Nigeria should not be scared of the Donald Trump Presidency but be prepared for an unstable relationship with the United States, Nigerian-born Prof. Clement Adibe, of the DePaul University, USA, has said.
He spoke in Abuja at an international conference themed: “Trump Presidency and Nigeria” organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development, (CDD-West Africa), Open Society Initiative for West Africa, (OSIWA), Amplified Radio, DePaul University, Trust Africa and American University, Washington.
Republican candidate Trump emerged United States’ President-elect after the November 9, 2016 polls, defeating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. He was sworn in as the 45th American President yesterday to succeed Barack Obama.
Adibe, delivering the keynote address, said that despite the perceived maverick nature of Trump, he cannot single-handedly move America to the extreme right and will fail if he attempts as Obama failed trying to move America to the extreme left.
“Why is Trump resonating in Nigeria? Trump is known as an eccentric and proud man, he however proved to the citizens that it is America first and they will enjoy the greatness of the country again. This is an opportunity for Nigeria to look inwards and find solutions to our problems, prioritise revamping the economy and stop going abroad for solutions to our challenges,” he said.
He also urged Nigerians to learn from the experience of “Ghana Must Go” which rather harmed Nigeria and its economy than helping her course.
According to Adibe “Democracy is work in-progress and for us, our problems are special but now we know everybody has peculiar problems. Lincoln’s concern was that he hopes that that system does not die and he said ‘Democracy is the worst form of government except for others.’”
He said “Trump values” or “Trumpism” is a personality of Trump, as someone quick to provocation, who offends everybody, and feels okay with it, including his party, other parties as well as such countries as Germany. He taps into a sentiment that has always been there and was convincing that he puts America first.
On why “Trumpism” resonated in Nigeria, Prof. Adibe said Trump values are more in Nigeria than in America. He said: “We are attracted to him because of his values and there is an opportunity to use him to reflect on us to confront the under belly of democracy.”
He said part of the danger is that Trump views himself as a Marxist and he won the election by doing what Marxists do – saying that the state of economy has left lots of people backward.
He said: “Remember when we sent the Ghanaians packing and shut our borders, our economy went down and now we want to close our borders to block vehicle importation via land.”
He said Trump played on some African sentiments by telling us that African-Americans are disappointed in Obama by getting killed, having no good schools and so what do they have to lose from voting for him?
Concluding, he said: “We need to learn from the America First concept from Trump. We need to pursue a Nigeria First policy. For example, rather than go to London’s Chatham House to talk about foreign policy, we should do it in Nigeria...Look inward and include every Nigerian in policy and governance immediately after election regardless of party, and engage people with capacity to deliver.”
On his part, the Country Director, Plan International Nigeria, Dr. Hussaini Abdu who spoke on “Re-Thinking Democracy” said: “Trump never questioned capitalism and mentioned that it should be protected. He only said we [Americans] should bring back our industries and that is different from Marxism. His expressions are the inner thinking of an average American, but the politicians have over the years tried to renegotiate it,” Abdu said.
Also, the Country Director, OSIWA, Mr. Jude Ilo, said that in years to come, academics and researchers will keep studying why Trump won the election.
A National Commissioner, Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Prof. Antonia Okoosi Simbine, represented by Ms. Glory Ukwenga, wondered why Hillary’s almost three million popular votes could not get her the Presidency despite the popular saying that “Democracy is government of the people, for the people and by the people.”
She said Americans chose Trump despite being seen as conventional racist, protectionist and eccentric than Hillary. “This signifies a rising sentiment of nationals over migrants and he is more interested in looking inwards than outwards. He used the heightened nationalist approach to win the elections including stopping the job outsourcing back to US,” she said.
The CDD Director, Idayat Hassan, said that the conference was to examine the implication of Trump’s ascendancy on Nigeria’s development agenda, the complex security challenges facing the nation, the growth of democracy, the fate and welfare of Nigerians abroad and her international relations among others.
“Obviously the Trump administration before take-off was already having ripple effects on Nigeria”.
Also Prof. Sam Egwu of the University of Jos, said that Trump’s conservationism, after Brexit, is also being copied by other developed countries, apart from his “dismantling view” of IMF, World Bank and others, hence the need for Nigeria to fashion ways of national development and wellbeing of the citizens.
Besides, he said: “The world is aware of the potential role that Russia and Putin may have played and how that may have affected the outcome of the election in US.”
