Prof Okey Ikechukwu is the Executive Director of Development Specs Academy. In this interview monitored on Arise Television, he speaks on the emergence of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States, its implications on the war in the Middle East and what Nigeria and Africa should expect from his presidency, ANAYO EZUGWU reports
What is your reaction to the news that Donald Trump is on his way back to the White House? Is it a nightmare or something you welcome?
I welcome it heartily unless I think more and more Americans are being honest about how Americans feel, about what Americans want. Yes, Barack Obama came on as a false black man and canvassed certain values. If you recall, under Obama, Nigeria was to be sanctioned for making an anti-gay law. Nigeria was denied arms for all kinds of reasons.
What I saw the Obama regime do and which President Joe Biden tried to extend was attempt to recreate the values of right and wrong for the rest of humanity.
The amount of investment that the government made in gender issues like Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) never have been done in history. Their attempt to redefine gender, redefine humanity and push it all over the place and then the pro-life and all other values of Trump. I noted that combat because it’s been of interest to me for a long time.
The moment Biden took over, you may recall, I wrote an article titled, ‘As Biden Shows His Hand.’ It was the same set of paradigms. And the issue for us is this: What is it that we’ve gained from that? So, you find that Trump is abrasive, no question about that. Some would say rambunctious, you know, clearly a riot on his own.
But in the end, what does he represent? He represents some of the things that the core conservative America has been interested in. After Ronald Reagan left office, his chief of staff, Morton Blackwell, set up the Leadership Institute for only one reason.
To recreate conservative American values and to ensure that those who passed through that institute, just like in Nigeria, had gotten into the State Department and the core agencies. Part of the values being pushed there is what Trump, without any liaison with them, was doing. I was in that place in 2012.
So, the point is this: A government that could say, don’t say Merry Christmas, it’s inclusive, just say Season’s Greetings, must be a government that doesn’t believe in God. And it’s not about being conservative, being timid and being extremely religious. On what basis did that government set out to redefine what we are?
So, Trump came on, complete with words, unappealing in self-presentation and everything, but there was something that drove him on. Now, he was also abrasive and was not too welcoming to outsiders. Now that Trump is the externalization of the feeling of the basic and average American. Namely, if you and I walk into the US today, immigration doesn’t feel happy seeing us.
That’s the truth. But they have to be nice about it. So, the whole thing is that everybody is trying to be politely nasty. The man says, no, this is my backyard. I decide who comes here. So, that element is there. And I am not surprised at the victory because it means that more and more people have the courage to be honest.
Some people are seeing it as a progressive dismantling of America. I would say, what is there to be dismantled? A reality that everybody was pretending is not there, is now being unveiled. And the custodian, or if you like, the patron saint of that is Trump.
All the things you are saying reminds us of what a fractious election this has been and points to the deep seated division in America. Mr. Trump has talked about healing those divisions; do you believe he can or he’s going to deepen those?
He will deepen them. We’ve seen him as president, we’ve seen him as president who lost and didn’t want to go, and we’ve seen him as presidential contestant, as a candidate contestant for this one and throwing everything while contestant.
He’s likely to deepen those divisions, not because he’s setting out to deepen them, but because he will be so strong in affirming his convictions that many will see that there’s a gulf between him and them. Now, the question there will be the ultimate impact of those things he’s doing. That’s where our attention will be.
But talking about healing, I think we are familiar with Trump’s kind of healing. If he gives you medication that’s not good for you and you don’t take it, he says you’re stupid. If you take it and it doesn’t taste nice, he says, no, something is wrong with your taste buds. So, that’s a kind of healing we’ll expect, but I would say about time too.
That game they’ve been playing with us has lasted long enough. We need somebody who will look at us and say, look, you guys, I think you’re stupid. If you don’t do this, you won’t see me
In terms of reducing the fractiousness of this election, is there likely to be a sigh of relief in America that the victory seems so clear and is not blurred by being too close?
Now, this in itself is very revelatory of the American soul at this moment of the historical hour. The same Trump who lost, the same Trump who was alleged to have wanted to probably take over violently, the same Trump who was indicted, the same Trump has received more votes than the vice president of an immediate past government of a different party.
