The World Is Watching
Last week, billionaire real estate tycoon and reality television personality Donald Trump was elected as the new President of the United States of America. Born in 1946 in New York, the 70-year old real estate developer had been strategically involved in hugely profitable building projects in Manhattan before he began to nurse political ambitions. Trump systematically measured his way into politics and in 2015 announced his intention to run for the presidency of the United States under the umbrella of the Republican Party. After winning the primaries, Trump became the official Republican candidate for the presidency on July 19, 2016.
After a very tightly contested election campaign, he was voted in as the 45th President of the United States when he defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. His victory was hailed in many countries across the globe. But even then, not many people could explain why they were happy that Trump won the election. In some areas, especially in the United States, some people protested against the Trump victory. And again, they too could not explain why they were unhappy with the declaration of Trump’s victory into the White House. So, in a sense, Trump’s mysterious victory was something of an enigma.
Indeed, there were some things about the election in America that baffled pundits. Throughout the campaign period, many political observers had hoped that Hillary Clinton was going to win. She had clear advantages. She was more eloquent in speech. Her body language was superb in comparison with her opponent when both of them addressed an audience. She had been in government for a fairly long time and possibly mastered the ropes. She had held several important public positions. So, naturally one would expect that Americans would count on her experience and give her a chance to try her hand on the plum job.
The Democrats were, after all, the ones who produced the first black President for America. In doing so, they made history. It was then projected by some observers that the Democrats could seal their fate with the history of America, if in the same vein they were able to give America its first woman President. It was also projected that if most, if not all of the women in America were to vote for their fellow woman, voting in the spirit of the suffragette movement across the political divide so that for the first time in American history a woman can lead the nation, the Democrats would have made their point that nothing could be impossible with them. The fact that American women voters did not see their fellow woman occupying the number one position in the country as their priority was again as baffling as it was revealing.
During those campaign months before the elections, Donald Trump was known to have made some rather derogatory remarks about Moslems and about South Americans. Yet, a good number of them voted for him. Could it be because they were afraid of Trump or perhaps that they wanted to dare him to live up to his words if he became the President?
One very important challenge that will face the new administration, though, will be the Christian background of both Donald Trump and his running mate and Vice President-elect, Governor Mike Pence. Are they likely to use that background to turn around the madness that has held the world hostage since the 1960’s when the concept of openness swept across nations like a hurricane wind in the harmattan season? Their initial reactions after the elections seem to suggest they are likely to do so.
Over the years, the values of traditional families have been under serious attack by the misconceptions of the so-called modern families which range from gay families to live-in partnerships. Most traditional family heads, like my poor self, thought we were losing it. And it was quite painful to even consider how anyone who had come from so far a place as Africa could possibly lose his family values to a society that is bent on destroying itself by instalments.
When I watched how Trump’s family members all came out at the victory of their father and brother, how they stood up to be counted among their own, I was moved to tears. Inside of me then I knew that there was still hope that at some point, some day, sanity would return to the world because science does not have a reason to conflict with nature.
Look at all the animals that Nature created for example. It is impossible to find a he-goat coupling another he-goat or any other male or female specie coupling its kind. But in his wild understanding that nature can be “conquered” man poked his dirty fingers into the eyes of God, doing unnatural things and claiming it is development.
I do not want to criticise President Obama because for me he is a great idol, an African-American man who did what literally Napoleon could not do. But if there is anything I disliked about his administration, it was the quickness with which he was ready to defend the indefensible in the sex relationships of Americans and by implication, the world.
President Obama played host to President Buhari of Nigeria on July 21. Africans generally expected that the two gentlemen would discuss political, economic, social and security issues which impacted on the relationships between their nations. And Nigerians in the Diaspora believed that Obama would raise the point concerning Nigeria’s laws on gay relationships and lobby President Buhari to join hands with America, Canada, England and some other countries which had endorsed same-sex relationships.
At the high point in the Obama administration, the Supreme Court in America had officially secured a judgment which legalized same-sex marriages in all of the nation’s 50 states. Before that judgment, only 37 states endorsed same-sex marriages in America.
The argument as to the moral and social propriety of gay relationships had raged on like harmattan fire, even in the media in the United States and beyond. Many thought, and still think, that the idea is demonic. Others argued that it was all about human rights. Whatever it was, America had legalized gay relationships across its territory under President Obama’s watch. In the White House, Obama had hailed the ruling as a milestone which arrived “like a thunderbolt” in American justice system.
Obama was the first sitting US President to support gay relationships. “This ruling is a victory for America. This decision affirms what millions of Americans already believe in their hearts. When all Americans are treated as equal, we are all freer,” he was quoted as saying after the verdict was delivered to Americans from the Supreme Court. Even as the clouds darkened that day, and night approached, the White House was lit up with the colours of the rainbow – symbolizing gay pride – to mark the court’s decision.
Obama’s open support for gay relationships became somewhat legendary. During Nelson Mandela’s Memorial Service in 2013 he spoke glowingly in support of gay communities around the world “still struggling for equality”. He said: “around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs and are still persecuted for what they look like and how they worship and who they love.” He argued that because Africa had suffered marginalization, racism and discrimination, the continent should be at the forefront of the campaign for gay rights.
It is not news any more that in the course of this century, the traditional family, as it has always been known, had continued to be incredibly “disfigured” by such seemingly sweeping influences in our society that President Obama readily endorsed. Perhaps, what is news is that most people still haven’t found it necessary to appreciate the fact that these influences, though they seemed torrential, were by no means compelling. Not in any sense.
I am not so sure now if it was financial or emotional security that drove people into this trend of finding happiness in the so-called “new family” system. But I am sure there must be a way to get around it without destroying the original values of traditional families. And I have great hope that when eventually Trump is sworn in as President of America, he will find the need to revisit some of the points being made here and how they relate to his African allies.
Now that the new Pharaoh who never knew Joseph will soon mount the throne of the United States of America, what should we be expecting? Can Trump return the world to the path of sanity and brotherly love and care? The world is watching.