Written by:
Temple Chima Ubochi
Ubochit@yahoo.com
Bonn, Germany

 

THE INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: WHAT ROLE DID PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH PLAY IN HIS ELECTION?

 Has not the LORD anointed you leader over his inheritance? (1 Samuel 10:1-3)

We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it. (Yes we can) (Numbers 13:30)

A wise servant will rule over a disgraceful son, and will share the inheritance as one of the brothers. (Proverbs 17:1-3)

Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. (1 Samuel 15:16-18)

 Everything happens for a purpose. God moves in a mysterious way, and through that He performs His wonders. God does His things at His own time and nobody can question or force God into doing or not doing what He wants to. Mankind finds it hard to understand the works and ways of God. God works His purpose out at His own time.

 Yesterday (January 20, 2009), the world woke up to a new dawn never seen before in the history of mankind. A world leader took office on that day; a president for the whole world was inaugurated that day; a black man became the most powerful man in the world; a black family is now the world’s first family. Am I dreaming or is it real? Thank God that I am part of this history; I pray God to grant us all long life so that we will be able to tell our grandchildren that we witnessed when a black man became the president and commander-in-chief of the United States of America for the first time in history.

United States that was notorious for its aggressive drive for slaves and that subjected blacks to unimaginable ordeal in the name of slavery, just inaugurated a black man as its president. We all witnessed a history unmatched since the creation of man. Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces of United States of America. Only those with deep rooted spiritual mind can understand that the history we witnessed yesterday (January 20. 2009) started exactly 8 years ago when George Walker Bush was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. Bush was a link in the chain of events that led to the election of the first black man as an American president; God fulfilled His promise of emancipating the blacks by using George Bush to work out His purpose. God used George W. Bush to fulfil His word. The case of Bush can be likened to that of Pharaoh of Egypt as recorded in the book of Exodus Chapter 7 verses 3-5:

  “But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.  And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it."  

 For God, there is no concept of time or time frame, mankind might think that something took so long to happen; mankind is an impatient bunch that wants everything to work out immediately, but for God everything happens in its own time. A thousand years in the sight of God is like an evening gone, they fly forgotten as a dream that dies at the opening of the day. No other race suffered humiliation, tribulation, persecution, ignominy and death like the black race, but, still God gave them perseverance like He gave to the Israelites. The emancipation of the blacks might have taken so long in the eyes of man, but, God wanted it so in order to teach the blacks a lesson. The blacks are full of hatred for each other and wickedness and selfishness are ingrained in their bloods; God is angry that blacks sold their fellow blacks into slavery for pittance. Kings and Chiefs then sold their subjects into slavery for trivialities like bottles of gin, gun and gun powder, hat, wrapper etc. The hatredness and selfishness of the blacks still endure till this day. With the ascension of Obama to the highest and most powerful office in the world, God Has started the process of forgiving and reconciling us to Himself, the onus now is on the blacks to forsake their bad ways in order to reap the promises of God for them, God Has promised that we will be a great race and that we will be, if only we change our ugly ways.

Before the coming of Bush, The whole world loved and adored America, but, from then on, America became pompous and boastful and it lost the love and goodwill the whole world had for it. That was the way God wanted it to be because he wanted to prove His point with it. Now that God Has worked His purpose out, I hope President Obama will re-claim the world’s love for America, I hope Obama will bring back the happiness, peace and love the whole world once knew.

Let’s not forget that President Obama being where he is today is not only of his own making; although he worked hard for it and is a lucky guy, but, there are so many people that worked harder than him but didn’t make it. Obama is just the God’s anointed, that’s why every other thing fell in place for him. The book of Jeremiah 1:5 says "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart." The Bible is talking to Obama indirectly through this verse.

What is Bush’s own in all this? 

Bush’s presidency served God’s purpose, it had divine underpin, which was to help make Barack Obama the first black president of USA. Not even in our life time; not even eight years ago; not even four years ago, not even two years ago and not even a year ago did any one think such a feat could have been possible. But yesterday (January 20, 2009) we relished the history.

