Barack Obama’s eight-year stay in the White House is fast coming to an end.
And with it comes to an end the misplaced euphoria by Africa that Obama was one of their own.
Obama’s stay in the White House has irrefutably proved that the man is as American as Coca Cola and the blue jeans.
Other than his skin colour which looks slightly close to that of many Africans and also his last name, which sounds African ÔÇô there is absolutely nothing African about Obama.
Markedly, it is very unlikely that Obama will be any proud of his last name for it has always proved more of a hindrance than a compliment when it came to his career ambitions.
But there is yet another more important element about Obama’s presidency and Africa that should not be overlooked.
His presidency has brought to an end the romanticism among Africans that a Democrat in the White House is naturally more amenable and malleable to Africa than a Republican.
That myth has been busted ÔÇô hopefully for good.
To be fair, for all his hawkish outlook, which was an outstanding turnoff for much of the world, George W. Bush has done a lot more for Africa than has Obama.
Who can forget the billions of American dollars that George W. Bush poured into sub-Saharan Africa to fight HIV/AIDS?
Who can forget the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act that President Bush pushed to allow products of African enterprise a duty free access into the wealthy American market?
To this day, Africa is still indebted to George W. Bush’s compassion and benevolence.
We are still to know what Obama’s flagship policy towards Africa has been. And because time has for him effectively run out, there is no chance that when it comes to Africa, history will judge him in the same category as George W. Bush.
Thoughts of what good Obama has been to Africa crossed my mind this week as I followed the fast unfolding rollercoaster that is the race for the White House.
Like the entire world, the whole of America is fixated, captivated and astounded by the political rise of a New York billionaire by the name of Donald Trump. Nobody knows what to do with him.
He has defied all convention and barked a new ground in American politics.
The American establishment is shamed by Trump’s brazen and politically incorrect behavior.
Quite deliberately, the man is short in policy detail and massive in hyperbole.
Without mincing his words, the hotel magnate says one of the first things he would as President of the United States will be to build a wall between America and Mexico ÔÇô to keep off drug addicts and prostitutes that he says are flooding America from down south. And the Mexican Government would foot the bill for the wall. He is unrepentant about it and likes repeating the maxim without any goading.
In the meantime the American establishment is grinding its teeth with shame. But ordinary Americans are enthralled. And they are rewarding him with their votes. To ordinary Americans, Trump is the embodiment of hope. He epitomizes the required defiance against the establishment if America is to reclaim its glory days.
All attacks about his past misdemeanours (and there are many) do not seem to matter to an ordinary American.
All they do is dance to his hymn that under him “America will be great again!”
The billionaire talks to the fears of ordinary Americans. And, against the establishment he addresses their aspirations.
Any reference of closing out all Muslims out of America would have spelt a death knell to any political career. But after saying that, Trump’s ratings soared to stratospheric levels.
Trump has already left a dozen bodies of establishment trophies on his trail. Once seen as the blue-eyed boy of the establishment, George W. Bush’s younger brother, Jeb Bush is one of the many casualties so far to have fallen as Trump’s scalps. And from the look of things many more are set to follow.
Nobody seems to know what to do with Trump. Attempts to dismiss him as a clown and entertainer can no longer hold as reality is fast coming home that he is now solidly the man to beat. He is by far the man with the biggest hope not only to represent the Republican Party at election time, but possibly also to emerge as President of the most powerful country on earth.
There has never been anything like this before.
He brushes all attacks past him without providing any defence.
The more Trump is accused of being xenophobic or Islamophobic, the more he continues to win a series of primaries ÔÇô State by State.
The fact of the matter is that Trump is neither anti-immigrant nor anti-Islam. He is simply pro-American.
He is in short, an American nationalist. And there is nothing shameful about that.
As in Europe, and indeed the rest of the world, nationalism is on the march in America.
Accordingly, internationalism is on a retreat.
If I were an American, come November I would vote not for the sly and cunning Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, but for the abrasive and straight talking Republican, Donald J. Trump who is much more likely to do more for Africa than an African-American president has done in the last eight years.
