WILL DONALD TRUMP WIN AGAIN?

This time four years ago, very few people gave Donald J. Trump a beggar's chance of getting anywhere near the White House. The pundits said that he was a joke. The media wrote him off. The polls said he was dreaming. No one who worked hard for his money would have bet a cent in any of Trump's failed casinos across America that Donald Trump would become the 45^th President of the United States of America. We were all wrong.

In November 2016, what looked like a joke became reality! Donald J. Trump was announced President-elect of the United States of America, the most powerful office in the world. Surprise! Surprise! The American people, deploying their fairy-tale electoral college system told the world that they had elected as their president the trash talking egomaniac who spews obscenities as much as he openly sprouts divisions and cultural wars. The distinguished former United States First Lady, former New York Senator and former U.S. Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton received about three million more votes from the American people but come and see 'America wonder', a guy who was that badly worsted at the polls, a guy who has run his companies five times into bankruptcy, pays little tax and has been married to three different women was announced winner of the election.

Imagine if that had happened in an African country, Donald Trump would have immediately picked up his smart phone and fired off a tweet to deride the country as a 'shit hole country' with no respect for the core tenet of democracy which is one man one vote.

Come to think of it, there are many people in Nigeria who are fans of Donald Trump. They see him as the "actor" in a movie. You know that "actors" never lose. There are many Nigerians who support Trump because he is supposed to be against gay marriage and abortion. We are talking about the same guy reputed to enjoy a night out with prostitutes. Donald Trump has no respect for women, especially if they are black women. That is why he cannot stand the idea of own Ngozi Okonjo Iweala being DG of the WTO.

With the problems in Nigeria, you may wonder why this columnist writes so much about America. I have always been fascinated by America. For much of my lifetime, America has been seen as the moral compass of the world promoting democracy, human rights and fighting autocratic regimes, evil, hunger and disease across the world. We all look up to America to show us the way. America used to be seen as the leader of the free world and much of the world went were America went.

I knew that some Americans can be "one kind" but I never thought there were such many crazy people in America who would see in Trump the leader of the land of the free. The amazing thing is that those who have propelled Donald Trump's journey to the Whitehouse are the bible quoting Christian conservatives. How can this group consider this man whose behaviour is so unchristian to be one of them and accept him as promoting their values… this self-conceited man whose own niece, Mary Trump with a Doctorate in Psychology, refers to as the most dangerous man in the world?  

Donald Trump shows you the power of Reality TV and the smart phone. In the world of Reality TV, there is no bad news. Bad news is good news. Donald Trump, the star of NBC's Reality TV show, "the Apprentice" understands that in the crazy Reality TV world, all you need is to be in the news. And so, the Donald swears, curses, and wagers his fingers at everyone and if you are not discerning, you are captivated. He is the news all the time and white uneducated Americans clap and cheer. They may think they are watching Reality TV. What they may not understand is that this weird fella has changed the world in such ways that it will be hard reality for their children and grandchildren. Donald Trump has not made America great again. Indeed, America no longer leads the world.

In three days, Americans will go the polls again. I hope that the coronavirus conundrum in which America finds itself has revealed the limitations of Donald J. Trump's "America First" swagger and shown that it is all talk and bluster. His soft under belly and lack of any long-term strategy have become clear. With about 8 million Americans struggling with the virus and about 230,000 American dead, this cannot be a reality show.

Before now, the USA would have led the world in finding a way to wipe out COVID 19. America has the brain power and resources. To the amazement of most people, a divided America has remained the epicenter of the virus with no end in sight. The disunity in the population created by Mr. Trump's hyper culture wars and take-no-prisoner partisan divisions have robbed America of the aggregation of enduring energy and trust required by any nation to do historic things and so COVID 19 continues to ravage the USA. It is so strange the those who support Donald Trump refuse to wear face masks, the easiest way to beat the virus. At a time that Americans should be fighting the Covid 19, Americans are fighting themselves.

The American people are going to the polls again. Most of the pundits appear to think that former Vice President, Joe Biden will win this time and the world will no longer have to endure Donald Trump on our TV screens every day. The polls, especially in the battleground states, appear to support that view. But in 2016, almost all the polls said that Hilary Clinton would succeed Barack Obama.

Is this year different? Have Americans learnt any lesson? Have the Democrats learnt how to take on this man who has no sense of shame and can say anything and do anything to win? Can the world handle four more years of the trash talking egomaniac tendencies, the hyper culture wars and take-no-prisoner partisan divisions that Donald Trump spreads everywhere which is hurting America and hurting the world? Will Americans shock the world again? In three days, we will know.

See you next week.    

GO! GUYS GO! NIGERIAN LIVES MATTER TOO!

In so many ways, the year 2020 has been a washed-out year, a year in which all plans and projections have run amok. A tiny virus that the naked eye cannot even see has messed up nations big and small and people powerful and powerless.

As crazy as it may sound, the last quarter of the year 2020 may end as a watershed period in the history of the Nigerian nation, a period in which the young people of Nigeria took their future into their hands and declared to one and all that Nigerian lives matter.

