If you ask a sizable percentage of Igbo men to advise Trump on his next move, they would most likely tell Trump to do what APC did in Imo State where an unprecedented, unconstitutional, and unjustifiable travesty of judicial miscarriage was executed. They would unflinchingly make Trump a Supreme Court President, just as Buhari and APC made Hope Uzodinma a Supreme Court governor. If you ask many Nigerian Christians like Reno Omokri who are very objective with Buhari, you will discover that they would immediately lose their objectivity. I was more than surprised when I saw Reno Omokri’s post-US-election tweet. He congratulated Biden but remarked that Trump was by far the better candidate between the two. I also saw another post online credited to some Pastors and Christians alleging that American voters who hate Trump are actually hateful of Christians. This type of misinformation has been the hallmark of megalomaniacs across the world. They usually wield a narrative centered around them against us. The former Mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who became President of Iran was an expert at this type of manipulation and misinformation. He famously said the Holocaust never happened, just as Trump is renowned for such blatant denial of proven facts from Obama’s birthplace to his tax filings.
Reno Omokri’s tweet kept coming back to me. I respect Mr. Omokri in many respects, but I could not stop myself from trying to rationalize the basis of his claim. Aside from the fact that Trump boldly made Jerusalem the capital of Israel which cemented his credentials with evangelicals, for me, there is no other empirical evidence to substantiate the claim that he is a practicing Christian or a better leader than Biden. Among other ill-attributes of Donald Trump, three stands out for me. The first is that Trump is a certified liar. The anomaly of this in the context of him occupying the office of the leader of the free world cannot be overemphasized. In the era of the menace of fake news, the president of the United States is a confirmed fake news peddler. For any objectively-thinking Christian, lying and bearing false witness is a no-no. Liars are regarded as direct descendants of the devil. But Trump’s Christian supporters would easily come up with a more unreasonable reason that God uses imperfect men. My second reason is a continuation of Trump’s lying ways. Tax evasion is a criminal offense especially for anyone who aspires to lead any nation whose finances are dependent on taxation. The revelations by the New York Times of Trump’s tax records was also readily swept under the carpet by Trump’s Christian supporters.
The above reasons are enough for any objective thinker to conclude about Trump’s inadequacies for public office, especially the leadership of a multi-ethnic nation like the United States – a nation of immigrants. But the most disturbing part of Trump’s personality is his inability to think beyond himself. Trump supporters delude themselves into thinking that Trump cares about conservatism or Christian values or even white supremacy. He does not. Trump only cares about himself. Full stop. Making Jerusalem the capital of Israel is a self-preservation gimmick especially with his son-in-law being Jewish. Promoting and fanning the amber of white supremacy is also self-preservation to maintain his electability with his race. For those who think otherwise, you can test your own hypothesis with how Trump has treated those within his perceived enclave who were courageous enough to reprimand his excesses. The irony of these dramas is that we are all guilty of making decisions through ethnic, religious, and emotional logic. The support that Yoruba-led Christian denominations gave to the Islamic hardliners, Buhari is clear evidence of this fact. What most Trump supporters do not want to consider is the destruction of the democratic structure built over centuries by past citizens and leaders of America. If they have their way, they will rig Trump into office like many African despots and their supporters continue to do in Africa.
Ata Ukuta, Editor – www.towncryyers.com