Democracy: US No Longer the Global Model

Crestfallen at the victory of Donald Trump, candidate of the Republican Party over Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party in the ongoing Presidential election in the United States, Nigeria’s former Foreign Affairs Minister, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, says with regards to democracy, the United States “has lost it”, and is “no longer the light on top of the hill”.

Prof. Akinyemi, who was guest on Arise News Morning Show on Wednesday, said what the US had done was “digging at the bottom of the barrel” for its leaders.

Describing the development as sending “a very bad signal to the rest of the world”, the former diplomat said rather than look towards the United States for encouragement, Nigeria must “turn inwards to look for strength and support in fighting our own battle to get better leadership. Leadership that will lead us out of the pithole that we’ve dug ourselves”.
Excerpts of the interview, as presented by Adekunbi Ero:

His view on victory of Donald Trump

Forgive me if I don’t say good morning to you. It hasn’t been a good night, and definitely, it’s not a good morning for the world.
What has just happened in the United States is a victory of crudity over refinement, a victory for all that the United States should not stand for. It’s a victory for what the world is not expecting from a country that says it is a bright light on a shining Hill.

I first went to the United States in 1962, and that America is not the America that voted for Trump yesterday. So, it’s just not. You must stand for rationality; you must stand for … How can you vote for somebody who’s been convicted of 34 crimes? How can you vote for somebody who almost overturned an election?

What message are you sending to the rest of the world? Tell me. For us in Nigeria, in the global South who are supposed to be fighting for democracy, for decency, for honesty, what message have you sent this morning? So, why should I say good morning?

On what could have gone wrong with Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party

No, I cannot do a postmortem analysis. You know, looking back, you always have a better vision than looking forward.

I don’t know what she did wrong. You saw all the endorsements that she was getting. What has happened in the U.S, is, and this we must concede without being condescending, there are more poor people in the United States than there are people in the middle class or people in the upper class.

There are more people who don’t care for values, they just care about food on the table. They don’t care about climate control or whatever it is. They want a government that will allow them to be drilling for coal, to be drilling for oil, and just to be making a living.

And if that leads to flooding in Nigeria or flooding in Spain; if that leads to rain that overruns the rest of the world, they simply don’t care. The America that I grew up with was an America that at least defined its national interest without telling the rest of the world where to go to.

How Trump is going to use the next four years still creating chaos all around the world, beats me. But I don’t know what Kamala Harris did wrong; honestly, I don’t.

But Prof, are you surprised? And I ask you honestly, are you surprised is this not America for you?

Nativist America. America, that does not see a woman becoming president, a sexist that I’ll never accept that. America that is not ready to break into the future; is that not the America we see today? America of hate and division. is that not what America has truly become in all reality, because Trump is a reflection of America.

I agree with you. That is why I’m so unhappy. That’s why I refuse to say good morning because this America is not the America of John F Kennedy. It’s not the America of Obama, it’s not the America of Bill Clinton. Now, I’m not saying that America was ever a saint in the world. America has started more wars since the second world war than anyone we knew of.

But at least that was an America you could speak to. That was an America whose decision makers you could reason with, not the America of the new comes that think once it is good for America, they don’t care about the rest of the world. You are right about the description that you have given the United States, but it doesn’t make me happy.

And it shouldn’t make the world happy today. Yes, it can make Putin happy. But for God’s sake, do you want a world in which the powerful try to swallow up another country irrespective of their sovereignty? Do you want the world where Israel that has been condemned by the United Nations, by the World Court, whose prime minister is being looked for by the ICC (International Criminal Court) and that is the one that is raising a flag of victory today because his supporter has won the election? Is that the kind of world you want?

A world where perhaps North Korea Is going to be jubilating? No, I want an America where whatever happens in the United States, the decent part of the world will be jubilating and not that part of the world that is a danger to the rest of us.

What a Trump victory portends for Nigeria

I listened to your conversation with Ambassador Joe Keshi, who incidentally, was my student at the University of Ibadan, and one of my ambassadors when I was a minister. I agree completely with all he said that Nigeria and Africa are not going to be of any value or of any interest to Trump.

We were not, the first time around. I don’t want to use the term that he used for us, especially given the fact that even we use it for ourselves. But I agree with Ambassador Keshi that we are not going to be of any interest to him.

He would have other areas of the world that are of more immediate interest, and perhaps countries that he can engage with, and that turned up in his campaign. He told you that he can stop the war in Ukraine, he can stop the war in the Middle East. Let us see how his campaign verbosity will translate into actual diplomatic action once he’s in the White House.

But he never mentioned Africa actually all through that campaign. Yes, he mentioned Congo because of what is happening there. Trust Trump to try and point out a negative part of Africa; but let this again, be a lesson to us.
Maybe we should turn inward; and at least, a country like Nigeria that has the natural resources, that does not have to depend on loan or aid or assistance from the United States, can buckle up and develop itself. We’ve lost so many years; think of where we were in 1966, think of where we were in 1975 when Gowon was overthrown, and look at where we are now. But we are not a Banana Republic. We have the resources that we can use to build on ourselves so that people like Trump will not call us that name which they called us four years ago.

Chances of African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) being renewed under a majority Republican Senate and low-hanging fruits Nigeria can leverage on in Nigeria, US relations
Now, incidentally, AGOA was an introduction by George Bush, the son, a Republican, but not Trump’s Republican wing of the party. But talking specifically about the low-hanging fruits, you’ve got gas, you’ve got still this crude oil. These are things that are under the control of the Nigerian government.

You’ve got the Dangote Refinery, the biggest in the world that we should give support to so that they can even export and generate foreign exchange, because our problem is foreign exchange. If it could generate foreign exchange for us, then our currency, we could build up the value and take that burden off our shoulder of a diminishing currency.

And incidentally, I looked at the statistics by the board of … whatever board releases statistics for us …, and I discovered that, in fact, the percentage of non-oil exports has been growing. We should build on that and, you will ask me, how? The fact is reducing the number of government agencies that you have at the ports.
I remember when President Jonathan was there, he gave orders to reduce them; this was when Okonjo-Iweala was Minister of Finance. He gave instructions to reduce the number of government agencies which through their bureaucracy, allow fruits to rot in those containers before they are shipped out and they are then of no value.

Now, that instruction was never carried out, and those government agencies are back there. If you know the number of government agencies that are at our ports, it’s disgraceful. Those are the things that the government can do that can build on the value that we add to ourselves and to world trade.

Look, we’ve got even Nigerians whom we should be proud of – Oramah, Afri-Exim Bank; Adesina, World Bank; Okonjo-Iweala, World Trade Organisation. These are our citizens who would be prepared to assist us in making our own contribution, and developing and building of this low-hanging fruits, but are we going to use them, or are we going to be involving the treasonous,
that’s a bad word these days in Nigeria?

What is happening between IPMAN and Dangote Refinery? That is the real treason that is happening.

US democracy, beacon of hope?

Of course, not. Why do you think I’m so upset? Of course not; because of the message, it is sending to the rest of the world, it is not encouraging and that is why I’m so upset. We should not be digging at the bottom of the barrel for our leaders. That’s what America has done. The Americas stood a chance of goodness, trumpeting over badness; of morality, being victorious or encouraging criminality, and it lost it.

And in losing it, it sent a very bad signal to the rest of the world, a very bad signal. We now have to turn inwards to look for strength and support in fighting our own battle to get better leadership. Leadership that will lead us out of the pithole that we’ve dug ourselves. We shouldn’t look towards the United States for encouragement.

The United States is no longer a light on top of the hill. That’s the language that Ronald Reagan used. It is no longer, not by what happened last night in the United States.