The Nation Newspaper

Tag: America

  • From America with love

    Donald Trump, the new American president, may well be the very antithesis of civilised company, with a penchant for racism, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia and putative fascism, all wrapped in crass nativism, served in most scalding passions of sweet nationalism.

    Under him, America may well start manifesting the exact opposite of ideals that have endeared that country to the world, as an exemplar of liberty and opportunity, a golden land where immigrants stepped and made hay.

    Still, it would appear the basic humanity of the ordinary Americans is not about to vanish with the Trump volcano.  Not on the highly emotive religious front, anyway.

    The proof is the Victoria Islamic Centre, a mosque in Victoria, Texas, that just went up in smoke.

    Whodunnit?  Nobody knows yet. Though in the Trump era trumpeting of racial slurs and religious bigotry, some conspiracy theories about some intolerant racial and faith fanatics, having a hand in a possible arson, may well make some sense.

    According to CNN, however, nothing so far suggests that.  In any case, the cause would not be known until a matter of weeks or even months, when investigations are completed.

    But the most striking thing about this tragedy is how it deepened the humanity of the Victoria, Texas, community — Muslim, Jew or Christian.

    As soon as the inferno occurred, the Jewish community there handed over the key of their synagogue to the affected Muslims. Before they could secure an alternative worship house, the Muslims could make good with the Jewish tabernacle!

    How moving, given the traditional chill that always characterises the relationships among adherents of these cousin faiths!

    The three Victoria Christian communities too were not to be outdone. They also offered the distraught Muslims their facilities as temporary worship base.

    Besides, support from all over has been overwhelming and heart-warming. More than US$ 1million has been raised in donations, aimed at rebuilding the 16-year-old mosque, which the affected Muslims say, could be rebuilt in a year.

    This is just a refreshing refrain from the hateful atmosphere around here, where clerics underscore their faith and ministry by calling on their partisans to go kill others, because they share different faith or different ethnic communes.

    How so refreshingly different from here, where difference in faith may often be tantamount to bitter enmity, in which scores must be settled with senseless blood-letting and hate speeches.

    Are our religious partisans here not part of the same Christianity or Islam that these American partisans belong?

    This should be a wake-up call.  If in Trump country, where a misguided president is an epitome of pettiness and divisiveness, and some people there are not about losing their humanity, tell those pastors and imams that preach hate and murder to chuck it.

    They cannot be of God, for God that created life cannot sanction its wanton waste, at the slightest provocation.

    Indeed, the Victoria, Texas, experience is a manifestation of that powerful message: love trumps hate!  It is nothing but beautiful.

  • Islam’s future in America

    Looking at Islam globally today vis-a-vis the multifarious problems being faced by its adherents, there is tendency that some ignorant and parochial people will think vaingloriously that the end has come the religion. This tendency is particularly manifest in Nigeria where religion is a big business and, like a vulture waiting to descend on the carcass of a prey, its merchants will do anything, no matter how devilish, to profit from it.

    Because of their untame-able avarice based on ignorance and parochialism, such merchants cannot understand that when a gargantuan  institution like Islam is about to take an unprecedented leap to further a progressive civilization, it must undergo a trying moment. Such a moment is an indication that an arrogant power somewhere is about to fall.

    Those who are lettered enough to be familiar with world history will recall that a similar scenario occurred to the old Roman Empire as it occurred to the ancient Greek Empire. At least, if the once so-called Great British Empire was not eclipsed at a stage, America would not have emerged as a foremost modern day world power. More will said about this, in this column, in the near future.

     

     Preamble

    Instinct is the main cursor of vision. It is the indicator of where today’s ship will anchor tomorrow. A man without instinct can be likened to a blind bull struggling to pass through the hole of a needle. An example is now being exhibited in the United States. Without instinct there can be neither projection nor premonition. All visionary prophecies are based on instinct.

    It was only by divine instinct that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was able to prophesy the signs of the last days when he said: “One of the signs of the last days is for the sun to rise in the West and set in the East….” This prophecy is pregnant with meanings. Which sun was the Prophet talking about? Was it the physical or the hypothetical? Only a few people of other religions in history were able to comprehend that prophecy as much as the celebrated (Christian) Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950).

     

    George Bernard Shaw’s prediction

    Based on his understanding of the contents of that Prophecy, Bernard Shaw decided to study Islam through deep researches. And consequently, he concluded as follows:

    “The Medieval Ecclesiastics, either through ignorance or bigotry, painted Mohammedanism (Islam) in the darkest colours. In fact, they were trained both to hate the man (Muhammad) and his religion. To them he was anti-Christ… I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing face of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him, the wonderful man, and in my opinion, far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the saviour of humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness”.

    “I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today…”

     

    Analysis

    America was just emerging as a champion of the modern world when Bernard Shaw made his famous prediction quoted above. Western civilization was then restricted to Europe and Shaw had taken any emerging civilization from America as an extension of that of Europe. He had thought that whatever would be acceptable to Europe ought to be automatically acceptable to the emerging power of the New World, the former being an offshoot of the latter. He was right.

    Although, Islam had reached America long before Christopher Columbus arrived in what was then perceived as a New World, very little was known about the Muslims in that country until 1886 when one Moorish immigrant, Noble Drew Ali, of North Carolina started to propagate Islamic faith to the black masses in the New World. However, that Noble D. Ali’s jihad became prominent with the growth of media influence in the United States did not necessarily make him the first American Muslim preacher.

     

    A valid question

    Today, with a Muslim population of almost 10 million and over 3186 Mosques, who says Bernard Shaw’s prediction of the early 20th century has not become a reality? If there is still any country in the world where Islam is not growing that country must be very backward.  Today, the geometric growth of Muslim population in the US has confirmed Islam as an official religion in America. Today, there are about 2000 Muslim associations and over 400,000 businesses as well as about 310 regular publications under the firm control of American Muslims. These are not only providing jobs for the residents, they are also enhancing America’s social security.

     

    The real root of Islam in America

    However, the real practical root of Islam in the US is actually traceable to 1790 when the South Carolina legislative body granted special social status to a community of Moroccans, which gave that community the freedom to practise its religion. And in 1797, President John Adams signed a policy declaring that United States had no “character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity of Musulmen (Muslims)”.

