Wherever veterans end their wars, historians take over. That is an English rendition of what I grew up to understand as drop of the “palm oil with which words are eaten” in Igbo proverbs. The 2008 U.S. presidential electoral war has been fought , won and lost but the last heard or written about the American president-elect Barrack Obama, and his winning points. Analysts have been quick at attributing Obama’s winning strategy to his issues –based campaigns. I will not totally disagree with them on this matter.

At the same time, I will not hesitate to add that Obama’s winning strategy is attributable to an array of factors, rather than just issues–based campaigns. In fact, his winning points are concentrated within his person, and that is why it is true to say that there is an Obama in all of us.

There is equally a McCain in all of us. Either of the parametric polars within us, deployed in circumstances, determines the direction of the swing. Here in Nigeria Prof Dora Akunyili has long emerged as a strong brand in the mode of Obama. Tony Elumelu ,MD of Zenith Bank, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Erastus Akingbola of Intercontinental Bank are some of the emerging Obama- like brands in Nigeria. Certain qualities distinguishe an Obama brand.

I am convinced beyond doubts that were it a battle of biceps and chest size, Barack Hussein Obama would not have beaten John McCain in the November 4, 2008, U.S presidential election because neither goes to his advantage.
Obama did not win because he was a black. His one tenure experience in U.S. senate does not make him either more patriotic or experienced than over three decades of John McCain foray in U.S. politics could have conferred. But if the scriptural claim, that the most high God rules in the affairs of men and gives it to whosoever he pleases… as recorded by prophet Daniel is to be acceptable in its purest interpretation, then, it is sound to posit that an aggregation of divinely ordained factors and innate personal qualities worked together to usher this audacious man to this audacious electoral victory.

Obama worked well at the background, enriching his emotional intelligence parameters. He vigorously deployed those innate qualities to earn himself a lead. To this effect Obama adopted a well articulated “arts of war”, employing zero – tolerance to perceived or real obstacles. Whenever and wherever he pleased, he invoked the scriptural injunction to cut off any biological part of your body that threatens your entrance into the “white house”, irrespective of its importance. He made sure other people’s moral burden, religious creed and ideological strong points never succeeded in encumbering his match to United States government house.

Fortified with this mindset, it was not considered a big deal to distance himself from a pastor who must have mouthed out more than the size of his tongue, uttering what Obama’s opponent considered to be anti- U.S. interests. Obama belonged to the elitist class but whenever he had opportunity of communicating his political convictions, he did it in level headed non-partisan prose, easily absorbable to the common man. He worked from the platform of sound grounding of winning formulae in American politics.

According to him “In today’s interconnected world, it is difficult to penetrate the consciousness of a busy and distracted electorate, as a result, winning in politics mainly comes down to a single matter of name recognition …..” and you can agree with me that Obama therefore went all the hog to imprint his name in has not been people’s hearts. To this effect, caps, bags, shirts and pants were branded with his name and circulated from Kenya in African continent to Kansas in United States of America, from Obama village in Japan to Alabama in United States of America and from Atlanta to Asia, wherever you turn and from which ever linguistic background, OBAMA brand was not only easy to read, write or spell , it was linguistically easy to sound, etymologically easy to locate and phonetically tongue-compliant. Compare Obama brand to McCain. Sound and spell them, and the difference is the result of the election, an audacious victory.

If anyone insinuated that Obama is not sociable, this man quickly stepped to the dancing floor, take a few calculated dancing steps, if only to show he could dance better than McCain and then fill the remaining blank spaces with words, “my wife can do better”. Obama brand is an articulate orator, at home with world history. He is a well-rounded brand. He read law only as a launch pad to his self–development into a multidisciplinary encyclopedia. When he speaks on international issues, a diplomat emerges in him.

On religious matters, a well rounded Christian scientist, On American vision, a Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the man who feared nothing but fear itself, is reincarnated. So like Roosevelt, who came on board American Governance as president during the 1930s economic depression, when the economic bubble bursted morals hit the lowest ebb and suicide by many became a literal option, fate is throwing up brand Obama at the world today . A world whose structural foundations are shaken by climatic changes, plagued by another financial meltdown, global food crisis, increasing security concerns, a world of overturned moral values.

Obama is here preaching “ a change we can believe in” implying that some changes ever made by some people in U.S history have proved unbelievable with time. Americans and indeed, the world at large welcome the 44th U.S president - elect to the saddle. His victory in that election is quite audacious. By this singular victory, he has been able to galvanize a global aura of political and diplomatic cosmos, positioning them to gravitate around him , possibly for the entire span of his administration. As dangerous as this scenario may look, it remains undeniable that Barrack Obama’s victory is an audacious one. His winning style quite elegant and his dreams straight from his ancestors. Let there be a performance of that which they have been promised.