SIR: The US president, Donald Trump, has stirred the hornets’ nest with his controversial diplomatic recklessness that elicited mixed reactions in the country. President Trump is reported by Financial Times to have told his aides he does not want to meet another lifeless president. The statement came in anticipation of scheduled meeting with the Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta. It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari visited President Trump in April this year. The meeting between the two presidents was first since Buhari became the president and centred on security, economy and Nigeria-US relationship. The meeting witnessed the signing of bilateral agreements between Nigeria and US on security, trade and economic growth. If the outcomes of the meeting are fruitful as many people believed, it therefore came to many of us as surprise for Donald Trump to describe Buhari as ‘lifeless’. Although, looking at the Trump’s disdainful and disrespectful attitude, he could have uttered or say something worse than that. After all, it is on record that Trump once described Africa as a “shit-hole”.
President Donald Trump has little respect for World leaders. His comments on Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau calling him “meek and mild” and his reference to Germany leader, Angela Merkel’s action as insane etc. are cases in point. It is therefore, not surprising if Trump’s resorted to such name calling.
African countries should expect more unpleasant comments from Trump and his co-travellers. The reasons for all these names calling are not far-fetched. Leaders of developed countries look at African countries as haven of corruption, conflict, diseases and poverty. They also see African countries as dependent that go cap in hand for foreign aids and military assistance. What do you expect from these world leaders when 87 million Nigerians are living on less than $1per-day? We should be preparing for more insults so long our economic policies are not favourable to provision of job opportunities to our un-employed youth, instead, sending them to untimely death while trying to cross the Mediterranean. The global migration crisis is partly blamed on poverty, conflict and corruption. These problems deeply characterized the African continent.
Donald Trump’s recklessness and insults should serve as a wakeup call to our African leaders. There is urgent need for African leaders to build state of art hospitals to reduce the frequent medical tourism. Our African leaders should come up with good policies that will address the high rate of corruption, unemployment and poverty. There is also the need for the promotion of good governance. Once African countries adopted these far-reaching measures, they will rapidly grow and become the envy of advanced countries. This development will restrain the likes of Trump from making disparaging remarks about Nigeria and other African countries.
- Ibrahim Mustapha,
Pambegua, Kaduna State.