     

    President Benjamin Franklin’s position

    Then, in his autobiography, published in 1791, President Benjamin Franklin stated that he “did not disapprove” of a meeting place in Pennsylvania designed to accommodate preachers of all religions and concluded that: “even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach ‘Mohammedanism’ (Islam) to us, he would find a pulpit at his service”.

     

    President Thomas Jefferson’s stand

    Thomas Jefferson on his own defended religious freedom in America including those of Muslims and he explicitly mentioned Muslims when writing about the movement for religious freedom in Virginia. And in his autobiography also, Jefferson wrote: “When the Virginia bill for establishing religious freedom which was finally passed,… a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word ‘Jesus Christ,’ so that it should read ‘a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion.’ The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its protection the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometans (Muhammadans), the Hindus and the infidels of every denomination.” Thus, as a confirmation of that policy, President Jefferson also joined the Tunisian Ambassador for an Iftar (Ramadan fast breaking) in 1809.

     

    Despite propaganda

    Despite over 60,000 publications by the Western Orientalists between 1800 and 1950 disparaging that divine religion and denigrating the personality of prophet Muhammad (SAW), Islam continued to wax stronger even as it displays dynamic tendencies on a regular basis. Today, with a global population of about 1.7 billion adherents in the world and with certain mundane ideologies and philosophies crumbling like a pack of cards, Islam has remained an unstoppable religion, the implacable hostility of the West to it notwithstanding.

     

    African American Islam

    The African American involvement in the propagation of a religion of immigrants though began in 1960s/70s in the American society, Islam had actually made its way into America in the sixteenth century when Muslims were brought as slaves from Africa but were forced to convert to Christianity. These Muslims were followed by a new wave of immigrants who came in the late nineteenth century as labourers from the Middle Eastern countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

    In the second half of the twentieth century, a large number of Muslims came from virtually every country of the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia who were more sophisticated than their predecessors in Islamic understanding. As those immigrants settled in large cities and small towns, they built mosques, Islamic cultural centres, and schools. Today, indigenous American Muslims, who have grown in number to well over a million, have succeeded in transforming Islam into an American religion.

     

    A Track Master

    In 1888, the American Ambassador in Philippines, Alexander Russell Webb, surprisingly became a track master by embracing Islam and becoming the first prominent Anglo-American Muslim in history. Thus, given his stats, he became the only person that represented Islam from the US at the first Parliament for the World’s Religions in 1893.

     

    New York Times

    In an article once published in the New York Times and entitled: ‘Muslim Schools in the U.S.: A Voice for Identity’, one Susan Sachs wrote on the rising demands for Islamic schools in the U.S. saying that “across the country, Islamic schools…that offer religion and Arabic classes…are expanding and flourishing, with many becoming oversubscribed so quickly that principals are scrambling for money to build more. Thus, the surge in the number of Islamic schools may be attributed to the success and determination of a Muslim community that strives “to define itself as a cohesive religious minority in the secular American society”.

     

    The World Street Journal

    Before then, an article had appeared in ‘The World Street Journal’ on August 7, 1987, which reported thus: “At a time when Marxism is so debilitated and is being shored up by capitalism; when Christianity lacks much of the missionary fire that once drove it; when Maoism is all but entombed with its founder and when democracy sounds only a muted appeal to much of the world, Islamic fundamentalism stands out as the movement on the march”.

    By and large today, not only is Islam formally recognized as the second religion after Christianity in the US, it has also become a tradition for the President and his cabinet to host Muslim leaders in that country to Iftar during the month of Ramadan.

    Today, with technology virtually reaching its climax, and backed up by over 60% of the world’s oil reserve in the Islamic world, the rising of the sun from the West as prophesied by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is becoming undeniably vivid.

    Were George Bernard Shaw alive today he would have nodded delightedly to that fact.

     

    Conclusion

    Given the above historical account, it is unimaginable that a 21st century American President like Donald Trump, who also has personal businesses in many other countries of the world, will want to rubbish his ancestors by destroying the solid foundation which those ancestors had laid for America’s greatness. But, if, on the other hand, if he goes ahead to play a bull in the china shop it will still not be strange. Not every child who bears a father’s name can be truly legitimate.

    Through an erratic policy signed into law or a sadistic ‘Executive Order’, anything can be done to the lives of the Muslims in America but nothing can be negatively done to Islam as a religion. For the benefit of doubt, Islam is like the sun in its full regalia, any blind person who claims not to recognise its presence is only playing a fool. With or without recognition, the sun will always dwell majestically in the orbit. Today is today. Tomorrow is tomorrow. None can take the place of the other. That is a food for thought.

  • Islam’s future in America

    Prologue

    Looking at Islam globally today vis-a-vis the multifarious problems being faced by its adherents, there is tendency that some ignorant and parochial people will think vaingloriously that the end has come the religion. This tendency is particularly manifest in Nigeria where religion is a big business and, like a vulture waiting to descend on the carcass of a prey, its merchants will do anything, no matter how devilish, to profit from it.

    Because of their untame-able avarice based on ignorance and parochialism, such merchants cannot understand that when a gargantuan  institution like Islam is about to take an unprecedented leap to further a progressive civilization, it must undergo a trying moment. Such a moment is an indication that an arrogant power somewhere is about to fall.

    Those who are lettered enough to be familiar with world history will recall that a similar scenario occurred to the old Roman Empire as it occurred to the ancient Greek Empire. At least, if the once so-called Great British Empire was not eclipsed at a stage, America would not have emerged as a foremost modern day world power. More will said about this, in this column, in the near future.

     

     Preamble

    Instinct is the main cursor of vision. It is the indicator of where today’s ship will anchor tomorrow. A man without instinct can be likened to a blind bull struggling to pass through the hole of a needle. An example is now being exhibited in the United States. Without instinct there can be neither projection nor premonition. All visionary prophecies are based on instinct.

    It was only by divine instinct that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was able to prophesy the signs of the last days when he said: “One of the signs of the last days is for the sun to rise in the West and set in the East….” This prophecy is pregnant with meanings. Which sun was the Prophet talking about? Was it the physical or the hypothetical? Only a few people of other religions in history were able to comprehend that prophecy as much as the celebrated (Christian) Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950).

