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Celebrating America On Her Independence Anniversary By Dr. Wumi Akintide
As part of the events marking the creation of a new column for me in the West African News, a bi- weekly magazine published out of New Jersey for Africans abroad by a Nigerian journalist and patriot named Segun Odusanya, I have chosen to dedicate this maiden article for the column in celebrating the birthday of my home away from home, the one and only United States of America, the very leader of the Free World and the Land of the Brave. I am doing so out of conviction that this country has been very good to me and certainly to many of my compatriots who live and play by the rule while making the best of the opportunities opened to them in this country.
There are certainly a few inequities this country like most other countries in the world would still need to work upon and fine-tune here and there, but the 4th of July offers yet another chance to take a second look at this country, focus on the positives as a mark of gratitude to the system and people that make them possible to begin with. Many of us enjoy in this country so many of the basic infrastructures and quality of life and security that is not guaranteed to us back home in our own country.
You can say all you want about America, if you will be honest to God, this country has done more for us than we could ever ask for. You sleep peacefully in your own home, turn on the tap and you find water, take a good bath, drive your brand new car to any where at any hour of the day without any fear you might be stopped on the High Way or with some armed robbers throwing some heavy tires or wheels on your way to rob or snatch your car. You don't have armed robbers knocking your door at night or serving notice you should be ready for them and totally oblivious of your right to Police protection 24 hours a day 7 days a week and 365 days a year.
I like to begin this write-up by acknowledging how much I respect this great country despite all her imperfections. America still remains, to me, the closest any nation will ever get to perfection, with the possible exemption of the utopian Kingdom of God the Holy Scriptures talk about, but which none of us, dead or alive including the most religious among us, has ever been privileged to witness, first hand, and a chance to come back to tell the story. The only super Man and God in his own right, Jesus the Messiah Himself who could have been the only exception to the rule, did rise from his grave, for sure, if you can believe that, like I do, rose to the imaginary Kingdom of God, as we were told, and is expected to come back to this world in glory at a date and time nobody knows. The World has waited more than a thousand years and we are still waiting, hoping against hope, he is definitely coming until all of us kick the last bucket and let go.. So it is really difficult, in my opinion, to compare America with the so-called Kingdom of God which is not only utopian but is more often than not defined more by imagination than any reality you can feel and touch.
I have traveled far and wide in the six continents of this Universe including my own African continent, I am yet to find any other country as creative, resourceful, endowed and as richly blessed as America. The 4th of July, 1776, America's year of independence from the British has, forever gone into World History as a signpost for Liberty and Freedom all over the World and as a beacon of hope for all other countries in man-made bondage.God's own country has been so for more than 200 years ago, and she is even more so today as America leads the world in the race to space and cyber space and science and technological breakthrough..
If I ever gained anything from my 25 year service with the Federal Public Service of Nigeria, it was the rare opportunity I have had to travel all over Nigeria, the African continent and the world, first in my capacity as Secretary to the National Council on Education and then as Secretary to the Manpower Department of the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation in the Yakubu Gowon regime, and for much of the Murtala Mohammed and Obasanjo years as Heads of State, and a little bit of the Shehu Shagari era as President.
It was my job as Secretary, Staff Development and as Chairman of the National Secretarial Examination Board of Nigeria, to preside over the Federal Training Centers in Nigeria and to organize in-service training for senior Nigerian public servants, across the board, at overseas Institutions like the old Pitman's and Garnet Colleges in the UK and in a few top notch Universities and Ivy league citadels of learning like the Cambridge University Center for Management Development, The London Polytechnic, the great University of Scotland in Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester Universities and the famous Royal Institute of Public Administration, Mabledon Place. London, to just mention a few.
