Between Trump and President Buhari

Although he is being derided a heretic and some people choose to extremely describe him as an ‘anti-Christ’, Donald Trump, president-elect of the United States of America is more righteous than many of his critics.
Unlike his traducers who do not know the difference between canvasing votes and the real business of governance, the US President-elect knows the gulf between both. Since he was declared winner of the keenly-contested election, Trump has never rested. He has been engaging all shades of opinions on how to make America great again, he has begun to shop for his cabinet members; he is even reaching out to known critics of his candidacy.
Reports had it that Trump has appointed South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley, daughter of Indian immigrant as US ambassador to the United Nations (UN). Haley is said to be the first non-white female cabinet-level official appointed to the incoming administration. Although in the same party with Trump, she was a vocal critic on the campaign trail of Trump.
Despite Haley’s resentment of Trumps candidacy, the president-elect still described the 44-year old youngest governor in glowing words. “Governor Haley has a proven track record of bringing people together regardless of background or party affiliation to move critical policies forward for the betterment of her state and our country,” Trump said.
Since he was declared winner, Trump has not made it a habit to junket from one part of the globe to the other to plead for understanding with other world leaders. He is already at work even though Obama still calls the shots at the White House. In fact, he is currently in close contact with the government in power.
But it was a different ball game with President Muhammadu Buhari, who after his election, began to globe-trot under the guise of mobilising support for the country! Buhari did not have the time to meet severally with the then out-going president, Goodluck Jonathan to discuss the way forward. His body language at that time was that he would never have anything to do with the PDP government. The hide and seek game as it were, continued until a few days to the handover.
In America, there are many things Trump has noted he would and must change. He is not going about complaining. But here, while on the side-lines, the then president-elect was telling everybody how the administration he was about to succeed had spoiled everything. In his entire journey abroad, he was dropping dangerous words against Nigeria and how the country had been in the hands of thieves and a band of robbers for 16 years, and how corruption had ruined everything. Yet he was telling them to come and invest.
Today, it is not likely that Trump would run all those that did not vote for him out of America, it is also not likely that he would see Barack Obama as his arch-enemy after the later must have left office. From the steps he is taking now, Trump is not likely to shut the door of development and good governance against states, districts and areas where he did not garner huge votes. But President Buhari did not hide his resentment of zones that did not massively vote for him. He has since made it a state policy to hate people from such zones.
Unlike Trump who has since begun to appoint members of his cabinet knowing full well that time waits for no one; President Buhari never thought along that line and even felt it was unnecessary to work with ministers. He eventually constituted his cabinet several months after his inauguration. This, pundits say, may have contributed to the economic crisis the country is experiencing at the moment.
During the electioneering campaign, Trump had spoken toughly, threatening to deal with certain categories of people and his determination to return America to the real owners. He also had harsh words for some leaders who believed their salvation must come from outside while they busy themselves bemoaning their condition and shying away from their responsibilities. For these truths, Trump was branded with all manner of sobriquets. But some analysts who see the sense in Trump’s tough speeches commend his openness and forthrightness, saying that it is better to lay one’s mind bare for everyone to see and draw the line, rather than to promise heaven on earth and at the end, you begin to dish out hell.
“One thing that has held Nigeria down is hypocrisy. We are too naïve a people, that is why they say Nigerians are gullible, they are easily deceived. Politicians will come with their sugar-coated lips and promise heaven on earth and get the votes; but when they get to the office, they begin to give the people hell,” Obaro Ejem, a public affairs analyst, said.
“Would it not be better for candidates to say exactly what they want to do in office so that those voting for them will know why and what they are voting for? What Trump’s victory has done is to change the narrative on the political turf and I think it is a positive one that I want our political actors in this country to attune to. We cannot be doing the same thing all the time and expect a different outcome,” Ejem added.

Zebulon Agomuo