     

    George Bernard Shaw’s prediction

    Based on his understanding of the contents of that Prophecy, Bernard Shaw decided to study Islam through deep researches. And consequently, he concluded as follows:

    “The Medieval Ecclesiastics, either through ignorance or bigotry, painted Mohammedanism (Islam) in the darkest colours. In fact, they were trained both to hate the man (Muhammad) and his religion. To them he was anti-Christ… I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing face of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him, the wonderful man, and in my opinion, far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the saviour of humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness”.

    “I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today…”

     

    Analysis

    America was just emerging as a champion of the modern world when Bernard Shaw made his famous prediction quoted above. Western civilization was then restricted to Europe and Shaw had taken any emerging civilization from America as an extension of that of Europe. He had thought that whatever would be acceptable to Europe ought to be automatically acceptable to the emerging power of the New World, the former being an offshoot of the latter. He was right.

    Although, Islam had reached America long before Christopher Columbus arrived in what was then perceived as a New World, very little was known about the Muslims in that country until 1886 when one Moorish immigrant, Noble Drew Ali, of North Carolina started to propagate Islamic faith to the black masses in the New World. However, that Noble D. Ali’s jihad became prominent with the growth of media influence in the United States did not necessarily make him the first American Muslim preacher.

     

    A valid question

    Today, with a Muslim population of almost 10 million and over 3186 Mosques, who says Bernard Shaw’s prediction of the early 20th century has not become a reality? If there is still any country in the world where Islam is not growing that country must be very backward.  Today, the geometric growth of Muslim population in the US has confirmed Islam as an official religion in America. Today, there are about 2000 Muslim associations and over 400,000 businesses as well as about 310 regular publications under the firm control of American Muslims. These are not only providing jobs for the residents, they are also enhancing America’s social security.

     

    The real root of Islam in America

    However, the real practical root of Islam in the US is actually traceable to 1790 when the South Carolina legislative body granted special social status to a community of Moroccans, which gave that community the freedom to practise its religion. And in 1797, President John Adams signed a policy declaring that United States had no “character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity of Musulmen (Muslims)”.

     

    President Benjamin Franklin’s position

    Then, in his autobiography, published in 1791, President Benjamin Franklin stated that he “did not disapprove” of a meeting place in Pennsylvania designed to accommodate preachers of all religions and concluded that: “even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach ‘Mohammedanism’ (Islam) to us, he would find a pulpit at his service”.

     

    President Thomas Jefferson’s stand

    Thomas Jefferson on his own defended religious freedom in America including those of Muslims and he explicitly mentioned Muslims when writing about the movement for religious freedom in Virginia. And in his autobiography also, Jefferson wrote: “When the Virginia bill for establishing religious freedom which was finally passed,… a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word ‘Jesus Christ,’ so that it should read ‘a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion.’ The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its protection the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometans (Muhammadans), the Hindus and the infidels of every denomination.” Thus, as a confirmation of that policy, President Jefferson also joined the Tunisian Ambassador for an Iftar (Ramadan fast breaking) in 1809.

     

    Despite propaganda

    Despite over 60,000 publications by the Western Orientalists between 1800 and 1950 disparaging that divine religion and denigrating the personality of prophet Muhammad (SAW), Islam continued to wax stronger even as it displays dynamic tendencies on a regular basis. Today, with a global population of about 1.7 billion adherents in the world and with certain mundane ideologies and philosophies crumbling like a pack of cards, Islam has remained an unstoppable religion, the implacable hostility of the West to it notwithstanding.

     

    African American Islam

    The African American involvement in the propagation of a religion of immigrants though began in 1960s/70s in the American society, Islam had actually made its way into America in the sixteenth century when Muslims were brought as slaves from Africa but were forced to convert to Christianity. These Muslims were followed by a new wave of immigrants who came in the late nineteenth century as labourers from the Middle Eastern countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

    In the second half of the twentieth century, a large number of Muslims came from virtually every country of the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia who were more sophisticated than their predecessors in Islamic understanding. As those immigrants settled in large cities and small towns, they built mosques, Islamic cultural centres, and schools. Today, indigenous American Muslims, who have grown in number to well over a million, have succeeded in transforming Islam into an American religion.

     

    A Track Master

    In 1888, the American Ambassador in Philippines, Alexander Russell Webb, surprisingly became a track master by embracing Islam and becoming the first prominent Anglo-American Muslim in history. Thus, given his stats, he became the only person that represented Islam from the US at the first Parliament for the World’s Religions in 1893.

     

    New York Times

    In an article once published in the New York Times and entitled: ‘Muslim Schools in the U.S.: A Voice for Identity’, one Susan Sachs wrote on the rising demands for Islamic schools in the U.S. saying that “across the country, Islamic schools…that offer religion and Arabic classes…are expanding and flourishing, with many becoming oversubscribed so quickly that principals are scrambling for money to build more. Thus, the surge in the number of Islamic schools may be attributed to the success and determination of a Muslim community that strives “to define itself as a cohesive religious minority in the secular American society”.

     

    The World Street Journal

    Before then, an article had appeared in ‘The World Street Journal’ on August 7, 1987, which reported thus: “At a time when Marxism is so debilitated and is being shored up by capitalism; when Christianity lacks much of the missionary fire that once drove it; when Maoism is all but entombed with its founder and when democracy sounds only a muted appeal to much of the world, Islamic fundamentalism stands out as the movement on the march”.

    By and large today, not only is Islam formally recognized as the second religion after Christianity in the US, it has also become a tradition for the President and his cabinet to host Muslim leaders in that country to Iftar during the month of Ramadan.

    Today, with technology virtually reaching its climax, and backed up by over 60% of the world’s oil reserve in the Islamic world, the rising of the sun from the West as prophesied by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is becoming undeniably vivid.

    Were George Bernard Shaw alive today he would have nodded delightedly to that fact.

     

    Conclusion

    Given the above historical account, it is unimaginable that a 21st century American President like Donald Trump, who also has personal businesses in many other countries of the world, will want to rubbish his ancestors by destroying the solid foundation which those ancestors had laid for America’s greatness. But, if, on the other hand, if he goes ahead to play a bull in the china shop it will still not be strange. Not every child who bears a father’s name can be truly legitimate.

