The victory of Donald Trump was unexpected for Nigeria. It has been rightly described as an upset. This is against the background of the numerous controversial statements made by Trump. His lack of experience in local and international politics was also considered as well as his insensitivity to the community of immigrants in the United States, which is largely made up of Africans.
All these issues made his victory very worrisome. However, the American people have spoken, and in a democracy, there is the right of the people to also make a wrong choice. But so long as it is their choice, they have to be with it and live with it.
As it concerns Nigeria, the Federal Government has no choice but to accept the Trump presidency. In dealing with him, however, we must do so with a long spoon. Our expectations of assistance from the United States must not be unduly high.
Trump has indicated that he might act like an American leader, interested in only what America stands to benefit at all times. The advantage of this position for Nigeria is that we are going to look inwards for solutions to our problems.
So, instead of externalising our options and looking up to other countries to bail us out of crisis, we have to look inwards.
One, the layers of opportunities for assistance will reduce even at the level of United Nations agencies, which are designed for the purpose of assisting the Third World.
However, as I said, the other side of the coin is that it gives us the opportunity to find internal solutions to our problems.
Again, a Trump presidency has the tendency to create instability in the international system. Though, there had been wars in different parts of the world, the Obama administration since 2009 tried to play a role of a peacemaker. But for Trump, at the international level, he might want to behave like a warmonger.
However, the institutions in America are strong enough to hold him; they can hold him and prevent extremism. Therefore, I am not too worried about the victory. But we must realise that his inexperience in politics is not in favour of America and, indeed, Africa.
Prof. Tunde Babawale (A lecturer of Political Economy and International Relations)
I first of all congratulate Donald Trump for winning the election. I congratulate him because the election process that brought him to power was transparent.
His victory was seen to be highly inconceivable, at least, within the context of the Nigerian political lexicon, even up to the time the election started. It shows that once a people make up their minds on who to vote for, they execute their wish and hardly can anyone change their minds.
I look at the implications of Trump’s victory from two perspectives. The first is the issue of illegal immigrants in the US. There are so many Nigerians in the US, some of them are legal immigrants while others are illegal immigrants. With Trump’s victory, I foresee a situation in which he would have a hard-line position on these illegal immigrants. He had said that during his electioneering and I have a strong feeling that he would want to execute his electoral promise.
This means that illegal Nigerian immigrants would be in trouble. And he has his own justification for that. He believes in nationalism and patriotism. We all know that when something is illegal, it is not positive oriented. Therefore, his willingness is to make sure that the rot in the system is cleared.
Secondly, I believe Trump may not be too interested in the issues relating to Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. And that in essence means he may not want to accord Nigeria the moral, economic and political support that America has been giving to us under President Barack Obama.
In other words, he might not be concerned about issues outside the American territory.
I also believe that some of these America-led multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank may not be fully supported by the Trump-led administration. These are the institutions that developing countries rely on in terms of obtaining loans to fund their projects.
Prof. Solomon Akinboye (Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Lagos)
The emergence of Donald Trump as the United States President has really surprised the world, including Nigeria. I think Nigerians should come to terms with the reality of a President who seems to be a racist. Trump sees Nigerians as escaping from poverty in their country and taking up jobs in the US. Therefore, his presidency is likely to be tough on Nigerians. Unless something happens, his policies would likely be harsh on Nigerians. I am saying this based on his statements before the election when he described Nigerians as corrupt and threatened to send them home if he won. Nigerians there are aware of this.
It is unfortunate it happened this way. I am not expecting anything good from Trump’s administration for Nigerians. However, the environment might push him to mellow down.
In terms of the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and the US, I do not see anything terrible happening between the two countries because the relationship has been established over the years. His victory may not bring any fundamental change. America needs Nigeria’s oil and Nigeria needs America assistance in various ways. But it seems to me that he might not be comfortable with President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. But let’s see how it goes.
Prof. Jonah Onuoah (Head, Department of Political Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka)
Although this is not the result most of us were expecting, I believe there is much to learn from this outcome. First, let leaders recognise that people matter and, ultimately, the real power belongs to them (people). It also shows that an outsider could resonate with the electorate given the right message.
Nobody can predict anything as far as Trump is concerned. We just have to wait and see. There is no way one will know. Well, we can say all the rhetoric was to get him elected. Maybe when it comes to performance, he will deliver. But the people I spoke with in the US say the President doesn’t have the power to decide what he likes. The power remains with the congress. So, we just have to wait and see what happens. And in his speech now that he has won, he sounds more reconciliatory.
Prof. Oluremi Sonaiya (Presidential candidate for KOWA Party)
The people of America are right to choose their leader. Most people did not suspect it would go that way, but we cannot decide who their leader would be for them. They have made their choice.
It is left for us to prepare for a review of Nigeria-America relations. He (Trump) has a global vision that many Nigerians do not share. It is a lesson for Nigeria to re-examine how to handle its relationship with the US because it is a serious challenge.
Nigeria now has to go to the drawing board and make sure we are not shortchanged in our relationship with the US. We should do our very best to make the best out of this present situation.
It is a funny situation that most Africans, generally, did not expect.
What we have to do now is to work out our own plans and be sure that we put our acts together to revisit our own policies which are demand for global peace and the development of our country. The strategy that we now have to adopt will be dictated by the policy perspective and the worldview of the man who is coming to take over in Washington.
Prof. Tunde Adeniran (A former Nigerian Ambassador to Germany)
Punch
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