Africa's Reaction to the Election!

The United States has elected a new president! After months and months of endless campaigning, Barack Obama will be the new president. On Tuesday, afternoon I tried to find a radio station that was talking about the polls opening. The English stations weren’t talking about the election yet and the Hausa stations were definitely talking about it but all I could understand was blah blah blah Obama blah blah blah McCain. It was torture for a person like me who loves political commentary! Radio coverage on the BBC didn’t start until 11pm here. So, I went to bed and asked my friend back home to please text me as soon as there was a winner!

Now, over the past few weeks I had begun to recognize how interested the people of Nigeria were in the election, but nothing compared to the response on Wednesday. Everyone in Jalingo was “watching” to see who would win, not just the educated, well-off people but people who hadn’t finished high school and had never left Taraba state were aware and interested in the results. The people of Jalingo, Nigeria and all of Africa are ecstatic to have Obama, a person of African descent in the White House. It was the first time I fully understood what an effect the president of the United States of America has on the entire world.

Around 4am, I received a text saying that Obama had won! While I was getting ready for school Wednesday morning, I listened to numerous reports on the radio that gave snip-its of both McCain’s concession speech and Obama’s victory speech. I was so encouraged to hear Obama’s call for unity that people of all races, religions, economic backgrounds. I hope and pray that we, as a country, will be able to move forward in a positive direction amongst the many national and international challenges.

My friends and co-workers here were all congratulating me on a good election. Some of the comments I heard were, “It was such a civilized election!” “I can’t believe McCain simply conceded defeat!” “What a blessing to have such a free and fair election!” “I can’t believe a white country would elect a black man to be president!” After listening to these comments, I realized in a new way what a unique and special government and political system that we have in the United States. I guess it made up for feeling a little homesick that I was missing out on the election excitement and election parties back home! 