    Through an erratic policy signed into law or a sadistic ‘Executive Order’, anything can be done to the lives of the Muslims in America but nothing can be negatively done to Islam as a religion. For the benefit of doubt, Islam is like the sun in its full regalia, any blind person who claims not to recognise its presence is only playing a fool. With or without recognition, the sun will always dwell majestically in the orbit. Today is today. Tomorrow is tomorrow. None can take the place of the other. That is a food for thought.

  • Donald Trump: For Better or worse, a lesson for Nigeria

    Donald Trump: For Better or worse, a lesson for Nigeria

    Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola in this piece, highlights what the world stands to gain in the United States’ (U.S’) Donald Trump presidency. 

    Donald Trump, who was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America last Friday, is undoubtedly a very outspoken man who does not bother about how anyone receives his comment. Indeed, why this trait in Trump offends the establishment, it appeals to the vast majority of the “forgotten Americans” who voted him into power.

    During the 18-month campaign, I was the only one in my family and among all my friends and associates that saw victory coming the way of Trump because I believed in his campaign strategy. So, when the news filtered out that he won, I immediately issued a press statement to celebrate the man of the moment and the new policeman of the world.

    I must say for the umpteenth time that Trump’s victory did not come to me as a surprise bearing in mind the thrust of his campaign to make America great again, that he disagrees with the Nuclear Treaty signed by United Nations (UN) with Iran and that he will change America’s immigration policy to ensure that only those who have genuine business in America are allowed into America, which angered and infuriated many.

    Others are that he would address the situation whereby America funds the UN so heavily and yet has become a toothless bull dog, a voiceless entity because some people enjoy the power of Veto and that he would raise the living standard of workers.

    In all, Trump’s unexpected victory was the result of his appeal to nationalism and patriotism and I acknowledge his courage, doggedness and audacity to take on the drug barons, illegal immigrants and minorities, even when some of his party leaders developed cold feet and vowed not to campaign for him.

    To those of us who believe in him, the victory is for the better while to those who do not believe in him, his victory is for the worse. Those who do not believe in him see him as a racist; a showman with little substance; a sexist; uneducated; a man lacking in experience; judgment and temperament and therefore unfit to rule America.

    I hold the firm belief that he will make an extra-ordinary change. What is happening reminds me of the prophetic statement of UK Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, in South Africa Parliament in February 1960, when he said: “The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact and our national policies must take account of it”. Those remarks were the harbinger of African Nationalism sweeping irresistibly from the North. The wind of change started in Britain in 2015 and has had dramatic effect in France, Philippines, USA and The Gambia.

    Contrary to expectation, the pattern of voting shows that almost two to one voters cared most about who could change the status quo in the United States of America (U.S.A.) in the November 8, last year election. His major focus was the “forgotten millions of American workers” who get paid by the hour. Unlike the previous Presidents and his opponent, Hillary Clinton, he did not paint a bright vision for the future. What he did was to emphasize the divisions of the present, arouse anger and fears within the country and promise opportunities for the millions of “forgotten Americans” who he has now promised to reintegrate.

    Although he is now the President of the most powerful nation in the world, Trump has to appreciate that the world is now a global village where nations complement one another. I agree that he should cure the problems of the American nation, but then, he cannot be an isolationist or a protectionist as any of these concepts will do severe damage to American interests generally.

    Although during his 18-month campaign, he looked like an unpredictable person, but now that he is at the driver’s seat, his perception and appreciation of the situation is bound to be different and perhaps he will find out that it will be pretty difficult for him to carry out some of his tough election talks as governance is a different ball game from election campaign rhetorics. And that may already have started, for soon after his victory, he travelled to Indiana to announce that United Technologies, the 45th largest company in the country had agreed to his demands and would retain 800 career manufacturing jobs in Indiana.

    And in any case, Trump seems to have back-pedalled on some of his statements since his victory. For instance, during the campaign, he was hostile to Mexicans. Now he said “I am for everybody”.  He also appointed a Nigerian as one of his Advisers.

    But, can Trump do without Nigeria like he boasted during his election campaigns and can Nigeria do without America? The answer is obvious: America can do without Nigeria, but Nigeria cannot do without America. Neither can he carry out his threat to drive away Nigerians and Muslims, many of whom are already American citizens, or barricade Mexico away from America. Indeed, the institutional framework of America will not allow him to carry out those threats.

    In any case, Trump’s unpredictability may turn out to be an advantage to Nigeria because peradventure Trump carries out his threat to withdraw from Nigeria; Nigeria will have no choice than to turn to countries like China, the emerging economic lord of the world. Besides, America’s withdrawal from Nigeria will teach the latter a lesson in self-reliance and turn it from a country of mere consumers to start thinking of being producers of what it had hitherto been relying on others for.

    Again, if Trumps makes good his threat of driving away Nigerians, highly qualified Nigerians will come home with their expertise and relocate their investment back home, thereby boosting the Nigeria’s economy. Besides, such a move will prevent people from investing stolen money in America while such already invested money will be returned home. Another bright side of the threat is that it will address the issue of brain drain and get our best brains to return home and boost our education sector. After all, the Yorubas say “Adaniloro fi agbara koni” meaning the one who denies the other assistance or help teaches the latter to work harder.

    On the whole, Trump is a man who has the benefit of practical and business approach to issues. He is a man who has distanced himself from national establishment ways of doing things, a man who has never held any public office before emerging the President of the U.S. The world, including Nigeria, will benefit from these qualities inherent in the new occupant of the White House. The change he has promised may begin from himself without the support of anybody. He has done it before when he courageously and doggedly took on the drug barons, illegal immigrants and minorities even when some of his Party Leaders developed cold feet and vowed not to campaign for him.  His audacity shows that he is a man who can really show the way. I wish him well.

     

  • Terry G spotted in America

    Terry G spotted in America

    Singer and rapper Terry G was recently spotted on the street of U.S, taking a pose.

    This is a plus to the singer who, according to reports had been denied visa by the embassy several times.

    Terry G, whose real name is Gabriel Oche Amanyi, is already floating a short clip of a song for the New Year on his social media handle.

    It is speculated that the singer may also use the opportunity to bring home another song mastered abroad.

  • Is America ready for a woman president?

    In the context of gender equality, what would be the honest answer to this question: “Is America ready?” Erika Falk, who threw the poser, was perturbed by the failure of the most advanced democracy to lead by example in electing a woman president in its over 240 years of existence.

