America’s “One Chance”

I’m as guilty as the next person of spurting out, “only in Nigeria” when the absurd happens but maybe it’s time we all think again. No one should ever underestimate how much damage one unscrupulous and unhinged man can do to a country. Over 74 million Americans voted for Donald Trump in his bid for a second term; the highest ever by any contestant for the US Presidency, bar the winner of the recent election, Joe Biden. To put this into better perspective, that’s 10m votes more than Obama ever got. Now, that’s saying something and it’s saying it very loudly too!

My prayer is that when people read my articles some will see something of themselves – whether that be their old or their current self – or at least a characteristic they recognize in others. I pray a few will recognize behaviour that makes them cringe because it hits so close to home; you know those instances when you read or watch something which appears to be specifically and “openly” directed at you and blushing from embarrassment, you quickly look around to see if anyone is watching – as if the whole world knows you’re the one being rebuked. I pray some readers will identify deviant conduct they’re still guilty of and see it now for what it really is, ugliness. I pray many of my readers will recognize behaviour they have left behind and will find joy and satisfaction in knowing they’re no longer among such a category of people. I pray the eyes of a segment of my readership will finally open to the fact that, “this country is bad, this country is bad” that they’re so quick to say is in many ways because of them and not in spite of them. I pray they come to the realization that their behaviour, which they don’t see as a big deal in the grand scheme of things, actually plays a part, no matter how small, in the rot that is our society today.

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Bad behaviour is not a Nigerian or an African thing, it’s a human thing and sometimes all that’s needed is an authority figure whose demeanour “confirms” your actions are okay. Those who have in the last 4 years found a role model in uncle Donald and don’t see anything wrong in anything he does, did not instantaneously come into existence when he ascended the Presidency four years ago; as that might explain their sudden emergence in the American society in the last few years. They have always been there. People who don’t give a hoot about honesty and integrity but who yearn to be able to do whatever it is that they want to do, when they want to do it, without the inconveniences of accountability, have always been around us. Uncle Donald has just simply “activated” them. Uncle Donald was the cue they had always been waiting for. So, let’s not allow anyone deceive us, it’s not a Nigerian thing. No country or continent holds a monopoly of mad men, all have their fair share. The last four years have indeed been an eye opener as we listened to Republican Senators and Congressmen defend the indefensible. Fearing backlash from core Trump supporters which would almost certainly put an end to their own political ambitions, the bold among them rabidly supported the President’s excesses while the more timid, simply looked the other way. It was clear. Personal ambition took precedence over national interest. So they’re not so different to us after all.

Uncle Donald’s preference for alternative facts, his apparent racist leanings, and his distasteful haste to disparage anyone who holds an opposing view, seems to resonate with a significant number of Americans who up till now were not bold enough to freely express that side of themselves. Uncle Donald hasn’t just give them the opportunity to do that now but he has also done all he can to assure them, they were right to be that way all along. All this will certainly have consequences for the American society going forward because people with such attitudes are not going anywhere anytime soon. I envisage that the US will have to live with this fallout of muddied values and the desecration of national ideals for a long time to come. Trump may be gone in the next week or two but “Trumpism”, the political philosophy which preaches division, deliberately attacks established democratic institutions, upends corporate values and shamelessly prescribes you do anything to win isn’t going anywhere soon. Refusal to accept defeat even when one loses fair and square and the resort to pull the whole house down to ensure you get the last laugh when all else fails, is likely to lurk around the American society for the foreseeable future.

I can picture it now; the palpable excitement and warped sense of victory that must have engulfed seasoned despots across the globe, as they watched the recent show of shame in the US; the invasion of Capitol Hill. I can imagine these dictators gleefully celebrating this new addition to their ranks, while they mock the democratic process that produced him in the first place. America, a land hailed the world’s leading democracy. The moral mayhem this man has unleashed upon his nation is like a Pandora’s box that should forever have remained unopened. Many Americans will be ruing the day they voted for this man. Will they ever be able to close this Pandora’s box? Only time will tell. Like anything that corrupts, once it bolts, it becomes almost impossible to reel back in. Character says it all. So long uncle Donald. Even if for nothing else, I thank you for the many valuable life lessons you taught us all.

Changing the nation…one mind at a time.