For me as an immigrant from Nigeria and as an accredited voter and political activist and consultant for the Democratic Party, I find it compelling to do this piece for all immigrants and naturalized immigrants including Europeans, Blacks and Hispanics who are now a force to reckon with in America because Democracy unlike Fascism, Dictatorship and Military Rule is a game of numbers based on one man one vote. In that sense Democracy trounces any other system of Government in my opinion because it levels the playing field for the rich and the poor, the old and the young and for men and women. You go into that polling booth on November 6 believing you have as much power as a Donald Trump, a Bill Gate and a Paul Getty to influence the outcome of this election by the choice you make as you pull that lever for either Obama or Romney.
For me as an immigrant from Nigeria and as an accredited voter and political activist and consultant for the Democratic Party, I find it compelling to do this piece for all immigrants and naturalized immigrants including Europeans, Blacks and Hispanics who are now a force to reckon with in America because Democracy unlike Fascism, Dictatorship and Military Rule is a game of numbers based on one man one vote. In that sense Democracy trounces any other system of Government in my opinion because it levels the playing field for the rich and the poor, the old and the young and for men and women. You go into that polling booth on November 6 believing you have as much power as a Donald Trump, a Bill Gate and a Paul Getty to influence the outcome of this election by the choice you make as you pull that lever for either Obama or Romney.
That kind of feeling is very empowering to me and that is why I want to share with all of the fans of this column from the Nigeriaworld and many who read a reprint of most if not all of my articles at Google or Sahara web sites. I can confidently say this because of the positive feedback I receive from all of you around the world. There are quite a few of you who occasionally disagree or criticize some of my views which is fine with me because I am in the kitchen because I can take the heat. I learn a lot from such critics like I do from those who think a whole world of me. I am closer today to three scores and ten meaning 70 which is stipulated in the Holy Scriptures. Criticisms don’t bother me now as much as I it used to when I was much younger. As a matter of fact, I get more Adrenalin from it and I am grateful to those of you who choose to criticize me even when you cross the line by questioning not just my judgment but my motive.
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Few of those criticisms sometimes come from some of my own grown-up children and I accept them in good faith because it is a wonderful feeling when you see all of your children doing a lot better than you and therefore can take you up on some of what you write and can sometimes offer a more superior argument. The worst thing that can happen to a parent is to block out their ears to wiser counsels regardless of where they come from. I do know that by now that many of you might have already made up your minds on who to vote for between Obama and Romney. We thank God we all live in a country where the voters don’t just vote for a candidate because of how filthy rich they are and what political parties they belong to. Most Americans vote for a candidate who care about them and offer them a chance to share out of the American dream of freedom and justice for all and life more abundant.
That is why Americans are always talking about “their way of life”. As an immigrant from Nigeria I live and share that way of life everyday as I switch on the light and there is light and as I turn on the water in the kitchen and the bath room and there is water hot or cold. I live that way of life when I could go to the Super Market every day to get what I need or when I could go to the flea market 3 days a week to get for half the price some of the items I could not afford to buy in the Supermarket. I live that way of life when I go into any Public Library or even the Internet looking for books to read online. I live that life when I program the GPS on my cell phone to give me directions to anywhere I need to go from coast to coast and from sea to shining sea in America. I live that way of life when my cell phone gets me linked up to all my loved ones around the globe who are now just a phone call away from me whether they live in the urban centers or far away in the village in Africa. I live that life when with Obamacare I could still keep all of my younger children till they turn 26. I live that way of life when Insurance companies can no longer refuse to insure me or any members of my family because of a pre-existing condition. I live that life when I can call 911 and be entitled to emergency treatment to save my life regardless of whether or not I have any Insurance or Medicaid or Medicare. I live that life when my old mother who has lived long enough with me in this country but who has never held a job can be entitled to similar treatment at any Emergency room everywhere in this country if she falls sick. I live that life when I don’t have to self -deport myself back to my home country because of any situation I may be up against in America.
Now put yourself in my shoes as an immigrant and imagine who out of Obama and Romney I am likely to vote for when I pull that lever in the polling booth on November 6. I do know that the Johnny-come-lately Mitt Romney who has now repudiated what he promised to do during the primary season would not come back hard on me and immigrants like me across the country if he is ever elected President. I would be the last person to ever trust him because I see an apostle and champion of self-deportation for immigrants across the board and so should you. Just ask yourself, what will make any immigrants want to self-deport unless they suddenly face an unbearable hardship in this country? Mitt Romney has said some of us will self-deport when he is President but he stopped short of telling us what would make all immigrants prefer to self-deport than stay put. I can tell you what Romney and Paul Ryan are going to do if their promises made to American voters in the mid-term elections in 2010 are anything to go by.