    At a time when the advocacy for gender equality has become a global mantra, especially in politics, education and leadership, the result of the November 8 Presidential Election of the United States (U.S.) has ignited global concerns about the true nature of Americans and their stand on equality which they gleefully preach.

    The results of the last U.S. election have probably shown that gender equality is only a concept being preached, but not practised by America. It tells us that the gender disparity in the U.S. politics may continue for as long as its political class realises there should be equality in the true sense of the word.

    Paradoxically, how America’s citizens find a woman unsuitable for the White House is, in no small way, a setback for the absolute realisation of gender equality in the world.

    Does American politics offer equal opportunities for both genders? I believe it does. There is a maximum level-playing ground for both genders to have equal opportunities. However, it would not be enough to take the above statement as a general yardstick to conclude that gender equality is possible in U.S., taking into account that no woman has delivered victory speech.

    Not even Senator Hillary Clinton whose campaign team had prepared a stage for that. By this, it may seem to say loudly that despite the balanced chance, the actual decision is not yet made.

    After Shirley Chisholm entered some primaries and had her name placed in nomination at the Democratic Party Convention in 1972, Mrs Clinton’s nomination brought the greatest momentum to the gender equality campaign. What an unprecedented feat for women. The entire world had to wake up from its bad dream that Hillary’s presidency would be the greatest thing America would teach the world.

    The gender stereotype, although beclouded by personal flaws of the former Secretary of State, ostensibly played out in the decision of the Electoral College that handed victory to Mr Donald Trump.

    Whatever the arguments, it will be difficult to address matters of gender equality in the dimension of electoral decisions. Sometimes, it is not a matter of gender but personality. Many people don’t trust Mrs Clinton. And the Trump’s slogan – Make America Great Again – really appealed to the emotions and sentiments of average Americans who are not happy by how globalisation has offered chances to immigrants at the expense of their jobs and revered supremacy.

    There were elements of gender inequality in U.S. presidential polls. Jeff Manza asserted that social scientists and political commentators have frequently pointed to differences between men and women in voting and policy attitudes as evident in the emerging gender gap in U.S. politics. That incontestable fact has become inimical norm in vote choice, opinion and party identification which have remained a common feature in the U.S. political hemisphere.

    From the foregoing, the expectation that a woman would gain marginally greater support from her own gender was amazingly undermined in the last election.

    According to Claire Zilman in an article published in Fortune Magazine titled: Hillary Clinton had the biggest voter gender gap on record, much of the coverage of Mrs Clinton’s loss in the presidential race pointed to the Democratic Party’s failure to dominate the women’s vote. While Clinton did capture majority of women voters (54 per cent), according to exit polling, she lost some key constituencies, including white women, 53 per cent of whom cast their ballots for Mr Trump.

    The media’s portray of women also contributed to Clinton’s loss. Although she had the support of the mainstream media establishment, but media projections of women during the time of the election did more harm than good.

    When the media, according to Maria Braden, implied that women are anomalies in high public office, the public is likely to regard them as that, rather than an integral part of government. Ms Braden gave instances of how American woman senators have been described by the media – “strangers in the Senate.”

    Other potent factors like sentiment and egocentric feelings of the male gender have perpetually been propelled and articulated by the media, and they remain potent straws that broke camel’s back.

    Despite its leadership and strong advocacy for gender equality, Andrew Soergel argued that America lags behind other countries in the West in terms of giving high-level positions to women. In a latest report and ranking by World Economic Forum, the true position of America in terms of gender equality is more relayed. Researchers have declared that America has a ways to go when it comes to parity between men and women, ranking it 45th out of 144 countries on the list.

    From all parameters, the honest answer to the question about America’s readiness to break the woman president jinx is still a case of the last straw, which we all await to break the camel’s back. As for now, there is little to show for the gender equality advocacy as championed by the most advanced democracy.

    Whenever the decision is made, America would be said to have eventually imbibed a culture successfully practised by other democracies, including countries in the so-called Third World.

     

    Shakir is a Master’s student of International Relations at Cyprus International University

     

  • America’s Electoral College and Democracy

    “…that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” – Abraham Lincoln’s memorable Gettysburg’s Address of November 19, 1863.

    Few textual critics, if any, can improve on Abbey Lincoln’s concise definition of democracy as “government of the people, by the people, for the people”. In what sounds like a derivative of that classic definition, democracy may be said to be a system of government by the majority of eligible voters of a state, typically through elected representatives; a rule by the majority; a government in which the supreme power is vested in the (majority) of the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held elections.

    The political structure in the United States of America, where the emergence of the President and Vice-President depends on a so-called Electoral College, established by Article Two of the United States Constitution (1787), whereby the voice of the majority (popular vote) is bridled by a political artifice called electoral college vote is the very antithesis of “government of the people, by the people, for the people” and can, therefore, not be dignified with the name of democracy.

    Each state appoints a number of electors equal to the number of Senators (i.e. one hundred in all) and of Representatives (i.e. four hundred and thirty-five in all) to which the states may be entitled in the Congress, in addition to three electors from the District of Columbia and one elector each from the states of Maine and Nebraska. Those figures yield a total of 540 electors. Any presidential contender who wins at least 50 per cent, or 270 thereof,  becomes President of the United States, even if majority of the electorate (popular vote) prefers his/her opponent with the popular vote!

    Why, one may wish to know, is there any need for “Election Day” (always announced with fanfare) or popular election such as happened on November 8, when the popular vote counts for nothing in the final analysis? For example, if, for the sake of argument, the two major presidential candidates polled 269 Electoral Votes apiece, the 435-strong House of Representatives would be asked to decide which of the two candidates becomes President of America, the Popular Vote notwithstanding! In the recent presidential election in the US, the non-partisan Cool Political Report had candidate Hillary Clinton at 62,825,754 popular votes in contradistinction to candidate Donald Trump’s 61,486,735 (or 47.9 percent to 46.9 per cent, respectively. Another 6-9 million votes were cast for third-party candidates, including Libertarian Gary Johnson, Green Jill Stein and independent David Evan McMullin. That translates to 53.1 per cent of voters casting their ballots for candidates other than Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by more than one million votes, but lost the Electoral College Vote (she polled 232) to Trump (who allegedly won 290).

