With TONY OKOROJI
You may wonder why I write so much about America with all the many unsolved problems in Nigeria.
My number one reason is that what happens in America very easily affects us all. For a long time, America has been for us, a model of pollical and moral behaviour. In the main, we borrowed our presidential system of government from U.S.A. Our president’s term of four years and a maximum two terms is manufactured in America. Our bicameral legislative arrangement of Senate & House of Representatives, comes from America. There might be slight differences, but our concepts of capitalism, human rights, freedom of speech, etc, were all born in America.
Another reason that what happens in America concerns me greatly is that practically every family in Nigeria has a son, daughter, cousin or in-law that lives and works in America. Many families in Nigeria have, over time, been sustained by ‘Western Union’ coming from America. In the spirit of full disclosure, a significant percentage of my own family lives in America. It therefore means that American values, policies and political decisions ultimately affect all of us.
Culturally, America has for a long time determined our lingua, what we wear, how we sing and dance, and even how we pray. Though we were colonized by the British, where did our ubiquitous blue jeans, sneakers, short skirts ‘labu’ trousers, hot pants, afro hair-do, permed hair and ‘attachments’, come from, if not America? For many years, even though we might have spiced it with a little bit of Highlife, Juju or Afro Beat, whose music did we sing and dance to outside of ‘Papa’ James Brown, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Lionel Richie, Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Beyonce, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Rihana, Jennifer Lopez and their many brothers and sisters? Where did our very effervescent Pentecostal pastors learn to preach and gesticulate, the way they do, if not from America?
The American standard has been the standard we looked up to. In America, the respect for elections, the electoral system and their results was sacrosanct. The American belief in their judicial system and the decisions of their juries was once, the envy of the world.
Then, came Donald Trump.
I never thought that a man with the obvious character defects of Donald Trump would ever be elected President of the United States of America. I thought that Americans are too smart to fall into such a hole. I was wrong.
Let me confess that the first election of Donald Trump left me devastated. It made nonsense of everything I thought I knew and I was terribly confused. For weeks, after that crazy Tuesday in November 2016, I refused to watch any TV news channel and weaned my addiction to my once favourite website, politico.com. The idea of seeing Donald Trump addressed as President of the United States was too much for me to bear.
After Donald Trump turned the once proud White House into the set of a permanent reality show, Americans want to bring him back?
I am shocked that people as smart as Americans still cannot see through Donald Trump and understand that this guy is the king of 419. If thousands of miles away, I can see that this guy who lies practically every time he speaks, is a danger to not just America but to the world, why do Americans think that he can change their country for good? If I could see that there had to be a sinister reason why this guy would not present his tax returns to his people, how come the brilliant Americans cannot see it? If from Lagos Nigeria, I could see that this man-child who cannot keep his fingers off his smart phone, is a danger to everyone, how can Americans come to the conclusion that they can trust him with their nuclear codes?
The Russians and Chinese, the mortal enemies of America, must be laughing their heads off and mocking America. Vladimir Putin must be having a time of his life, waiting to play Donald Trump again like an acoustic guitar with nylon strings.
Just two days ago, Donald Trump, a former American President once again, made history. He was found guilty on 34 criminal charges by a jury of his peers in New York. His organization has earlier been found liable of massive fraud and has been fined over $350 million. He has also been found liable for sexually molesting a woman and owes her a huge sum of money. He is facing several criminal charges across the country. Just imagine, this former president of the United States has been surrounded everywhere by criminals of all types with himself as the criminal don.
Nearly everyone who has played a key role in Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns or his administration has gone to jail or been charged with one crime or another. The long list includes Steve Bannon, Trump’s political mastermind; Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer; Elliott Brody, top fundraiser for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign; Paul Manafort: Trump’s 2016 campaign manager; Roger Stone, Trumps well-known campaign messenger; Allen Weissenberg, Trump’s Chief Financial Controller at Trump Organization; Michael Flynn, Trump’s first National Security Adviser; Rick Gates, Trump’s Deputy Campaign Chairman; Rudy Giuliani, well known former New York Mayor and Trump’s Personal lawyer; Mark Meadows, Trump’s White House Chief of Staff; Trumps Lawyers, John Eastman and Sidney Powell and many-many more!
I hope the world has learnt a critical lesson. The skills required to earn a bag full of money are different from the skills required to lead a free people in a democracy. The profit motive is driven by extreme self-centeredness, the kind that the Donald has in abundance. To lead a free people, you need to have extreme selflessness, the kind that Nelson Mandela had in abundance and which Donald Trump cannot imagine. It has become clear that when Donald Trump says ‘America First’ what he really means is ‘Donald Trump First’. With his massive ego, everything on his way must be torn down. To remain the last man standing, this man is set to destroy every institution that has made America truly great and long after he is gone, Americans would wonder how they brought this nightmare unto themselves.
The Donald Trump problem however is not just an American problem. It is a challenge to the entire humanity. How is this guy with absurd ego and obvious lack of self-control, once again, going to be in control of the world’s biggest arsenal of nuclear weapons? If it does not bother you, it bothers me. I never thought I would ever say this but if you are bothered by Kim Jong-Un in Pyongyang, you better be bothered by a Donald Trump in Washington DC.
When will the Americans, Republicans, Democrats and Independents realize that they are in deep shit?
See you next week.
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