nuzo:

Sounds like becomrich to me.

While Obama did not call Nigeria‘s President Umar Yar’Adua on his assumption of office as US President, he actually called President John Atta Mills of Ghana on April 10.

Obama called few world leaders previously within couple of weeks as president, including the then South Africa‘s president, Mr. Kgalema Motlanthe.

Ghana is being rewarded for good governance, good economic management, and the rule of law, with a visit by President Barack Obama and Michelle in July.

The land of Kwame Nkrumah and Pan-Africanism has been shining lately.

The country, which had a smooth election and transition earlier this year with John Atta Mills stepping into office was selected over larger and more powerful African countries such as Nigeria and South Africa for the honor.

Nigeria and South Africa are weighed down with anvils.

Although South Africa qualifies as Africa's most powerful democracy, the newly elected president there, Jacob Zuma, is a man of unenviable morals and lacks integrity, which is important for a nation's president. His financial advisor and friend was convicted on bribery charges and served prison time.

He had reportedly paid the bribe to Zuma while he was vice president to steer arms contracts to favored suppliers. Yet, Zuma, the alleged recipient of the bribe, was never tried.

Zuma faced investigation for years and former president Thabo Mbeki dropped him as vice president. But Zuma had strong grassroots support. He defeated Mbeki for the ANC party leadership and eventually Mbeki was forced to step down, paving the way for Zuma's rise in the recent elections.

South African authorities had earlier dropped the investigation when it became clear that nothing could stop Zuma from becoming president.

He had also been involved in an earlier scandal when he was acquitted of rape. He claimed the sex, with a family friend, had been consensual.

The woman was HIV positive: Zuma claimed he minimized his own risk by taking a warm shower after intercourse. He became the butt of South African jokes and was widely ridiculed.

There was no chance South Africa, even with the legacy of the great Nelson Mandela, could be the first African country visited by President Obama, due to the stench from Zuma’s post-apartheid political career.

(Although Obama's first continental visit is to Egypt, the Cairo government considers itself more Middle Eastern than African).

Nigeria also was eliminated because of the rigged elections that ushered Umaru Yar'Ardua into office. The country also has terrible PR as a result of the ongoing conflict in the oil rich Delta region--the millions of dollars spent on "rebranding" will never be a substitute for good leadership.

All in all, Ghana, the first country to win independence from Britain in Africa, the mother of Pan-Africanism, and birth home of Nkrumah, was an excellent choice.
www.blackstarnews.com

naijamini:

If this report were true this would be a major miscalculation on the part of President Obama.

Make no mistake, like almost everyone else I think President Obama's achievement as America's first black president is a watershed. In fact I have often argued that a minority President is impossible almost anywhere else in the world. That he achieved this is a testimony to his unique attributes and the basic goodness of the American system.

However, it seems that Africa, unfortunately, is one of President Obama's weaknesses. A visit to Ghana and not to Nigeria does the continent no good at all. The question is what has Ghana done for Africa lately?

Corrupt as it may be it is Nigeria's footprint that you see far and wide on the continent putting out fires, fires that were most times set by America and its western counterparts - think Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Congo and during the apartheid era - South Africa. Nigeria was even crucial in ensuring that Ghana's recent elections -now being hailed as the best thing since sliced bread- did not deteriorate into chaos.

If this report were true, and I don't want to believe it is, Obama's approach to Nigeria is similar to that by many of the above nations who WE save from themselves time and time again, but tend to reward us with the most callous assessments. Not that I blame them necessarily - if a head of state is blowing (and stealing most of it) $12 billion to stop a war in another country while the same kind of war (Niger Delta) is brewing in his backyard, he deserves no respect. If a head of state is building a refinery in Ivory Coast while his brethen's refineries are in disrepair, he deserves no respect. If the privileged few decide to steal $300 billion from millions of people who leave in penury, that nation will be despised all over the world.

