By Abdu Rafiu
In a victory that stunned the world, the road was clear, paved with gold, yesterday for Mr. Donald Trump to ride triumphantly back to the White House. Even though, according to book makers, the race was neck and neck, Trump was not quite sure and could be said to be prepared for the worst. But it was the best in his life he got. “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” he said to a roaring crowd of supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, flanked by his vice-presidential running mate, Senator JD Vance, republican leaders and members of Trump family.
REUTERS, the age-long, credible and trusted news agency, reports, and I reproduce its report in part:
“Trump went into Election Day with a 50-50 chance of reclaiming the White House, a remarkable turnaround from January 6, 2021, when many pundits pronounced his political career to be over. That day, a mob of his supporters stormed Congress in a violent attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“Trump picked up more support from Hispanics, traditional Democratic voters, and among lower-income households that have keenly felt the sting of price rises since the last presidential election in 2020, according to exit polls from Edison.
“Trump won 45% of Hispanic voters nationwide, trailing Harris with 53%, but up 13 percentage points from 2020.
“About 31% of voters said the economy was their top issue, and they voted for Trump by a 79%-to-20% margin, according to exit polls. Some 45% of voters across the country said their family’s financial situation was worse off today than four years ago.
“Republicans won a U.S. Senate majority after flipping Democratic seats in West Virginia and Ohio. Neither party appeared to have an edge in the fight for control of the House of Representatives where Republicans currently hold a narrow majority.”
What does his return signify and mean to the world?
In the democratic order the world has embraced in which leaders and laws are made by the showing of hands, people are rarely able to go above their level. They will always elect their kind. The leader rises through their ranks. When a seeming exception takes place, it is not because of the vote of the people, it is certain forces that are at work because of his quality and a fulfillment on his path. Mr. Trump mirrors the Americans at the moment and the decline in standards into which the world has fallen, and the decline will continue unabated everywhere. The Americans yearn for a strong leader who will take tough decisions on American strength, immigration and the economy, one who will tame the run-away inflation. And Mr. Trump fits into their picture! The sing-song among his supporters is “He will make America great again.” He will restore the foundational values of the American society which he is not known to uphold in his personal life. Major newspapers said in 2016 that he was not fit to be President of the United States. What has changed? He has been charged to court accused of sundry crimes such as sexual assault, instigation of 06 January, 2021 attack on Capitol Hill chambers of the Congress and tax issues.
His supporters believe that the end is in sight to their lamentation that God is being taken away from their lives, from homes, and their public as well as their private institutions. They complain that prayers have been banished from their schools. They are attributing soullessness and decline in their values to “banishment of God.” They are blaming rising crime rate, lack of cohesion and harmony in their family lives on increasing absence of religious foundation in the upbringing of children and individuals in the American society. For them they say, technology is their “new god.” The Democrats have concentrated more on the material aspects of life. Yesterday Mr. Trump and his campaign train went for thanksgiving worship after what has been described as awesome victory. And Trump said: “I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe in his words.” His team and admirers said: “God still in charge of the universe, illuminati’s and Satanists should stop being delusional.” They are aware of his support for the Church’s position on abortion and transgender as well as same sex issues.
All these outweigh his peccadilloes as far as his followers are concerned. Turning our gaze upwards is fine and good. The nation that takes the Creator out of its life is finished. The aberrations in Trump’s life as in the lives of all of us require efforts, too, to overcome. His supporters, however, seem to forget what Aristotle, reputed to be one of the most influential thinkers of all times, said– that government exists to promote and foster virtue in a way that leads to the good life of its citizens. Trump’s emergence is a manifestation of the Americans’ yearnings on the one hand but also the herald of the trumpets of these times on the other hand by his conduct–which will reverberate through the entire globe. There are those who will see him as a link between the two. With the awakening sweeping through the world, which provides no hiding place for anyone any longer, there are far more fundamental issues deep down the souls of the Americans that have been swept to the fore with the election.
The Americans want their country back from immigrants. They are frightened and irritated by the deluge altering the demography of their land. And they do not care who will put a halt to it for them. Joe Biden Administration made significant progress in the area of economy and in engendering a calm and sane America. Fresh jobs are being churned out, thus reducing unemployment queues; the White Americans are less keen on these, so they swayed the polling in the direction of Mr. Trump’s basket! In other words, there is more to the chorus that Mr. Trump will make America great again! All said, however, whether Mr. Trump will make our world livable or not, given the immense powers of America and vengeful nature of Mr. Trump remains to be seen. Welcome, Dear triumphal Mr. Trump.
Vice-President Kamala Harris should thank her stars that she did not win. Her loss she will discover is a blessing in disguise as she may have been spared the battering of her inner being by the weight of state affairs. Her defeat, if she seizes the moment, will afford her the opportunity to sit back and reflect, predictably, much more deeply on higher goals of life and her journey thus far through this wonderful Creation.
TRIAL OF ANTI-BAD GOVERNANCE PROTESTERS
Events are being thrown up by the day. Not surprising: there is intensification and acceleration of events with Light radiation gale sweeping through the globe. What with massive floods whether in Nigeria, Senegal, Libya or Spain; wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes in the United States; earthquake in Syria! Florida and Louisiana are particularly prone to hurricanes year after year between July, through August and October. This year it witnessed Hurricane Debby, Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. In the Spain’s floods, 95 persons died. In France, losses in property came to $420 million (Euros). Hurricane Milton cost America between 20 and 60 billion Dollars in insured losses, according to ReliefWeb online report.
