By Joseph Adudu
Yesterday, Donald John Trump was sworn in as the 45th
American president. And I am positive that people like Professor Wole Soyinka
have already devised means of living with their trauma in the next four years
or more. Not only him but many other Nigerians and Americans, especially the
democrats whom I believe come have come to terms with the fact that now; Donald
Trump is the President of the United States of America. A lot of people from
Africa and Arab regions had prayed earnestly that the boisterous Republican
candidate did not win the November 8, 2016 election. Against all odds and
permutation however, Trump made history by defeating the highly favoured
Democratic Party candidate, Hilary Clinton in spite of opinion polls favouring
her. From the beginning of the presidential campaign that political observers
and opponents derided as a huge joke, Donald Trump made up his mind that his
greatest asset was his complete lack of a quality all his opponents had to a
greater or less extend – disrespect which knew no boundaries.
He was tagged as shameless, disrespectful, and lacking in
decency and propriety that are normally the defining characteristics of
mainstream politicians in the US. However, the same negative trends seemed to
have propelled Trump to the threshold of the Republican Nomination.
A refusal to respect ‘sacred cows’ has enabled the
all-conquering property mogul to leave a succession of once-mighty high profile
casualties in his wake.
They include: Senator John McCain, former Republican
presidential candidate and war hero, ridiculed for being shot down by North
Vietnam and becoming a prisoner of war; Megan Kelly, Fox News host, on the
receiving end of relentless personal and misogynistic attacks after confronting
the candidate about his attitude to women; Jeb Bush, scion of one of America’s
most successful political dynasties and once thought the likely nominee, mocked
as “low energy”; Mitt Romney, the failed 2012 Republican nominee, vilified
after attacking Trump’s credentials; Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, swatted
away contemptuously as “little Marco”; and last but not least, Ted Cruz, the
Right-wing Texas senator who became the party establishments last hope of
stopping the Trump juggernaut only to be flattened by a fusillade of abuse that
included attacks on his wife’s looks, fanciful smears of his father’s role in
the assassination of JFK and himself denigrated as “lying’ Ted”.
Even Pope Francis was not spared when Trump fired back after
the Pope suggested “he is not a Christian”. The Pope was asked by a reporter
travelling with him back to the Vatican at a conclusion of a trip to Cuba and
Mexico if a Catholic could vote for Trump to which Pope Francis said “A person
who thinks only about building walls wherever they may be and not building
bridges is not a Christian. This is not the gospel”. In response, Trump said
“no leader, especially a religious leader should have the right to question
another man’s religion or faith. For a religious leader to question a person’s
faith is disgraceful. They are using the Pope as a pawn and they should be
ashamed of themselves for doing so especially when so many lives are involved
and when illegal immigration is so rampant. The Pope is not seeing the crime,
the drug trafficking and the negative economic impact the current economic
policies have on the United States. He doesn’t see how Mexican leadership is
outsmarting President Obama. The Mexican government and its leadership has made
many disparaging remarks about me to the Pope because they want to continue to
rip off the United States both on trade and at the boarder and they understand
I am totally wiser to them.
“I am proud to be a Christian and as President, I will not
allow Christianity to be consistently attacked and weakened unlike what is
happening now with our current President”
You would agree with me that in all these, Trump has not
behaved like a traditional politician – however, the results of his behaviour
have been an almost unbroken run of success that has confounded Republican
Party grandees who have despaired of stopping him. It all seems too fantastical
to comprehend. Yet hindsight shows that Trump deployed his absence of shame to
offer simplistic populist solutions on issues that have shaped a fearful and
resentful public mood and therefore reaped electoral dividends in key areas
like Immigration, Terrorism and Trade among others.
For instance; immigration, a serious concern to conservative
working-class voters, Trump played to base instincts. Mexico was sending drug
dealers and rapists to America, he said in language that drew widespread
condemnation but clearly resonated. In response, he would build a “beautiful”
wall on the border and force Mexico to pay for it. Some 11 million illegal
immigrants would be rounded up and forcibly deported.
On terrorism, Trump first repeated the discredited trope that
“thousands” of American Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks after the
November’s deadly Jihadist assaults on Paris. When that brought the inevitable
denunciations, he went further than any other candidate would ever have dared –
by proposing a blanket ban on all Muslims entering the United States, a
blatantly discriminatory policy that nonetheless played on the fears of a
significant segment of Republican voters.
On trade, Trump has depicted the loss of American jobs as a result of flawed trade deals with China, Mexico and others and vowed to stop what he presented as the sell-out of the country by a clueless, weak leadership. “Trade agreements would be torn up”, he said. This has chimed with a portion of the electorate left bewildered by the pace of change wrought by the digital economy – and un-persuaded by arguments that similarly disruptive processes are wreaking just as much havoc elsewhere.
In all these, two reasons stand above all: Trump won his party’s nomination and the general election itself because he, alone among other contestants, dared to defy the media and spoke directly to the American people. Second; he worked harder than Hilary Clinton, campaigning even in blue states experts said he had no hope of winning.
