STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- He’s especially everything Nigeria’s own leaders are not: smart, fashionable, debonair, funny- everything you’ll want in a cool American uncle.
By the time today is over, Barack Hussein Obama would have become a footnote in history as America’s 44th president. His legacy would be debated for many years to come in his country, but no one would debate his suaveness, his pizzazz, his poise, his grace and everything that made him the coolest president that the world has ever seen.
At age 47, he took on the mantle of leadership in post-911 America. Now his countrymen will decide in the years to come if his tenure was successful or not (even though this writer thinks it was), he was undeniably a figure that every individual who wants to be cool should aim to be like.
His eight-year presidency that saw him butt heads with the opposition Republican party through out his term did not deter him from being a decent individual who never indulged in mudslinging and the theatrics of being a politician that is all too common in this part of the world.
While some of us are angry that he did not deem it fit to visit Nigeria between 2009 and 2017 that he was president (hell, he even came next door to Ghana and didn’t stop over here!), we automatically forgive him being everything our own leaders are not: smart, fashionable, debonair, funny- everything you’ll want in a cool American uncle.
This generation came of age at the time of social media and Obama could be said to be first social media president in the world. His complete appreciation for things that defined a generation placed him in a class all by himself: as several countries banned the use of social media networks (even the Nigerian Senate proposed a bill to ‘regulate’ the use of social media), Barack Obama embodied it, using all the popular platforms- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube- to not only drive his ideas of running a country but also entertained us all while at it.
His love for sports, entertainment, television, memes and all that this generation finds interesting made him a pop culture icon.
Together with his wife, Michelle who is widely regarded as the most iconic female figure of a lifetime, they painted a figure of a power couple. Little wonder every husband and wife wanted to be like them; every boyfriend and girlfriend aimed to be like them.
Barack Obama, in spite of what his detractors say about him (that he was not born in America, he was a terrorist-lover, he was a weak president), the facts would say differently. History would record him as a cool dude, a likeable character, a brilliant and humorous speaker- and most importantly, an inspiring world leader whose kind is not likely to be seen for another generation.
Goodbye Barack Obama! Thanks for being the coolest president we have ever ever seen.
