The Nation Newspaper

Tag: America

  • How America’s new vaccine policy could reshape child health outcomes

    How America’s new vaccine policy could reshape child health outcomes

    Public health experts across the United States have raised urgent concerns following a sweeping revision of the country’s childhood immunisation schedule, warning that the move could weaken population-wide protection against preventable diseases and reverse decades of progress in child health. Under new guidance issued by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), routine childhood vaccination in the United States will now cover protection against 11 diseases—down from a broader schedule that previously included vaccines for influenza, rotavirus, hepatitis A and B, certain forms of meningitis, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

    Vaccines removed from the routine list will now be offered only to children considered medically high-risk or through what officials describe as “shared decision-making” between families and healthcare providers. The overhaul, requested by President Donald Trump in December and long advocated by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., marks one of the most consequential shifts in US vaccine policy in decades. While the administration insists the changes are intended to rebuild trust in public health institutions, critics argue that the decision undermines scientific consensus and exposes children to unnecessary risk.

    In a statement, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the revised schedule followed a review of immunisation practices in 20 peer nations, concluding that the United States had become an “outlier” in the number of vaccines recommended for all children. “This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy said. President Trump, writing on his Truth Social platform, described the new schedule as “far more reasonable” and claimed it aligns the US with other developed countries. Officials also stressed that vaccines removed from the routine list remain available and that insurance coverage would not be withdrawn for families who choose to receive them.

    Vaccines that remain broadly recommended include those against measles, mumps and rubella, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, chickenpox and human papillomavirus (HPV). However, the updated guidance reduces HPV vaccination to a single dose for most children, down from the previous two- or three-dose regimen depending on age. That change has drawn particular criticism from cancer specialists, who note that HPV vaccination has been shown to significantly reduce rates of cervical and other HPV-related cancers.

    Medical associations and public health experts have widely condemned both the substance of the changes and the manner in which they were introduced, arguing that they bypassed established scientific processes and public consultation. Michael Osterholm, director of the Vaccine Integrity Project at the University of Minnesota, warned that scaling back recommendations for vaccines that protect against influenza, hepatitis and rotavirus would have serious consequences. “Abandoning these vaccines and altering the HPV schedule without a transparent public process to weigh risks and benefits will lead to more hospitalisations and preventable deaths among American children,” he said.

    The American Academy of Paediatrics echoed those concerns, cautioning that international comparisons fail to account for disease patterns specific to the United States. “You can’t just copy and paste public health,” said Dr Sean O’Leary, chair of the Academy’s Committee on Infectious Diseases. “That’s essentially what they appear to be doing here.”

    The American Medical Association also criticised the process, with its president, Dr Sandra Fryhofer, noting that policy changes of such scale demand rigorous scientific review and expert input. “Changes of this magnitude require careful review, public engagement, and clear scientific justification. That level of rigour and transparency was not part of this decision,” she said. In response to the revised federal guidance, paediatricians and major medical groups have released their own alternative immunisation schedule, continuing to recommend vaccines dropped by the administration. O’Leary highlighted influenza as a critical example, noting that 280 children died from flu-related complications last winter—the highest toll since 2009.

    Senior HHS officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that the revised recommendations were developed largely by political appointees rather than the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices (ACIP), which traditionally evaluates vaccine evidence and issues guidance. Scientists within the agency were reportedly restricted to presenting international comparisons and barred from making formal recommendations.

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    The decision comes at a particularly sensitive moment for US public health. Childhood vaccination rates have been declining steadily in recent years, while requests for vaccine exemptions are at record highs. At the same time, outbreaks of measles and whooping cough—diseases once close to elimination—are again being reported in several states. Public health experts warn that removing vaccines from the routine schedule sends a powerful signal to parents that those immunisations are optional or unnecessary, even when decades of evidence demonstrate their effectiveness.

    Comparisons with other countries, critics argue, are also selectively framed. France, for instance, currently recommends vaccination against 14 diseases for children—three more than the US under the new guidance. Other countries achieve high disease control not by limiting vaccines but through stronger uptake, robust public trust, and consistent messaging. Kennedy, a long-time vaccine sceptic, has been a controversial figure in public health circles. Since assuming office, he has directed the CDC to drop COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women, disbanded its advisory committee, and ordered changes to the agency’s stance on vaccines and autism despite the absence of new scientific evidence linking the two.

    Supporters of the administration argue that the changes empower parents and restore confidence in a system many Americans have come to distrust. Critics counter that weakening routine recommendations risks normalising vaccine hesitancy at a time when trust in science is already fragile.

    For paediatricians on the front lines, the concern is immediate and practical. Fewer routine recommendations could translate into fewer vaccinations, more preventable illnesses, and renewed strain on hospitals and healthcare systems. As debates continue, one point of consensus remains clear among medical professionals: vaccination policy is not merely a matter of choice or comparison, but a cornerstone of population health. Whether the revised schedule strengthens trust or erodes protection may become evident not in policy statements, but in disease surveillance data—and in the health outcomes of children.

  • America’s lost credibility will take a generation to rebuild

    America’s lost credibility will take a generation to rebuild

    By Ian Bremmer

    This will be a tipping-point year. The biggest source of global instability won’t be China, Russia, Iran, or any of the 60-odd conflicts burning across the planet (the most since World War II). It will be the United States.

    This conclusion runs throughout the Eurasia Group’s Top Risks 2026 report.

    The world’s most powerful country and architect of the postwar global order is now actively unwinding that order, led by a president who is more committed to, and capable of, reshaping America’s international role than any of his modern predecessors.

    Last weekend offered a preview of what this will mean in practice. After months of escalating pressure – sanctions, a massive naval deployment, and a full oil blockade – US special forces captured Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and flew him to New York City to face criminal charges.

    A dictator removed and brought to justice with no American casualties – it was President Donald Trump’s cleanest military win yet.

    Trump has already branded his approach to the Western Hemisphere the “Donroe Doctrine.”

    It is his version of President James Monroe’s 19th-century assertion of US primacy in the Americas.

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    But whereas Monroe warned European powers to stay out of America’s neighborhood, Trump is using military pressure, economic coercion, and personal score-settling to bend the region to his will. And he’s just getting started.

    The disturbing implications of a US president recklessly playing geopolitical monopoly.

    The spheres-of-influence framework

    “America First” isolationism this is not. Simultaneously, the US is becoming more, not less, entangled with Israel and various Gulf states.

    Trump’s willingness to strike Iran last year and meddle in European politics doesn’t exactly scream retrenchment, either.

    Nor does the spheres-of-influence framework fit what he is doing. That label implies that Trump is carving up the world with rival powers, each staying in their own lane.

    But his administration just sent Taiwan its largest-ever arms package, and its Indo-Pacific posture does not evince a desire to cede Asia to China.

