BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA: BETWEEN THE

AUDACITY OF
HOPE AND THE LIMITS
OF POWER(S)
IKHIANOSIME, Frankl
I am a prisoner of my own biography: I cant but view the American experience
through the lens of a black man of mixed heritage, forever mindful of how
generations of people who looked like me were subjugated and stigmatized, and
the subtle and not so subtle ways that race and class continue to shape our lives.
-Barack Obama (The Audacity of Hope)
November 4th has come to be recognized as a historical day and that week a historical week. It is not so much
that there is any apriori extra significance associated with the election of the 44th President of America but so
much so for the winner of that election; his pursuit, his virtues, his idiosyncrasies, his philosophy and more
particularly his history. He is the man who trounced Senator McCain, the Presidential flag bearer of the
Republican Party. He is no other person like you know than Congress Man, Barack Hussein Obama. He is a
man of history. Obama is replete with making histories and glorious ones at that and one person we can
indubitably say has allowed history to shape him. He has made history and history has made him. He is the
man of the moment and no less than an institution to be studied. More strikingly however, which is our
contention in this work, is to respell those salient features which have made him the choice of a many: young,
and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight,
disabled and not disabled and many more.
Baracks political philosophy wove with his history. He is the most unlikely man to occupy the Oval Office. He
is a man with a mixed blood, a man with a black father and an American mother, and who grew steadily in
struggle during those years that are mans most influential years; his adolescence and early adulthood. He grew
up to wither the storms of life at a time when any one would ordinarily be discouraged with the indicative
factors. When Baracks father died, it was a turning point in his history and returned back to Africa to honour
the remains. This was the time he stiffened his hope in life. He saw life with a lens that had no pessimistic
contacts. When he moved to Chicago, he was determined to start life anew. He embraced a low-paying job,
which saw him motivating poor people to take part in the political process that traditionally excluded them.
Odds were against him but he commuted oddities to steppers. He had a penchant for the poor and the lowly. It
was this same poor people with which he mobilized what is called the Obama machine that bulldozed America
with a new wave. These built the foundation of his hope.
His philosophy was another strong wave to be reckoned with alongside his history. Obama recognized the fact
of his uncanny history in the light of the bulwarks of American traditional politics. It was hitherto, a strong and
sit-tight racial prejudice with which presidents are nominated and elected. He saw this abysmal situation of this
unforesightful situation; a situation helmed in neo-racism, economic acerbity, political lethargy, and the like. In
America, with the fact that blacks participated in the institutions of the democratic state, sacrificing their blood
and sweat for the same institutions, it was sacrilegious to rule a white nation. Obama saw that although the
nation is seemingly great, they are on their knees. They who came to colonize the black man now need
decolonization from what has in fact kept them hostage in the most of their history from a black man.
Repeatedly, Obama reminded Americans what they need- Change. This he said McCain does not recognize. He,
(Obama) has a dream, a dream he has nursed consistently with his history and philosophy. In his, Audacity of
Hope, he reminds Americans that they need an ideal politics, if they need to be an ideal state. He said

consistently his convictions with his eyes and mind. He rebuffed: I reject a politics that is based solely on
racial identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or victimhood generally, I think much if what ails the inner
city involves a breakdown in culture that will not be cured by money alone, and that our values and spiritual life
matter at least as much as our GDP. And if we dont change course, we may be the first generation in a very
long time that leaves behind a weaker and more fractured America than the one we inherited." This typifies his
hope and what we cherish about him.
Obama is an icon of hope not only for America but also for the world. We celebrate this institution for the
legacy he has to bequeath. We celebrate this icon because he represents the fall of racism. We celebrate him
because he will help to restructure the hope that black is damned. We celebrate him because he represents the
exaltation of virtue and hard work. We celebrate him because this is the upturn of history, when a black man
will not only dine in the White house but also stay there and there are no hues and cries of a presidential home
been violated. We celebrate him because once again we behold the face of the true picture of democracy where
it is not just a government of the people but of the common people as well. This is the audacity of hope which
he summons.
We who are not Americans seem to celebrate this icon more than they who have him; like a case of mourning
more than the bereaved. We do this because, like Martin Luther said, we are tied in a single garment of
mutuality and whatever affects one affects all and never again can we afford to live with the narrow provincial
outside agitator idea. Obama teaches us how a campaign can be mobilized and money raised from the local
people and not the government. This is the victory of the local people and not the elite. Obama has great lessons
for the youth. He speaks with actions louder than his voice that truly youths are the future leaders of tomorrow
and they have begun turning the world over. Has it ever occurred to you that McCain is old enough to father
Obama and here, by the latters win, he says, never again to political gerontocracy but the policies should
determine our pace and not the institution of class.
I personally celebrate Obama because he does not only radiate hope but embodies it. He is one person whose
identity is not obscure who truly will be a world leader and an exemplar. This lesson is more for Nigerian
politics to take cue from. He had no political godfather; he had moneybags to throw around and played a
commonsensical politics. What is more? Nigerias political history must shape and liberate herself.
However, in the face of the audacity of hope he beams, there is a somewhat apprehension which seem to cloud a
many. That simply is, what if Obama fails the African State? We must get it right that Obama is not an American
President for African countries. No! Americas abysmal politics to the world even if do not change immediately,
has been demystified and can now auto-critique conventional politics. We are aware now of the gross
irregularity the world has been opiated to believe and move with. Obama may also be constraint to live up to the
white-elephant expectations of many. Obama is not a wonder-worker but we shall certainly see the world turned
around. I here recognize the efforts of political left-wingers who not only want things not to work but are happy
at their fall. I recognize too, the brooding frenzy of religious fanatics who would want to ride to stardom on the
ladder of criminality by being assassins. I recognize too, the contributions detractors who would want to see
him as an anti-Christ who has got the wit to turn our ears to himself but never to the truth. I recognize too the
machinations of depreciators who would repeatedly want to tie him to either Al-Queda or any of the terrorists
factions to further discredit him. I here wonder whether his people would give him the support he was earlier
given. All these represent the limits of Powers: the limitations of the frailties of our humanity, Obamas
humanity and of his office as well as other vain-glorious powers who never want truth and good to be exalted.
This is the challenge of the Obama machine and administration.
I wish to cap this work with the words of Martin Luther in his, Letter from Birmingham Jail, whose dream
Obama has come to be a historical fulfillment. It becomes expedient to capture the diction of that dream: If I
have said anything in this letter that is an overstatement of the truth and is indicative of an unreasonable
impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything in this letter that is an understatement of the truth

and is indicative of my having a patience that makes me patient with anything less than brotherhood, I beg God
to forgive me.