President Wyclef Jean. Maybe just President Jean. Yeah, it’ll take some getting used to. If you don’t know by now, let this blog post serve as notice and information to the small masses among you that one of my favorite artists, Wyclef Jean is running for the President of Haiti. They are saying that Clef is the potential front-runner to this November’s election. No, really.

Born in Haiti, but raised in Brooklyn, Clef is attempting one incredible and pretty dicey transformation. Consider the odds that are stacked against him. He’s attempting to become the President of one of the poorest and most dysfunctional countries, at least in the western hemisphere if not the world, and attempting to run an election during a very turbulent time. The country is not more than 7 ½ months removed from a devastating earthquake that killed nearly 300,000 people. And before the earthquake, Haiti was already in very bad shape. Famine, lawlessness, poverty, pestilence; Man, let’s be real. The Haitian masses suffer some of the most debilitating and depressing misery of any people on the planet.

And these facts are staggering. My country’s been mired in a long history of political oppression, a very large populace in a small country (so tragically exposed by the large numbers of fatalities in January’s earthquake which was centered on a small area) lack of knowledge and literacy and that’s not even the worst part. Most, if not ALL of this misery is human caused; and not by many, but a fraction of those inside of Haiti and outside of it who have both the wealth and power to control.

I don’t think that I’m being melodramatic when I say that the country needs to be turned upside down and started again from the ground up. If ever a country was in desperate need of an all-out reboot, or some form of a system restore point, it’s Haiti. (pardon the computer terms. My beast just caught a virus lately and.. ehh, never mind.) And while I love the guy, I just don’t think that Wyclef is the man to do it. Passion alone, and Lord knows he has plenty for mother Haiti, will not help him overcome the massive tsunami of heavy criticism that will rain on his head when the country continues to mire in hopelessness.

And unfortunately, that will continue because, lets face it. Wyclef is NOT a politician. Yes, his vision is huge and as the unofficial ambassador of Haiti, his credentials in that aspect come unparalleled. However, Clef should consider this. Before he goes traipsing off to Haiti and attempting to fix someone else’s issues, my man has got some stuff going on in his own back yard that he needs to address first.

Hell, it hadn’t been a week since he announced that he’s running for President before the shots began ringing out. I mean, could he not have known that the worldwide attention this presidential bid would attract would open him up to all kinds of criticism and scrutiny. The Smoking Gun’s got paperwork stating that he owes a couple of million dollars in back taxes. I’m like Clef, “what the fuck bro? You earn nearly $16 or $17 million annually! Pay that joint off.”

But, in the end and as far as I’m concerned, whether the brother hasn’t paid his taxes or is under scrutiny because of the mismanagement of funds in his charity Yele Haiti, or if Haiti’s electoral commission, known as the CEP, will even approve his candidacy because there are questions about whether he meets the residency requirements to actually run in the first place, in my humble opinion Wyclef is simply not qualified to be President.

He hasn’t studied politics, law or economics. What he should do is place his celebrity and resources (he’s got the fame and the money to do it) behind a young Haitian person who is skilled in those things and more importantly, that he or she understands how the world works and how to address Haiti’s limitations and Haiti’s potential. I love Wyclef but when I look at him, I don’t see leader. Well, maybe leader of the Fugees, just not a leader of a country. I won’t condemn the man for dreaming big though. Very often in this country, people bash other people mercilessly because they dream big. It’s refreshing to see the brother look in the mirror and say “dammit! I’ma do it. I’m going to run for President!” So, I won’t be doing that. He simply needs to set his dreams on something else that may not hold the lives and futures of so many of his fellow countrymen and women at bay.

As I completed this post, Breaking News revealed that a source claims that Wyclef Jean is NOT on Haiti’s candidate list. More to come on this I’m sure.