    Trump’s foreign policy doesn’t run on traditional axes like allies versus adversaries, democracies versus autocracies, or strategic competition versus cooperation.

    If the answer is no, and you have something he wants, you are a target. If the answer is yes, you can probably cut a deal.

    A simpler calculus is at work: Can you hit back hard enough to hurt the man in charge?

    In the case of Venezuela, Trump wanted to topple Maduro, and there was nothing Maduro could do to stop him.

    He had no allies willing to act, no military capable of retaliating, and no leverage over anything Trump cared about. So, he was removed.

    Never mind that Venezuela’s entire regime structure remains intact, and that any transition to a stable democratic government will be messy, contested, and largely Venezuela’s to manage (or mismanage).

    Trump is content with Venezuela continuing to be run by the same repressive regime, as long as it agrees to do his bidding (indeed, he chose this arrangement over an opposition-led government).

    The law of the jungle

    The threat of “or else” appears to be working so far. Trump has just announced that Venezuela’s “new” authorities will hand over 30-50 million barrels of oil to the US, with the proceeds “controlled by me, as president.”

    Moreover, continued success in Venezuela, however narrowly defined, will embolden Trump to double down on this approach and push further – whether in Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico, or Greenland.

    On the other end of the spectrum is China. When Trump escalated tariffs last year, the Chinese retaliated with export restrictions on rare earths and critical minerals – essential ingredients for a broad array of 21st-century consumer and military products.

    With US vulnerabilities exposed, Trump was forced to back down. Now, he’s intent on maintaining détente and securing a deal at all costs.

    America is unilaterally exercising power wherever Trump thinks he can get away with it, uncoupled from the norms, bureaucratic processes, alliance structures, and multilateral institutions that once gave US leadership legitimacy.

    What we are dealing with here is not grand strategy, but the law of the jungle

    As constraints tighten elsewhere – voters angry about affordability ahead of this year’s midterm elections, for example, and shrinking US trade leverage – Trump is eager to cement his legacy.

    His willingness to take risks on the security side, where he remains largely unconstrained, will only grow.

    The Western Hemisphere happens to be an especially prey-rich habitat – and one where the US has asymmetric leverage that no one can counter. Trump can score easy wins with minimal pushback and costs.

    America’s lost credibility

    But Trump’s approach is hardly confined to America’s immediate neighborhood.

    If it wasn’t clear already, the administration’s threats against Greenland show that Europe is also in its sights.

    The continent’s three largest economies – the United Kingdom, France, and Germany – all entered the new year with weak, unpopular governments besieged by populists within.

    With Russia at their doorstep, the Trump administration is openly backing far-right parties that would further fragment the continent.

    EU Leaders, Volodymyr Zelensky

    Unless Europeans find ways to gain leverage and credibly impose costs that Trump cares about – and soon – they will feel the same squeeze he’s applying across the Western Hemisphere

    For most countries, responding to an unpredictable, unreliable, and dangerous US is now an urgent priority. Some will fail, and some will succeed.

    It may already be too late for Europe to adapt, but China is in a stronger position, content to let its chief rival undermine itself.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping can afford to play the long game. He will be in power well after Trump’s term ends in 2029.

    The damage to American power itself will persist past this administration. Alliances, partnerships, and credibility aren’t just nice to have.

    They are force multipliers, giving the US leverage that raw military and economic power alone cannot sustain.

    Trump is burning through that inheritance, treating it as a constraint rather than an asset.

    He is governing as though American power operates outside of time, and as if he can reshape the world by force without lasting consequence.

    But the alliances he’s shredding won’t snap back when the next president takes office.

    America’s lost credibility will take a generation to rebuild if it can be rebuilt at all. That is why 2026 is a tipping-point year – not because we know how things will end, but because we are already starting to see what happens when the country that wrote the rules decides it no longer wants to play by them.

    • This article was originally published in www.kyivpost.com

  • An American illusion

    An American illusion

    • Genocide in Nigeria? Perish the thought

    For weeks now, the word genocide has buzzed around in the United States that Christians in Nigeria are faced with existential threat and require state support to save them. There have been attempts to twist the facts about the insecurity in the country to suit the narrative that the violence rocking parts of the country is informed by religious disputes. Nothing could be further from the truth.

    The security crisis in the country that started in 2009 is known to the whole world to have been religion blind; the Boko Haram that started then has attacked security outposts irrespective of the religion of the commander. Besides, there is no military or police unit that is composed of only Christians or Muslims. The insurgents are known to also have attacked mosques and churches, clerics across religious divides and denominations, markets have been sacked, and school children have been abducted in their hundreds without recourse to their beliefs across the North East zone.

     It had since burst out of the region to the North West and the North Central. Whereas the North East crisis has been largely the Boko Haram sect. buoyed by the Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP) operating across Chad, Cameroon and migrating southwards from the Sahel,

    what we have in Nigeria – be it the insurgency in the North East or the banditry in the North West or the kidnapping in other parts of the country – is pure criminality. When people are kidnapped, it is usually for ransom to sustain their nefarious activities and supplement the financing that comes from across the borders. In Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Kebbi States, when the criminals strike, it is Muslims who are majority in the area, who get killed. But when villages and towns in Southern Kaduna, Plateau and Benue come under attack, Christians are mainly those who are victims because they are in the majority in the area.

    What Nigeria needs now is help from the international community to contain the crisis, not condemnation. Had there been mass murder of Christians in parts of the country, the vocal Christian community would have cried out, especially if it is true that a number of Catholic priests and in some cases, seminaries, have come particularly under attack. But, even then, the very active and outspoken Catholic Bishops are not known to have attributed it to a war against the denomination. Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto Diocese who has been an activist for ages is not known to have cried out that his people are singled out.

    It is unfortunate that the matter has been taken to the American Congress with a view to getting Nigeria enlisted among Countries of Particular Concern, a group comprising Iran, Nicaragua, Central African Republic, Vietnam, North Korea, Tarjikstan, Burma, among others. They are countries deemed by the US to be engaging in or tolerating violation of religious freedom. Anyone conversant with Nigeria and its composition knows that it is impossible for a religion to dominate others up to the point of engaging in genocide. As a multicultural society, there are occasional skirmishes across cultural, communal and religion lines in various parts of the country, but they are not permanent, nor are they backed by the state.

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    Everyone knows that Nigeria cannot survive a religious war. It is bound to lead to Mutually Assured Destruction. Besides, the composition of government at the centre that controls the agencies of coercion makes it impossible to order the annihilation of a people

    It is interesting that both Houses of the National Assembly have taken up the challenge. The United States authorities that have started the process of having a Bill to so enlist Nigeria should listen to their counterparts from Nigeria. Senate President Godswill Akpabio who is not only the presiding officer of the upper legislative chamber but also chairman of the federal legislature is a Christian, while the presiding officer at the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas is a Muslim.

