Some Nigerians are yet to recover from the shock of the victory of Donald Trump in the Presidential election in the United States of America (USA) since the result became public last Wednesday.
It is indeed, sad to hear some Nigerians moan that Trump’s victory may mean gloom for Nigeria. Their only reason is that the man, Trump, makes no pretenses about who his foes are, and tells them pointedly to either change or face the fire.
He does not suffer foods gladly. He has said repeatedly that his focus is putting Americans first and coming hard, very hard, against illegal immigrants.
Those who are uncomfortable with his victory gleefully recall how he described African leaders as “shit holes.”
But rather than losing sleep over the victory of the man and what it may mean for Nigeria and for Nigerians, should we not, as a people, begin to look inwards to ensure that his emergence drives us to appreciate our Nigerianness and to determine to take our destinies in our own hands and not to perpetually depend on the Western world?
Why must we cringe at the man’s determination to effectively police his borders; tighten his immigration policies to fend off unwanted visitors, or why must we declare a national mourning because Trump has won, against all the permutations to the contrary?
Read also: Five things Trump says he will do as president
One thing high on his plans is to tweak some foreign policies to favour his country.
The man has told us he would not throw America’s borders open for everybody to invade the place. Nigeria as a country is comfortable throwing its own borders wide open for reptiles and crocodiles in human form to invade the land. That was how we gave opportunity for all manner of characters and dangerous elements before the 2015 general election to invade the country to fight a perceived war.
Those war-mongers that were later not found useful are what we are contending with today as bandits and killer herdsmen. They rape our women on a daily basis. They kill and maim innocent citizens. They sack original owners from their ancestral lands and communities. They kidnap and impose hefty ransom. They have become a pain in the neck of government, and they have forced themselves to live with us and among us, wreaking endless havoc! Trump said no to such things, and we are moaning.
What nation is proud that her leaders are not patriotic enough to improve the health facilities in-country, to the point of having faith and patronising such health facilities? What do we have here? Leaders in both public and private sectors who are comfortable in frittering away our scarce resources.
Every now and then, elected politicians jet out to the United Kingdom and other Western countries to treat cough and catarrh at a very huge cost to the country, a solution they could have got in the country. If Trump says that a people that delight in such monumental waste cannot be better than “shit holes” we get offended.
One thing is clear, no matter how much we pretend or how much we try to sand paper things here, the outside world knows us more than we know ourselves, that is why they sneer at us when we junket, pretending we are going for investment drive.
We present great papers at global events, they clap and give standing ovation, but they make their faces at our back. That is why it is not surprising that all the trailer-loads of memoranda of understanding (MoU), the seeming fantastic bilateral and multilateral agreements we have signed and keep signing never amount to something significant. We have continued to go beggarly to other countries of the world, and they know how weak we are.
Trump knows that our judiciary is gone; that it has become a cash-and-carry institution for the highest bidder; he has no regard for such a country. Do we do well to hate him if tomorrow, he comes up with an offensive adjective to describe our judiciary?
Read also: Trump victory to test US democratic institutions, foreign relations
While we moan here and drink “Panadol” for other people’s headache because Trump won in America, does it mean that those who voted for him have no sense? Americans know what they want jooh!
While the wailers were here wishing and hoping against hope that Trump must not win, they did not know that there were about 30 percent of the voters that were as “mad” as Trump; who did not like how the ruling party was running things, and they saw in Trump a deliverer.
The wailers in Nigeria also did not know that there were about 20 percent of religious-inclined voters who said they were flabbergasted at the over-liberalisation of the American society and introduction of other cultures that are alien to the country. They too voted for Trump because they believed he was going to restore sanity in society.
While we break our heads here, some informed citizens believed they would be better served by Trump than any other of his opponents.
So, rather than engage in ceaseless moaning, we must hold our leaders accountable to the point that they begin to shore up the respect of Nigeria in the comity of other nations.
A country where every citizen wants to flee from by way of “japa” is not a country to be proud of.
To tell you the truth, Trump is not our enemy; bad leaders are!
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