    The 2016 presidential election in America made Trump the fourth President to lose the popular vote but win his spurs against his opponent. In 1876, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, with 4,036,298 popular votes, won 185 Electoral College votes. His opponent, Democrat Samuel J. Tilden, won the popular vote with 4,300,590 votes, but won only 184 Electoral College votes. Hayes was elected President. In 1888, Benjamin Harrison, with 5,439,853 popular votes, won 233 Electoral College votes. His main opponent, Democrat Grover Cleveland, won the popular vote with 5,540,309 votes, but won only 168 Electoral College Vote. Harrison was elected President. In 2000, Republican George W. Bush garnered only 50,456,062, and his main opponent, Democrat Al Gore, got 50,996,582 popular votes. Even so, Bush became President as he polled 271 Electoral College votes to Al Gore’s 266. Usually and almost ineluctably, candidates that lose the popular vote but become Presidents via that load of hocus pocus called “Electoral College Vote” turn out to be particularly unsuccessful and unpopular Presidents! It is strange that all the beneficiaries of the Electoral College Vote peculation have been Republicans!

    The Electoral College is, essentially, a vestigial structure—a relic of a bygone era in which the founding fathers specifically fulminated against a nationwide vote of the American people to choose their next President. Instead, the draftsmen of the constitution, (particularly Delegates Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts and George Mason, the man, of Virginia) gave a small, lucky group of people called the “electors” the power to make that choice, arguing that “the people (popular vote) haven’t the requisite capacity to judge the respective pretensions of the candidates.”

     Such was the origin of the Electoral College, which makes the election of the Chief Executive of America a despicable simulacrum of democracy. The outcome of a presidential election in the US is really just settled in a few so-called swing states. Today, only 12 of the 50 states in the US control about 53% of the votes in the Electoral College.

    On the basis of the odious political contrivance called Electoral College Vote, an undisguised enemy of democracy, (and hoping there was no “malicious software” in the election machines), Donald John Trump has been elected President-elect of the US. He had consciously made far-reaching electoral promises: he will build a wall to separate the US from Mexico and will make the latter to pay for the cost of the wall; he will transfer the Israeli capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; he will defeat ISIS; he will repatriate all undocumented immigrants; he will stop all Moslems from entering the US; he will resile from the multilateral Climate Change (Paris) Agreement; he will contract out of the NATO confraternity; he will stop the carnage on US streets; he will appoint a Special Prosecutor to prosecute, and put, Hillary Clinton in jail…

    Whether or not he becomes popular or unpopular during his first four years in office, or remains President after the November 2020 presidential election, or, indeed, will be impeached as predicted by the same polyhistor and Presidential Historian, Prof. Allan Lichtman, who predicted his victory in the 2016 election, will depend, largely, on the extent to which he fulfils, and the manner in which he executes, his 2016 electoral promises. One hopes that the American electorate will hold him to account!

     

    • Akiri, an attorney writes from Lagos.
  • Trump and America’s mainstream media

    Trump and America’s mainstream media

    SIR: On November 8, the entire world woke up to the rude shock that the United States had elected a newbie. The angered electorate had picked the unlikely candidate. The mainstream media and alternative media – print, online, TV, local and international – were all awash with news, photos and videos of Hillary Clinton supporters weeping uncontrollably, while supporters of Donald Trump were seen mostly in an ecstatic state, relishing their victory. They could hardly be consoled. An “evil” appeared to have been done. A prank had just been played. It was a truly pathetic scene. The reason was obvious: there was a new sheriff in town, and it was none other than Donald J. Trump! The irony is that the overly partisan mainstream media was entirely to blame for this.

    Many had bet on Donald Trump losing the presidential election. The odds were against Donald Trump once he announced his intention to run for the White House in 2015. Several groups – including the Republican National Congress (RNC), the Democratic National Congress (DNC), and President Barack Obama – had completely dismissed the prospects of a Trump victory. In fact, it was so embarrassing to see several well-known members of the Republican Party come out to castigate and disown him just hours before his penultimate presidential debate, yet Trump surged on as every new revelation of Clinton’s alleged corruption seemed to prop Trump higher.

    It became so obvious that all the major media houses had ganged up against Donald Trump. Several well-known dailies consistently published hate-filled articles and op-eds against him. Trump was never even given the chance to defend himself but Hillary Clinton always was. All sorts of spurious claims were brought against him. At some point he was accused of not publishing his tax returns, then he was falsely linked to financial deals with the current Ukrainian Junta, and was accused of being a lackey of Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

    It’s pitiful that the press had worked so hard to misinform their audience in a bid to defame Donald Trump. They became so obsessed and consumed with attacking him rather than reporting objectively about the growing numbers in support of Trump. Lately, The New York Times public editor has criticized the paper for its “dishonesty”. I expect other news houses that spent all their time confusing their readers to send apologies for this crime.

    Trump’s victory should be used as case study in many schools of political science across the world. It is truly amazing how he won with only about a tenth of Hillary Clinton’s campaign donations. Trump simply sailed to the Oval Office on the back of speaking out and not appealing to political correctness. He came through as a man who spoke the truth about what he saw rather than be blinkered. He called things by their names, addressed issues that were personally affecting a good deal of Americans, specifically the working class. The shameful mainstream media must learn from Donald Trump. His boldness in the face of these pathetic accusations won him the prize. I hope CNN, New York Times, the Washington Post and the rest of the lying ‘presstitutes’ learn from this fatal error.

     

    • Chuka Uzo,

    askcatholicquestions@zoho.com

  • America, their America

    He was the outsider in the race. Even in his wildest imagination, Donald John Trump never thought he would be elected president of the United States (US).  But in the wee hours of last Wednesday, the unexpected happened, the underdog upset the apple cart, shattering all polls that gave the election to Hillary Clinton. The outcome of the election was shocking and benumbing. Many across the globe are yet to get over it more than one week after the exercise. Many Americans are still wondering what hit them – a President Trump – is that who we really voted for?

    It seemed it never crossed their minds that election is a two-edged sword which cuts both ways. In such an uncertain race, anything can happen. The front-runner may become the loser and the underdog may become the winner. Elections are nobody’s race. The polls may give the race to a person perceived as the strongest among the contestants but that does not mean that he/she will win until it is all over.

    Trump did not enter the race as a serious contender. Politically, he was and is still a nobody. He came out of nowhere to give the presidency a shot, counting on his wealth to see him through since his fellow rich were not ready to identify with him. He was a political liability not worth doing business with. He knew his limitations but he did not allow these shortcomings to weigh him down. His limitations, which the Hillary Clinton camp hammered on, eventually helped him to win.