    As former Foreign Affairs Minister, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, has said, the matter should not be taken lightly. All agencies of government, diplomatic, security and legislative should get involved to stave off the likely consequences of enlisting Nigeria in the group as it could affect not only the country’s image, but equally lead to economic sanctions. Given the position of the United States as leader of the western powers, this could have devastating effect on our tottering economy. Men like Ted Cruz who champions the crusade in the US should be made to retract the campaign. Christian groups like the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) should voluntarily speak out louder on the side of truth to assure all that the crisis in Nigeria is not religious. They should reach out to their counterparts in the US, including men like Senator Ted Cruz who should be told to stop taking up a battle that Nigerian Christians are not fighting. If about 50,000 Nigerian Christians have been killed as he and his fellow travellers have claimed, Nigeria would have fully exploded before now.

    Nigeria belongs to all and truth should not be made a casualty of the campaign.

  • To whom it may still concern

    To whom it may still concern

    I write this not as a heart in mourning, a conscience under siege. Being in a nation where the noise of sirens has become a lullaby, and the scent of gunpowder no longer startles but settles like dust, I find myself asking, again and again: Is America still concerned?

    Because if we are truly concerned, how can we live with the silence that follows five gunshots in a mall in Waterbury, Connecticut?

    On May 28, inside the Brass Mill Centre, a place that should echo with laughter, music, teenage flirtations and the occasional hum of a food court, five people were injured in a burst of gunfire. The shooter, 19-year-old Tajuan Washington, reportedly had a personal conflict that spiraled into something else entirely. Not a school shooting. Not terrorism. Just another “incident,” another “dispute” that turned five lives into statistics. The mayor called it “an awful thing that makes people feel unsafe,” but what language is left for a country where malls, movie theatres, parades, schools, and churches can all become crime scenes before sundown?

    America cannot say it didn’t see it coming. In fact, it has grown so accustomed to seeing it that it barely reacts anymore. Local news reported that the mayor is requesting $2 million in violence prevention funding. That’s a drop in the ocean when you consider what has been taken, not just lives and blood, but innocence, safety, and trust.

    But perhaps no story from this past week haunts me more than the one from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. In that quiet suburban cul-de-sac, Rodney Shippy, 58, killed his 10-year-old son Logan and his 20-year-old daughter Alyssa before turning the gun on himself. He also killed the family dog. All of them found together, inside the home where they once celebrated birthdays, watched movies, maybe even said bedtime prayers.

    I can’t stop picturing Alyssa, twenty years old, with a whole life ahead and little Logan, just a boy. I wonder if he still had his baby teeth. I wonder if he was asleep when it happened. I wonder if he called out for help. But no one came. Because there was no one left. His mother and grandmother had both taken their own lives months earlier. This wasn’t a singular tragedy; it was a collapse. A lineage swallowed by despair.

    What happens when trauma becomes hereditary? When sadness metastasizes like an ailment passed from a parent to a child? Oklahoma has been wrestling with the consequences of untreated mental illness and rising domestic violence for years. In 2023, domestic violence-related homicides hit a record high in the state. How many families need to vanish before mental health is treated like the emergency it is?

    Meanwhile, in Greenville, Mississippi, an 18-year-old football player named Alex Foster, newly recruited to Baylor University, was found shot to death in his car. There were no suspects at the time of reporting. No answers. Just a mother somewhere wondering why her son, her baby, didn’t come home. Just a city imposing a curfew as if curfews could protect against the rot inside the bones of a country that seems to raise boys for burial instead of brilliance.

    They called Alex a rising star. I’m tired of hearing that phrase. So many of America’s brightest stars are being extinguished before they can shine fully; they are shot down in streets, cars and at homes before we even know what they could’ve become. Scientists. Artists. Fathers. Dreamers. Gone.

    And then there is Washington, D.C., where four members of the so-called “Get Back Gang” have now pleaded guilty to multiple murders and drive-by shootings. These were not men in suits playing power games in boardrooms. These were young men, caught in cycles of retaliation, chaos, and desperation. Southeast D.C. has long been marked by a pattern of violence that doesn’t make the national headlines unless there’s an election nearby. These kids did not wake up one day and decide to kill. They grew up in places where the state failed to protect, to educate, to nurture. The gang was their safety net. Their family. Their reckoning.

    I’m tired of America’s willful amnesia. It acts shocked when these stories break, then move on with the next TikTok trend or scandal. But these are not aberrations. They are the symptoms of a system in need of redemption.

    In New York City, violence simmers not just in gunfire but in everyday commutes. Assaults in the subway are up 19 per cent in the last five months, with police officers and Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers increasingly the targets. That’s not just crime; it’s a measure of how fractured the social contract has become. You cannot pack hundreds of thousands of people into a city, strip away mental health resources, housing, employment, and expect peace to bloom out of chaos.

    We’re told, however, that the national murder rate is dropping. The FBI reported a nearly 12 per cent decline in homicides in 2023, and early 2025 projections are even more optimistic. On paper, things are getting better. But paper doesn’t hold candles at vigils. Paper doesn’t explain why millions of Americans still feel unsafe in schools, churches, homes, and trains.

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    We live in a country of paradoxes. Fewer murders, but more mass shootings. Lower crime rates, but higher fear. The dissonance between statistics and lived experience is growing, and it is fertile ground for apathy and disillusionment.

    And now, as the trial for Bryan Kohberger (accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in 2022) looms, we are forced once again to confront the brutality of senseless loss. Four lives ended. Four families grieving. The prosecution will present a knife purchase, a criminology essay, a chilling digital trail. And yet, even this story, which once gripped the nation, now competes for attention with the next tragedy on the horizon.

    Even the justice system is overwhelmed. In D.C., a man named Darrell Moore, once granted early release from a life sentence, was convicted of another murder just eight months later. He was given a second chance, and someone else paid for it with their life. What do we do with that kind of pain? How does a country where mercy and accountability seem unevenly applied ensure balance?

    This is not a letter of answers. It is a letter of aching questions. It is a howl in the dark. A lament for a country numbed by repetition. A prayer for the souls lost in violence and for the ones still clinging to life in its shadow.

    I fear Americans and other residents are adjusting their expectations downward to the extent that they now teach their children not how to live, but how to survive and they raise them not to dream, but to duck.

    My final take: But I still believe. I believe in communities that rally after tragedy. In parents who choose love despite their pain. In teachers who shelter their students during active shooter drills and then go home and weep alone. I believe in the tired social worker, the determined youth counsellor, the neighbour who calls 911 because she can’t ignore the screams next door anymore.

    And I believe in the power of remembering. Of refusing to let these names, these places, these heartbreaks fade into forgettable blur. Because the moment we stop caring is the moment we become complicit.

    So, to whoever still reads this, to whoever still feels, please do not look away.