If they win on November 6, they will see their victory as an iron-clad mandate as they climb down hard on all immigrants in this country with the possible exception of Jews and white immigrants from Russia and many of their European allies across the board. Who is going to bear the brunt? It is going to be you and me. It is going to be immigrants from Cuba, Mexico. Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Caribbean, Latin America but more so for immigrants from all African countries but most especially from Nigeria where no less than 5 million or more immigrants come from.
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I was a participant at the Nigerian parade marking Nigeria’s 52nd anniversary of Independence between 30th to 44 street on Second Avenue in New York on October 6. No less than 2 million Nigerians or more live in the tri-state areas of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut alone. No less than 200,000 of us participated in the parade. I can tell you about the possible fate of those happy and proud Nigerians if the apostle of self-deportation wins on November 6. Many of you would have to pack your bags and leave and you know what that means for your extended family back home in Nigeria. The only way to stop Romney is vote him out on November 6 and encourage your loved ones in other states in America, but more so in the swing states of Ohio, Colorado, Florida and Virginia to do the same. Romney and Ryan coming to office is going to be a nightmare for all immigrants in America. Under no condition can we allow him to get there and we can stop him with our votes with effortless ease on November 6. Let us do it.
The real choice in this election two weeks from today is who out of Obama and Mitt Romney can immigrants trust to be on their side if the push comes to shove? Most immigrants with the exception of the former Governor of California Arnold Schwachneggar (pardon my poor spelling) and a few of them in Hollywood or Silicon Valley would never qualify to be among the top 1 or 2 percent of American multi-millionaires that Mitt Romney is hell-bent on protecting if he ever wins the presidency to our own peril. He has said it loud and clear at every stop in this campaign. The poor and the middle class in America world be insane to vote for Romney in this election because he and his running mate do not have our interest at heart at all. Romney says he is fighting for the yet unborn Americans just like he says he is fighting for a day old foetus because to him life begins at conception. A lot of those conceptions he is talking about today could end up in miscarriage as Romney goes ahead to cut the safety net programs like public assistance and subsidized living for the old and disabled, food stamps for the poor and Obamacare to guarantee free medical treatment to those whose lives completely depend on it.
The only thing that will make any illegal immigrants to want to suddenly self-deport is if they face a far worse discrimination and hopelessness that drove them to America to begin with? Come on folks. What is America going to become if the America of Romney’s dream ever see the light of day? America would cease to be the beacon of Hope or the shining city on the Hill that Ronald Reagan used to talk about. Only a foolish immigrants or poor voters would go for that kind of America. The America of my dream is one that shows by example that she understands that we are not born equal but deserve to be treated with fairness and justice, and given a chance to be the best we can be and not a country where the winner takes all or where trickle down rationalization becomes a weapon to forever enslave a cross section of society.
The gradualist approach by Barack Obama is exactly the right way to go. Barack Obama rather than starting another war would end it unlike Romney who wants to start another war out of deference to his conservative base because he wanted the Republican nomination so bad. Now he has crossed that Rubicon, the next thing he wants to do is move to the center, abandon his previous positions and lie his way to victory because he thinks you and I are not paying attention. He has now pretty much endorsed the Obama position because he realizes he could never win if he sticks to his original position of getting America to start another war in Iran and Syria because Netanyahu is his personal friend and he wants to run the security of the very leader of the free world based on his friendship with a transient Prime Minister who could be swept out of office like any time from now.
Natanyahu is far too radical and he definitely wants to push America to another war with Iran and push America into another isolation in the United Nations- an organization founded by an American President because he argues that the security of Israel should be far more important to America than her reputation and leverage as the Leader of the Free World. Barack on the other hand supports the State of Israel as much as Romney claims he does, but the Obama approach is to be preferred because he is still offering the Palestinians some hope by getting them to talk to Israel which was the position Jimmy Carter took to get the two warring factions to sign the Camp David Accord which has kept the peace in that volatile region with only few bumps on the road since 1976. Bill Clinton followed the same track and nearly got Prime Minister Mubarack of Israel to sign another milestone deal with Arafat shortly before his death. Mr. Arafat missed that opportunity in large part because he probably knew the end was near and he did not want to rock the boat in a way that could deny him a decent and befitting burial in his homeland. He had lived all his life fighting for the Palestinian State and he wanted to handover in relative peace and adulation of his own people.
The Romney agenda for resolving the Palestinian as remained a mirage to say the least. He could never be trusted by the Palestinians as a honest broker given his past positions and reckless statements, Romney was saying the same thing on Iran and Syria until this week because the Media had decided to call him out on it. They pointedly asked Romney if he was saying America should declare another war on Iran and Syria now. He had to say No because if he did not say that he would lose miserably on November 6 because Americans by overwhelming majority don’t want any more wars that would kill Americans and ruin the nation’s economy. By the same token Mr. Romney has now quickly changed his position on America not staying in Afghanistan beyond 2014 as stipulated by Obama whose position is more in line with the general consensus of Americans and the world at large.
