Arrested terrorist was identified Harjant Singh alias DC resident of Vijliwal village of Batala and was arrested from Jalandhar Cantonment Railway station.

Its 65-mile-an-hour winds are picking up speed after killing 137 people in Haiti and leaving thousands homeless.

I am curious. I know that Barack Obama’s father is a Luo, a tribe in Kenya which has been in the fore front of opposition in the seeming Kikuyu/Kalenjin political hegemony. I may be wrong there. I also know that Ralia Odinga – that name again – is a Luo. But more than tribe and tongue, I am curious as to how Kenyans feel – no, not “feel”, but what Kenyans expect from an Obama presidency besides the natural “high” of having one’s own in the world’s most powerful office.

I know how I felt about even the regular mentioning of Cardinal Arinze’s name in connection with the Papacy in the spring of 2005. I was in Kenya at the time, so my pride was even bigger; my head more swollen every time someone said: “Hey Nigerian, how do you feel about your countryman becoming the Pope.” I did not know what else to feel but pride since I am not catholic and do not even believe in the slightest that Pope Arinze would be any less conservative than many of his predecessors. Even if I did, I still am not catholic and thus may not think much of the Pope. But still, I did cherish the thought of the possibility. It was a gripping collective disappointment then that greeted the final denouement when we realized that the world was after all not ready for a Black Pope.

It is usually the same support that we give to our footballers when they play at the world stage. As soon as individual African teams crash out of such tournaments (take the Olympics, or the World Cup, for instance), their supporters at home switch support to the remaining African teams in the tournament and cheer them to victory. Nigeria won the first Olympic soccer gold followed by Cameroon four years later in that fashion. That however is sports. The gold adorns our sport monuments and corridors of power and the name of our country enters records. In politics however, things are not the same. They are not even what they seem. A Nigerian in Hollywood is still a Hollywood, not Nigerian, actor. (ask Chinwetel Ejiofor of The Inside Man, Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje of Lost and The Mummy Returns, and Sophie Okonedo of The Jackal and Hotel Rwanda; and Seal, Nas and Sade Adu, to mention a few.)

But perhaps I should ask my Nigerian countrymen the same question as well. Nigeria’s Stock Exchange director is in a big mess at the present, for daring to raise money for the Obama campaign from Nigeria. (Refer to story) In a country of poverty and unemployment, Mrs. Ndi Okereke Onyiuke managed to raise a whopping $840,000 (£420,000) in one dinner party that had guests paying up to $21,000 for a “corporate” table, and $2,754 for individuals. She says: “Our aim was to encourage those people to tell their family who have the right to vote in America to vote for Obama… through advertisements aimed at persuading Nigerians to tell their relatives in America to register to vote.”

The question again, then, is the same: More than the expected pride in the final connection with the West, what do we expect from President Obama of the United States? Kenyans first.

A little earlier today while browsing in a remote cybercafe in the city of Ibadan, West Africa’s largest, I noticed that the cafe’s attendant was constantly mentioning one name. A name that I was familiar with for about four weeks in 2005 while I was at Eldoret, Kenya: Ralia Odinga. He was then said to be one of the chief oppositions of the Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki. Odinga was so much always in the news that it was hard to forget his name, even in the news reports of the subsequent post-election events in Kenya, Odinga was it. Now here was a cybercafe in the hinterlands of Ibadan and the attendant couldn’t keep his mouth shut, sometimes in jest, another time quite seriously: Odinga for president. I then asked him.

I had been contained enough to limit my curiosity to occasional looking back from my computer screen to inquire from which angle the shout was from. This time, since no one else had been bold to ask perhaps because of the risk of being thought stupid, I made the first move. “Odinga?” I inquired aloud as I looked back at him.

“Yes, Raila Odinga.” He replied.
“What about him?” I asked again since I was fairly certain that he would not be so knowledgeable about the politics of another country.
“He is contesting for president.” He said, half in query, and half as a lecture that he seemed poised to begin.
“Yes, he was.” I replied, helping him out. “He is from Kenya, and I think he’s now in goverment after last year’s crises.”
“Oh yes, I know.” He interjects. I was a little confused afterwards, so he continued. “Someone had left the virus on these computers earlier this morning, and all I get when I try to access a flash disk is the message to “Vote for Odinga”, “It’s Odinga or Nothing” or something of sorts. I’m can’t wait to set my eyes on the customer who brought it here so I can make him remove the bloody nuisance.”

Now it finally became clear. I was not in cold weathered Kenya after all, but in summer hot Ibadan, although even here in my little haven, the politics of Kenya has again found me out. Luckily for me, tonight, I would not need an antivirus. My flash disk had not been infected. But it is time again to seek more knowledge about what really happened to the Odinga challenge. Google, someone?

****
PS: When I wrote this article a couple of days ago, I did not know much about the true details of the elections and causes of the violence. I have since updated my knowledge of the phenomenon that is Raila Amollo Odinga, son of a popular politician who through doggedness finally became Kenya’s current Prime Minister. Thanks to Wikipedia. However, as I type this text in that same cybercafe, the cafe assistant is still in a tough battle with the virus. I wish him luck.

“Cino, Cappiello!” Martinez, she commanded. I later learned this was a racial slur.