  • Reps raise alarm over state of Nigerian missions in America

    Reps raise alarm over state of Nigerian missions in America

    The House of Representatives has expressed concern over the state of Nigeria missions in the United States of America leading to decay of infrastructure and failure to pay staff salaries for one year.

    In a motion of urgent national importance sponsored by Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda, the House resolved to investigate the administrative, financial, and infrastructural conditions of Nigeria’s Missions in New York, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.

    The House asked the federal government to immediately appoint the Nigerian Permanent Representative at the United Nations and High Commissioner to the United States of America.

    In addition, the lawmakers asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the office of the Accountant General of Nigeria to urgently intervene in the situation in the United States missions and save the mission (and other affected missions) from imminent ridicule, embarrassment and operational difficulties.

    The House investigation is to ascertain the causes of salary arrears, budgetary shortfalls, and mismanagement of allocated funds and propose long-term recommendations to restore efficiency, professionalism, and dignity in Nigeria’s Foreign Service operations.

    Leading the debate on the motion, Chinda expressed concern about the disturbing and embarrassing findings during the recent oversight visit of the Nigeria-United States of America Parliamentary Friendship Group to Nigeria’s Mission Houses in New York, Atlanta and Washington D.C.

    He said mutual diplomatic representation is very crucial for promoting understanding and international cooperation amongst various countries, and projecting a positive image of Nigeria among the comity of nations.

    He said with dismay that the Nigerian Mission House in New York is reportedly indebted in rent payments and has left over thirty staff without salaries for over a year; while in Washington D.C., the elevator in the Mission House was only repaired after a patriotic Nigerian intervened to restore it, an act which while noble, underscores gross negligence and systemic dysfunction in the running of Nigeria’s foreign Missions.

    He drew attention of the House to the provision of S.19 (a), (b), (c) and (e) of the 1999 Constitution which deals with the Foreign Policy Objectives of Nigeria, and underscores the key elements such as promotion and protection of the national interest, promotion of African integration and support for African unity, promotion of international cooperation for the consolidation of Universal peace, and promotion of a just world Economic order.

    He said further that “in furtherance of the above Provisions, particularly the need for the promotion of international cooperation, Nigeria maintains several diplomatic missions globally comprising embassies, high commissions and consulates Charged with representing Nigeria’s interests, strengthening bilateral ties, facilitating consular services, and supporting Nigerian citizens in diaspora.

    “These foreign missions serve as a means of interface for the Nigerian government, foreign governments and other international organisations, and are strategic for advancing our diplomatic, economic, cultural and technical aid policies. The USA hosts several important international organisations, including the United Nations (UN).

    “For two years running, Nigeria has failed to replace Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Nigerian High Commissioner to the USA, who chairs the Committee on Peace. This dereliction, among other issues, has created a negative perception of Nigeria globally and will potentially harm our aspiration for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

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    “The fact that in recent times, Nigerian missions have been beset with several challenges, such as poor state of the mission houses, poor state of infrastructure and facilities, inability to pay staff salaries, ineffective diplomatic participation, and neglect of strategic foreign policy engagements, amongst others.

    “Despite receiving yearly budgetary allocations appropriated for their smooth operations, including running costs, maintenance of facilities and staff welfare, the dwindling value of the naira has made the same very inadequate, and the missions are therefore unable to meet their obligations, especially in the USA.

    “Nigeria’s international image is severely undermined by such appalling neglect, mismanagement, and administrative decay in key diplomatic outposts – especially in the US, where Nigeria maintains strategic interests and aspirations, including her long-standing quest for & permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

    “There is an Urgent ne investigate this state of affairs in the United States ascertaining the true situation of things.

    “Unless very urgent and pragmatic steps are immediately taken to investigate and address this issue, the country may lose its respect in the eyes of its citizenry and may, in the long run, plunge the country into ridicule and irrelevance among global actors. 

  • OID lauds Makinde, appoints Ex-NIDOE chair to lead North America chapter

    OID lauds Makinde, appoints Ex-NIDOE chair to lead North America chapter

    The Omituntun Initiative in the Diaspora (OID), the good governance professional action group, has announced the appointment of Mogaji Kayode Ogunsola as its chairman for North America, overseeing activities of the group in the United States and Canada. 

    The professional group also lauded Governor Makinde’s administration for its outstanding performance in delivering the dividends of democracy. 

    The group noted  the Governor’s economic reforms and people-friendly policies under the Omituntun 1.0 (2019–2023) and Omituntun 2.0 (2023–2027) agendas have driven development across critical sectors such as infrastructure, health, security, education, agribusiness, tourism, and solid minerals.

    IOID Convener, Mr Moses Eledan, approved the appointment of Oguntola, which was announced in a statement signed by the OID spokesperson, Barrister Ayotomiwa Adebayo. 

    According to the release, Mogaji Ogunsola is a former Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe (NIDOE), UK chapter. 

    He served as General Manager and Deputy Director for Business Development and Investment (Finance) at the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Aviation.

    Ogunsola holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from the University of Ibadan, an Executive MBA from Cranfield University School of Management, a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of London and a Postgraduate in Information Systems Design from the University of Westminster, UK. He is pursuing a PhD in Europe.

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    “We are grateful for his willingness to serve and confident that he will be a tremendous asset to the organisation. Mogaji Ogunsola brings to OID over 30 years of extensive multinational corporate experience, both locally and internationally,” the release added.

    Ogunsola expressed gratitude for the opportunity to serve and reaffirmed his commitment to OID’s mission and values. 

    He praised Makinde, for his visionary leadership and unwavering dedication to public service. 

    Describing the Governor as ‘a servant leader who has made the noble sacrifice of offering himself in service to the people.’

    Ogunsola also described Makinde as a promise keeper capable of turning vision into tangible progress. 

    He further described Makinde as the best-performing governor in Nigeria, applauding his administration for laying a strong foundation for citizen-focused governance and setting a national standard for socio-economic development.

    Mogaji Ogunsola also commended OID members across North America and the global diaspora for their consistent support and commitment to Governor Makinde’s administration. He reaffirmed that OID North America—and its international network—will continue to stand firmly behind the governor and support any future political aspirations he may pursue beyond 2027.

    Speaking about Makinde’s performance, OID noted:  “The efforts of Governor Makinde have positioned Oyo State on a path from poverty to prosperity,” the statement read. “The results are evidence-based and verifiable, reflecting a significant boost in the state’s economic performance under Governor Makinde’s leadership.”

    “We in the diaspora are truly proud of Governor Makinde’s extraordinary achievements and will continue to support his progressive vision for good governance.”

  • America: Age of the illegitimates

    America: Age of the illegitimates

    Donald J. Trump, America’s huff-and-puff, hot-and-cold president, probably knows pretty little outside his contrived MAGA tribe, and its culture of fashionable chaos.

    If he did, this Yoruba saying should have tweaked his cocky ears: harmony reigns in a home, only because the illegitimates in there have not come of age! 

