Ever since Donald Trump won the United States presidential election, most Nigerian commentators have gone out to paint an incendiary picture of him. Most are raising fears about the kind of government he is likely to give to this most powerful country in the world. Most raise fears, in particular, about the probable impact of his immigration policies on the millions of Nigerians now resident in the United States, and even on Nigeria itself at home.
Of course, most of these negative responses to him by Nigerians are justified. The ideas he has ventilated in the past many months about further immigration into America, about “undocumented immigrants” already in America, about the very large number of Nigerian immigrants in America, about further Nigerian immigration into America, and even about Nigeria as a country, are alarming. All over Nigeria now, many families who have members in America are fearfully wondering what will happen to their people at the hands of a Trump presidency.
Still, I think that we Nigerians need to handle the situation with caution. It is possible that we Nigerians could generate among us at home and abroad such intense hostility towards Donald Trump and a Trump presidency that the Trump presidency’s policy makers may come to feel the need to focus specially on Nigerians.
It is not that I am afraid for most Nigerians resident in America. Until I returned home to Nigeria about a year ago, I had lived for nearly 25 years continuously as a professor in America, and among the students I taught and mentored (at undergraduate and graduate levels), I can count thousands of Nigerians. I know for sure that most Nigerians in America are there legally. It has never been really easy for Nigerians to enter America illegally, or to reside in America illegally – far less easy than for persons from Mexico and other Latin American countries, and even persons from countries of the Middle East and Asia. Many Nigerians do come legally to America with visas that allow them to come for short visits only, or for few years as students in American colleges and universities. Many of these usually leave at the expiration of their visas or at the end of their studies. The few among these who decide to stay are typically diligent about pursuing legal permission to stay – and many of these may even become, legally, citizens of America. In short, it is not easy to find a Nigerian who is truly illegally residing in America. An overwhelming majority of Nigerians who reside in America are residing there legally. And if a person is in America legally, there is nothing that American officials, or the American legal system, can do to their residence – especially if they do not involve themselves in crimes.
And I also know that Nigerian residents in America are, on the aggregate, among the most law-abiding people in America. I am not saying that no Nigerians in America have crime records there or that none of them gets involved in crimes. Every human group in the world has its own crop of criminally inclined and criminally active members. But it is my assessment, based on very close and long contacts and observations in the Nigeria community in various parts of America, that the criminally inclined and criminally active tend to be fewer among Nigerians in America than one would find among most non-Nigerian groups in that country. On some occasions, we hear some hoopla about “Nigerian crime rings”, but I insist that, even with these, Nigerian youths in America are among the most serious students and hardest workers in that country, and are significantly less likely to lapse into a life of crime. Most Nigerian students come without any scholarship from home, and without sufficient, or any, financial support by parents. But almost all come with a peculiarly Nigerian resolve to succeed, and almost all succeed in the American educational system. Many earn scholarships with their high quality performances in their studies; most scrub floors and do other menial jobs to make their ways through colleges and universities. On the whole, Nigerian youths in America make older Nigerians like me proud, and deserve to be thought of with pride by their parents and their country.
About three years ago, a department of the American government – the United States National Census Bureau – published the information that Nigerians are the most educated national group in America – more educated than any other immigrant group from any other part of the world, and more educated than even Americans themselves, indeed the most educated group of immigrants in all the history of the United States. The publication added the further detail that in the typical Nigerian family in the United States, the father and mother commonly come with a university degree from their country, that the father (and often the mother) then acquires a postgraduate degree (Masters or Ph.D.), and that their older children are typically enrolled in colleges or universities studying for first degrees or postgraduate degrees. Those who come younger (with school leaving certificates) almost always go on to obtain first degrees, and then higher degrees.
The result of this is that Nigerians are very formidably included in all aspects of America’s economy and society. Of the thousands of universities in America, there is hardly any one without some Nigerian professors. There are countless Nigerians serving in very high levels of the American government and civil service, in all branches of the American military, in top positions in the American health services, research establishments, elementary schools and secondary schools, the professions, businesses, security services, state governments, local governments, etc.
Nigerians in America are therefore not as vulnerable as candidate Trump may have imagined during his electioneering campaign – and definitely not as vulnerable as we Nigerians at home seem to fear. And therefore we Nigerians do not need to be trembling about the coming of a Trump presidency. We do not need all the hostile rhetoric we have been spewing at him. We must stop acting as we are sure that our people living in America are among the most vulnerable people in that country. They are not.
Very importantly too, we must not appear to be set on a venture of disrespecting the American people. Whatever any of us may think of Donald Trump, he is the man whom the American people have chosen to be their president, and we ought to respect the American people. The president of Nigeria has joined the leaders of other countries of the world to congratulate President-elect Donald Trump, and it is, I suggest, time for us to wish him well, wish our people in America well under his presidency, and wish the great country of America well.
Finally, here is an insight that may help us a little in assessing the surprising impact of Donald Trump over America at this time. During my decades of residence in America, one political development had gradually been observable in the politics of America – namely, that the politicians had gradually become unpopular with the masses of the common people. This was caused mostly by the fact that the leading politicians had become increasingly incapable of compromise among them, with the result that importantly needed decisions and changes were becoming impossible to arrive at. This reached a sort of peak under President Obama. At the beginning of the Obama presidency, some Republican officials even said explicitly that they intended to see to it that Obama would achieve nothing worthwhile. President Obama responded by significantly rejecting compromise too; and quite often, over difficult issues, he seemed to prefer to go on the road campaigning to the masses of his supporters rather than painstakingly working for compromise with his opponents in Washington DC. The stock of politicians fell sharply. Donald Trump’s initial attraction among some of the masses of Americans was that he was not one of the politicians. As he found this to be a bigger asset than he had first thought, he and his handlers used it more and more – and he said a whole lot of stuff that was far out. Well, it won him the election.
But can he – can any American president – do some of the wilder things that he has indicated? I doubt it. Most of my friends and colleagues in the American intellectual community doubt it. America is a very solid entity with very solid political traditions. It is very unlikely that President Trump will be able to rock the boat as violently as some of his youthful supporters may expect. Many of the things we fear today concerning him are not likely to materialize. But we shall see.
