“THAT ONE” is THE GREATEST PRESIDENT

“THAT ONE” is THE GREATEST PRESIDENT

When Barack Obama took office, it was assessed the US faced the worst recession in eighty years, but he managed to fight back with swift decisions. We've seen deficits coming down, the American auto industry setting new records, unemployment reaching eight year low and bouncing back and businesses creating over a million new jobs.

The economic downturn Obama inherited from President Bush was daunting with the US facing one of the worst financial crises: high debt, growing deficit, huge unemployment, financial institutions on the brink of collapse
After a century of trying, Obama declared the health care in America is not a privilege for a few; it's a right for everybody. Obama’s contribution to healthcare reform, by passing the Affordable Care Act, has been a praiseworthy. He has worked tirelessly in bringing down the cost of prescription drugs and making hospital care more affordable to the lower middle class and minorities.

Obama put equality of opportunity policies in place to support students a path to college giving the low-income students free tuitions.
He also controlled Wall Street's worst gluttonies and protected consumers from further fraud. Through countless acts of quiet courage, maintaining everybody’s full rights, marriage equality is now a reality across the land.

President Obama also launched the My Brother’s Keeper initiatives to inspire and encourage community leaders to address persistent opportunity gaps facing boys and young men of colour and ensure that all young people can reach their full potential.

Obama enacted the landmark legislation abolishing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the US Armed Forces.

One of the significant contributions of Obama has been his inclusive policy. He always stood for the rights of blacks, Muslims and other minorities. Obama’s visit to a mosque in Baltimore can be considered a bold move; keeping in mind the recent bitterness against the Muslim community. In spite of being called a Muslim on repeated occasions, due to his middle name being Hussein and managed to appease the feelings of Muslims in an increasingly anti-Muslim environment.

He also fought and doubled the country’s clean energy production, and brought nearly world nations together around a climate agreement that could protect our children from a climate that's beyond saving.

Through diplomacy, Obama managed to communicate effectively and passionately with countries building nuclear weapons and as a result to his credit, Iran agreed to shut down its nuclear weapons program.

Obama can be considered to be a votary of peace. His inclination of ending an American alienation of Cuba and restoring diplomatic ties is a testament to this.

The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate was awarded to President Barack Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".

Obama also travelled around the world preaching a new world order. He visited European countries by making peaceful speeches in Brussels, Germany, England and other countries.

President Obama is also the first U.S. president to address the 54 members of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “Nobody should be president for life”, Obama tells Africans.   He also visited other African countries including his ancestral home Kenya by addressing the Kenyan youth with a captivating speech; equally, his inspiring speech in Ghana and Cape Town, South Africa was also astounding.

Obama clearly told African leaders on the future of Africans: “We must start from the simple premise that Africa’s future is up to Africans. I say this knowing full well the tragic past that has sometimes haunted this part of the world. I have the blood of Africa within me, and my family’s own story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story. …”

“Development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa’s potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans. …”

“Repression takes many forms, and too many nations are plagued by problems that condemn their people to poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers. … That is not democracy that is tyranny, and now is the time for it to end….”

“Across Africa, we have seen countless examples of people taking control of their destiny, and making change from the bottom up. …”

“Make no mistake: history is on the side of these brave Africans, and not with those who use coups or change constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions….”

With his family ties to Africa, the president has left a legacy of signature achievements such as power Africa with electrical connections to brighten up Africa.

He also launched the Young African Leaders Initiative –YALI, programs that mentors and funds projects for ambitious young Africans. Obama has also helped expand trade to the continent; he has visited Sub-Saharan Africa more than any other US presidents.

Now, Africa is watching so closely what this year’s candidates’ policies would be since either party mentioned nothing so far.

Obama also visited Eastern bloc countries such as Vietnam, South Korea, India, Indonesia and Japan, the US bombed city of Hiroshima, and gave moving speeches in all countries.

President Obama also visited Australia and addressed the Australian parliament.

Obama being the best organizer during his customary working years as a community development worker continues to assemble those abilities together to make every change he can believe in possible during his presidency.

A man who was referred to as “That One”, by Senator John McCain during their race to the Whitehouse, continued to practice what he wrote in his book, Audacity Of Hope, thereby making tremendous and conspicuous changes.  

Time and again, Americans and the world must appreciate his immense contributions to make our planet a peaceful and habitable place.

Amid all the promising changes, Obama said, “Through every victory and every setback, I've insisted that change is never easy, and never quick; that we wouldn't meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime. By so many measures, our country is stronger and more prosperous than it was when we started this work together. But there is more work to be done.”

One must keep in mind that it’s unfair to ask leaders of powerful nations to solve all global issues and then hold them accountable for not responding to any peaceful demonstrations by the country’s long-suffering people. Every trouble ridden countries, including my own, are blaming Obama for not taking swift action to fix their atrocious fate. We should learn from our past that time and again we must stop urging, begrudging, critiquing and name calling of any leaders for not responding to our calling. He has already told us that “Africa’s future is up to Africans”.

It’s easy to take someone for granted until we see the unimaginable person/candidate emerges to replace the existing ones. As the Ethiopian saying goes, በጅ የያዙት ወርቅ እንደመዳብ ይቆጠራል - “gold in hand is presumed as copper.” It’s time to appreciate all the golds we own in our possession. We have seen all the candidates with pompous and goofy personalities and delivered very little policies, not persuasively, with no perceptible substance.

One of these unlikely candidates of this game of the thrones is Donald Trump who is unfortunately contrasting against all the tsunamis of “change we can believe in” and sailing and assailing with his bunch of hoodwink moralities with the same old rhetoric of business as usual.

Today, it’s not enough to create change at the level of symptoms and structures. We need to work even more deeply to change the underlying paradigms of thought and to connect with our deeper sources of creativity and self.

The governing structures and models we currently find ourselves in are remnants from the old beliefs and outdated corporate era. These are still hanging over our heads in majority of our working lives and can’t understand the bigger picture that people are only interested in money and power.

As Obama’s tenure comes to a close, history will perceive him as one of the most balanced and inclusive presidents the US has ever had. He is leaving behind a legacy that will be difficult for his successors to emulate, let alone surpass.

He will be remembered and cherished for long time to come for his contributions to social changes and instilling inspiring and motivational slogans such as “Change We Can Believe In”, “Yes We Can” and “The Audacity of Hope” –thoughts on reclaiming the American dream –that encourage every walk of life to tap their full potential in their pursuit of peace, happiness and equal opportunity regardless of “who they are” and wherever they live.

I, for one, certainly, haven’t seen any sincere and charismatic leader in my life time on the planet or didn’t catch any leaders past and present with the statesmanship and compassionate leadership capacities as good as Barack Hussein Obama.

Thank you.

I wish you and family a healthy and joyful life.