The job got me involved in negotiating Personnel Training Contracts and placement of Nigerian senior civil servants at the Arthur D Little Program of Harvard University, MIT, the State University of Connecticut, the University of Pittsburgh, Yale University and the Institute of Public Service at Hartford Connecticut among others. By far, my widest exposure to the world has come from my few years as Secretary to the Joint Economic Commission of Nigeria with other countries of the world and my three years as the Representative of Nigeria on the Board of Trustees of CAFRAD (the African Training and Research Center in Administration for Development) based in Tangiers, Morocco. That same job has carried me to the ends of the world and to much of the Pacific Region including Western and Eastern Europe. including Russia, to China, to Japan, the Philippines and Hong Kong and Singapore, and one time to India. The only two countries I was not privileged to visit are Australia and New Zealand
I took pains on my journeys to compare and contrast the various systems of Government I encountered in all those places including the only super power and the undisputed leader of the Free World. On hindsight, I have to confess that America tops the list in almost every yardstick of measurement, but most especially on Democratic Politics and Government and their impact on infra structural development across the board including technological supremacy, industrialization excellence and network of roads and highways.
I have been lucky and privileged to visit at least 40 out of the 50 American states spread over four time zones from coast to coast and from sea to shinning sea. I have to agree with the conclusion drawn by the great Winston Churchill when he eloquently argued that while Democracy, as practiced in the civilized world and more so in the God's own country in particular, may be far from perfect, there is nothing else better any where around the world to take its place.
I have to concur, and I want that presumption to set the stage for my hypothesis here, that knowing what we know today, we have to say that America remains not just the first among equals, but decidedly the leading country around the world for reasons I must now articulate from my own perspective as a student of American Politics and History for no less than 20 years.
The American Constitution clearly one of the seven wonders of the World from my own perspective, the political system, their leaders in Government and elsewhere in the public and private sectors of their economy and the followers are clearly the engine that drive the amazing experiment in human ingenuity. America is the melting pot that does not allow you to melt, but allows you to keep your identity and uniqueness as an individual in a symbiosis very rare to find elsewhere around the world.
America remains the land of superlatives where competition and breaking new frontiers are daily routines. It is a country where the political system has been tested to the utmost limit creating a safe haven for people running away from persecution and oppression, and giving them the wherewithal to begin again to reclaim their lives. I don't care whichever party has the White House or controls the majority in Congress and the Judiciary, American compassion and decency and the will to do good remain a constant.
Any Administration that falls far short of that fundamental expectation has a minimum of only four years to do so before he is thrown out of office because American voters are among the most sophisticated in the world, and more often than not, they get it right when all is said and done. They are able to do it with a very aggressive and articulate Press which has become the envy of the rest of the world.
The two major political parties in their system have more or less become the gold standard in democratic practice and governance around the world, and they have both produced great Presidents like Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Ike Eisenhower, the great FDR, Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy and William Jefferson Clinton to mention a few. By the same token, the Independents who are fast becoming the third Party has managed to put the two major parties on their toes by helping to profoundly. shape the debate
The same political machine has produced father and son presidency more than once in American history and may soon produce the first husband and wife combination as a former first lady with brain and beauty and the political acumen rare to find in all her rivals for the job, currently has her eyes fixed on the prize, and may well break the glass ceiling for women seeking the Presidency in the greatest country on Earth with some help from her Rock Star husband, a consummate politician who is so loved and respected around the world.
America recognize and appreciates excellence wherever it can be found. If you are a janitor or a cloakroom attendant and you show class, skill and talent in what you do, you are recognized for whom you are, because this country values excellence and she uses competition to promote excellence like no other country in the world as exemplified by the American Idols Competition which is basically a talent Hunt to catch them young and to bring out the best in Americans with sufficient potential and the courage to dare compete.
What is most beautiful and enduring in America is their determination to not rest on their laurels but to make their good better and their better best regardless of any challenges they face. America loves a winner and they never cut and run no matter what.
I appreciate such traits in American people and institutions and no time is more appropriate to say that than a date set apart to celebrate America's Independence. |