Okonjo-Iweala, Biden and Trump
In response to my piece entitled “Coup In The Capitol Hill And The Divided States of America” which was focused on the insurrection by extremists who stormed the Capitol on January 6, a security expert in the USA was so riled by my reference to the country as “Divided States of America (DSA)” that he literarily called me out.
He was critical of my uncomplimentary tagging of the USA as DSA.
He did not give a hoot about my explanation that the title was apt as the USA had become so divided as evidenced by the 81m people that voted for Joe Biden who won the presidency, versus the 74m that voted for Donald Trump, that got defeated in the 3November, 2020 presidential elections in the USA and refused to accept defeat.
Tried as l did , he failed to be persuaded by my explanations that the pattern of the votes and behavior of the electorate suggested a huge division amongst Americans that bayed for Trump and those that kicked against him numbering up to 7 million more than those for him.
I also strived to no avail to sway my traducer away from his impertinence into accepting that a consequential fall out of the deep rift amongst voters in the USA is what snowballed into the 6 January storming of the Capitol by the insurrectionists intent on disrupting the procedures by the legislators from the 50 states of the union who had assembled to certify Joe Biden’s win in the electoral college votes.
My assailant was so peeved that instead of paying attention to my justification of the title, he questioned my locus standi for commenting on the seeming collapse of democracy in the country that prides herself as the bastion of liberal democracy and leader of the free world.
In his view , what right do l have to poke fun or comment on the status of the democracy in the almighty USA, particularly when l’m a citizen of Nigeria that is yet to figure out what the practice of democracy as a system of government is about ,how much more practice it in purity.
I ignored his asinine remark because l had concluded that the fellow who was trying to bully me must be a Trumpist.
Since l felt he must be living in denial , my response to him was simple and presented in the following manner :
The brutal and savage attack on legislatorssenators and congressmen/women - by Trumpists and other political extremists during a joint session of Congress under the chairmanship of then Vice President Mike Pence in the process of certifying the electoral college votes from the 50 states affirming Joe R. Biden as the 46th president of the USA , was enough to demystify the world’s most powerful democracy. And it certainly did for me.
I reminded him of how un-American the invasion of the Capitol, the symbol of USA democracy is, and what a blithe on the country’s democracy credentials , the savage action of trying to over turn Joe Biden’s victory represents to lovers of democracy or its adherents like me world wide. I drew his attention to the fact that some democracy devotees like my good self that had become champions of democratic system of governance in my country of which the USA was the poster child or mascot, are still trying to pull ourselves out of the trauma and depression of seeing the Capitol, which had never been attacked until the British set the legislative seat of power on fire on 24 August , 1814 when it invaded the USA during the country’s struggle for independence . I then proceeded to bring to his notice , how bewildered and crest fallen l was seeing the physical siege and desecration of the symbol of democracy by the extremists on the fateful 6 January, 2020.
That’s in addition to the fact that it was so absurd to me that then president of the USA, mr Trump was caught on tape trying to compel an official in charge of elections in one of the states to arbitrarily award him votes that he did not earn.
l then added that the shenanigans were really so appalling and jarring to me that a seating president would invite state government officials to the White House where he would attempt to bully them into skewing electoral votes in their respective states in his favor.
Finally , l informed my interrogator that given that we practice presidential system of government in Nigeria , the bad example set on 6 January in the USA was bound to rub off negatively on politics in my country , hence l expressed my displeasure via the article that was deemed offensive to him.
I have no idea if he was assuaged or persuaded by my submission, but l’m convinced that the points that l made were enough for him to ponder and perhaps aid him in getting off his high horses.
On a personal note, the very critical reasons for writing the piece is that l was anxious to see the back of Donald Trump from the White House as the 45th president of the USA , principally because his administration, amongst other local and international perfidies and arbitrariness , was blocking the appointment of our own amazon -Ngozi Okonjo-lweala as the next president of the World Trade Organization, WTO.
Here is how Okonjo-Iweala described in a recent media interview, her ordeal in the hands of Trump when she was vying to be the Director General of the WTO :
“I think I was quite surprised when that came (opposition from Trump) because there was no indication that there was any problem with the US.
“I had two good interviews with the authorities and with the administration so it was a surprise. But that’s the way life works. When things happen, you take them in your stride and you move on.
“It was absolutely wonderful when the Biden/ Harris administration broke that logjam. They joined the consensus and gave such a strong endorsement to my candidacy. They joined the other 163 members to endorse my candidacy.”
Unlike Okonjo-lweala, l’m not surprised that Trump opposed her candidacy and my pessimistic prognosis is derived from the fact that the same Trump had also referred to Nigeria as a ‘ shit hole’ country , affirming his racist tendencies, inclinations and attitude towards members of black and brown communities and even extending to Africans on the continent.
By also trying to literarily kill the dream of kids born in the USA also known as DACA (a lot of them Nigerians) via a policy of preventing them from getting a secure pathway to becoming citizens if their parents were not bonafide American citizens,Trump revealed that he lacked empathy or exposed his meanness.