    Trump may have joined the race for the fun of it, but after emerging victorious, he must know that it is time for serious business. One thing he had going for him was saying it as it is. He was not afraid to say his mind and what he said resonated with Americans, especially those who felt that the so-called Washington establishment to which the Clintons are associated, had failed them. These people described as the white working class are not happy with the way things are in their country. They are demanding more inclusiveness in the affairs of their country, which they feel is in wrong hands.

    This class sees President Barack Obama as a settler who has been lording it over the country’s true owners in the past eight years. They would rather score Obama low than hail him for running a damn good presidency.  America was built by the blood of immigrants who these whites see as settlers. The country is still being developed by the blood of naturalised immigrants whose forebears toiled day and night to lay a solid foundation for a great nation. If the children of these hewers of wood and drawers of water cannot today lay claim to America as their country then something must be wrong with the so-called greatest country on earth. Not all that glitters is gold. America may have all it takes to be a great country, but it has not overcome its racist tendencies over 240 years after its independence.

    Trump knows his countrymen inside out. This is why  he played on these divisive tendencies to ride to the presidency. Having won the election, he has to win the confidence of his countrymen by showing that he has what it takes to run the country. The cards are stacked against him because many people worldwide doubt his capability. More discernible Americans are yet to believe what has befallen them. President-elect Trump! They are still in a daze. President-elect Trump!! They did not bargain for that. If the hands of the clock can be turned back, many Americans will want the election repeated so that they can pick the person that fits their choice. Do we then say that those who voted for Trump made the wrong choice? Yes and no.

    Yes, because many voted out of anger against a system, which they perceived has for long shut them out. They did not vote for capability, qualification and experience. They voted for racism, segregation and injustice, which are all the issues Trump expounded during his campaign. No, because they exercised their rights to vote for the person of their choice, regardless of whether he is incompetent and inexperienced. They believe they chose the person who made more sense to them – the man who promised to ‘’Make America Great Again’’. All they want is the return of their country. But, was their country ever taken from them? The Blacks, the Latinos, the Spaniards, the Jews, the Irish, the Filipinos, the Mexicans never stole America from the natives. Rather, they are contributing to its growth.

    America is what it is today because of its diversity. Some people like Trump may not be happy about that but that is the way the country attained its greatness. America may have reached a stage where it thinks it no longer needs these people but it cannot wish away the fact that without them and their forebears it may not be where it is today. Trump has his job cut out for him as the US’ incoming 45th president and that is to build on the gains made by his predecessors and not to do anything to split the country. If America splits, the consequences will be great for the world. Some people may say that will never happen, but they should know that there is nothing new under the sun. Great countries and empires fell in the past (where is the Roman Empire?) but the world is still standing today despite their death.

    It is the cataclysmic effect of the fall of America that bothers me because the world revolves around it. This is why when it sneezes, the world catches cold. Trump has a powerful nation to manage and the earlier he wakes up to the reality of the enormity of this task the better for him and the world. The critical American media has tried to guide him  to the right path before he assumes office on January 20, next year. Despite being shocked by his election, the media has asked him to put the country first in whatever he does. In its editorial on November 9, the New York Times said : ‘’So, who is the man who will be the 45th president? After a year and a half of erratic tweets and rambling speeches, we cannot be certain. We don’t know how Mr Trump would carry out basic functions of the executive. We don’t know what financial conflicts he might have since he never released his tax returns…we don’t know if he has the capacity to focus on any issue and arrive at a rational conclusion.

    ‘’We don’t know if he has any idea of what it means to control the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. Here is what we know. We know Mr Trump is the most unprepared president-elect in modern history. We know that by words and actions, he has shown himself to be temperamentally unfit to lead a diverse nation of 320 million people…we know he lies without compunction… misogyny and racism played their part in his rise, but so did a fierce and even heedless desire for change. That change has now placed the US on a precipice.’’

    The Washington Post was no less scathing in its editorial. ‘’Donald Trump’’, it began, ‘’was elected the 45th president of the US on Tuesday. Those are words we hoped never to write…all Americans must accept the voters’ judgment and work for the best possible outcome for our country and the world. We have every wish that he will understand that the US system of government is not for or about one person…the powers of the Oval Office do not exist to punish his enemies…Americans are not and have never been united by blood or creed, but by allegiance to a democratic system of government that shares power, cherishes the rule of law and respects the dignity of individuals. We hope our newly elected president will show respect for that system…’’

    As the world awaits the inauguration of President Donald Trump, we cannot but wish that he will bring to this high office the high sense of responsibility that it deserves. The American presidency is too big for him to toy with or to turn into a platform to abuse women and others he perceives as his enemy.  Americans pride themselves in having institutions that can check any president, no matter how cantankerous he may be. The world is waiting to see how these institutions will work under President Trump. For America, this may yet be its greatest democratic test in its 240 years of nationhood.

     

    Life so precious

    CHILDREN, we are told, are an heritage of the Lord. They light up our environment, but whenever they become ill everywhere becomes gloomy. No one prays for a sick child. But as humans, once in a while such things happen. Anuoluwapo, we call her Anu, is a precious little girl. Going to two, Anu fell ill last weekend and could not attend church on Sunday. On Monday, she was taken to a health centre where she was treated and discharged. In the night, her condition worsened and she was taken to Igando General Hospital. The doctor said there was no bed and referred her to Ikeja General Hospital, where they were told the same story and directed to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) without a referral letter. By then, it was about 11pm and all this while, my spiritual father, Rev Biodun Okunade (JP), had been trying to get me on phone. I did not know anything until I got home past midnight and was informed by my wife that our reverend had been calling me. I quickly called him and he told me what has been happening. Under what circumstances can general hospitals reject a patient who is at the point of death? Is it proper to reject such patients under the flimsy ground of ‘no bed’? If Anu were to be the doctors’ daughter would they have rejected her in such a critical condition? Thank God Anu is now recuperating in a private hospital. I dread to think what might have happened if the private hospital had not admitted her. May the mercy of God forever be upon her.

