Donald Trump’s Peculiar Trajectory
By Okey Ikechukwu
Consider the following: (1) Barrack Obama signed less than 300 Executive Orders in his eight years as president. (2) Biden signed 162 Executive Orders during his single term presidency. (3) By January 22, 2025, Donald trump, who took over from Biden, had revoked 67 (that is 41%) of those others. (4) This year alone, over 200 Executive Orders have come from Donald trump; and we are still counting. Check how many decisions the American Parliament has made within this year and compare that with how many Executive Orders have been made by Trump.
Take it further and ask how many of Trump’s Executive Orders are not operating with the force of law today. Also ask how many of his Executive Orders are not overriding the Parliament – and perhaps the spirit of the American constitution.
That is Donald Trump. A historical inevitability for a nation that is caught in the self-assigned role of Senior Prefect of our 21st Century world.
Before we go int the prevailing Trump versus Nigeria saga, let us backtrack to some past events that have affected relationships between the US and Nigeria before Trump turned up in the White House.
The Obama/Biden presidency’s patently unfair treatment of Nigeria at one of the high points of the Boko Haram insurgency cannot be so easily forgotten. In an Exclusive Commentary of December 5, 2020, in the Houston-based USAfrica, titled “Will Biden Impose Alternative Lifestyles on Africans?” I said that all non-enthusiasts of gay marriage and anti-gay advocates should be wary of the then nascent Biden Presidency. The reason, as stated in the article, was that “…upon being sworn in as president of the United States, Joe Biden will begin to reconnect with many “globally significant” individuals towards the globalization of new (alternative) “lifestyles” he promised “The Return of all the freedoms enjoyed under Barrack Obama”.
It was in the same spirit of “World leader” now being exhibited by Donald trump that the Obama administration threatened Nigeria with sanctions for passing a law against same-sex marriage. That presidency diligently promoted the same sex agenda and Gay relationships with the LGBTQ+ movement and created a new world for the exercise of those rights.
When Donald trump later barged, in bared teeth and all, the dynamics changed forever. But he also brought a new set of dynamics, all bred on the same diet of presumption of American Superiority and Right of Way in any argument. He saw it as his duty, rightly or wrongly, to dismantle the values being promoted by his predecessors.
While he objected to the values and tendencies being diligently promoted by the Obama/Biden government, while he sought to counter their attempts to universalize those values, he was also as determined to universalize alternative values that conduced to traditional American norms.
Thus, trump’ current presidency therefore came with a strong wave of politico-spiritual currents. He
raved against the Obama/Biden presidency for diminishing the significance of Christmas, demanding that Merry Christmas be replaced with “Season’s Greetings”, etc. he saw no reason in Obama/Biden’s America carrying on as if they were appointed the duty of re-creating the world and redefining the goals of humanity.
Just as Obama and Biden were not interested in installmental gains and small victories, but wanted a wholesale conversion of all humanity, Trump prefers to swallow his victims whole, and preferably without a whimper. Tell him about minority rights, and he will quickly remind you that there are minorities in the human ecosystem, such as cannibals, that everyone must do his best to help eliminate from the face of the earth. Push human rights too far before him and he would make a swing back, by telling you that you must make sure that some people are truly human, before you begin to push for their rights.
That is Donald Trump!
He roundly rejected a point of view that reached its peak in the US under Obama and Biden, namely the view that everyone had the right to whatever pleased him, provided he did not disturb anyone else while at it. Trump consciously fought against the deliberate, and well-funded, campaign in defense of Lesbians and gays. He cried ‘foul’ when the campaign became so multi-flagellated that it not only moved form move form LGBT to LGBTQ, but added “Q” and the plus sign, to show that any new stray tendency was welcome to declare itself legitimate and entitled.
Trump must have been listening and chuckling cynically to himself when Biden said, after being sworn: “America is back”. He must have been asking, possibly derisively: “Which America, and whose America, is back? A Donald trump must have been saying to himself: “An America that is encapsulated in an earlier Presidential Memorandum, wherein countries which were still reluctant to make laws to promote, accommodate and perhaps even expand the rights and privileges of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI+) people were threatened with sanctions cannot be my America”.
