At first, I thought it was a joke, this story that Barack Obama, barely nine months into his job as President of the United States, had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. A joke, and not one in very good taste at that.
Was it not this same Barack Obama who was pondering how best to continue the war (yes, the War) in Afghanistan - whether to add a further twenty or forty thousand odd troops to the surge in troops that he had ordered upon his assumption of office as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States? When it turned out to be true, I remained baffled.
Could it be that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, as star struck as the rest of the world, thought that short of actually being Michelle Obama, awarding him the Prize was the surest way of getting a date with Barack? After all, he would certainly have to turn up in Oslo to collect the prize, even if he is going to give all the money away? Wouldn't he? (Er, well ... no actually, he wouldn't have to.
Turn up, that is.) Back in the real world, the diffident modesty with which Obama responded to the award has tempered the reactions from both Obama friend and Obama foe. Obama friends have worried that that the award comes too soon, with too little accomplished in terms of actual peacemaking. They have rallied of course.
After all, the Peace Prize Committee made it clear that the award was "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between people".
And there is always that retreat from the missile defence shield. As for the Obama foes, there is a tinge of glee in their reactions. That is because they believe that since many Americans have a deep suspicion of other countries, especially other countries that look as if they are trying to tell America what to do or who to like, or anything that smells like a World Government, the accolade from the Nobel Peace Prize Committee should only hurt Obama in the eyes of his fellow-citizens. They hope, sha. The Prize will also provide material for the late night comedy shows. ‘Saint Obama', ‘The One' - quite a bit there for foes, neutrals and even friends to laugh over. But not here. We Nigerians, we Africans - indeed, all we people of colour - we are too nervous, too careful ... and too proud of the Obama presidency to laugh about what this Prize may mean.
However detached we may be from American politics, however much we remind ourselves that Obama is President of the United States of America, not of Nigeria, or of Africa, we don't want him to fail. Yes, we know that his successes and triumphs will be for the United States, not Africa, and certainly not Nigeria. We will have to work for our own successes. Obama's setbacks and failures however, we feel as if they are all our own. Yet we should rally our spirits, and calm our nervousness.
The Prize will not stop Obama from making the decisions that he needs to make, or taking the actions that he needs to take. But because the Prize is being awarded for "extraordinary efforts", it's worth thinking about the message that the Peace Prize Committee was trying to send. Not just that Obama is not Bush. Nor that it is given in furtherance of a conspiracy to emasculate the US with wimpish talk of World Peace. Rather, the message depends on a US that will be strong. Strong enough to strengthen the whole international framework for peace by working within that framework.
The weakness of the playground bully, the threat of exposing weakness that seems to dog the US when it tries to throw its military weight around, the Peace Prize Committee seems to be saying, is not the world needs from America; not what will bring the world to peace and prosperity. Yes, the Prize this year is not about a great deal of solid achievement. It is about the promise of things to come.
Those "extraordinary efforts" include some stirring speeches. We should be reminded of how, in March last year, Hillary Clinton had dismissed the opposition that an upstart Barack Obama presented to her own presidential ambitions. Expected Republican nominee John McCain, she said, would put forward his lifetime of experience. She would put forward her own lifetime of experience.
Senator Obama, she said, would put forward a speech he made in Chicago in 2002. Barack Obama answered then by dwelling on the power of words. As well he might. Look how far his words have taken him since then! So if the Nobel Peace Prize Committee is anticipating a similar miracle from Barack Obama's words on nuclear disarmament in Prague and the United Nations, or to the Islamic world in Cairo, should we despair at their naïveté? On the contrary. Rather, we should remind ourselves of what the Good Book says. In the beginning was the Word.
Reader Comments (6)
post a comment
* = Required information