As America decides, Donald Trump, a billionaire business mogul with absolutely no experience in public service is another American dream comes true. If you dream it, you can make it, if you work hard towards it. He is a product of the typical American society; a symbol of capitalist accomplishments. He has promised to make America great again.
In what may go down as the greatest upset in America’s electoral history, Republican Donald Trump was elected as the forty-fifth president of the United States, in a keenly contested race, in which many pundits did not give him a chance against his very formidable rival, former first lady and secretary of state, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump’s views on some of the core issues of campaign were very controversial and very divisive. His views on immigration are largely seen as racist, Islamophobic and isolationist, particularly among African American, Muslim and Hispanic communities. These sentiments were pervasive throughout Africa and the Muslim world. A lot of Africans and Muslims expressed their preference for a Hillary Clinton candidacy that is perceived as more inclusive than Trump. However, it is important to determine the objectivity or otherwise of these sentiments.
If Trump is a racist, Africans are worse because of our entrenched tribalism and micro-tribalism. Africans are their own worst enemies. Africa has refused to develop because we think largely in terms of sectional, rather than national, interests. In Nigeria, the indigene/settler dichotomy is so deep that fellow Africans of the same skin colour and language are regarded as strangers in some part of the African continent; Ife/Modakeke, Birom/Hausa-Fulani, Umuleri/Aguleri, Tiv/Jukun etc. Unfortunately, this ugly trend has been incorporated into our electoral democracy, where people tend to vote along tribal and religious lines, thereby enthroning the tyranny of demographically majority tribes over minority tribes. This situation has given rise to animosity among various ethnic groups, thereby undermining national cohesiveness which, in turn, has led to gross underdevelopment and widespread poverty among African countries.
Today, Africa holds the unenviable record of the world’s biggest supplier of economic refugees. Africans have blamed every other person but themselves for their problems. We must begin to take full responsibility for our problems and begin to look inwards to solve them. No African anywhere in the world will be respected until our mother land is cured of destitution and misery. The underdevelopment of Africa is a shadow that follows Africans all over the world. Who loves the African? Nobody loves the African, not even the African. Nobody loves liability and covetousness. As an African, before you accuse Trump of racism, please purge yourself of the greater evil of tribalism.
Trump is also perceived as Islamophobic because of his bold stand on radical Islam, which is at the root of global Jihadi movements ravaging the entire Middle East and unsettling the West. Europe and America are targets and victims of radical Islamic ideology. America is a nation founded by people of Judeo-Christian heritage, who unfortunately are characterised as unbelievers in radical Islamic ideology. America is perceived as the epitome of everything ungodly. Trump understands this perfectly and was not ready to pretend about. With the incitingly deadly rhetoric and hate preaching coming out of the Muslim world against America, which has resulted in deadly terrorist attacks on the American homeland by citizens of Middle Eastearn and Muslim origin, it is time to pull the breaks on mass migration into God’s own country from countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, who have a history of radicalisation.
I find the massive Muslim support for Hillary as rather hypocritical. How do you reconcile the fact that Muslims, who oppose gender equality and all forms of leadership role for women over men, supported Hillary, a woman to be elected president of the most powerful nation on earth and who will invariably become the most powerful person in the world, to whom all men must bow to? How can Muslims oppose a pro-life candidacy of Trump to support an abortion rights candidacy of Hillary? How can Muslims reconcile their views on LGBT with a massive support for Democrat Hillary’s candidacy, who not only supports their rights but whose issues will form part of her foreign policy direction, over a pro-family Republican candidacy of Trump? How can Muslims support a Hillary who supported the invasion of Iraq against a Trump who opposed it? If Trump is anti-Muslim, then Hillary is anti-Islam because she stands for everything which core Islamic values are opposed to, beginning with her quest for leadership.
The only answer to these questions is the downfall of America. The destruction of the leading country of the free world and all it stands for is the long term aspiration of radical Muslim fundamentalists. Under a Hillary administration, they hope to continue to exploit the liberal society and system of America to infiltrate and undermine the security of the greatest nation on earth. The entire Middle East is engulfed in a proxy war between regional rival powers – Saudi Arabia and Iran, which has resulted in the steady stream of Muslim refugees, who are internally displaced, into Europe and America.
Interestingly, Saudi Arabia and Iran are not opening their doors to Muslim refugees. It is the much vilified Judeo-Christian West that is bearing the burden of taking in Muslim refugees. Sadly, some radical elements among Muslim refugees have been involved in the several terrorist attacks in their countries of refuge. Therefore, the proposition to tighten the free flow of immigrants from Muslim countries with the history of radicalisation is a patriotic one by Trump.
As America decides, Donald Trump, a billionaire business mogul with absolutely no experience in public service is another American dream comes true. If you dream it, you can make it, if you work hard towards it. He is a product of the typical American society; a symbol of capitalist accomplishments. He has promised to make America great again. Yes, American power has been on the decline globally. Economically and militarily, America’s sphere of influence have been encroached upon by rivals, China and Russia. With a trade deficit of $357billion with China and Russia out-manoeuvring the United States in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, a Trump presidency is what is needed now to stem the trend. American hegemony over the new world order and global leadership is not without its flaws. However, it is still better for the world than a Russian hegemony. The reason is simple: America is a democracy, an advanced one at that, while Russia is a dictatorship. America’s hegemonic role can and will always be moderated by appealing to the moral conscience of its citizens whose opinions have direct influence on both the domestic and foreign policy decisions of government. In the case of Russia, only the opinion of Vladimir Putin matters. Therefore a Russian hegemony will be more oppressive and repressive than America’s.
Trump spoke the minds of the majority of Americans and that is what matters and not the sentiments of non-American interests in electing their president. This election was about America and the American people. Whoever wants to live in America should be ready to abide by its laws, norms and traditions. America holds and continues to hold limitless opportunities for its citizens – irrespective of ethnicity or religious beliefs – to pursue happiness and live in dignity. The Republican Party has contributed a lot to the progress of African Americans. It was Republican President Abraham Lincoln, who signed of the Emancipation Proclamation, which effectively abolished slavery in 1863. The first African American to be appointed as chairman, joint chiefs of staff of the United States Armed Forces, Gen. Collin Powell, was under republican administration of George W Bush, in 1989. He will also be appointed the first African American secretary of state by the republican administration of George Bush in 2001. Condoleezza Rice is the first African American woman to be appointed both as national security advisor and secretary of state under the Republican administration of George Bush. All these and more were before the first African American, Barack Obama, was elected president on the Democratic platform. It will be seen clearly that it was the Republican Party that gave deserving African Americans the opportunity to serve their country at highest levels of government. This may have prepared the ground for the eventual Obama presidency. If I were American, I will be a Republican and would have voted for Trump.
Majeed Dahiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja and can be reached through dahirumajeed@gmail.com.
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