American support for Israel has sometimes put America in an embarrassing position of having to defend the indefensible but America has to arguably do it because the state of Israel was created in large part by America way back in 1948 when she led his European Allies at the Treaty of Berlin to finally create a homeland for the Jews scattered all over the world. America will be cutting her nose to spite her face to do otherwise. How for equity sake can America continue to deny any of the countries in the Middle East a right to nuclear weapons when the state of Israel has the same weapon and can has often threatened her Arab neighbors in the same region?
There is no way in the world that Romney can win on November 6 if we discount the racist factor in this election. Romney knows and we know it when we hear Romney occasionally emphasize he was born in Michigan trying to pull a dirty one on Obama. It was a nice try by Romney like Al Sharpton would say but we got him. I think we can beat Romney again because the election of Obama in 2008 by the melting pot that America has become has now put racism in some retreat or back burner in America. Racism is still there but no longer as powerful as it used to be in the days of Governor Wallace. Although the pundits are projecting a dead even or very tight race 2 weeks to the election, I reject that projection as exaggerated but I welcome it all the same because that I believe that is what God is using to give some hope to some red necks so they are not pushed to the edge to start planning some clandestine evil or just think of hurting the President like I have hinted in all of my writings on this election.
I have said it before and I would say it again because I truly believe that God Almighty surely has a horse in this race and that horse is Barack Obama for sure. The result of the election may still be close as some in the Republican column are suggesting, but it is not going to be as close as the pundits are predicting for all the reasons I have offered in my previous articles and this one. They are prediction of a close race despite the current surge by Obama after the last two debates is good in the sense that it would galvanize both sides of the isle to not take anything for granted but to troop out in huge numbers on November 6 to do their civic duty. A huge turn-out always favor the Democrats. That is why The Republicans are taking panic step to suppress voter turn-out because they know they are sure to lose if voters turn out in huge number. Republicans are killing voting which is the opium of Democracy.
There is nothing left in Democracy as a system of Government if it is devoid of free and fair election. Little Ondo State in our own neck of the woods in Nigeria has just taught Americans a lesson in that. Governor Mimiko convincingly won that election because Ondo State trusted him more than they trusted Akeredolu or Mr. Oke who barely won in their own Local Governments by the narrowest of margin. But Akeredolu lost in his own ward like I predicted months before the election
If Romney wins on November 6 America would cease to be a role model to the rest of the world as the greatest champion of Democracy in the whole world. They would have nothing to teach the rest of the world and more so in third world countries like Ivory Coast, the Central African Republic and Nigeria where presidential candidates are not subjected to debating themselves to prove if they are ready for prime time. Obasanjo simply refused to debate Oluyemi Falae who would have chewed him up and spit him out in 1999. The guy went into hiding pretending he was going abroad. Mitt Romney telling the Leader of the Free World and the Commander –in-Chief of the most powerful Military in the world “I am speaking, you have got to let me finish” would have been considered a taboo in any part of the third world.
It is only in America where a candidate like Mitt Romney would carry out most of his sneak tactics against a sitting President who maintained his cool to avoid being blackmailed as an angry black man running against a petulant white hypocrite in all of the debates. The President went on to convincingly beat Romney in 2 out of 3 debates plus an outstanding performance By Joseph Biden against a novice Paul Ryan in the only Vice Presidential debate. How and why will Mitt Romney have a bounce in the polls from his performance in the first debate and the President won’t have any bounce at all or just one or two from beating Romney and his VP nominee in 3 out of 4 debates altogether? That is the more reason to suspect there is something terribly wrong and clandestine about the latest polling about who is leading right now. We are going to find out if those polls will hold up on November 6. I predict they would not. Mark my words.
Let all of us immigrant voters surprise them on November 6. Do what I am going to do. I am offering to drive free of charge to the polling booth and back all members of my family in New York and New Jersey who are old enough to vote. If we all do that, we shall all be carrying out the will of God who has so far guaranteed the failure of the Republican’s voters’ suppression strategies that have ended up in Court in many of the states controlled by Republican Governors. Remember this advice in the polling booth before you pull the lever for one of the two major candidates.
Romney is going to take away all your existing rights, benefits and impose many more hardships that would force you to self-deport. Obama is going to tighten up the noose but with a high sense of responsibility but will still keep many of those benefits in place for the poor, the old and the handicapped who would have no reason to live if they lose those safety-net benefits and support.
That is the big difference between Obama and Romney. Above all, America would seize to fight a dumb war that causes so much bloodshed to our military forces and so much pain in taxes to you and me. I am saying this as a father of 2 young men currently and proudly serving in the greatest Military on Earth. One is a Naval seal and other a Naval rating in the US Navy. I cannot be more proud of them as a father and I feel more patriotic in that sense than Mitt Romney who has 5 able-bodied young men but would not have one of them wear the uniform of an Organization he wants to lead as Commander-in-Chief. Vote Barack Obama on November 6 and you will be glad you did.
I rest my case.
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