Carter chose Volcker in 1979 to chair the Federal Reserve and he retired in 1987. Surprisingly, Volcker is back in White House through Obama’s invitation.

With these economic criminals and Africa’s enemies hovering around Obama, how can he realize his dream for his father’s people and ultimately, for his mother’s people? Americans need “The Change” they voted for. Hangover from the past is a breach of promise.