It was fascinating to watch the first presidential debate leading to the election for the President of the United States scheduled for November 2016. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the leading candidates, went with the dictates of their conscience in their campaigns. It takes big picture players in today’s world to say what they truly believe in without bowing down to group-philosophy.
Even though Trump scored less than Clinton in my estimation, he scored high for me in the area of the massive responsibility that the US takes charge of, helping countries around the world, defending the world, funding NATO mostly alone.
Did you see Trump in the spin room backstage after the debate? He believes in himself so much not minding whether the establishment loves him or not. But the establishment needs to follow Ronald Reagan’s advice to “elect your colleagues and support the party.”
But Clinton was strong on cooperation with members of the international community, international diplomacy, race relations within, taxes and job creation. She was so strong that she boxed Trump who became entrammelled in his past challenges and could only respond to them instead of articulating well-oiled policies. It is hard to tell who will win the election in November at this stage. After all Reagan’s career got boosted not before but only after his superb nomination of Gerald Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention and again not against Jimmy Carter but against Walter Mondale – at a time when his popularity was becoming a liability.
But unlike at the US presidential debates where beliefs and principles tower above all for country, in Nigeria, at political campaign rallies, I see party henchmen on national television dancing seriously on-stage before the delivery of basic promissory speeches to party members and the electorate. It doesn’t seem like democracy is our forte.
Why should politicians be grinning from ear to ear and dancing in the midst of a recession? Both Trump and Clinton pledged to accept the outcome of the election. In Nigeria, a peace committee must be put up, and agreement to accept the outcome of elections must be signed and a superpower nearby to kibitz for peace if it is elusive after elections. Many times, even after peace pacts, they must continue to oil their ammunition for wars. In Nigeria, there is nothing to show that there is an ideological push into the regions after elections, they quarrel perennially on all issues.
The Jews in America belong to both political parties (Democratic and Republican), yet in most regions in Nigeria, we hold on to the ethos and bathos of one political party bowing down to forces of partisan group-think.
The United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child is gender-neutral and girls need not be discriminated against due to their unsought for gender over which they do not have any control. Sadly, discrimination against girls is a religion in Nigeria. If Clinton were a Nigerian, she would never have been the frontrunner of a major political party. Not only would she have been discriminated against by men but by the womenfolk.
Remember Edward Ted Heath Prime Minister of the UK (1970-1974) and Margaret Thatcher? Despite opposition from the Conservative Party establishment about his continued stay as opposition leader having lost a general election, Heath traipsed on. Then came Thatcher, an establishment player and his former education minister whom Heath scoffed at as not a serious challenger to his seat only because she was a woman. History tells us who was wrong.
It’s time our politicians began to promote inclusive democracy and refrain from creating chasms and alienating people and bellyaching the establishment and rocking the national boat. Instead of only attacking the policies of the establishment and not the destruction of the establishment. Creating trouble in Nigeria by acting too superior but who are politically so inferior that they lack a grasp of establishment politics. Every troubleshooter comes around mouthing inanities, shilly shallying instead of discussing issues to benefit mankind. To them, I say this: You can negotiate your way to power. Power negotiated is better than power obtained through gunboat diplomacy.
Simon Abah,
Port Harcourt, Rivers State
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