Baba has entered the classroom

By Isaac Asabor

If what Trump is doing is walking into a noisy global classroom and insisting on discipline, then let us be honest: there is nothing inherently wrong with it. Order is not oppression. Silence after chaos is not tyranny. Sometimes, peace only comes when someone is willing to be unpopular enough to enforce it.

In the 1970s, when I was a secondary school student, there was a peculiar figure among us. He was a student by registration, not by reality. He entered the classroom under the free-education policy of the late Prof. Ambrose Folorunsho Alli’s administration in the then Bendel State. By age, bearing, and authority, he could easily have passed for my father. We called him “Baba”not in mockery, but in recognition. He carried himself like a man who had seen life, paid rent, raised children, and was only briefly passing through the classroom.

Baba owned a building of his own, which he rented out to students. That alone earned him another title: Landlord. In a school full of boys who still depended on pocket money, Baba collected rent. He was not just older; he was established. And because of that, he commanded something rare in that classroom, instant obedience.

When Baba entered the class and told everyone to be serious, to stop making noise and read their books, silence followed immediately. No arguments. No laughter. No defiance. You could hear the drop of a pin. Sometimes, if he found a student misbehaving, he would take it upon himself to flog the offender. No permission sought. No committee formed. No appeal process. And strangely enough, order prevailed.

That memory keeps coming back whenever I watch Donald Trump’s recent interventions in sovereign nations across the world.

Trump, like him or hate him, does not behave like a polite class prefect waiting for approval. He behaves like Baba walking into a noisy classroom, annoyed, impatient, and convinced that chaos thrives only because no one is enforcing discipline. He does not whisper diplomacy; he barks it. He does not consult endlessly; he acts. Moreover, when he does, the noise often stops.

Is that what Trump is doing on the global stage, entering a disorderly classroom and demanding silence?

Look at the world today. Nations are misbehaving with confidence. Leaders trample constitutions and dare the international community to respond. Rogue states test missiles like firecrackers. Terror groups carve out territories. Corruption is normalized, repression excused, aggression justified with ideology. The global classroom is loud, unruly, and crowded with attention-seeking troublemakers.

For decades, the so-called adults, the United Nations, Western alliances, multilateral institutions, have responded the same way weak teachers do making long speeches, issuing warnings without consequences, and making resolutions without enforcement. The result is predictable. Noise increases. Impunity grows. Disorder becomes culture.

Then Trump shows up. He sanctions here, threatens there, withdraws recognition, applies pressure, embarrasses leaders publicly, ignores diplomatic niceties, and refuses to pretend that all nations are equal in responsibility or consequence. Critics scream about sovereignty, international law, and norms. However, one uncomfortable question remains: Has the noise reduced where he intervenes?

Just like Baba, Trump does not ask whether he is popular. He asks whether order is restored. Moreover, like Baba, he is willing to act alone if necessary. That is what unsettles many world leaders, not that Trump is wrong, but that he is not afraid.

At this juncture, it is germane to ask, “Is it ideal?” “No. Was Baba’s flogging legally sanctioned?” Probably not. But did it work? Undeniably.

Without a doubt, there is a hypocrisy in global politics that must be called out. The same countries that lecture others about sovereignty routinely interfere when it suits their interests, only they do it with smiles, bureaucracy, and slow violence. Trump, by contrast, is blunt. He does not hide the stick behind diplomatic grammar. He shows it. And sometimes, that alone is enough to restore order.

The world likes to pretend it is governed by rules. In truth, it is governed by power, consequences, and the willingness to enforce boundaries. Baba understood that in the classroom. Trump understands it in geopolitics.

Therefore, when Trump intervenes in sovereign nations, the real question is not whether he should, but why others failed to act before it reached that point. When classrooms are left unattended, eventually someone loud, forceful, and decisive will take charge. Nature abhors a vacuum. Power abhors passivity.

If what Trump is doing is walking into a noisy global classroom and insisting on discipline, then let us be honest: there is nothing inherently wrong with it. Order is not oppression. Silence after chaos is not tyranny. Sometimes, peace only comes when someone is willing to be unpopular enough to enforce it.

The world today does not suffer from too much authority; it suffers from too much tolerance for bad behavior. If Trump is playing Baba on the global stage, stern, disruptive, and unapologetic, without leading to wars, restrained tyrants, and sobered leaders, then perhaps the world will indeed become a better place.

Not because Trump is perfect. But because, like Baba, he reminds everyone that classrooms, nations, and systems only function when someone is willing to stand up, speak loudly, and, when necessary, act decisively. Sometimes, the drop of a pin is the sound of order restored.

Isaac Asabor is a Public Policy Analyst.