Between the wranglings within the Republican "conservatives" and the party Leadership that have detracted self proclaimed keepers of the "conscience" of America like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levine from fully arming and shooting down the Obama candidacy; between the "Deity" powers of the "Oprah" in convincing white American women that Obama is the "anointed" redeemer instead of canvassing for a fellow female; between the most favorable positive aligning of the stars in Obama's favor in that Mitt Romney in spite of all his qualifications happens to belong to the wrong religion of Mormonism, that the Clinton's rather took their 20TH century reputation as the "First Black President" too seriously and into the 21ST century, that John Edwards proved to be too power hungry and lost respect of all right thinking people when he proclaimed shamelessly that his campaign was going on right after the diagnoses of his wife with a terminal cancer; that McCain can be classified as the Republican Parties fair Exchange to the Democratic party for Joe Lieberman; that G.W. Bush was too shy to tell Americans he was going to use the weight of the American military to avenge Saddam for "tried to kill my father" but rather that he was on a mission from god to eradicate "weapons of mass destruction" from the earth (except America), with the next sequel of "spreading Democracy" in the world; that Governor Huckabee as a good Christian believes in the power of miracles to give him the Republican mantle instead of reading all that hard stuff about the arithmetic improbability of his overcoming McCain's lead, etc, etc... one most important thing has stood out for me as the most resounding reason why Obama seems almost unstoppable...THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS.Obama has eschewed race and or ethnicity from his campaign and no matter how hard you look, you will not find a single bone of racism in him. At every turn that I have followed his campaign's speech or interviews, he has been unable to find the veins to use race even when he is cornered into it or when it would be expedient to play those tunes. It does take a lot for the descendants of the slave master to rise with one voice and strong conviction to say to the descendant of the slave..."You are worthy... please Rule over us" (Have you seen the crowd at Obama's rallies. I have now counted four fainting episodes where people are genuinely overwhelmed by the power of his message of "One Country, One world, One humanity" that they have to be resuscitated. To buttress my point, Blacks I believe are about only twenty percent of the voting population and could not have by any stretch of any imagination put him in the radder as he is now. In fact early in his campaign, many questioned..."Is he black enough". Obama is also certainly not smarter than the Reverend Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. The candidacy of these two never saw light of day because of hatred. Even though they never wore racism at their sleeves, it was obvious to observers that the hatred from their experiences from slavery and racism was consuming their consciousness, was also latent and they were not to be trusted.By analogy, now is the time for "Ndi Igbo" to decide what legacy to leave behind to our children... to either fan the embers of the civil war experience perpetually or to preach forgiveness, so that our own children will begin to heal. Hatred is a most powerful seed, it destroys whoever comes in contact with it, it steams from generation to the other, infecting younger minds. See the example of the Israelis and the Palestinians and by extension their Arab neighbors. Don't even get me wrong; I would never downplay the sufferings of the IGBOS (my own people) during the war, Jubril Aminu told me to go to the University of JAMB when I expressed anger that in spite of my Law admissions into the University of Maidugiri by JAMB, he told me he reserved my spot for northerners and almost derailed my educational career. (Aminu was then HOD for Unimaids Law Faculty). I losed an uncle during the civil war. The "Igbo" suffering still lingers today. Rather my attitude is that the truth about forgiveness is that it is self liberating. It frees you from the burden of allowing your enemy to continue to inflict the same harm and abuse over and over even in their absence and against their will or knowledge on you. You then willingly subject yourself to the same trauma or to the subconsciousness of your enemy and his ability to harm you each time you regurgitate the incidence or recount the history. By extension, the Igbo's are never going to be trusted with any position of authority or trust if we keep either directly or inadvertently reminding Northern Nigeria that at our earliest convenience we would secede again. We will also always remain victims in our own land. The place to start is in our hearts...to begin to accept what's possible and move our collective conscience and consciousness to higher limits. Let us not fall into the same trap that our American brothers fell into which is to have limited themselves with hatred, to have recounted at each opportunity to other Americans that "Ah! mo get you". When something is bad...it is. Racism and other vices are bad and reversing the perpetrator or the victim of any such vices will not make it better. It is hurtful nonetheless no matter who is at the short end of it. Let the discussion begin now so that our redemption will be quickened. I will remind us that between the ordinary Igbo man, the Yoruba and Hausa man, the aspirations are the same ..."How to provide adequately for their children and dependents" and the general pursuit of the good life. At stake at each turn is the ego and pride of our respective leaders. These aspirations too are the same for all people of all places and generations. The tone for the future is not to continue to wring our hands at the past, at the missed opportunities of yesterday or to continue to dwell on the aspirations of tomorrow. Today is the most important day of our lives. Today we can chose to begin to work towards the future we want for our children. Time to insist that our leaders work together to bridge the impedements to our common aspirations as one people, to pave the way for each of us to develop their full potentials irrespective of race, religion and or ethnic background. There is always enough to go round if humanity will eschew hatred, greed and other vices. This is a call for the Igbos to rise above the partisan politics of Nigeria and forge a better Country; for Nigeria to lead the rest of Africa to a formidable economic and stable democracy; for our world to know that no one chose what family, ethnicity or Country to be born. That in the end, we have become so interwoven by International commerce that we rise or fall together. Humanity is altogether diminished when there is hunger in any household, or there is a child whose full potentials are thwarted because of his family or ethnic origin. Only the Power of forgiveness and a sense of one humanity will transform Nigeria and the commity of nations into a truelly liveable world.Charles Abiahu
United Missions for Africa Inc.
Addendum:
When I posted above article during the primaries, so many reacted on two major fronts, that is to say that Barrack Obama would never make it past "Super Tuesday" and others that our divide and scar from the civil war with the Hausas are too deep to forgive...Exactly my point. But the Power of forgiveness has proven at each turn to disarm your enemy and empower you. Forgiveness is not a sign of weakness. It may prick our pride but it heals our Soul. I am resubmitting this article for serious debate of the truth and wisdom it offers us in all of life's levels of relationships...private and public."The Only true 'Scale' is that there is no 'Measure' for a kind Act"...Charles-Lawrence Abiahu.
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