By Jamiu Yisa
A book on American President, Barak Obama, titled Obama: First African American President, was launched at the Lagos Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Ikeja recently.
The book, written by Mr. Shehu Bankole Hameed, chronicles the life of Obama till date, as the first black president to rule the United States.
Speaking at the launch, which had in attendance, the Chairman of First Bank Plc., Oba Otudeko, former Lagos State Commissioner for Information, Dele Alake among other notable dignitaries, the author said the motivation to write the book was multi-faceted.
The ex-banker said the structure of the book was to capture in brief terms the riddles/struggles that surrounded the emergence of a black candidate at the last US general elections in November, 2008.
“On the one hand, I sought to bring to light my astonishment at a system, which once regarded blacks as less than human, to produce a black man as the leader of the world, in slightly over a century, when that declaration was made by one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the land.
“The irony was that a black man was to serve as one of judges at the same Supreme Court by the year 2009,” he said.
Hameed also wrote of Obama’s improved electricity generation and distribution, as well as his advocated alternative energy sources for his country to reduce and eventually eliminate reliance on foreign oil, while querying where Nigeria stands today, nearly half a century after the initial joy of Kanji Dam.
“More power generators are sold daily in the Untied States than are sold in Nigeria, yet, efficiency in power generation has not put any smart business out of contention.
“Nigeria needs a rebirth, we cannot do the same things, the same ways over and over again and expect different results. This country has witnessed many uphill scandals both political and economic, yet the very old tonic of either the so called rotational presidency or winning by brigand has always been the classic choice of our leaders,” he lamented.
He said that the Nigerians needs to eliminate the greed associated with seeking elective offices, and hold ourselves more accountable, adding that the country needs the concept of “stake-holdership” right from the local government level through to the states and eventually the Federal Government.
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