Does your hair feel like Obama's?

I stumbled across an old edition of EBONY magazine. The September 2009 issue to be exact. It had a lot of interesting articles and pictures but the one that caught my attention was a picture on page three of President Barack Obama bending over to 'accomodate the request of the son of a White House staff member who wanted to "see if the President's hair feels like mine". It made such a cute sight, all 6' 1½ (1.87 m)of Obama bending to have this little boy touch his hair just to know if it felt the same. I smiled, put the mag down for a while and went into thinking mode. I was motivated to do one thing - touch my president's hair. But there may be a problem with that. I would need to find him first. And even if I knew where to find my president, I have no illusions that I would be allowed to go anywhere near him or his hair even if I were a harmless four year old.

This was not a gesture of pretense for Obama. And I doubt that it had any political undertones. It was a show of simplicity, availability and humility. Words that have no business being in the same sentence with the names of most political office holders in Nigeria. I am amazed at the access that most citizens in the developed nations have to their elected officers including the President or Prime Minister as well as governors and other representatives. I believe that this kind of access makes it possible to know what the people who voted you into power need. It provides an avenue for strategic collaboration and problem solving between the elected and the electorate for the overall development of a community.

In Nigeria of course things are.....a little bit different, to put it mildly. We may have the power to vote but we are yet to have the power to access and assess those we voted into power. Maybe we will be able to touch the President's hair - someday.