    America’s illegitimates have not only come of age, they are gung-ho under Trump: thinking their home-brewed chaos is some new global high culture!  Witness: Trump’s irrational tariff world war, which not a few of them hail. 

    How deluded — and may their feverish delusion endure! What empire lasts forever?

    The biting irony with Trump begins with his wild deportations.  How can the grandson of a settler German, that emigrated to the United States in 1885, expel other settlers? 

    The family’s original German name, from their Kallstadt nativity, was Drumpf, which morphed to Trumpff and later still to Trump, among its many variants.  Trump sounds more English than German. Then, to boot: Donald’s mum was a Scot! 

    Pray, were Germans and Scots then native Indian-Americans, that the savage White tribe cancelled to take over America?  Did Germans even count among the Anglo originals that staged the famous Boston Tea Party of 1773, on the unimpeachable basis of no taxation sans representation?

    That rebellion by colonists from the British Isles, against own British Crown, would drive the American Revolution that eventually birthed the United States in 1776.

    But if a man, 78, shows little introspection in contemporary things, how can he — and his ilk — drink and be chastened by the well of history?  Which explains why there appears no rime or reason to the many Trump executive bumbling — sorry — orders!

    But there is another layer of piquant irony, in the happy lunacy of Trump’s America — Elon Musk: Trump’s fixer-in-chief to smash Uncle Sam’s federal bureaucracy.

    You’re well and truly ripped — even if comically — at a Dutch/Afrikaan-born of apartheid-era South Africa, with its holy orthodoxy of White supremacism, bob up with a load of cash as an “American”, preaching present-day White victim-hood in his native country, a former blind den of White oppression!

    South Africa has given short shrift to Musk’s White cry-baby campaign — and just as well!  In truth, beyond bullying propaganda, there is nothing there.

    But again, the irony ripples with old man Trump’s characteristically knee-jerk reflex, on his so-called Truth Social: “They are taking the land of white farmers, and then killing them and their families …” — presidential tears, dip, dip!  What crap!  Truth social, indeed!  More of fibs anti-social!

    Trump then pushed his presidential jeremiad into an executive invite: South African White farmers should relocate to America — the same guy shooing Blacks, Asians, Hispanics and sundry folks, off the United States!  Any further proof that MAGA is nothing more than make America White again (MAWA)? The irony is totally lost on him!

    But as they say here, in our pidgin high street, “las, las, America go dey alright”!  America will fix own demons!  Elections, after all, do have consequences!

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    The victims here though, are the many Africans in the diaspora. As they are finding out, fleeing own country to dodge developmental pangs, for “easy life” in “saner climes”, has limited value.  Hurricane Trump is living proof!

    Still, how Trump treats those who elected him is an American problem — no dog in that fight.  But extending his American bullying, to the rest of the globe, is a grave concern. It’s potent tinder for wild blazes, in this season of global harmattan.

    Trump clearly thinks China is an outpost of America, much the same as Canada: which he deems its 51st state; its prime minister, who he nettles as “governor”; Mexico, a contemptible footstool; and Greenland, an ogled pearl he must snatch from Denmark!

    Trump’s China explosion on X, tells the story, unfiltered:

    “Yesterday, China issued retaliatory tariffs of 34%, on top of their already record setting tariffs, non-monetary tariffs, illegal subsidization of companies, and massive long-term currency manipulation, despite my warning that any country that retaliates, above and beyond their already existing long-term tariff abuse of our nation, will be immediately met with new and substantially higher tariffs, over and above those initially set.

    “Therefore, if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long-term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th.  Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! …”

    Insufferable, wasn’t that?  The global emperor had roared!  In another tweet, he moaned about how China “disrespects” the United States! But doesn’t respect beget respect?

    What China did — and admirably so — was confront the bully.  No matter what happens, Beijing had triumphed on that front — for Trump’s bully power is off. 

    As for respect, a bully doesn’t crave respect.  He thrives on fear.  But with the fear factor off, Trump lost his ace.  On tariff, it’s tit-for-tat.  We’ll see who blinks first!

    Tragically for Trump, the initial blinking — though in the dark! — appears from own corner.  First: exempting cell phones, computers and allied micro-chip products, where China and India hold the ace.  Then, freezing, for 90 days, the latest tariffs, earlier announced with aplomb!  So much for high-wire bluff and bluster!

    But it all goes back to old man Trump’s shallow core.  A more deliberative guy should have known that China — and others’ rise in Asia — resulted  from American capitalist greed.

    Voila! — they trumpeted globalization!  But that was a veil for cheap overseas labour, since they could no longer bear Americans’ high local wage bill. 

    Now, who will cover America’s flanks, from its president that knows little outside projecting raw power — as a minor showing off his latest audacious toy — and hankering after “deals”, no matter how obscene or soulless?

    Has anyone even told Trump that his tariff world war only cuts up the global trade order, hitherto infernally rigged to sate American capital greed?

    Or that his no-friend-no-foe tariff war only rips apart western cohesion — the most hegemonic tribe of this age that has imposed its ethos on other cultures? 

    Ironically, Trump’s hot labour should breed new trade alliances — and eventually throw overboard the bully, yet smiling, West?  About time!

    Trump swore to — open sesame! — end the Russia-Ukraine War.  But his peculiar magic is clear: reward the aggressor, bludgeon the victim!

    As for Israel versus Hamas in Gaza, all hail his El-dorado: an Arab riviera, built with US capital, but with native Gazans firmly shut out!  Sweet, isn’t that? 

    But since the Arab world wouldn’t  take that “deal”, from the ultimate deal-maker, war-hawk Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Nethanyahu, could continue his bombing spree — though Hamas’s hare-brained raid of Israel, on 7 October 2023, earns part-blame for that catastrophe.

    America’s illegitimates bay and roar to crash, in four years, alliances Uncle Sam had built over centuries!  To cash in, Nigeria must get its acts together!

  • New face of America

    New face of America

    Enormously much has changed in the political character of the United States of America. Nothing illustrates this more pointedly, perhaps, than the touted third term bid by President Donald Trump. To be sure, it is a long way from late 2000s when former President Barack Obama tutored Africa about strong institutions and not strongmen being an invariable recipe for economic and political emancipation.

    On his first official trip as US president to the heart of Africa in July 2009, Obama sermonised to nations on the continent how to get out of the mire. “Africa’s future is up to Africans,” he said in a speech to the Ghanaian parliament that he expected to resonate wide. On political office tenure, he stated: “Make no mistake: history is on the side of these brave Africans, and not with those who use coups or change constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.” In 2015 during a tour of some African states in the closing months of his presidency, he revisited the issue. Speaking at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he called on the body to ensure leaders respect their respective constitution and step down when their term ends. “Nobody should be president for life,” he stated.

