WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER
info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com
In a political and democratic terrain, there is nothing like the word impossible —anything can happen. The possibilities are just there. The reemergence of Donald Trump as the President of the United States of America is a testament to the fact. Who would have given the president the chance, except for himself and his inner caucus? The world did not give him a chance, his social and political antecedents did not offer him a chance; and the Democrats, the erstwhile incumbent was absolutely sure it was a walk over. Trump, accordingly, would be defeated long before the following morning of the Election Day. It did not happen; Donald Trump however, did not struggle to win but won with a landslide, and went ahead to lead his party to claim control of both chambers of the parliament of the country. It is unbelievable, but it has taught us considerable lessons on what democracy is and what it is not.
Now that Trump has returned, and has characteristically begun to reflect the very nature he has always been known for, what are the general and specifics expectations we should have from his style of governance as Africans and Nigerians, and what are the lessons our democracy should take from this reality of the current United States of America democracy?
From ages, it has resonated that dictators and dictator-like leaders are often the most liked, and would always command unbelievable massive support from large sections of the society. Take it or leave it, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the North Korea president, the Chinese president and the rest of the authoritarian leaders across the globe, are perhaps the most supported and admired. It is quite rare to see the best of candidates emerging victorious at the poll. While the people cry of the errors of non-humane leadership, on one hand, they troop to the polls to cast their votes for the opposite of what they appeared to subconsciously desire.
While this may appear as unexplainable to many observers, it is not; it is a direct extension of the political cum democratic reality of the people of the world regardless of country, colour or location. Across Africa nations, and specifically in Nigeria, it is a norm that the highest bidders win the electoral contest. By some unspoken agreement, the good men and women are apparently denied winning elections. Ironically, we have seen the same populace crying of electoral abuse, yet waiting in line to collect money to vote for the candidates who can pay them in exchange for their votes.
It is obvious that academia must relearn human behavior in democratic setting; we need to understand much better what informs the decisions that people make when it comes to politics. We need to understand why the bad appears attractive when it comes to leadership and why people will continue to regret their choices at the polls without being able to make amends in future polls. Trump, over the last three years, has been both indicted and convicted of heinous crimes against women he abused, of business frauds, of encouraging insurrection against the country when the mob he more or less mobilised pounced on the Capitol on January 6th 2021 and wreaked much havoc on the country’s democracy.
The return of Trump, much like the return of the old marshall in town, is everything expected but literally disliked by the majority. Needless to say, it is Donald J Trump versus the global system. We are seeing decisions that appear to carry personal desires rather than national interest, or better say, decisions that are mostly aimed at testing the reach of power rather than leading a nation, and a powerful nation as America.
In the midst of a terrible consequence of climate change events in the country as states are struggling with wildfires, and other climate change-based disasters in the last months, it is only important to Trump to exercise the reach of his power to terminate his country’s global collaboration to respond to consequences of climate change. He boldly removed the United States of America from the alliance, putting both his country and many others at terrible risk; considering the position and the significance of America’s contributions to the alliance realisation of its goals.
When the Nigerian president announces the immediate termination of the fuel subsidy regime on his inauguration day, though hurtful, a greater section of the country and even the international community understand the need for the policy direction. What on earth could be the plausible explanation for Trump’s removal of the United States of America from the World Health Organisation? Coming from his perception of the international health body handling of the COVID-19 pandemic during his last tenure in office, or rather, by the direct and indirect refusal of the body to do his bidding. Hence, Trump, it seems, is set to take a revenge by removing the chunk of the body’s financial and logistics contributions. Unfortunately, for both the U.S and the world at large, Donald Trump in the heart of his drive for exercising power to exert his revenge, has forgotten that the same WHO, was largely, overtime responsible for the global effective responses to the outbreaks of Ebola, Malaria, tuberculosis, and the eradication of smallpox, among others.
It appears that it is either the new sheriff in town does not have real advisers or perhaps is surrounded by men and women who are scared to tell him the truth. Otherwise, he would have been told it is both morally and economically unfair to remove the rug under the global support for countless number of developing nations because you are either angry with an institution or you want to be absolutely pro America.
In the age when the globe is becoming more of a single interconnected society and interrelationships on all fronts is the major ingredient for survival of all, the president of the world’s greatest country is rolling back almost all of his nation’s commitment to global friendship, collaborations and survival. Threatening nations of severe economic consequences except they dance to the tune of the United States of America, hounding perceived illegal immigrants in chains back to their country and threatening and declaring intentions to step on the territorial integrity of nations as he vows to take over land areas and infrastructure rightly belonging to other nations.
The evolving reality from America is the full expression of the popular saying that power corrupt and absolute power corrupt absolutely. We are getting to a world system where it would become impossible to address authoritarian leadership behaviour; where we would have no ground to sanction the military abuse of constitutional established government anywhere because Putin is on the loose, the North Korea president is on the prowl and Donald J Trump is uncheckable.
It appears that the United States of America is quick to proclaim the return to crimes and criminality, and unfortunately, many countries would follow the wrong steps, as the intention has always been present underneath. The ceremonious release of the perpetrators of the January 6th attack on the Capitol is a clear message that the new sheriff in town is a friend of political criminals. In the words of Donald Trump, he is righting injustice done to people who attack the seat of government in broad daylight and attempt to enforce an alteration of election outcome. How would the world respond tomorrow if an election loser in some developing world chose to set the system ablaze to upturn the result of an election? What right would the developed world under the auspices of the United Nations, or any other organisation have, to impose sanctions that no one could impose on Trump and his America.
The world must recognise this is not the America to cow into. There must be a global opposition to what America is becoming otherwise the dynamics of global democracy, politics and collaboration would all change for the worst and gains of decades would be undone in four years of Donald J Trump as the president of the United States of America.
The beginning of the fall of America is now. World leaders must respond to Trump’s insult and excessiveness with appropriate actions. The African nations must be ready and willing to reject undue control from Trump’s America. This is the time to see the need for alliances outside the control of the American government and reach. Trump’s America is one that would only take without giving. We must all be set to stop at nothing to deny it, taking anything it does not deserve. If Trump wants companies to produce what they sell to Americans in America, then he must be ready to make sure American companies establish bases across Africa to produce what they sell to Africans. That is the principle of a tooth for a tooth: after all, what is sauce for the geese is also sauce for the gander.