In 2000, Bush was elected president in a controversial circumstance. Al Gore won the popular votes in that election and should have won the election, if the Florida recount was allowed to proceed, but, the United States Supreme Court made haste and proclaimed Bush the president-elect. That was how God wants it and that was the time God chose Obama as the 44th president. If Al Gore had been elected president in 2000, Obama would not have been where he is today and a black man would not have been the president of America by now.

In 2004, John Kerry was on the verge of defeating George Bush and was 6 points ahead of Bush in all national opinion polls even a week to the election, but, Bush and his cohorts aired the “swift boat” advert against Kerry and Kerry refused to aggressively defend himself against it even if that meant going dirty like the Bush campaign then and that cost him the White House he was just heartbeats away from. That was also the way God wants it because, if John Kerry had been elected then, Obama would not have been in White House today and a black would not have been way near the American Presidency by now.

In 2008, Obama came from no where to lock in the Democratic Party presidential nomination beating heavy weights like Hilary Clinton (his foreign secretary nominee), Joe Biden (his vice president), John Edward and many others, even when nobody gave him the chance of making it upto the Super Tuesday. Then the Republican Party on its own nominated John McCain, who then chose Sara Palin as his running mate, two people who could have been worse than Bush and Cheney, if they were to be elected! McCain and Palin could be likened to YarÁdua and Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, two dull dudes who don’t know their left from their right in terms of leadership and governance. That Obama won the Democratic Party nomination and that John McCain won the GOP nomination were the making of God. Had the Republican Party nominated a candidate that knows his onions, Obama would not have been elected, because, his election does not mean that Americans have jettisoned their racial toga, but, it was just the way God wants it to be.

What has Bush still got to do with it all: Bush jump started the emancipation of the black race through what he did and did not do while in office. The Bible tells us that there is nothing that happens that took God unawares. The attack by Al Quieda on America by crashing planes into the Twin Towers in New York and into Pentagon (sorry for the innocent lives lost), led  Bush to declaring war against Afghanistan Taliban. Bush also declared war against Iraq claiming that the Iraqis were developing weapons of mass destruction, but, in actual fact, Bush went to war against Iraq because of oil and to settle personal score against saddam Hussein for the attempt on the life of his father, the Bush Snr when he visited Kuwait. These two wars are taking their human and material tolls; America is spending more than $10 billion every month to prosecute the wars with thousands of lives already lost. That money should have gone a long way in fixing the dilapidated infrastructure in that country, more especially the public schools. On the home front, Bush as a president was a well know maladministrator, His economic policies worsened the economic situation in his country and made a huge chunk of his people poorer, infact, Bush allowed Cheney to run the government as a business organization and that made a mess of everything in Washington D.C.. The deficits ballooned and it became one financial crisis after another. Bush’s mindset is narrow and fixated that in private his character is unrefined. If Bush had succeeded like Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan as president, a black man sleeping and working in the White House by now would have being a mirage. All these helped in making Obama the 44th President of America and these are how God wants things to be.

The ascension of President Obama to the highest office in the world will not lead to the end of racial bigotry, tension, prejudice and profiling. But, it will be the start of the process that will end them; at the end of President Obama´s eight years at the White House; the world will be a different and better place for everybody of every colour. Americans did not vote Obama in because they love him more than John McCain nor because they have no racial prejudice anymore, NO, but people of all races, colours and shades at a point understood that their economic well-being is more important than the colour of the skin of who’s occupying the White House. People cannot afford to make ends meet anymore, they are finding it hard to pay their bills and mortgage leading to mortgage foreclosure; some cannot pay for their children’s college education; some watched helplessly as what they worked all their life to save disappeared in a twinkling of an eye. For some years now, things have been pretty bad with the U.S. economy, so people had no choice during the election but to vote for the democratic party that is always called upon (so many times in American history) to come and clean up the mess left behind by the Republican party and that democratic party happened to have Barack Obama, a black, as its flag bearer. Everything’s how God wants it, it might not sound plausible to many, but, that’s it.

