He may have been a disappointment to people (myself included) who expected so much from him in the past almost 8 years, but the way Mr Barack Obama has handled the recent Ebola crisis in the U.S. has redeemed the little remaining faith I had in him.
I’m impressed by the way he did not succumb to the tremendous pressures, domestically and internationally, to ban flights to and from West Africa and the United States, an action that would have been discriminatory to West African countries. It is because of his singular refusal to ban the flights that many other countries, following his leader, did not activate flight bans, which would have had devastating consequences on West Africa.
Here is a leader with a very unselfish motive, a leader who refused to compromise on his ideals, who insists on doing what he believes to be right, regardless of the criticism he is receiving across the public and political spectrum, with people calling him mad, incompetent and every other insult under the sun.
He may not be what we had all hoped for 8 years ago, but Obama has proven with this one very unpopular act that he is not a politician but a leader in every sense of the word. A leader the world desperately needs in this age of conflict, chaos and strife. I acknowledge and commend his courage.
Ayshah Idris Bugaje,
Kano
