KUDOS FOR OBAMA, BUT AFRICA EXPECTS MORE

After grueling months of electioneering, that big day came and on Tuesday, Americans went to the polls to elect their president.Through that exercise, they categorically spoke, that the man they want, yet again, at the helm for the next four years is Mr Barack Obama, the very one who made history as the US first African-American president when he defeated Republican John McCain in 2008. The victor of the Tuesday poll, dubbed the most expensive US presidential election in recent history, won over 300 electoral-college votes out of 358 at the expense of Republican Mitt Romney, who conceded defeat hours ahead of the final tally. There had been concern on the part of the pro-Obama camp that “anything might have happened”, if their man’s performance in the first presidential debates – where Senator Romney impressed many – was anything to go by. And then, as it were, unemployment had soared during his maiden tenure, contrary to his 2008 election pledge. The Romney camp had harped on that drawback in its efforts to impress voters that the incumbent had failed and therefore, should go! Now, that has come to pass. Mr Obama will continue with his second and last four-year tenure as the world’s sole superpower’s 44th president. He won beyond the expectation of many, thanks to a majority of the American voters’ faith in the “man they know” and their discomfiture towards the Republican who, sadly, saw supporters of Obama as “idle people who don’t have to pay taxes.” Unlike presidential elections elsewhere in the world, that of the US has global ramifications. The US, whose current gross domestic product of $15 trillion represents almost a quarter of the world’s $62 trillion, is easily the most influential nation on earth. Strongest economy As the world’s strongest economy, not to mention its military might (it commands 41 per cent of the global military spending of  $1,735), the US has the capacity to dictate a lot of what happens elsewhere across the globe. Mr Obama’s 2008 win was received with a lot of excitement in Africa. Why, according to many, the president of the “Big Brother” nation was “one of us”, having been of a Kenyan father! Given Africa’s generally parochial politics, where leaders tend to abashedly direct national resources to political supporters and their villages of origin, there was a belief that Mr Obama would spoil the “continent of his father”. It is clear that in the world’s biggest democracy, matters are not run on the basis of the big man’s whims. It is American interests, and not the president’s interests (and sentiments) that reign supreme. Irrespective of who occupies the White House, the US as a nation has specific areas of focus, which means “development partners” must not expect much simply because there is change or otherwise, at the top. However, the executive’s background and style of leadership must surely influence the implementation of initiatives that benefit recipient nations while serving American interests as well. The US is fully aware that its business, security and cultural dominance can be sustained only if poverty and social upheavals are put in check in other nations, including those in sub-Saharan Africa. That is why we expect that President Obama will use his second and final tenure of office to boost in developing nations in areas of health, poverty alleviation and education. As he had aptly said in his 2008 acceptance speech, his victory was not about “him”, it was about “us”. And for a man who leads the country touted as “the land of opportunity”, the pronoun “us” is not just about Americans; it is about the world at large.