Obama is searching for legacy
President Barack Obama in Kenya
Obama Search for Legacy!!!!!!
Hitting the drum, preaching African leaders, Obama president of the richest country is searching for “Legacy”. As this is the first such visit by a sitting American president to Africa one can say it’s a historic opportunity for Obama yet a sad day for Africans. Obama is a lame duck president with low approval rating, has 395 days left with no time to legislate or change the status quo in Africa. What comes to mind is, why then is Obama concerned about Africa now? February 2008 president Obama made a speech where he stated that “Hope and Change” was coming “Value of Community” these were the promises he made and campaigned; none of it materialized. His leadership in seven years of his presidency has given little attention to Africa.
Mr. Obama’s passivity, ignoring Africa being less personally engaged in foreign policy matters and avoiding US foreign entanglement and his retreat has put his influence in jeopardy. Since Obama’s presidency various terrorist offshoots have likewise factored the perceived American withdrawal from Africa into their own strategies; Boko Haram in Nigeri, ISIS in Tunisia and Egypt are ample recent examples. Libya remains a divided country with different functions fighting each other South Sudan, Central Africa, Niger and Burundi are mired with internal conflict. Egypt an American partner for decades is openly reaching out to Russia at a time when Moscow is increasingly seen in the West as a threat to international stability. The BRICS nation’s inception and formation of a New Development Bank with 50 billion dollar and Contingency Reserve Arrangement of 100 billion dollar has ended the monopoly of the World Bank / IMF. Finally, Africans have become increasingly worried that American passivity has encouraged China to assert its economic power in Africa.
In the domestic arena achievement like the Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court passing of same sex marriage, normalization relation with Cuba and the 5+1 Iran nuclear deal are Obama’s domestic bequest and will be known as second-rate at best. Obama promises never kept “community is American Value”, “change” “economic racial equalities” were his promise none of it transpired. In fact more blacks were murdered by police during Obama’s presidency than his predecessor. Half a century before Obama, J F Kennedy remembered as one of the great leaders of his time had a much better accomplishment and implementation of an economic model tailored for Africa “The Five Stages of Development”. Clinton and Gorge Bush had done more for African than an African blooded president Obama. With 395 days left to his presidency what can Obama offer Africa “Tough Love” good governance, entrepreneurship and terror cooperation?
Uhuru Kenyatta, his family with his Kikuyu tribe own 90% of the fertile lands. Indian’s tiny minority dominate the economic power of Kenya. Pro-foreign investment government Sierra Leone is one good example of entrepreneur-ship gone wrong. Lebanese entrepreneurial who controlled the country’s commerce and diamond trade are known as the “invisible government” of Sierra Leone. The Weyane’s in Ethiopia have introduced “land grab.” Many multinational companies and foreign private speculators have leased millions of acres of the country’s most fertile territory from the government at bargain basement price. This has engendered numerous human rights violations, much dissatisfaction, and growing resistance by indigenous communities’ poverty and drastic inequalities remain prevalent. Around 90 percent of the population suffers from numerous deprivations, ranging from insufficient access to education to inadequate health care; and more than 30 million people still face chronic food shortages. The last seven years Obama was receiving, back padding and entertaining the African leaders at the White House with a blind eye to the human suffering.
I wonder what Obama might have said to the post-independence leaders of Africa who have partnered with their Western masters by providing favorable terms to oil and mining industry, exempting foreign companies from capital gain taxes to enrich themselves while the great majority of their people live in dreadful, ominous, calamitous poverty. African leaders in alliance with western advisers and ethnic minorities’ plutocrats drain off the nation’s wealth at the expense of the countries development. According to the African development bank in 2012 the amount of wealth that was transferred and haulage from Africa was $450 billion dollars. Direct foreign investment concentrates capital in the hand of the few billionaires and transfers money from poor nation to that of wealth nations. Why then is Obama talking about “Tough Love” and not about exploitations of poor countries by rich countries? Chinas aggressive investment and trade policy in Africa is a sign of Africa’s sizeable market potential and the decline of American economic and political influence that cannot be salvaged in 395 days of diplomacy.
In summing up; Mr. Obama’s passivity, being less personally engaged in the welfare of Africans for the last seven years, promoting the interest of Multinational companies and avoiding confrontation with African leaders is testimony to his failure as a World leader. African people’s needs are good governance, beneficial use of national wealth, partnership in investments and trade. Markets are the unseen arbiters of power and not leaders like Obama who talk about prime steak when a loaf of bread is hard to come by. The visit to Africa at the end of Obama’s presidency is nothing more than a public relation stunt in search of legacy.
Obama is searching for legacy
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