Ochereome Nnanna
Newly sworn in President of the United States of America, Donald John Trump, is a man the world will never forget in a hurry, both for what he intends to do and what he has already done. He is like the legendary leopard whose enigma, charisma and reputation move ahead of him. We Igbo call this factor ebube agu, the leopard’s glory.
The leopard enjoys a pride of place in our traditional lore not because it is the most powerful predator. The lion is stronger because it is far bigger. But, pound for pound, the leopard is the strongest and fiercest in battle. While the lion uses vocal commands to dominate the jungle, the leopard moves like a shadow and can spring at any time.
When was the last time a leader emerged in any part of the world, and the world started changing to conform to him even before he was sworn into power? Trump’s election automatically toppled the woke government of Justin Trudeau of neighbouring Canada, forced
Hamas to begin the immediate release of Israeli hostages, and is seriously ruffling feathers in the European Union, China, Panama and Denmark. It could prove decisive for the outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war, the future of the Islamic regime of Iran and their Houthi puppet regime of Yemen, and possibly encourage Germany to pull out of the EU in its best national interest.
The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 which also signified the end of the Soviet communist empire, coupled with the advent of the internet-powered information and computer revolution in the early 1990s, gave birth to globalisation and connectivity, or the so-called global village. The US-led West took control of most of the world. Its efforts to impose “democracy and human rights” in areas traditionally attuned to dictatorships (especially the Middle East and the Islamic world) backfired massively. It triggered mass migrations Westward at such a scale that now threatens the economic, social and cultural fabrics and stability of Europe, America, Australia and Canada.
To make matters worse, liberal Western politicians and the large corporate empires that bankrolled them, threw open their countries to take in these alien migrants, gorging on the cheap labour they provided. They started promoting what they called “multiculturalism”, which assumed that refugees from Asia, Africa and other parts of the world could be assimilated in Western societies. Unfortunately for them, these aliens, especially the Muslim elements from Asia and the Middle East, refused to integrate. They preferred to live in Islamic/ sharia enclaves in European, American, Australian and Canadian cities and push for the Islamisation of the societies that gave them refuge.
Western politicians demonstrated weakness, myopia and cowardice to implement their laws and promote the safety of their own indigenous people. They actually started advancing “woke” ideas which they called “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”, DEI, which goes out of its way to forcefully mainstream strange, fringe ways of life that used to be regarded as abominable: gay, lesbian, transgender, and other ungodly lifestyles. These further weakened the fabrics of their societies.
In the United States, in particular, the Democratic Party, under President Joe Biden, threw the borders open to illegal migrants from all over the world. The selfish motive was to bring in as many people as possible who would obviously vote Democrats to guarantee their stay in America. It would thus permanently keep the Democrats in power. They did not care the harm this would bring on the country, so long as they remained in power.
The globalist movement in Europe and America were no longer looking at policies that advanced the interests of their respective countries and citizens. The government of Joe Biden spent a lot of taxpayers’ money on wars abroad and issues like climate change while the rot festered in America’s inner cities, the military, law enforcement, the educational system and family where the parents were increasingly denied the power to control their own children. Americans struck by natural disasters were abandoned in refugee camps.
Donald Trump’s America First agenda is a war cry for the restoration of the values that once made America the greatest country in the world. He endured a series of malicious use of the law courts (lawfare, as they call it) to put him in prison, destroy him financially and prevent him from running again for president. They failed. They tried several times to assassinate him. They failed. Together with the corporate, mainstream media, they fervently maligned Trump’s character. Even here in Nigeria, many consumers of CNN and BBC unprofessional journalism hated Trump based on the lies these pro-Democrat media spewed. They were deceived that Trump would lose; Kamala Harris would win. But when the American voters spoke with their sweeping mandate, the devil was silenced.
Trump’s second coming will most likely halt the globalist train. In truth, globalism gave the West only a short burst of global stardom but set them on overdrive to self- destruction. America was already becoming a Third World country. Europe is almost in the grip of an insidious, invasive Asian Islamists. But China is surging. So is India. Russia is only suffering from their self-inflicted injury of Ukraine invasion, but it will recover, once the war is over. These countries took advantage of globalisation without giving up any iota of their strategic national interests, such as allowing migrants to swamp their populace.
Donald Trump’s America First policies will restore the USA’s place of pride. It will eventually bring Canada, Britain and Europe back to their senses. Every country should resume negotiating its national interests within the comity of nations.
Nigeria must borrow a leaf. Our future should be removed from the grips of foreign powers and their globalist institutions like IMF and World Bank. We must look inward because we have everything it takes to actualise Nigeria’s greatness.
Let us make Nigeria first.