    Read Also: Edo moves to resolve dispute over ceding of oil wells to Delta state

    It is doubtful if Obama recognises his own country today with the bid by incumbent President Trump, who lately said he was contemplating serving a third term in the Oval Office, and that he wasn’t joking about it. Trump served as president from 2016 to 2020, and is currently into a second term from 2025 to 2028. But he made clear he wasn’t ruling out seeking a third term. “A lot of people want me to do it,” he said in a phone interview with an American news medium. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.” Asked whether he really wanted another term, the president responded, “I like working,” adding that he was “not joking” about trying to serve a third term

    The 22nd Amendment, added to the American Constitution in 1951 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected four times in a row, says “no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.” Amending the constitution to scrap the two-term limit would require either a two-thirds vote by Congress or two-thirds of the states agreeing to call a constitutional convention to propose changes. Either route would then require ratification by three-quarters of the states. It is a tortuous road to such amendment, but Trump gave indication of having some jokers up his sleeves. “There are methods  by which you could do it,” he said.

    It’s Trump era in America. Who knows: Nigeria may sometime soon be in a position to teach the country one thing or two about democratic probity. Who knows!

  • America: The plantation

    America: The plantation

    By Abraham Ariyo

    Beneath the widely celebrated American slogan, “Only in America,” lies a reality unknown to the majority. The Founding Fathers envisioned this nation as a domain exclusively for White men of wealth and power. Had their original framework remained intact, individuals such as Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, the embattled Kash Patel, and others would have been returned to India. Similarly, Huyen Cheung, Trump’s campaign spokesperson, and others of Asian descent would have been returned to their ancestral homelands. Hispanics would have been forcibly transported to Mexico, and Black figures like Dr. Ben Carson, the conservative neurosurgeon, would have been exiled to Liberia.

    From its inception, the United States was structured to be governed by affluent White men. The first elected legislative assembly in 1619 was exclusively composed of White male landowners known as the Burgesses. During that historic gathering, they crafted the early instruments of government, outlawed drunkenness, mandated the observance of the Sabbath, and, most significantly, sanctioned slavery. The Founding Fathers, driven by economic interests, sought to capitalize on the most lucrative trade of the era—human bondage. Their efficiency was unparalleled, as demonstrated in the summer of 1619 when the first enslaved Africans arrived in America aboard the “White Lion,” a private American vessel. Having intercepted a Portuguese slaver bound from Angola, this ship redirected its human cargo to the American shores, thus inaugurating the system of free labor that would fuel the nation’s prosperity for centuries.

    Even amid extraordinary wealth and abundant prosperity, there was still extreme poverty in the land, like an unquenchable thirst. The level of opulence and abundance for the very wealthy was unimaginable, yet the level of abject poverty in the land was like hell. Enslaved individuals toiled without compensation, while poor Whites labored under conditions of subsistence wages, devoid of benefits, insurance, or retirement security. The gap between the affluent and the impoverished widened to unprecedented levels.

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    The Burgesses monopolized every facet of economic life, carving out power domains for themselves. John D. Rockefeller dominated oil, Cornelius Vanderbilt controlled shipping and railroads, and industrial titans such as Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Charles Schwab dictated the steel industry. Essential services—including banks, schools, hospitals, and fire brigades—were privatized, serving only those who could afford them. The social order was brutal: if one lacked financial means, they were denied access to education, medical care, and even emergency response. A fire brigade once arrived at a burning house to find the owner had not paid. The brigade parked before the house and watched it burn to ashes. These are not tales; these are things that have happened on this soil. This grim past serves as a harbinger of an impending reality. We are heading in that direction again.

    Although significant strides have been made toward inclusivity and social justice, education has been a key driver of progress. Yet, as I write, Mr. Trump is poised to issue an executive order dismantling the Department of Education, a move that threatens to erode hard-won advancements in access to knowledge and upward mobility.

    An economic siege is looming. History reminds us that in early America, only White male landowners could vote or hold office, wielding unchecked control over resources while leaving the working class in perpetual struggle. Today, the distribution of wealth reflects a similar paradigm: the top 1% of Americans control 30.8% of the nation’s wealth, while the next 9% holds 37%. Together, the top 10% possesses a staggering 67% of the country’s wealth. The top 50% controls 98% of wealth, leaving the bottom 50%—a demographic composed largely of Black, Brown, and poor White Americans—scrambling for a meager 2.5% share. Stock ownership is similarly skewed, with the wealthiest 1% holding 50% of all stocks while the bottom half of the population owns a mere 0.5%. These disparities are not incidental but result from deliberate policy decisions and by design.

    Trump’s tax agenda further exacerbates this inequality. His proposed tax plan seeks to dismantle agencies such as USAID, eliminate the Department of Education, and terminate healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid. These cuts are designed to redirect public funds into the pockets of the ultra-wealthy. Should these policies come to fruition, the wealthiest 10% will consolidate their grip on an estimated 85% of the nation’s wealth, leaving the remaining 90% of Americans to compete for a dwindling 15%. The bottom 50%—a staggering 166 million people—will be left with less than 0.5% of the nation’s financial resources, creating a class of “desperate workers” serving the economic elite. Meanwhile, upon arrival, a new class of “Gold Card Citizens”—individuals who purchase citizenship for $5 million—will exploit this desperate labor force for their industries and enterprises.

    The consequences extend beyond economics. With overwhelming financial dominance, the wealthiest elite will dictate the political landscape and buy elections. Already, Trump has dismantled the Independent Election Commission, consolidating electoral oversight under his direct control. This erosion of democratic safeguards threatens to entrench oligarchic rule, turning elections into transactions. The impending financial crisis will disproportionately impact Black, Brown, and impoverished White communities, plunging them into unprecedented hardship. Unlike past economic downturns—such as the 2008 recession or the COVID-19 pandemic—when public support mechanisms provided a safety net, even those lifelines will be severed this time. The elimination of public news outlets, including PBS, will further silence marginalized voices, stripping away avenues for awareness, advocacy, and hope.

    America is under siege from within. The robbery is happening; the nation is plundered in darkness, with security dismantled and the lights deliberately extinguished. The media, once a pillar of truth and accountability, has been silenced. The United States is regressing to its plantation roots, where the ruling elite controls wealth, labor, and governance while the masses toil in servitude.

    May God be with you. May God save America.

    • Ariyo is a U.S.-based cardiologist and International Bestselling author of The Heart Chronicles.

  • Mass deportation: Nigerian migrants in America live inanxiety, confusion

    Mass deportation: Nigerian migrants in America live inanxiety, confusion

    • Say policy destroying family ties, communal spirit
    • Costs of goods, services skyrocket

    In the build-up to the last general election in the United States of America (U.S), Donald, a resident who interestingly shares first name with the American President, Donald Trump, was one of the millions of people who prayed fervently that his namesake would not return to The White House. As it turned out, however, his prayer was not answered.