Now ,contrary to former president Trump’s abrasive leadership style, president Biden has amongst a slew or deluge of reversals of Trump’s obnoxious policies, resuscitated DACA that was introduced via executive order under the watch of the 44th president of the USA , Barack Obama whom he served with as Vice President . The policy which espouses 8 years time lag to get to citizenship by immigrants is poised to be one of president Biden’s biggest hurdles to scale , perhaps second in importance to the Affordable Care Act (ACA)otherwise known as Obamacare that was under threat of cancellation by Trump, but also currently receiving parliamentary attention .
It is amazing how the 46th president, Biden is such a contrast to the 45th , Trump.
While Biden is an empathetic and liberal leader with a mission to unite white and black as well as blue and red Americans, even as he seeks to reignite America’s sparkle as a force for good all over the world, Trump was a champion of white supremacy to the extent that he did not only divide Americans, but ostracized people from major parts of the world as he tangoed or faced- off with China , lran , North Korea and even some countries in Europe-a continent with a preponderance of countries that are joined in the hips with America.
Under president Biden’s leadership , the USA has just donated a whopping $4b to COVAX- a World Health Organization , WHO co-ordinated fund for sourcing COVID-19 vaccines in support of people in under resourced countries worldwide.
Compare and contrast such Biden’s public spiritedness with Trump’s -the man who as the president of the USA,the wealthiest country in the world-only donated ventilators that were no longer needed in the USA to African countries including Nigeria. Perhaps the gesture by mr Trump is a demonstration or in furtherance of his reckoning that only crumps are good enough for Africans that he disdainfully referred to as people from ‘shit hole’ countries.
His racist tendencies were not restricted to just blacks in America, but he was projecting it far beyond. With his America First mantra , ex president Trump espoused and promoted the insularity of the USA by projecting to the vulnerable members of the global society that the USA is no longer ‘their brothers keepers’ , yet he wanted to have influential control over Africa Development Bank, ADB, the World Health Organization, WHO, the World Trade Organization,WTO and other Breton wood institutions. How do l know that ? Under president Trump’s watch , the USA had tried very hard to torpedo Akinwunmi Adesina’s bid for re-election as African Development Bank, ADB president. The ADB president was accused of financial malfeasance by a USA representative on the board of the bank. But after several internal probes and a repeated probe by an independent panel absolved him of any malpractice, the USA had no choice but to capitulate by accepting Akinwunmi Adewunmi’s re-election .
By the same token , the WHO, Director General, Tedros Adhanom Gbebreyesus was clobbered by Trump over his alleged mismanagement of covid-19 pandemic, and allegedly for pandering to the Chinese , according to Trump’s reckoning.
His only escape from Trump’s racist cudgel is because the Make America Great Again, (MAGA)exponent lost his re-election bid to mr Biden who has now offered the Ethiopia born DG of WHO, a new lease of life by returning the USA to the global health organization as a major donor .
Characteristically, Trump and his administration’s streak for literarily sticking dagger into the heart of Africans became manifest once again when he constituted a stumbling block on the path of our own amazon , Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as she was vying for the role of Director General for WTO.
Even after 163 countries had endorsed the Harvard and MIT-ivy league institutions-educated development economist for the job, the USA under Trump’s presidency remained a lone dissenter and a clog in the wheel of progress as he threw his weight and that of the USA behind South Korea’s trade minister , Yoo Myung-hee.
Obviously, America’s public policy under former president Trump had become stuck like a bull trying to walk on quicksand that it needed to be rescued by a regime with a more robust and accommodating world view.
Fortuitously ,it is not only the WTO logjam that has been eased up, the Biden/Harris administration has for all its intents and purposes practically started untangling the administrative nooses that the immediate past president Trump’s administration tied the system down with in pursuit of his America First and Make America Great Again, (MAGA) mantra.
As an administration on a rescue mission, team Biden/Harris now looks like a lawn mower in a garden that had been left unattended to by an irresponsible and perhaps reckless homeowner/ tenant or at best a snowmobile clearing up the pathways after a snowstorm in the manner that the blizzard that recently hit the USA is being cleared up , particularly in the fossil fuel rich state of Texas.
Without a shred of doubt, the reputation of the USA as the epitome of democracy sunk , as my faith in the unequalled, unparalleled , indisputable and towering position of the that country as the face of democracy in this century symbolized by the Statue of Liberty whose imposing presence in New York habor beckons visitors to the great, USA, the land of the free and where all humans can be what they can be irrespective of their color or creed , was questioned by that 6 January invasion of the Capitol by those that l have, perhaps mockingly described as coup plotters.
Incidentally, l’m not alone in tagging the USA as the Divided States of America, DSA after the abhorrent behavior put up by right wing politicians and extremists who are essentially Trump supporters.
Fareed Zakaria, a CNN anchor for the talk show Fared Zakaria GPS had shortly after my article also titled his special report on the 6 January breakdown of law and order in the Capitol as “The Divided States of America- What’s Tearing Us Apart” a documentary which was broadcast on CNN , 29 January.