Despite the above, Obama's avoidance of Nigeria is still untenable, because there are people down there who are struggling against the Nigerian oligarchy and could use a boost to their efforts. Yaradu'a may be turning out to be less prepared than we thought, his election was definitely flawed, and he has certainly tarnished is Mr. Clean image by surrounding himself with corrupt people, and firing the person who brought the most intense and successful fight against corruption in Nigeria's history. Yet, a visit to Nigeria by President Obama carrying along one of those hard knocking speeches - perhaps adequately translated and broadcasted widely in Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo- would have done a world of good to encourage those keeping up hope in Nigeria and emphasize the need for Yaradu'a to move quickly to solidify democracy in word and deed. It would have also signaled that America's is watching and encouraged true democratic groups, who currently cower, to raise their voice and take Nigeria's destiny in their hands.

I simply don't see how President Obama is going to conduct his African policy without Nigeria. Ordinarily, the U.S. would have opted for South Africa, but that country is looking more and more like Nigeria these days. He is willing to talk to those that most vex U.S. interests around the world and is sharing banter with Hugo Chavez and other corrupt/authoritative leaders in the Middle East and elsewhere. Who elected China's President and government to which America needs to defer in many important areas today? (N.B. I do not supporting non-democratic rule, in fact I despise them.) I just don't see the need for Obama to avoid Nigeria, as long as he makes sure to express the fact that America is not satisfied with Yaradu'a's performance so far.

'Debo

Gbawe:

I think those who argue in favour of an ulterior motive of the USA over her President's visit to Ghana , rather than Nigeria, do Obama a disservice. Pertinent to factor in also is an intrinsic need of Nigerians to always defend Nigeria even when the actual truth is inescapable. No one can deny that the USA is self -serving - and cunningly so. Obama , even as I am not a complete fan , is an emotional man who has already made it obvious that , within the constraint of putting the interest of the USA above everything else , he will attempt to do the right thing.

He has spoken against corrupt African leaders from day one. As a direct descendant of an African it is not surprising he is passionate about the continent and prepared to go beyond the lip service and hypocritical posturing previous American Presidents have deployed in dealing with vile leaders regressing Africa.

Obama appears prepared to show , with his actions and nuances , that he will not tacitly support or diplomatically endorse overtly corrupt and despotic leaders like Yar Adua.

As the leader of the largest black nation , with that positions attendant importance for the progress or retrogression of Africa and the black race, it is clear from 'events' , for those who want to view things dispassionately, that Yar Adua has been singled out by Obama for subtle humiliation much like how most of us will fail to appear with the village LovePeddler in public !!!

Yar Adua solicited a meeting with Obama. The Nigerian President was curtly rebuffed. Still, skilled Nigerian Spin doctors spun away.

Obama is visiting Ghana rather than Nigeria. We are seeing the various spins ongoing from AFRICOM to Ghanaian docility and 'malleability'.

Well can anyone deny that Obama is , to say the least , 'unimpressed' with Yar Adua from the oft- missed snub he dished out to the President of "the Giant of Africa" at the inception of his presidency as quoted below :

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200905193435557

Eziachi:

What has Ghana done lately for Africa you asked? You should know the answer but decided maybe to blind your eyes and closes your ears as to what they have done lately. Lately Ghana have shown the world that it's possible to have true and real democracy inside Africa, where an opposition party can actually win, where an election umpire is truelly independent, where a sitting president doesn't try to change the law in order to continue.
Ghana has shown us that we can successfully ran away from the bad images and memories of the past and forge ahead successfully without making excuses or posponing it progress just because it took many countries centuries to get it right therefore syconphancy is allowed.

Ghana has shown the third world that you can be successful wiithout crude oil and if oil is found, you don't abandone every other sources of revenue and rush into it head on.  Those who can't see a fresh and a very popular U.S president has chosen Ghana instead of a self proclaimed giant of African to visit first are either myopic or has lost their head. In the Southern himisphere of Africa, it's south Africa, in the north it's Egypt, despite their dictatorial regime, but important as a bridge between the Arabs and Israel and in the West coast of Africa, it was meant to be Nigeria but what has Obama done? He went to Ghana, unofficially telling Nigeria that they should get their act together. That being big is not enough.