She’s also part of a party platform that had been in power and had projected a certain perception of America and a certain set of core values. And so he comes on, the same person that was practically rejected, and all of a sudden he got real votes, more than the other candidate.
That suggests a new thinking. That suggests a slightly more honest America. That also suggests an America we should become a little more worried about because it is going to be headed by a Trump, who is a bulldozer. It is going to be headed by a Trump, who is serviced by a parliament that his party dominates. So, anything he sends across is like saying to his child, look.
Now, that’s a Trump and that’s a perfect recipe for global danger because he’s likely to get an endorsement. When it’s only his acolytes out there, it’s the party that owns it. He has shown capacity for swallowing his party. He did that before. Nobody thought he would get the ticket when he did it.
The first time he became president, he got the ticket, people chuckled and nobody thought he would win. He won; misbehaved thoroughly after losing and he’s back. He bounced back in a frightening way and with a lot of political and legal leverage. So, he’s likely to be a little less manageable, quite frankly.
With Trump’s victory and the ongoing war in Gaza, can we assume that if he were to bring that war to an end quickly, it would not end in a way that the Palestinians and the Arab countries want?
We’re looking at a man who, from our perception, has already taken sides. To that extent, the end of that war, knowing his usual temperament and disposition he will say look, just deal with these guys, they’re causing too much trouble here and we have other things to do, sweep that place out.
That’s basically the kind of thing we’re likely to see. And we must see beyond the question; it’s not about Gaza and Israel. It’s about the soul of America, which belongs to the Jews. If you take away Israeli scientists, Israeli businessmen, Israeli funding, Israeli management of the U.S. economy and military and science, there will be no America.
So, people have always wondered, what is it that these people are always doing? Every small thing, you see them to be on the side of Israel, they help them create an Israeli state. Those undercurrents are not lost on Trump. It was an Israeli, I remember, who created a marketing chain of sales or return.
He wouldn’t ask you to pay for anything, he’ll come to your shop and drop it, he’ll come back in a day or two, a week, if it’s not on the shelf, you give him the money. They are a creative people; they constitute and compound the core of those values and skills that enable the American state of today to be what it is.
If you look at the number of Nobel laureates who have Israeli or Jewish heritage, the number of people with that heritage who dominate different aspects of the American state’s Silicon Valley, you will understand why Trump sees American interests as synonymous with the survival of the state of Israel.
What about a country like Nigeria and the rest of Africa; will Trump be good for the continent or would Harris have been better?
What did Harris, Biden and Obama do for Nigeria or Africa? You said the man is from Kenya. I wouldn’t argue about that because we have factual evidence to that effect. What did Obama’s tenure do for Africa?
What did the continuation of that tenure under Biden do for Africa? We’ve walked into what I was looking forward to, summits on Africa and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). What you call, there’s a word for it, abstract gains.
Oh, there’s this summit on how to develop Africa, there’s this summit on the needs of African states, there’s an increase in aid to support development, to fight corruption by a country that if anybody moves in $5,000 into the U.S. banking system is flagged.
They’ll know where you are, and where you’re coming from. Billions of Naira are moving out of this country, converted into hundreds of millions of dollars in the U.S. economy and Europe.
They know the onus is driving the economy. That’s not corruption, but what they do is to come here and give us lectures and support anti-corruption agencies.
So, that fraud has lasted long enough. That’s why I say, what was it they delivered? If Africa leverages its massive human capital, it has a lot of arable land, it can feed the whole world, it’s a speech in a hall. That’s a window; I got familiar with it as a lecturer at the university. You listen to those who speak ideals.
After that, you know that outside that hall, the fellow doesn’t have a single follower but believes he has proposed a solution to everything on the planet and probably two other planets apart from this one. That game they’ve been playing with us has lasted long enough. We need somebody who will look and say, look, you guys, I think you’re stupid. If you don’t do this, you won’t see me. That’s the kind of thing Trump will tell Africa.