In the awakening of all that is dead by the pressure of the Light, humaneness is assailed, kindness and empathy suffer and man’s inhumanity to man takes over, thrown to the fore. How do we explain the detention of 119 young men, 30 0f them who are clearly minors? Their ages ranged from 14 to 17 years. Their appearance was an embarrassment: malnourished, haggard and predictably weak. Four of them fainted in court, according to reports. A great many will surely be awaiting the report of an enquiry the Inspector-General Kayode Egbetokun, has ordered into the maltreatment written all over them which happened to them while in detention.
And please, wait for this. The 76 of them, including 30 minors, were charged with treason! What is more absurd and disgusting is that the court slammed each of them with N10 million bail and a surety of standing and means. They had been in detention for three months. The Justice administration, from the police, Ministries of Justice and the court should admit the case against the boys was badly handled. The handling hurts sensibilities.
Minors who commit crimes, or who are vagabonds menacing neighbourhoods and the land should, of course, be arrested and kept away. Such minors have their own courts called juvenile courts where they are tried and throughout their trial, they are shielded from cameras so that their faces are not shown to the world in order to protect their future. It is the rule and ethics that pictures of minors on trial are not published. Of course, when they are found guilty of charges drawn against them, they should be punished commensurately which will teach them lessons and serve as deterrent. The government should not encourage children who lack proper parental care being thrown onto the streets destroying property and carting away goods. True love does not lie in indulgence. What kind of society would we be breeding by condoning grave misconduct? It would mean the country has no future. Has any thought been given to people whose properties were damaged and their goods carted away? It will be cruel to simply say to them sorry and dismiss their lot as one of those things. In the event they took loans to set up their enterprises, who repays the loans? Entrepreneurs who may not have anything to do with government! The government was right in setting the boys free only because they had stayed unnecessarily in detention. Whether they will turn a new leaf or not, to become good and responsible citizens is a different matter. It is hoped that health experts, psychologists and minders to whom they have been handed over will bring them back from their traumatic experiences.
THE DANGOTE REFINERY CONTROVERSY
It is a mark of the importance of energy in the life of a people, individuals and their nation that there is so much concern and controversy around the Dangote Refinery. Animate and non-animate entities require energy. Plants require energy from the rays of the sun. Man requires carbohydrates for his energy and to get driven by the Law of Motion. Refinery processes the oil to fuel our automobiles to aid our mobility in our daily activities. It is expected, therefore, that more than passing interest would be shown in the source of our gasoline.
But I am ill at ease watching back-breaking pressure being mounted on Dangote to do this or do that. A great many have become experts lecturing or are poised to lecture him without solicitation on how to run his giant refinery, the biggest in the world, with the capacity to produce 650, 000 barrels a day.
Efforts are being made to get the nation to consider opening a floodgate to importation to compete with the Dangote Refinery. It is understandable that there will be ceaseless debates on the off-the-factory prices at which marketers can get the product for distribution to filling stations. The amount of energy, wholesome and unwholesome being expended on Dangote Refinery is troubling. If the same amount of time and energy has been devoted to seeing to it that the four public refineries roar back to life and production the nation would have not have been in this mess; it would have been somewhere now. But all attention is on Dangote, a private enterprise with private capital! The government has responsibility to protect local industries and by which I mean in particular the Dangote Refinery. It is at the heart of Nigerian economy, it must be made to flourish. Every country does so, to protect its own. We cannot develop refineries of other countries and create jobs for their citizens through importation. The government must be firm on this. A colleague has applauded Aliko Dangote switching from merchandising to manufacturing within a short time. What a brave step by a brave man to rescue the nation. It is a producer who fixes the price of his product. It can be negotiated. In doing so, however, consideration should be given to Dangote or any enterprise for that matter being able to recover costs and have some margin to be able to continue in business. Having reserves is part of business as well as putting something by for future assets replacement. We must encourage Dangote Refinery to live and grow. We must salute his courage.
KEMI BADENOCH, THE TORY LEADER
Nigerians are predictably thrilled and excited as stories spread that Kemi Badenoch, the new Leader of Tories in the United Kingdom is a Briton with Nigerian roots. It is natural. Her dizzy-heights attainment is a feat hardly dreamt of by a lady of colour, to follow in the footsteps of Baroness Margaret Thatcher. It is even less so as she is Black in the major party of class, called the Conservative Party. It is a distinct party of aristocrats and captains of industries. It is a party that prides itself as the custodian of the British values. It is the party of the leaders of the British society, who talk about free market economy, personal responsibility, hard work, family life and culture of refinement.
Mrs. Kemi Badenoch was born in Britain in 1980 to Nigerian parents, the father, now late, a medical doctor; and the mother a professor of physiology. Kemi is married to a White Briton. Some may want to probe further beyond the surface by asking themselves, who is she? After her secondary education in Nigeria, she went back to Britain, the land of her birth for her university degree programme in computer engineering at Sussex. A mother of three, she feels at home in Britain. Who she is in her being we may never know. We can only sense that it is not impossible that she was British in a not-to-far past incarnation and she needs to close a cycle urgently by serving her people diligently in this earthlife opportunity. Did she depart prematurely in the former life without accomplishing what she owed her people, the British, and she supplicated for another opportunity, like all of us , to make good her past, grow and turn her gaze upwards afterwards in ascent to On High? We may not know. The threads of old probably linked her to her parents or one of them through the Law of Homogeneity. Possibilities! Possibilities!! What does man know? What do we know? Her mission would appear to be urgent!!
All said, she has demonstrated to the world that needs to be reminded frequently that the possibilities for a human spirit to reach the heights are limitless with persistence, doggedness and the right application to set goals. Her attainment is what needs to be celebrated for now. There will always be time for debate about her pronouncements as a former British and His Majesty’s Minister! She is a Briton speaking for Britain and Britain is her home! We should rejoice with her and wish her well in her high tasks.
The Guardian
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