The U.S has an embassy in Nigeria and their missions are not blind to what PDP/Army in Agbada govt in Nigeria are doing, camouflaging junta rule as democracy,stealing the collective wealth of their people, killing their own people in Odi, Biafraland and recently in the Delta. They are not blind to what happened in Ekiti just recently and they duly fed their govt about the carrying on in Nigeria.

naijamini:

@Eziachi

I would hope there is no need to question my intentions a.k.a. "decided maybe to blind your eyes and closes your ears as to what they have done lately" or call others intelligence into question a.k.a "either myopic or has lost their head." Still, this is mild compared with some of the things I have read on this forum.

Now to the actual reply. Your reasons are understandable, but you missed the fact that I am thinking not in terms of Obama wanting to be in "good" company necessarily, but conducting African policy. If you read my other post you will realize that I do think Ghana deserves commendation, but all this talk about Ghana being way ahead of Nigeria economically doesn't cut it. Ghana is in the same boat as much of Africa, and Nigeria was instrumental in resolving some of their recent logjams.

My point which focuses on Obama's Sub-Saharan African policy is more relevant because his stated goals on the trip was to deal with bilateral and REGIONAL issues. That regional part is what starts me laughing, because for a country with a population of almost 30 million Ghana is incredibly self-centered.

Let me throw out another angle on the issue of this visit, which is that the Sub-Saharan African lobby group in the U.S. has changed. During the Bush years Obasanjo rode high with the White House thanks to his connections with the President's father and the Andrew Young group. With the movement by African-Americans to visit, build and even take residence in Ghana over the last decade or so, coupled with the deservedly more mature approach to their recent elections, and Nigeria's sham election you could see how easy it is for Obama to decide on a visit to Ghana. Still to conduct successful West African policy you cannot exclude Nigeria. Hillary Clinton already moved to assuage the implication of this visit, showing that even the administration recognizes the damage that could be caused if this was portrayed as "teaching Nigeria a lesson".

I hope Ghanaians do not rely too much on outside help and make sure to develop from the inside out - although every country needs some outside help. However, this happened before, in a place called Liberia. There was a time not in the too distant past when inside and outside Africa Liberia was the toast of visitors and businessmen alike in sub-Saharan Africa. We all know the rest of the story. This is the reason why, when grappling with solving the Liberian debacle and not getting much help from the Americans, President Obasanjo retorted that we all know who were behind the carnage in the first place.

Eziachi:

I can too understand where you are coming from and it's called blind patrotism. If you can't see that Ghana in term of economy growth both in macro and micro economy term is now far ahead of Nigeria, what else is there to debate with you in that regards? If not tell us why corporate companies like Dunlop, Mechiline,PZ that had been in Nigeria for donkey years has closed shop and relocated to Ghana?
Why Nigerian own indiginoeus companies like OVATION magazine has left Nigeria to relocate to Ghana?
Why so Many Igbo businessmen are secretly and gradually reducing their investment in the northern Nigeria and moving them to Ghana?
Soon it will be Sierra Leon and Liberia too. mark my word! And Nigeria govt are busy shelling their own citizens in the Delta.

Eziachi:

I can too understand where you are coming from and it's called blind patrotism. If you can't see that Ghana in term of economy growth both in macro and micro economy term is now far ahead of Nigeria, what else is there to debate with you in that regards? If not tell us why corporate companies like Dunlop, Mechiline,PZ that had been in Nigeria for donkey years has closed shop and relocated to Ghana?
Why Nigerian own indiginoeus companies like OVATION magazine has left Nigeria to relocate to Ghana?
Why so Many Igbo businessmen are secretly and gradually reducing their investment in the northern Nigeria and moving them to Ghana?
Soon it will be Sierra Leon and Liberia too. mark my word! And Nigeria govt are busy shelling their own citizens in the Delta.