    The Nigerian immigrant is a regular church goer in Houston, Texas, who is yet to regularise his papers since he arrived the US about eight years ago. His prayer point was based on Trump’s open condemnation of immigrants and his threat to complete what he started in his first term by sending them back home on his second coming. “My only prayer point every time I went to church was for God to frustrate Trump’s agenda,” Donald said.

    State of confusion and distraught

    Since Trump was re-elected and sworn in on January 20, 2025, Donald (42) has not knownpeace. “I can’t go to work,’ complained the super store worker. “I’ve been at home and don’t put on my phone for fear that I would be contacted from work.

    “The streets are littered with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents and Latinos (people of Latin American descents) and Africans are their targets. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

    Going to church is no longer an option for the father of two boys aged 5 and 2. “How do I go to church? What if they pick me up on the way there? He asked rhetorically.

    Donald, who holes up at home 24/7, added: “Donald Trump is a curse to this country. I’m not happy that I bear the same name as him.”

     Different strokes for different folks

    Unlike Donald, Dele, another undocumented Nigerian immigrant who lives in Maryland, his latest settlement since he arrived in the US in 2019, does not have the luxury of a home to hide in. While Donald shackles up in the house, and avoids church, Dele has been taking refuge in a local church in Maryland. He had gone to the US to improve his lots and those of his family members in Nigeria.

    The 40-year-old, who left a wife, daughter and aged parents in Nigeria, considers himself lucky that his immediate family is not with him in the US. He has stayed put in the church since news of the mass deportation broke.

    “ICE has been picking up immigrants everywhere. I squat with some friends. They advise me not to come home for now because I might attract ICE agents to the house.

    “I’m afraid to go home. I know my pastor will not give me up in the house of God, but I can’t say the same for my hosts. Squatters are being thrown out at the slightest of provocation,” he said.

    The church has become the biblical refuge for Dele who simply told his Nigerian pastor that he has nowhere to go. Like Donald and Dele, scores of Nigerian immigrants and their African counterparts are confused and distraught.

    Breaking family ties

    Donald is battling with yet another confusion arising from one of the motley of Presidential Orders issued and signed by Trump on his first day in office: fear of being separated from his children.

    “I have two children who were born in the US, making them automatic citizens. But my wife and I don’t have papers. I cannot risk losing my children. There is a possibility that if they profile my wife and I, we can be deported while our children will be sent to foster homes,” he said.

    Donald’s children have stopped going to school. His wife, who works in a hospital, has not been to work since January 23. “I sneak out at night to buy groceries. Our money is running out because we are not earning. I pray that this whole mess blows away soonest,” he said.

    Living in fear

    Amid the anxiety and fear that loom around him like his shadow, Donald is confused, and angry. Nigeria’s former football international, Chief Paul Okoku, who has lived in the US since 1984, says undocumented immigrants live in fear and uncertainty.

    Okoku said: “The impact of President Donald J. Trump’s immigration policies, initiated during his first term and resuming on a larger scale fresh into his current administration, has profoundly affected undocumented immigrants in the United States.

    “Nigerian and other African migrants, in particular, face ongoing challenges stemming from stringent policies, mass deportations and restrictive visa regulations.

    “Under President Trump’s directives, aggressive ICE operations and expanded detention centres have created an atmosphere of fear among undocumented communities.

    “African immigrants, especially those from Nigeria, often lack extensive support networks, exacerbating their vulnerability.”

    To buttress Okoku’s point, John, a Nigerian immigrant who overstayed his visa, shared his experience of survival under extreme fear of deportation.

    He said: “I came here on an F1 visa to study engineering. After graduation, changes in H-1B visa policies during President Trump’s administration made it impossible for my employer to sponsor me.

    “Now, I do under-the-table jobs to survive. Every siren I hear makes me fear its ICE coming for me.”

    Mass raids and arrests

    Since President Trump took office on January 20, there have been raids in cities like Chicago, New York, Denver and Los Angeles.

    More than 3,500 undocumented migrants have been arrested. The first few days were devastating for immigrants who did not take the threat seriously.

    According to daily statistics published by ICE, 1,000 immigrants were arrested on the first day of operation while 969 were picked up on another day. The highest number of arrests of 1,179 so far was made on the Sunday of the first week.

    Immigration officials have described these raids as “targeted enforcement operations” which have resulted in the arrest of violent gang members and dangerous suspects, and have agents from other federal law enforcement agencies drafted to help step up arrests.

    The White House and ICE have publicised some of these arrests, showing pictures of the suspects and providing details of their countries of origin and crimes, including sexual assaults and drug-trafficking offences.

    But the White House has made it clear that any undocumented migrant caught up in these raids – whether criminals or not – will be subjected to arrest and deportation, even though simply being in the US illegally is a civil matter.

    The arrests have already had a chilling effect on many immigrant communities across the US. “We’re hearing that people are terrified, and we are getting calls left and right,” said Michael Lukens, the executive director of the Amica Centre for Immigrant Rights, an organisation which provides free legal representation to undocumented migrants detained by authorities.

    “People are scared to go to work, or to send their kids to school,” he said, adding that the Trump administration has blocked his organisation’s efforts to enter detention facilities to meet with detainees.

    “That’s exactly what the White House wants – to instill fear in people and make them leave. That’s not something we had never seen,” he said.

    Laken Riley act

    Trump has also signed the Laken Riley Act into law, requiring undocumented immigrants who are arrested for theft or violent crimes to be held in jail pending trial. The bill, named after Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student murdered last year by a Venezuelan man, according to Trump, made the government set up a 30,000-person facility for undocumented detainees, doubling the government’s holding capacity and taking the US “one step further to eliminating the scourge of migrant crime.”

    Data from the Migration Policy Institute indicated that African immigrants, though fewer in number in comparison to South and Central Americans  and other nationals or groups, face higher rates of deportation once detained.

    Fox reported that Department of Homeland Security data showed 11,791 interior ICE arrests from January 20 to February 8, compared to 4,969 during the same period in 2024; a 137% increase.

    Arrest of immigrants has soared by nearly 100% from 4,526 in the same period in 2024 to 8,993 under Trump this year.

    Notwithstanding, Trump thought the pace of arrests and deportations is too slow.  He had recently removed ICE Director Caleb Vitello in a bid to step up the process.

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    OVER 3,000 NIGERIANS FACE DEPORTATION

    In Nigeria, the Federal Government (FG) further confirmed that about 3,690 of its citizens in the US are facing deportation.

    It clarified that as of November 24, 2024, there were 1,445,549 non-citizens on ICE’s non-detained docket with final removal orders.

    While Mexico and El Salvador top the list of nations facing the most deportation, with 252,044 and 203,822 respectively, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, revealed that 201 Nigerian nationals are currently held in US immigration camps, with 85 already cleared for deportation.

    Grim reports from Atlanta to Indiana

    Ayodele Makanju, a Nigerian pastor and social commentator based in Atlanta Georgia, said US communities are wearing dry looks on account of the immigration crisis.

