Since former president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, declared his intention to return to the White House, come November 5, America has not been the same again. It’s been like a Diego Maradona is in the field of soccer for Argentina and he is in the 18-yard box of the opponents. Now, all the defenders are going for kill. It’s either to take the ball away from him or to bring him down regardless of a resultant penalty kick.
The Trump enigma played up in 2017 when he beat widely admired Hillary Clinton to clinch the position, despite every effort by the media and a sizable proportion of the American population to stop him. Although he failed to gather majority votes in the election that brought him to power, he was able to win the presidency, following the American electoral system. As soon as he moved into the White House, America caught fire. His policies were seen as tending to disfavour blacks, immigrants and the population that were not Anglo-Saxon.
In his time, racism that had been controlled by his predecessors began to smolder once again. Residents who are not originally Americans by birth but had acquired citizenship or about to acquire were on edge all through Trump’s first tenure.
His uncouth nature, in addition to his perceived sympathy for the discredited Ku Klux Klan group, definitely, cost him a second term.
Now that he is popping up again for his Republican Party and scaling all the hurdles to the presidency for a second term, America is jittery once again. Many would detest a repeat of that experience.
Amazingly, some Nigerians, especially from the south, are rooting for him under the notion that he would be instrumental to the actualization of the state of Biafra, which has been problematic in five decades. Others feel he would deal decisively with the militant Muslims seeking to forcefully convert every Nigerian to their faith.
But here is a man said to have been brought up to hate the Blackman with passion. How could Nigerians canonize him a saint when he was an albatross for Nigerians living in the United States?
Anti-Trump people portray him as a coward, a dull-brain, and downright corrupt. It is rather incongruous that a dull brain and a coward could walk his way up to the highest office in the globe at a point, and is again wanting to return, and about to succeed.
His traducers among Africans fear that American aids to poor nations would cease under him because of his America First policy. Where lies the dignity of those hoping to depend on US aids?The policy, however, cannot be isolationist as no one talks about being isolationist in international affairs. All nations, they say must work together for global wellness.
Pro-Trump Nigerians also see him as a wedge on the American tendency to use democracy to manipulate African nations. They see his America First policy as one that stops such meddlesomeness of the US in other peoples’ affairs. They believe the bad governance that has bedeviled Nigeria, and Africa on the whole, has its roots in America that has vowed not to see a competitive Africa come up against them in terms of economy, a US that is seriously relishing the current abysmal devaluation of the naira which now exchanges at N1,600 to the dollar. A US that refused to help Goodluck Jonathan in rooting out the deadly Boko Haram terrorists that have for years infested Nigeria.
Amazingly too, when he was in power, America’s tendency to fight proxy wars reduced. There was less tension between the US and its traditional rival Russia, leading to watchers terming him as cowardly, unable to confront the dictators of this world. America withdrew from Afghanistan and other places where its troops fought battles that appeared imperialist in nature. There was relative calm in the Middle East despite his avowed support for Israel and his endorsement of the movement of the Israeli capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a town in keen contest between Israel and Palestine.
As soon as he left in 2021, handing over the baton to Joe Biden, hostilities resumed. The US, under Biden is seen as having induced the Russian-Ukraine war that has kept the world economy comatose since its wake. Middle East erupted into a deadly and devastating war between Israel and the Hamas movement seeking freedom for Palestine. Today, Gaza is in ruins and tension is high in that region.
Again, pro-Trump Nigerians reason that if he is in power, the imposition of gay rights and the importation of the nauseating permissiveness into African nations would be over since he vehemently abhors homosexuality and abortion.
The appearance of Kamala Harris, the present US Vice President, on the scene as a replacement for “sleepy Joe” as the Democratic Party presidential candidate in the Nov. 5 elections has added a different hue to the contest. The dark clouds that enveloped the chances of the Dems against the Republicans after a dismal performance of Joe Biden in a debate with Trump are clearing and rays of hope have appeared on their horizon once again. That makes the rest of the days to the election very interesting to Americans and, indeed, to world politics. Candidly, the world deserves peace. May God be on the side of any of the candidates who would guarantee this cherished tranquility for mankind, especially as the rumours of a third World War hovers over us.
Dr. Odu can be reached through dirimrich2018@gmail.com or SMS 07016722929.
“Amazingly, some Nigerians, especially from the south, are rooting for him under the notion that he would be instrumental to the actualization of the state of Biafra, which has been problematic in five decades. Others feel he would deal decisively with the militant Muslims seeking to forcefully convert every Nigerian to their faith”