Follow Us on Google
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States, has been in the limelight for so long that many people often forget the kind of archaeological soil he sprang from. It is easy to understand why. Trump’s personality is integral to his way of doing business. That hasn’t changed since his foray into politics. He acts as if the normal rules that apply to other people don’t apply to him. His petulance and impatience are part and parcel of what makes him Donald Trump. His leadership style is almost intertwined with his personality and intelligence. It’s part of the attention-grabbing, oxygen of publicity that keep him constantly in public view. He luxuriates in it. This guy is smarter than most tycoons, richer than several small countries, controversial and powerful as any minor deity.
Here’s just one sampler of a profile that is typical of the kind of press he gets. Few days to the 2016 Republican nominating presidential contest in Iowa, Trump boasted that he could stand in the middle of New York’s Fifth Avenue and “shoot somebody” and still not lose his voters. Despite the absurdity of that statement, events since his first coming as US President, and one year into his second coming, Trump might have been right. Don’t forget, he was a convicted felon, impeached twice, and there are a multitude of other criminal charges still outstanding, yet he beat Kamala Harris in a landslide last November to be elected President for a second time.
Beyond the Iowa statement in January 2016, there are numerous other controversial and caustic comments Trump has made about various countries and their leaders. During a 2018 White House meeting, Trump reportedly referred to Haiti and African nations as “shitholes” countries, a claim the White House denied at the time. He also allegedly commented that once Nigerian immigrants came to the United States, they would never “go back to their huts”. Sometimes, he relies on easily debunked and often bizarre conspiracy theories and rumours. In recent weeks, Trump has toggled between outlandish claims, seemingly false descriptions with incorrect statistics. Perhaps it’s part of a tactic that is as old as time. However, these claims have had repercussions on the countries so characterised, leading to some kind of storm surge.
On October 31, Trump tarred Nigeria with a dirty brush as “now a disgraced nation”, and a “Country of Particular Concern”(CPC). It was over claims of genocide against Christians in many parts of the country. On Thursday, Nov 20, the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa will begin hearing on the genocide allegation by Trump. For sometime now, reactions over that comment keep pouring in like claps of thunder. It’s not for nothing. It has an imputation of guilt, a country that has lost honour, a country perceived to be in a state of shame or moral failure. Legal opinion shows that the term “disgraced nation” is not a formal index used in international relations or political science. Rather, it’s a subjective, pejorative term. The concept is associated with the indices used to measure state fragility, failure, and overall low quality of life. Research shows that this Fragile States Index(FSI) utilises 12 indicators to assess a nation’s vulnerability.
They include issues related to population, disease, food access and water shortages, refugees and Internally Displaced Persons(IDPs) due to conflicts or persecution, group grievance among different social, ethnic, or religious groups, brain drain as a result of the emigration of large segments of the population, particularly skilled individuals. Other economic indicators are: economic decline, widespread poverty, disparities in the level of wealth distribution among different groups or regions. Besides, ‘a disgraced nation’ manifests in pervasive corruption and lack of public trust in the government and state institutions, absence of adequate provision of essential services such as infrastructure, healthcare, education, as well as human rights abuses, a weak, compromised judicial system, and a general disregard for rule of law.
Beyond these factors are instability and ineffectiveness of state’s internal security forces and the presence of private militias or rebel groups, and a factionalized elites among the ruling class. Taken as a whole, doesn’t Trump’s label of Nigeria as a “disgraced nation” fit in? Are all these indicators not present in Nigeria of today? No matter how patriotic we want to be as Nigerians, Trump’s description is a grim reality. It’s an uncomfortable truth of what Nigeria has sadly become. No thanks to poor leadership and a political elite that lives in denial. Let’s tell ourselves the gritty truth:Trump was right. He wasn’t grandstanding. He might have sounded brash, harsh and egoistical, but to put it in Naija lingo, ‘Trump no send’. What he did was a rebuke to misgovernance in Nigeria. The present political leadership has disgraced Nigeria and its citizens.