  • Trump’s America: Tiger by the tail

    Trump’s America: Tiger by the tail

    If you close your eyes to facts, you will learn through accidents -African proverb

    There are times and occasions for prolonged grieving. For most of the world reeling from the shock of Donald Trump’s earth-shaking triumph, this is not one of them. Some people can afford deep introspection, some anger and even expressions of intentions to resist a legitimate process. These will be Americans, some of whose choice is still sinking in a world fundamentally influenced by the USA. The rest of the world will be roughly split between those who will submit entirely to a Trump presidency, and others who will look hard at how they can live with it, or in spite of it. Most of the world will be well advised to maintain the highest levels of vigilance over US politics in the next few months before deciding whether to run, stop and fight, or vindicate the philosopher who said in all power relations, the strong will do as they wish, and the weak will suffer as they must.

    A Trump presidency is actually less fearful than the powerful undercurrents which it stirred and rode to power with, leaving much of the world stumped. Somewhere between the outrageous and the improbable, the Trump presidency will find a place that will leave friends and foes searching for those elements they thought will define it. Some of its outlines will linger longer than others, but it is safe to say that America will bear a Trump stamp for the next generation. Millions of voters, and quite possibly millions more who did not vote appear to want an America which shapes the world after itself. They want an America that will be comfortable with its historic negative character expressed in racism, prejudice, bigotry and hate. They want to re-visit settled wisdom around the progress America has made towards cultural and political inclusiveness. They want to interrogate globalisation, world security founded on extensive cooperation and collaboration with allies and some accommodation with traditional foes, and a world in which America shares space with sworn enemies and forces it cannot defeat. They believe it is possible to permanently defeat deeply entrenched political establishments, remove the stranglehold of corporate America from its politics and reverse policies which attempt to bridge wealth and income gaps by taxing the rich. They are against dealing with inner city violence and decay by reforming policing and re-engineering local economies; against welfare policies that improve access of the poor to social nets; against reducing the dominant white colour of America; against foreigners and Muslims and people who draw boundaries around acceptable attitudes and conducts by leaders. They want an America that chooses which battles it will fight, and they want an America that wins all of them.

    Something had happened to America nearly two decades ago that few people had noticed. Since the end of the Bush presidency, it had begun to look like it will reflect all its defining characteristics, but the Clintons’ dynasty and the Obama presidency aroused a resistance that only needed a catalyst to create what Trump called a movement. Mumbling poorly-articulated sentiments and outrageous provocations, he struck a chord among millions of Americans who thought America can be remade. Now that movement will have to be channelled through a governance process that will attempt to balance huge expectations against fierce resistance by US citizens, political establishments, allies and foes. A Trump presidency will find that its traditional allies already have their hands full from the sharp turn to the right which their politics is taking. Between Brexit and a resurgence of far right political parties and sentiments, Europe is divided between those who believe in building walls to keep out deeply-integrated economies and foreigners, and those who see economic progress and security in stronger alliances and regional groupings that entail some limitations to sovereignty. The far right will see a Trump presidency as a boost to its designs to reverse the gains of globalisation, particularly in the creation of a global labour force and dilution of cultural and racial character of nations. The resistance against re-writing 50 years of unrelenting assault on national boundaries, economies and texture will be fierce.

    A Trump presidency will challenge the world, but it does not have to be all doom and gloom for many. The bloodletting in Iraq and Syria and Yemen and Afghanistan will continue as US military top brass argue over what options to pitch to a Trump presidency that may just prefer that the wars will all go away, or go on without American boots, dollars and blood. Russia will reap from indecision and weak American will to assert itself in areas where it is currently competing with it. Europe could re-invent itself with less US muscle in its defence, dusting up quarrels over trade and economic policies with the US. China will push on, building on the weaknesses of advanced industrialised countries. Neighbouring nationals that Trump threatens to wall out will seep through, prodded by hostile governments now less inclined to work with US on controls and economic cooperation. ISIS and other faith-based enemies will find inspiration from a president with registered hostility towards Muslims. They will benefit from the distance of US support and collaboration in fighting armed, home-grown groups in Europe. Belligerent regimes will find new and additional ways to test US might and mood, and nations which count on US cover against them will feel the impact of its retreat, indifference or indecision. In many of the world’s theatres spilling blood and hope, the position the US takes in the next few months will decide whether thousands of people live or die.

    Africa should not expect any favour from a Trump presidency. African nations will have to watch stores very closely as the new US administration scrutinises all policies and programmes involved in Africa-US relations, just in case they reflect elements of the Obama heritage that Trump and his supporters find so offensive. Africa can wait, bowl in hand, for Trump to decide if it will continue to receive US bailouts for its weaknesses and limitations, or it can re-discover its capacities to limit damage and improve its bargaining capacities. Africa could build new foundations for a US-Africa relationship by engaging the new administration in a forward-looking exercise that sensitises it to its importance. By any standard of judgment Africa is of major strategic importance to the US. From the massively-subsidised military regime in Egypt, to the war against Boko Haram in Nigeria and its neighbours, the campaign against Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, the global efforts to limit the dangers of climate-induced poverty in Africa and the scores of conflicts and tensions dotting the continent, the US has become a major partner in African security and development, a partnership less informed by charity than by the imperatives of protecting the position of the world’s leading power. China represents a real threat to US economic and strategic interests in Africa, and a re-engineered African Union and strong regional groupings will make much impact in leading Africa through difficult manoeuvres to exploit competition for its markets and resources. Africa should work with the rest of the world to limit the potential damage of a rampant US administration that deports thousands of non-citizens, and should even raise its voice in defence of African-Americans whose prospects of progress in a nation more defined by colour are likely to dip.

    Leading African nations, such as Nigeria need to adopt positive and enlightened postures in dealing with new challenges from a Trump presidency. The absence of a Nigerian Ambassador to the US and a Permanent Representative at the UN at this moment is most unfortunate, and should be addressed immediately. Nigeria should deploy all goodwill towards the new administration, and seek to reinforce US support for the war against Boko Haram as well as efforts to sustain the development of its democratic institutions and long-term political stability. The US needs to understand the nature of Nigeria’s current recession and their implications for its security and unity. It needs to appreciate the central position of a Nigeria in Africa, as well as respect its capacities to lead Africa in challenging US interest in the Middle East and other parts of the world that are not consistent with Africa’s. US voters made their choice over how their nation should relate with the world. The world now has to decide how it lives with that choice.