Obama Shows His Love But African Leaders Must Deliver Now

He is the first black man president of the United States. Not once but twice and he won both in resounding victories. He is an African, as his father is from the African country of Kenya. Thus, he is a proud African and understandably loves Africa and is committed to it.

By virtue of his African roots, Africa in particular expected so much so soon from Obama as he first assumed the White House seat in 2009. But he is, first and foremost, the president of America, not Africa, and so you would not expect to see him direct much of his energy toward Africa, although he gave initial sign and indication he would try to attend more to Africa and its needs than any other United States president.

But better late than never, he has delivered and given Africa the best of attention to the level the continent even didn't expect. He has demonstrated his great love for Africa, his father and paternal grand parents' land, with the first ever U.S.-African summit, which saw the biggest African gathering ever seen at the White House, the home of the U.S. presidency.

It is clear that Barack Obama and for that matter the United States of America want Africa, as a continent, to grow in leaps and bounds in strong economic term and to appreciable standard, as it has lagged too far behind for far too long. But it all, indeed, depends on the African leaders who rule the respective countries on the continent.

True, Africa's economic might in world annals is so weak that it needs something done about it. For instance, U.S exports, with 2013 in focus, to Brazil, just one country, was equal to what the U.S. exported to the whole of Africa in the same year. This revelation, which came to light at the U.S.-Africa leaders summit in Washington, DC, in the first week of August, is so sad and unfortunate as far as Africa is concerned.

So it had to take Obama and the United States to act for Africa. Thus, a mouth-watering gathering of African leaders and business people had to be convened at the behest of the President of the U.S. in Washington. So in the end was something momentous, gargantuan and comprehensive – the first U.S-Africa leaders summit - after eight solid months of behind-the-scene planning, discussion and preparation.

In fact, nothing, like it had ever been on earth before. Never had any U.S. President hosted such a large number of African leaders, of presidents and in some few cases prime ministers, at the same time. And never had a U.S. President dedicated such an enormous amount of time, energy, resources and finance for the continent.

What Obama want to see achieved with this historic summit is a different Africa in the very near future, an Africa that can stand on its own in economic terms, a continent that can stand up to and solve its numerous problems, an Africa that would see its people become more successful in all spheres of life, a continent that can provide, at least, basic needs for its people, etc. That is prosperity Obama is seeking for Africa.

Thus, at the a dinner hosted for the African leaders at the White House as part of the three-day summit, Obama predicted and proposed the "New Africa" that he and indeed all Africans would like to see, sooner or later. "And so I propose a toast to the New Africa - the Africa that is rising and so full of promise - and to our shared task to keep on working for the peace and prosperity and justice that all our people seek and that all our people so richly deserve," he said, whilst proposing a toast at the dinner.

With all the initiatives and discussions made at the summit on important issues such as trade and investment, doing business in Africa, food security, peace and security, good governance, energy and electricity, and so on, on top of the $33billion in total of investments in Africa, lots and lots of progress were made on behalf of the African continent.

Even by executive power, Obama went to the extent to set in motion mechanisms to establish the President's Advisory Council on doing business in Africa, for the sake of the continent. And also indicated to sustain the summit, even when he is gone as President by encouraging his successor to continue it.

With all these, I don't know what Africa needs again to push forward for a better continent. But all these great ideas, commendable initiatives and resources that Obama and the United States have put at the disposal of Africa, from the summit, will be in vain if our African leaders do not take full advantage of them and do what they have or must do to let them work for the African people. It is so simple and short.

African leaders, for far too long, have failed Africans, not doing what they must do and all have suffered as a result. This must stop if the continent is to progress well into the future, especially now with all the great benefits that came out of the summit for the continent.

That is why Obama and John Kerry - the U.S. Secretary of state - reminded all and emphasised on different platforms at the summit the importance of the African leaders being responsible and taking action to let all the ideas work and work well for the benefit of Africa, its people and all.

"So, in short, we are here not just to talk. We are here to take action - concrete steps to build on Africa's progress and forge the partnerships of equals that we seek; tangible steps to deliver more prosperity, more security, and more justice to our citizens", Obama said at the summit. He added: "We agreed that Africa's growth depends, first and foremost, on continued reforms in Africa, by Africans. The leaders here pledged to step up efforts to pursue reforms that attract investment, reduce barriers that stifle trade - especially between African countries - and to promote regional integration."

Mr. Kerry, who met lots of the African leaders in one-on-one situations on the margins of the summit, was more critical, straight to the candid point. "Like so many of the global issues that we deal with, what we have here is a question of political will. We have solutions, but none of these solutions will implement themselves. The will of governments, of companies, of civil society, of research institutes and international organizations – all of these are the key,” he said on the opening day of the summit.

"So this is clearly a moment of opportunity for all Africans. It's also, I say to you frankly, a moment of decision. Because it's the decisions that are made or the decisions that are deferred that will ultimately determine whether Africa mines the continent's greatest natural resource of all, and that is not platinum, it's not gold, it's not oil; it's the talent and capacity and aspirations of its people."

"So ladies and gentlemen, Africa can be the marketplace of the future. Africa has the resources.　Africa has the capacity. Africa has the know-how. The questions Africa faces are similar to those confronting countries all over the world: is there the political will, the sense of common purpose to address challenges? Are we all prepared together to make the hard choices that those challenges require?

Obama and particularly Kerry couldn't have said it any better. Africa and its people reaping full benefits from the historic first ever U.S-Africa leaders summit largely depends on the current leaders, almost 50 of them who were there in Washington to represent their various countries as presidents, prime ministers or senior government officials.

So again, it comes back to our leaders and the hope of not just Obama, Kerry and the U.S. but also all of Africa is that the various heads of states will make the summit work out well for particularly Africa and its people. And that all the progress made at the summit will not just be on paper and render it meaningless at the detriment of a mass people, just because of the greed and selfish nature of a select few who calls themselves presidents or leaders.