It’s a puppy not a choice property

There are so many unique and unusual things about this enigmatic personality called Obama. The strength of his uniqueness lies in his style. I’ll simply say his style is just different from that of many other men. I’m not gushing about him. Oh! Not at all! I’m just amazed that his kind of person still exists in this century, or should I say his kind of man is very uncommon in Africa?
This brings to mind the couplet that end the famous lines of William Shakespeare’s sonnet, Let me not to the Marriage of True Minds, “If this be error and upon me proved, /I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” I’ll take few steps away from Shakespeare since I’m not in love and rather say: If this be an error and upon me proved. I never writ, nor no man like Obama ever lived in Africa!
Well, I say Africa because Obama, a black man who lived nearly all his life in America has shown that certain behavioural norms are peculiar to men who lived abroad in terms of leadership qualities, I’ll quickly add. In terms of love, certain behaviours are universal for men but that is a topic for another day! Let’s go back to the Obama issue.
Obama brought to bare his true ideals when he gave his victory speech some weeks back. I was shocked to hear that all he could promise his two daughters was a mere puppy and nothing more. “Sasha and Malia I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the new White House,” he said.
I saw in the man who stood on the podium in Chicago that day, a selfless leader that is committed to changing the fate of the middle class American family for the best. He wasn’t thinking of how to build choice properties for his two daughters in a prime estate in Washington or New York. All he could assure them was a puppy!
If it were in Africa nay Nigeria, puppy would have been out of the question. Beautiful houses, exotic cars, holidays abroad, expensive jewelleries will top the list of such promises for the first children. What is a puppy to the children of a typical African or Nigerian leader? An average Nigerian leader would rather promise his child a corner piece whose architectural design is yet unknown or seen. At least, I know of past heads of states whose sons still benefit from the largesse of their father’s position while in and out of office. A toddling child of the chairman of a local government in Nigeria can boast of a building put up in his name not to talk of a grown child who would probably be the one to demand an exotic building of his father. In fact, down here, we’ve had cases of choice properties are being built or bought for yet to be delivered babies of African heads of governments “in advance.”
But in America, Michelle Obama’s position on this is also instructive. She is an epitome of an ideal First Lady. She supported her husband’s promise of a puppy. What would a typical Nigerian First Lady do, you’d ask? She would tell her husband to buy landed properties in her children’s name to secure their future. Their schools must be changed instantly to either Oxford or Harvard. “My children do not deserve to be in any of these local schools,” she’ll say. They have to study abroad now that we have become the first family in this country.”
Michelle recently in an interview had also revealed that their daughters, would have to wait at least two more months for the puppy which her husband publicly promised them on election night. "We're on call mode on the dog front. Because the deal with the dog was that we would get the dog after we got settled. Because as responsible owners we - I don't think it would be good to get a dog in the midst of transition," she said.
That Shasha and Malia will have to wait for two months for their puppy is equally surprising. The promise will not even be delivered immediately! I’m sure if the Obamas were to be Nigerians, the first thing would be for them to begin making moves on which areas they consider good enough for the kind of property their children deserve and which country is best to open foreign accounts in their names.
“The primary focus for the first year,” Michelle said, “will be making sure the kids make it through the transition. But there are many issues that I care deeply about.” But a typical Nigerian First Lady will concern herself with how to look good, the latest clothes to wear, among others.
The Obama ideals surely rubbed off on his family and it is this ideal that they all stand for. Without doubt, it’s high time Nigerian leaders borrowed a leaf from the Obama example.