 One more thing, let’s not forget that there are a lot of deranged white people that loathe blacks with passion still out there, the secret service and other agencies should work hard to protect the president and his family; the security around him should be beefed up and should be at the highest level at all time; there should be no room for lax because we don’t want to hear stories.

 There is no doubt that destiny has a hand in Obama´s meteoric rise. The whole world’s attention was focused on Obama´s inauguration. Starting from last Saturday (January 17, 2009) when Obama and Joe Biden rode into Washington DC from Philadelphia, a mammoth crowd unprecedented and unseen in American inaugural history converged in the capital city to take part in the activities lined up before the inauguration and to watch the main event so as to be part of the history. People camped in the open for days, while some slept in their car for days despite the frigid weather out there, just to be part of it all; all the hotels in and around Washington DC were fully booked many weeks ahead that people living in the city had to rent out part of their house or apartment to the visitors that thronged into the city from all over America and the world over. Airlines were fully booked well in advance.

 On the morning of the inauguration, people were so happy despite the harsh economic condition in America; people were cheering and enjoying themselves hours before the ceremony began. The election and inauguration of President Obama uplifted the African-Americans in particular and the blacks all over the world in general; people braved the bitter cold weather that morning to converge at the capitol, the Lincoln memorial and Washington monument (national mall) many hours before the main event started. The crowd stretched a distance of about two miles.

Washington DC and America have not seen this before; people came from all parts of the world to witness the inauguration and that showed that Obama is the president of the whole world. As he gets down to business, President Obama should not forget that he is first and foremost, the President of the United States in particular, and at the same time, that of the whole world in general. President Obama depicts unity because he brought people of all ages and colours together. America still has a long way to go, but, if they stick together, they will make it to the “promise land” with Obama leading them.

I congratulate President Barack Obama and do wish him well. May he live up to the expectations of the whole world (yes he will), may he bring back the American dream all Americans are longing for, once more (yes he will). May he excel more than any other president in American history (yes he will).

Brother Obama, I advice you to be clever as the serpent; do not be sluggard, but, be wise as an ant; be peaceful and gentle as the dove and be strong and calculative as the lion. I leave you with what King Solomon wrote in the book of Proverbs:

“Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil. (Proverbs 4:26-27)

Do not set foot on the path of the wicked or walk in the way of evil men. (Proverbs 4:14)

There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. (Proverbs 6:16-19)”

What can Nigeria learn from all these: God will soon take charge of Nigeria, He abandoned us to our selfishness, foolishness and wickedness; soon He will take charge over our lives again, but, we must work for it. We cannot just fold our hands and expect miracle to happen that will make Nigeria a better place for all. We the people have to stand up to the corrupt ruling class and consign them to the dustbin of history where they belong. We have to start by making the northerners to accept the fact that they have no business ruling Nigeria as they have no iota of what it takes to govern or lead a country. There may be smart people from the north who can stir the affairs of Nigeria in the right direction, but, they will never get the chance, instead, the north have been imposing one dunce after another on Nigeria and the result has been catastrophic. The North has ruled Nigeria 37 years out of 48 years the country has existed as an independent entity; instead, every new leader that emerges from the north takes us 20 years backward. Enough is enough, the north should accept the fact that ruling of intelligent human beings is different from rearing of cattle, let the north hands off the political power and concentrate on what they know better, lording it over cattle, sheep, goats, carmel etc. Nigerians are not animals. Our role as the downtrodden will be to send this message loud and clear to those misruling us all along, if we take care of the national front; we will then take on those misruling us at the states level and from there down to the local governments level. Yes we can do that. May God raise an Obama amongst us, yes He will.

 As we celebrate the ascension of Obama to the highest and most powerful office in the world, let’s thank George Walker Dubya Bush for being a bad president, which hastened the election of President Obama as the 44th President of USA.

 Based on the points above, Bush was the President that helped the black race more than any other American president in history. He made it very possible for an African man to emerge as the 44th President of USA.

Long live President Barack Obama.

 THE THANKS IS ALL YOURS!!!