Dear Mr. Obama,

et me congratulate you on your historic presidential election victory. This victory opens a new vista in the world and a new chapter in the history of the United States of America. I particularly like the way you pronounced the name of your country 'a-mer-i-ka' during your campaign tours; hardly ever referring to it as the United States while stressing the last syllable. I sense a strong love between you and your America, as you often personalize it. America has been very kind to you and it has honoured you with her highest office. The American people have entrusted you with their lives, their future and the hope your promised. They responded to your rallying cry and they saw your desire, unalloyed commitment and good intentions. Now they want you to translate all of these into reality.

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The American people expect no less from you than efforts, steps and actions that will bring about change and restoration; they want you to fulfil the promises of health care for the people (It baffles me that people in the United States lack easy and free access to health care despite being the leading nation in the world), job creation, restoration of the economy to its prime and glory before there was a George Bush, renewable energy and less dependence on foreign crude oil and foreign labour.

The American people will judge you using the high standards you set for yourself and even by far higher standards with which they have ever judged any president in the history of the United States. They will accept nothing less than outstanding performance from their first president of African-American heritage, the first minority president. You cannot afford to fail them and you will not have an opportunity to make mistakes and to falter, and to do-nothing. Hopefully, the era of do-nothing and reactive leadership has gone with George Bush, which is why the United States is in serious economic trouble today.

I know you are aware of how poorly and badly African and Caribbean nations are run and the level of abject poverty and corruption in those nations. It has been said that the black man is incapable of managing his own affairs and his own nations. Failure appears to be associated with black leadership and governance. Corruption, graft, greed, gluttony and glanderous living dominate the lives of black leaders, and today no single black nation is developed. African people and their Caribbean cousins are hardworking people who only suffer at the hands of greedy leaders who are essentially self-centred. I am sure you are familiar with the history of Kenya and the Kenyattas, Zaire and the dictatorship of Mobutu, the trio of Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha and Olusegun Obasanjo who had noting to show for huge crude oil sales revenue and gas exports, and the disasters in Congo, Uganda, Niger, Sudan and Rwanda. African leaders have run and are still running their nations to the ground, turning their people into refugees who depend on handouts and leftovers despite huge natural and human resources. Now you have been elected and offered a unique mandate to lead and bring about change, you are going to have to be putting in 200% of work output than any American president in history and perhaps 200% results also, if you do not want to be grouped in the same category as most African-American leaders.

Making it to the presidency is wonderful and exciting, but that is the beginning of a journey; making a difference and strong impact on the lives of the people is the ultimate. As president you must be true to yourself; brutally honest with yourself, dedicated to your cardinal points, focused on your agenda, and going the extra mile to improve the lives of Americans, enhance global peace and build bridges across the world for collective growth. You will be judged by higher standards, nay, the highest standards ever, the very same way African-American kids are expected to out-perform, to outshine and be neck and shoulder above their peers before they are noticed and recognized. You cannot be an average performer, but rather an outstanding leader whose impact must be felt positively by everyone, who must be clean and pure and well removed from scandal.

Your work has been well cut out for you and your challenges are steep - in fact, you drew everyone's attention to the steepness in your acceptance speech. I heard that you are a very hardworking person, but these new challenges require an even harder work culture and output from you. Those who voted for you - and millions of them were whites who believed in you - wants to reap the fruits of the hours on the voting queues, the loss of income for those hours on the queue and the hope that your promise of hope and a new order will translate into new jobs, reclaimed homes, access to an affordable and/or free health care, and an environmentally friendly energy policy cum program that will help create new jobs, new and renewable technology and cheaper energy resources. These are daunting challenges, but achievable nonetheless.

My opinion of America has changed. If they can elect you, a Black-American with the huge votes of White America and other minorities, I hold the view that America is far on the right path than most nations of the world, way beyond diversity-legislated Canada and the rest of the Western World in integrating peoples of all races, acknowledging and accepting people for what they are, what they can do and the content of their being. This is the time when the rhetoric of change must become action steps and deeds of great measures and growth.

Babs Ajayi.