Obama or Romney: Africa’s choice between the devil and the deep blue sea!
5 min readBy Sam Akaki
Saturday, 27 October 2012 00:00
The upcoming US presidential election will be a de facto international presidential election. Whoever wins will not only become – symbolically and in reality – the chairman of the five-member central committee of the world, which is the UN Security Council, he will also indirectly be in charge of the preeminent global currency, which is the dollar. Crucially, the US president will be the Commander-in-Chief of the supreme army, the nuclear-armed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Under Article 5, “The parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.” This explains why Syria can only watch, helplessly, as Turkey, a NATO member, closes its air space, trains, arms and sends rebels into Syria.
Moreover, NATO is not only expanding although its main adversary the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) collapsed in 1991 it is also freely choosing and picking which opposition groups are terrorist organizations or pro-democracy fighters, and which country is to be invaded on the spurious excuse of pre-emptive humanitarian intervention to maintain international peace and security.
These realities will present African peoples at home and in the US with a particular dilemma. By instinct, we should vote for Barack Obama. After all, he is “one of us”, his father having been a black Kenyan!
The ‘one of us’ syndrome based on our ethnicity, tribe and clan is central in the African DNA makeup, which invariably determines how we provide public services to our own.
But as Obama’s African policy has shown in the last four years, it will be a monumental self-delusion for any African at home and in the US to believe that his second term in the White House will bring better news to the continent.
The uncomfortable truth is that the difference between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is only skin deep. Like Romney, Obama is first and last an ambitious US politician, who wants to be president of the last super power of the world.
To achieve that ultimate goal, both men are competing to appear a better US citizen than the other, declaring their uncompromising commitment to pursue not the 1832 Monroe doctrine, but the 1961 President John Kennedy’s doctrine.
The Monroe Doctrine noted that the United States “would neither interfere with existing European colonies (in Africa and elsewhere) nor meddle in the internal concerns of European countries.” That was before John F. Kennedy arrived.
By contrast, in his in January 1961 inauguration speech, Kennedy said “let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of our liberty.” By “our success” Kennedy meant US imperial domination of the world!
Regardless of Obama’s campaign rhetoric, his Africa policy will not be guided by any consideration about is late father’s tribal origin or religion, but by US special interest to maintain political, economic and military dominance of the world.
President Obama or Romney will without hesitation use the USAID to maintain soft control over the continent through politically-motivated humanitarian and development assistance. At the same time, the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) will keep a close military eye and ear on Africa from the ground, air, sea and space. Any African leader or military commander who thinks his or her official and personal secrets are safe is a fool.
President Obama or Romney will use the Bretton Woods institutions, which are the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to manipulate African economies and by extension, social and political conditions, which suits the US.
Whoever wins, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will not relax the pressure on African countries to introduce legislation to implement the one-way Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). These, among other things, will potentially allow western technology companies to “own” anything and everything including trees and shrubs anywhere.
The US, which has not ratified the Rome Statue, will continue to selectively use the ICC as a double-edged political weapon not only to punish non-compliant African leaders such as Omar al Bashir and Robert Mugabe, but also to protect leaders of US client states who torture their own people and invade their neighbours.
While some US companies continue to trade with Iran, President Obama or Romney will demand and get the UN Security Council to impose punitive sanctions on any African country that buys oil from Iran.
NATO intervention in Libya may have been its first on African soil, but it is unlikely to be the last whoever wins. Neither Obama nor Romney will lift the sanctions on Eritrea, Sudan or Zimbabwe.
US entry visas will not become any more easily available for African students or old people wishing to visit their grandchildren just because Obama or Romney has become president.
Finally, according to the Census Bureau, 15 percent of Americans, or more than 46 million people, live below the poverty line, defined as an annual income of USD 23,000 for a family with two children.
The vast majority in this group are African-Americans. They will not become better off with well-paid jobs, adequate housing and health-care cover when and if Obama or Romney takes office next January. That is why I say Africa’s unpalatable choice in the 2012 US presidential election is between the devil and the deep blue sea. We are damned if “one of us” Obama, wins and we are damned if he loses on November 6th!
But why criticize Obama for putting America first and last? What a different place would Africa be if our leaders could also put behind their personal interests, clan, tribe and ethnicity – and tackle the population explosion and youth unemployment, which are driving millions of young men and women to die abroad?
Ed’s Note: The writer is a Ugandan-born former parliamentary candidate in the 2010 UK general elections, founder executive director of Optimum Population for Sustainable Development in Africa (OPSUDA) and Democratic Institutions for Poverty Reduction in Africa (DIPRA). The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter. He can be reached at sam.akaki@hotmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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