    Makanju said: “The socio-cultural effect is high. Because some people don’t go out due to the fear of being picked up, they can no longer go to social gatherings where they go to cool off after working hard.

    “The first two weeks were really tough for undocumented people, but it is easing up a little now. However, a lot of people are still cautious and prefer to stay home. Churches and religious homes are no go areas.

    “The streets are deserted. The kind of numbers you see at the malls and big stores are no longer there. A lot has changed since the drama began.

    “There is nothing like small and large gatherings again. People nearly stopped going out. Few come to church, unlike what we used to have, even on Sundays.

    “Partying has become a taboo here. Trump has dealt a great blow on the American bouncy communities.

    “Even people who have green cards are going out with apprehension. They go out with their documents on them to save themselves from harassment and detainment.”

    Demola Korede, another Nigerian legally living in Indiana, says departmental stores have lost their allure due to the palpable fear in the air. Supermarkets and African markets before now used to be filled with lots of activities. But right now, they are all deserted.

    In fact, the roads are empty. Everyone is indoors. If you go to the stores now, prices of goods have gone up. People who work in the morning are no longer going; it is only people going to night work that venture to go.

    “In a store where I buy groceries, they used to have about 15 cashiers; they only have three cashiers now. Some people stocked their homes with food as soon as Trump was elected, but that food will finish someday.

    “People have stopped going to parties or other gatherings for fear of being picked up. It is not a laughing matter. Trump has destroyed the fabric of American robust society.”

    He however added that immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala are the main targets of the administration.  

    IK (not real name), a Nigerian who has been in the US since 2006, says Nigerians who rooted for Trump before the election are regretting their action.

    “Not a few Nigerians, especially those who voted Republican and see the business guru as messianic agent out to stamp out cultural and social deviance, are clearly part and parcel of the pains and anguish of their less unfortunate ones.

    “Of course, there’s fear for those without papers. Losing jobs, security concerns and family separations and returning to uncertainty are unnerving.”

    Mental health and well-being

    Beyond economic and legal challenges, the psychological impact on undocumented immigrants is profound. Many experience depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress due to the constant threat of deportation. Cultural stigmas surrounding mental health in African communities often prevent individuals from seeking help.

    A community leader in Texas, who runs an African immigrant support group, noted: “Our community members are traumatised. They avoid hospitals for fear of being asked about their status and can’t call the police when in danger. The isolation is overwhelming.”

    Makanju said a person who loses income can become psychologically distressed in a short while.  

    “For someone here who has been going to work and picking his bills but cannot do so again, it will bring psychological issues, especially if you have grown-ups or children who rely on you.

    “Even people who have their documents are careful. For instance, it is advised that you should have a copy of your document on you whenever you go out, so that if you are picked up from a crowd, you can show your card and be verified immediately.”

    Fallacies of mass deportation rhetoric

    IK said the reasons given by Trump for mass deportation are fallacies. “Immigrants don’t commit more crime than citizens. Immigrants don’t take jobs from citizens as there are too many jobs for which businesses are looking for workers.”

    Korede, who dumped a bank job in Nigeria for ‘greener pasture’ in 2017, said the U.S will be the loser in the long run.

    “If you go to super stores now, you won’t see anybody. There is no patronage anymore because immigrants are the pillars of these businesses. They are the workers and they are the buyers.

    “There are many jobs that locals won’t touch but foreigners will willingly do.”

    Buttressing Chief Okoku, a financial analyst said mass deportation will have great impact on the US economy.

    “Contrary to the belief that undocumented immigrants take jobs from US citizens, many fill essential roles in industries like agriculture, construction, healthcare and domestic work. President Trump’s policies have led to increased workplace raids, pushing undocumented workers further into the shadows and causing labour shortages.

    “The National Bureau of Economic Research found that states with stricter immigration policies experienced economic downturns due to these labour gaps.”

    Korede added that Mexicans and Africans are the ones doing the dirty work. “The state of Indiana is well known for its agrarian nature. Agriculture is big here and it is the Mexicans, Haitians, and Africans doing the dirty work. They are always available for dirty jobs.

    “They no longer go out now. For them to go to any work, they now demand three times what was paid before.

    “Mexicans are the ones doing farm work. It will affect them seriously because they cannot do all the work. Prices are going up.

    “Even where I work, we are the ones doing the work. The locals don’t do overtime. It is even a problem keeping them at work. We are the ones doing overtime. US economy will suffer.”

    Economic hardship

    Makanju also warns of brutal consequences for the Nigerian economy.

    He said: “One of the sources of income in Nigeria is the remittances from the Diaspora, especially from Nigerians in the US.

    “Because these remittances are huge and they are used to support their people at home; family members, friends and loved ones will be affected.

    “If their benefactors cannot work, they cannot send money to assist family and friends. So, on both sides, there will be losses.”

    Nigerians can end up in panama

    A little-known aspect of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement strategy involves deportation agreements with third-party countries. Because of a lack of cooperation from several African and Asian nations—who often refuse to accept deported illegal immigrants—the United States have reached an agreement with third-party countries to house deportees.

    Panama has readily accepted this role, and deported immigrants from Africa, Asia and other regions are now being sent to Panama rather than their home countries. Once there, they are housed in hotels while awaiting the next steps from US immigration authorities.

    This arrangement allows the US government to bypass diplomatic standoffs with countries that refuse to accept their own nationals. However, it has also raised concerns about human rights violations and the long-term implications of keeping migrants in limbo in a foreign country.

    Describing his ordeal, a Nigerian deportee who was sent to Panama after being detained by ICE, said: “I was arrested in Texas and expected to be sent back to Nigeria, but instead, they told me I was being taken to Panama.

    “I was placed in a hotel with other deportees from different parts of the world. We have no idea what is in stock for us.”

    Immigration advocacy groups have criticised the lack of transparency in this process, arguing that migrants are being placed in indefinite detention without clear pathways for appeal or legal recourse.

    Chief Okoku said the US immigration policies will continue to provide a challenging landscape for African immigrants unless it passes through comprehensive and humane reforms.

    “For African immigrants, navigating the US immigration system remains arduous. Without comprehensive immigration reform, many will continue to live in the shadows, striving to build a future amid systemic obstacles.

    “The growing use of third-party countries as holding grounds for deportees further complicates the situation.

    “As the US strengthens its deportation efforts, the fate of thousands of immigrants remains uncertain, caught between international politics and personal survival.”

    IK is of the opinion that African leaders need to live up to global challenges. “In the 1960s and 70s, the UK looked up to Nigeria for solutions to some of its problems. No Nigerian would go to London and live there because living in Nigeria made more sense. How did we get here?”

    He said it is a wake-up call for the Nigerian government to rise up to their responsibilities, chief among them, making the country truly a home to stay for its citizens.