In warming up for a mortal combat with a Presidential Memorandum seeking a worldwide plan to strengthen the protection of LGBTQI+ rights and make humanity to collectively follow a new global priority under this umbrella of rights, Trump must have seen himself as fighting for truth, for the Almighty and for Godliness. He refused to accept the trending claim that everyone on earth should tremulously fall in line with what somebody says, just because he was temporarily living in the White House.
He was known to have responded with irritation, not concealed of course, when it was announced that the US would roll out sanctions against countries which did not subscribe to the preferred values of the Obama/Biden government in matters of intimate relations between genders.
Trump queried the presumption, arguing that no one had the right to inflict his preferences on others, or pass himself off as defender of humanity and protector of the best ideals of human existence. He refused to believe that there were any sane criteria by which the Obama/Biden presidency justified their stigmatization of some countries as “homophobic”, just because of their country’s anti-gay laws.
When Biden said: “The United States belongs at the forefront of this struggle – speaking out and standing strong for our most dearly held values”, Trump must have muttered to himself: “The most dearly held values of many nations, including Nigeria that was threatened with sanctions for its anti-gay laws, are not American value”. When Biden spoke of “…enforcing freedoms and promoting tolerance,” Trump must have felt that the former did not consider that he was President of the US, and not president of the entire earth. He must have felt that Biden did not consider the likely overall negative impact of the US on “rights” with regards to cultural and religious values globally.
Going back to the current threat of military invasion of Nigeria by the US, under Trump, one sees an aspect of the same concern for Christianity and humanity from Trump’s point. The problem here, however, is that the narrative is couched in similarly extreme terms as the presumptions of those Trump’s earlier barbs were often directed at. His intervention is the result of protestations made by interested parties and also partly derived from Nigerian media reports.
We cannot deny some measure of limited insights into the full dynamics of the situation in Nigeria, but it would be absurd to say or think that the solution is military action. Against whom, and how?
Donald Trump has never hidden his appetite for big and open fights. He declared his preparedness to fight new-fangled values and promote the custodian role of the conservative American State. He was all for the restoration of traditional religious practices, war against Big Pharma and all big bad boys and girls damaging America.
But his new-found focus on Nigeria needs a recalibration, for better results. No one can deny the realities of insurgency, kidnapping, farmer/herder clashes, displacement of some communities and the existence of banditry in Nigeria today. The “religious flavour” of some of these issues is, more often than not, seen in terms of the geographical location of the victims and the ethnic and religious leanings of those affected. No one can also deny the fact that collaboration and an intelligence-guided support will yield more meaningful results than military action.
Above all, a sovereign state is a sovereign state; warts and all. Let the US and Donald Trump dig deeper for collaboration, genuine human-interest, impact and lasting results. That would give greater meaning and value to Donald Trump’s current peculiar trajectory.
As Segun Adeniyi Turns 60
Segun is a media man that grew through the ranks, until he now grew to the age of sixty. Easygoing, committed to truth and always dedicated to what he knows to be right at any particular point in time, Olusegun Adeniyi cannot but be highly regarded by anyone who truly understands his nature.
While I wait for him to bring a ram, the egg of a confused chicken, the left ear of an Australian tree monkey, three Igbo kolanuts and some other ingredients that cannot be mentioned here, to Okey Ikechukwu the Elder, I wish him the very best now and always.
His days “in government” were characterized by the same basic simplicity and down to earth approach he was always known for. No airs. To pretensions, either in dressing, carriage or attitude. No indecent displays. No interest in contracts and less that zero interest in celebrating his presumed association with ‘big men’.
From government he went back to his desk as a journalist. Just like that. And his books embody experience-driven narratives, with strong leanings towards imparting lessons he has encountered in the line of duty for others to benefit from. He is one of the not so many columnists that you will always find at his “duty post” every week.
It is to the eternal credit of Chief Nduka Ubaigbena that he has established a rarely replicated tradition among newspaper owners and senior executives in Nigeria, and globally. He is one of the very few people in his line of business who has built an “empire of gifted mentees and friends” in a professional relationship of mutual love and respect.
Supportive and free, Obaigbena is worthy of emulation in this respect. He must be happy seeing his “son” with whom he is well pleased climbing to the sixth floor; as he progresses in his personal and professional growth.
Happy birthday, as I await the offerings! An elder has spoken.