On trade, Trump has depicted the loss of American jobs as a result of flawed trade deals with China, Mexico and others and vowed to stop what he presented as the sell-out of the country by a clueless, weak leadership. “Trade agreements would be torn up”, he said. This has chimed with a portion of the electorate left bewildered by the pace of change wrought by the digital economy – and un-persuaded by arguments that similarly disruptive processes are wreaking just as much havoc elsewhere.
In all these, two reasons stand above all: Trump won his party’s nomination and the general election itself because he, alone among other contestants, dared to defy the media and spoke directly to the American people. Second; he worked harder than Hilary Clinton, campaigning even in blue states experts said he had no hope of winning.
It may also be interesting to note that Trump did not ignored
the Media as witnessed in the volume of interviews he granted and the number of
Journalists he carted around on a dedicated press plane for months. On the
contrary, the press ignored him on the assumption (in my personal opinion) that
he was going to lose. To many in the media industry, it was all a pointless
ordeal, leavened only by the apparently gratifying task of catching Trump in a
perceived gaffe or noting audience misbehavior.
Many Journalists apparently believed it was their civic duty
to protect the public from Trump more so as a lot of them lacked curiosity about
what Trump was saying to voters and whether he was reaching them. As a matter
of fact, Journalists and Editors were busy talking and forgot to listen. As I
pointed out immediately after the November 8, 2016 Presidential election, most
media outfits concentrated in broadcasting and publishing hit piece after hit
piece in an all-out attempt to destroy Trump. During the campaign period, a
check on any websites of the mainstream media on any particular day was
inevitable that you would find an anti Trump story usually accompanied by a
pro- Clinton story nearby. I have also said that the elite were desperate to
keep Trump out of the white House and if that means shedding all notions of
media objectivity and siccing their attack dogs on Trump day after day, then it
must be accomplished. What we saw during the campaign season was absolutely
unprecedented.
In a nutshell, not many expected Trump to win the American
Presidential election because he was an outlier having run against both parties
and also appealed to voters’ basest instincts and did so in an arrogant manner.
It is also obvious that a lot of people had wished for a different outcome.
While some have called the out come of the election a historical disaster,
others see God’s hand in it. Still, others see it as a terrible case against
democracy while others say its beauty was also at play. Whichever way,
Americans have spoken but Trump should be careful not to misread the mandate
given to him. I personally think it would be a great mistake for him to regard
his mandate a license to abolish all the policies of the immediate past
administration. Trump is now the president of the United States of America but
the consequences go beyond that and this is where the real work starts. Indeed,
the campaigns have been crude and offensive creating bad blood as demonstrated
by protesters immediately he was declared winner and yesterday during the
inauguration. And I believe it is for this reason that Trump repeatedly said
that he is a president for all. In his speech after the inauguration, Trump
spoke of new era of economic prosperity and job creation for Americans. But I
was highly elated when he also pledged to unite the ‘civilized world’ against
‘radical Islamic terrorism’. I can’t agree less with President Trump on this.
Terrorism to me is that monster that has taken the world by storm and if not
properly tackled, may likely bring it to its knees. Nigeria is an indispensable
ally not only in regional but continental security. President Trump therefore,
should seek for serious demonstrations on the part of President Buhari to
partner with Nigeria in confronting our security challenges-mostly, to bring an
end to the Boko Haram menace- as well as other regional security problems.
It’s apparent that since the end of the cold war that saw the
collapse of the former Soviet Union, the world has constantly relied on the
United States leadership to maintain world peace. Though some pundits have
observed that the US has not always lived up to expectations, but I believe the
US is undoubtedly, an indispensable world power which despite its
imperfections, has helped to stabilize the world and prevented it from tearing
apart.
On his
intention to build walls to tinker with some of the country’s policies
concerning immigration, I think Nigeria leaders and the elite are the saddest.
And I am not surprised. I stand to be corrected but it is doubtful if there are
other countries whose elite are as crazy for America as the Nigerian elite and
leaders. They jet out to America to treat malaria, catarrh, cold and sore
throat instead of putting in place qualitative health institutions in our
country to the standard that is obtain in the US. Most of our leaders both past
and present sent their children to school in the US thereby helping to grow the
US economy and killing ours but urging the rest of us to be patriotic by making
do with what is already in shambles here. So, most Nigerians would be eternally
grateful if President Trump would keep to his campaign promise of erecting the
wall and encourage leaders of other developed nations to do same to shut out
Nigerian elite and leaders so they can stay back at home and begin to perfect
ways of giving proper attention to our decayed institutions with the aim of
developing them to meet up with global standard.
Finally, let me state that President Trump faces daunting challenges but I hope every decision and action he takes would be in agreement with his conscience and the Almighty God will surely see him through.
Finally, let me state that President Trump faces daunting challenges but I hope every decision and action he takes would be in agreement with his conscience and the Almighty God will surely see him through.
CONGRATULATIONS, DONALD AKPASU (WARRIOR) TRUMP.