The snippet that directly uses a similar phrasing like what Trump used is J.M. Coetzee’s novel titled, ‘Disgrace’. Coetzee is South African- Australian essayist and linguist. The novel is an account of a Professor’s amoral affair with a student that left him jobless and isolated, forcing him to confront his strained relationship with his daughter and the racial complexities of South Africa. Nigeria is on the brink. At the All Nigeria Editors Conference(ANEC) in Abuja, last week, former Governor of Anambra state, and presidential candidate of the Labour Party in 2023 election, Mr. Peter Obi, tasked editors to investigate why Nigeria was labeled as a ‘disgraced nation’ by President Trump. Speaking on the theme:”Reclaiming our Nation’s Dignity, a call to Conscience”, Obi said examining the deeper causes behind Nigeria’s declining global image would be worthwhile.
For him, Trump pejorative characterisation cannot be separated from the current wave of insecurity, mass killings that have plagued the country over the years. “Our disgrace as a nation does not arise from what others say about us”, Obi said. He added that “it comes from what we have allowed – killings, impunity, corruption, hunger and the neglect of our people”. According to him, today, more than 130 million Nigerians live in poverty, and over 20 million children are out of school. Of course, these are undisputed realities that, in his words, “should trouble our conscience”. Sadly, conscience has taken a flight from the present political elites. What matters to them is personal interest first, and the people last. As Obi rightly observed, “if someone calls us a disgraced country, we must ask whether these are not issues within our society that justify that description”.
If you think that Trump’s tag on Nigeria as “a disgraced nation” is hurting like pin on the lips, the worst descriptions are coming. With the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) working overtime to make it harder for opposition parties to be on the ballot in 2027 presidential elections to ensure an easy victory for the incumbent president, the world is watching the political process leading to 2027. Mark my words, if this administration fails to make amends, Nigeria may be declared a pariah nation in 2027 – despised and excluded – from international democratic nations. Neither Russia nor China will save Nigeria. The storm clouds are gathering. The red flags are on. The Trump description may be a foretaste to what is ahead. No doubt, Nigeria’s democracy is at a crossroads, the votes of the people no longer matter.
Early years of every government provide a window into what lies ahead, and the public impressions of the man in the leadership saddle. The heart of the message is that Nigeria could slide into a one-party state soon. The repercussions will be dare. President Tinubu should not ignore his own limitations and the responsibilities of the office he occupies. He should, for his own sake, and in the best interest of the country, ignore the advice of those prodding him to see the crises in the opposition parties as a ‘good omen’ for him in 2027. Rather, he should see the gathering clouds as invitation to chaos that he may not handle. The pain of how Nigeria has come to this level of a ‘disgraced nation’ should trouble the mind, and a lesson for the common good of all.
Nigeria can only stand up to Trump’s threat if our political leadership puts its house in order, with the President showing exemplary leadership. That’s what the President of México Claudia Sheinbaum has given to Trump in her response to Trump’s threat of building a wall along Mexico- U.S. border. Her reply to Trump has left everyone shocked. Many have applauded her leadership quality. These are her words: “You(Trump) thought about building a wall, but remember – on the other side of the wall stand 7 billion people. These people can drop their iPhones and pick up Samsung or Huawei instead. They can switch from Ford and Chevrolet to Toyota, Kia or Honda. They can watch Latin American films instead of Disney, and wear Mexican Panama shoes instead of Nike”.
She went on to ‘lecture’ Trump that if “these 7 billion consumers stop buying American products, your economy will collapse inside that wall you have built. Then, you yourself will come and say, please, take down this wall. We don’t want that, but you asked for a wall, and so now, a wall is what you will get. Just remember the world is vast, and America is not everything”. She has also warned Trump of dire economic consequences for both countries from tariffs and suggested possible retaliation. What an audacity? It takes a lot of guts, a great leader to talk like Claudia Sheinbaum. Can President Tinubu look President Trump in the face and say the same thing? Only those who have a baggage are afraid of Trump’s threat. That’s real leadership lesson. As American journalist and presidential historian Robert A. Caro said, “many people want to be leaders, but very few are leaders in the real sense of it”, that is, using great power for great purposes.