I am proud, very proud of what the youth of Nigeria have done in the last two weeks. I am exceedingly proud of the leadership provided by young Nigerian artistes. I have always expressed the view that no nation in the history of mankind has been made great by cowards and that you cannot have omelets without breaking eggs. The youth of Nigeria have shown that they are not cowards and have decided to break the eggs necessary for there to be omelets in the land.

Let the truth be told, it is not just about the police or SARS. Our nation has completely lost direction. A self-serving leadership that appears to be deaf and dumb, has assumed that they own the country and all the milk and honey in it. In their minds, the rest of the nation have become their slaves.

Did we not say that we do not want to be colonized anymore by the British? What we did not realize was that we were going to end up being colonized in a worse manner by our own people.

One day during the week, I spent almost 5 hours in traffic from Ikoyi to Ikeja, the time it should ordinarily take to travel from Lagos to Onitsha. At some point, the car was stuck for close to three hours at exactly the same point on Western Avenue. The petrol in the tank of the car dried up and one of my colleagues had to search for a jerry can, to go and buy some fuel to keep the car running. My colleagues complained bitterly about the heavy traffic caused by the

WHO WILL BE THE NEXT IBRAHIM MAGU?

On Monday, July 6 2020, Ibrahim Magu woke up, took his bath, knotted one of his many fancy ties and dressed up in his usual sleek suit and set out on the streets of Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria. If anyone had told him as he was leaving home that morning that somebody born of a woman would have the audacity to block his convoy and order him to change his direction, I am almost certain that Ibrahim Magu would have laughed in the person's face and probably told the person that he was drinking a very bad variant of 'ogogoro'.

When Magu woke up that Monday, he was one of the most powerful men in Nigeria. Everyone, big or small, trembled at the mention of his name. He could order the arrest of anyone, detain anyone and using the enormous instruments under his control, send anyone to jail. After all, he was the Czar of President Buhari's anti-corruption fight, the fulcrum of Buhari's presidency.

Ibrahim Magu was powerful, so powerful. The Nigerian senate which has the constitutional powers to confirm or reject his appointment as Chairman of EFCC, twice refused to confirm him but it did not matter. Magu became bigger than the constitution and for five years, based on some twisted logic, bestrode the nation as "Acting Chairman" of the EFCC!

On July 6, in a commando style, Ibrahim Magu was waylaid on his way from the EFCC Formella Street office in Abuja, and forced to go to Aso Rock Villa, not to pally with the President, but to face a previously unknown presidential panel set up to investigate Magu's tenure and an alleged massive 'magu-magu' at the EFCC. They say, "wonders shall never end!". The evidence is there that in a twist of fate, Magu, the hunter, became the hunted.

Magu who is reported to live in luxury in a house rented in the incredible sum of N40m and furnished with N43m is said to have spent the night of his arrest sleeping on bare chairs at the Louis Edet Police Headquarters in Abuja.  

In the morning of July 6, Magu was a powerful man. In the evening, he was a powerless man. Those who gave Magu the power had taken it!

I have never met Ibrahim Magu. He is not my friend but as a Nigerian interested in the vicissitudes of our nation, I have followed the trajectory of his career.

The way the Magu matter is being handled troubles me. You do not need to be super brilliant to notice that in the matter, we appear to be working from the answer to the question. The way he was grabbed on the streets of Abuja like a convicted felon on the run is troubling. The fact that a hitherto unknown panel was specially set up for him at Aso Rock Villa despite the many investigative agencies in Nigeria, is troubling. The reported treatment of his lawyers is troubling.

When I saw the many unverified allegations against Magu being circulated by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), I was deeply worried. The News Agency of Nigeria owned by the Federal Government is not known to dwell in gossip or speculations. It has been a serious news organization. When NAN began to publish unproven facts against Magu, I did not need to be told that someone in government with a lot of leverage is determined to convict Magu without trial.

I know that there are many who would say, "God don catch am" and maybe they are right. I have no evidence that he has not done some or all of what he has been accused of. It is in the same way that I will not argue that his excesses may not have caught up with him but at some point, Nigeria will have to bring jungle justice to an end if we truly want to make progress. I am a man who believes that what distinguishes a great nation from a banana republic is the fair use of the law on everyone. As the English philosopher and physician, John Locke, did say, "the end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom".

Subject Magu to an open and fair process and let the chips fall where they may.

I am frightened that in Nigeria, we have become a nation of hunters. Everybody is haunting everybody. If you have a gun today, you use it to hunt your neighbour. That is why my young colleagues have had enough of FSARS and are protesting on the streets. Almost every serving governor is hunting his predecessor. Every local government chairman is hunting the guy who served before him and in the process, we twist the law as it pleases us or create new laws on the fly.

Today, Ibrahim Magu who used to own Nigeria cannot drive around in his usual large convoy. I am almost sure that the many policemen that tagged along and gave him protection would have been withdrawn. To all intents and purposes, the emperor has become naked. That should teach all of us a lesson that none of us will wield power forever.  None of us is God.

Which leaves me with the question: who will be the next Ibrahim Magu?

See you next week.