Mr. Obama in action

Prior to his Friday trip to Ghana, President Barack Obama has received thousands of text messages about Africa — messages of both support and criticism, says the White House.

The texts were sent after the Administration set up country-specific SMS codes to which inhabitants of Africa were invited to send messages.

The codes include:

• Ghana - 1731
• Nigeria - 32969
• South Africa - 31958
• Kenya - 5683

According to Presidential media advisor Macon Philips (via the BBC's Network Africa program), Obama sought for the messages to be part of a "continental conversation" — composed of questions, critiques or simply general comment.

A number of texts, which Obama will answer directly, will be chosen by journalists from South Africa, Kenya and Senegal.

"What we can do is look at all these responses and find trends and popular issues and it gives us a better understanding of what people are thinking about," Phillips said to the BBC.

"There's much greater value than just question and answer - it's yet another way for us to see what's happening on the ground."

Twitter feeds and blogs were also set up to address grievances or commentary from African countries.

But the President's decision to visit Ghana, as well as his attempt to create an open forum for discussion, has inflamed some in Nigeria, as well as opposition groups, respectively.

Nigeria is Africa's most populated country. Some perceive his text-based outreach as American judgment on the health of the country's democracy.

According to Jibril Aminu, chair of Nigeria's foreign relations committee, if Obama had concerns about the country, he would have done well to voice them in Nigeria.

"There's no reason to send goodwill with a catapault," he said.
"If he's seeking to send a message, I'm afraid that with all respect, he's not been successful."

Not all have been so critical. Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka of Nigeria lauded Obama's "wise decision" to avoid Nigeria because the country abused the principles of democracy, Soyinka stated.

Prior to his planned visit to sub-Saharan Africa, Obama stated there would be no investment in the area without good governance.

The President's use of social media tools to stimulate conversation with citizens has been one of the hallmarks of his campaign. As a candidate for Presidency last year, Obama made headlines when his team launched an effort promising to text users his choice for Vice Presidential running-man. Once elected, the Administration launched Change.gov, where users could follow the Administration's transition into the White House, followed by WhiteHouse.gov, where they can interact directly with the government and answer questions posed by website administrators.

Obama's Presidential campaign — which made use of nearly all media, including TV, radio, internet, video memes, mobile, social networks and video games — won Grands Prix in the categories of Interactive and Titanium at the Cannes Lions ad festival this year.