By Niyi Akinnaso
Donald J. Trump and Peter Gregory Obi. The comparisons of aspects of their political behaviour are too close to ignore. They are both supposed billionaires turned politician. They both won elections before, Trump as President of the United States and Obi as Governor of Anambra state, Nigeria. They both lost the election to be President of their respective countries. Trump lost reelection in 2020, while Obi lost in his first attempt in 2023. They both denied the election they lost and encouraged their supporters to protest the results, while they continue to attack electoral officials and to denigrate the winner of the election.
The similarities in the campaigns for their failed presidential bid are worth detailed examination. To varying degrees, they both relied on ethnic and religious bigotry. True, there are no primordial ethic groups in the US as in Nigeria, but there are ethnisised populations in the country. They include Native American Indians (the original, but displaced, owners of the land), Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Jews. Some of these populations, especially Blacks, are racialised more than others. Opposed to these “ethnics” are Whites—nationalists and patriots in Trump’s terminology. Against that terminology, Trump’s campaign slogan, Make America Great Again, actually translates to Make America White Again.
As for Obi and his ethnic followers, there are basically two ethnic groups in Nigeria—the Igbo and others. He took his campaign to the Igbo wherever they are located in Nigeria and even in the Diaspora. Majority of Igbo voters responded with their votes for him so much so that no other candidate had meaningful votes in the five Igbo states in the Southeast. He also mopped up Igbo votes elsewhere. IPOB and so-called Unknown Gunmen in the Southeast went into voluntary ceasefire to pave way for Obi’s unrealised victory.
Trump and Obi also both used religion as a campaign weapon. Trump, who rarely goes to church, would visit churches during campaign tours and boast of his popularity with “the evangelicals”. His transactional use of religion could be illustrated by two separate events. On one occasion, during the riots following George Floyd’s police killing, Trump stood by Saint John Episcopal Church beside the White House, with a closed Bible in his right hand, for a photo-op, while protesters were being tear-gassed in front of the White House. His attempt to further demonstrate his religiosity the following day, by posing in front of the statue of Pope John Paul II in Washington, drew even more criticisms. Politicians and even church leaders lambasted him for his transactional use of religion.
Obi’s transactional use of religion is much worse than Trump’s. Just as he targeted Igbo populations across the country, so did he target religious leaders, moving his campaign from church to church. Sunday sermons in many churches, especially in his Southeastern base, became political sermons and tutorials on how to vote “wisely”. In no time, his Labour Party logo of Papa, Mama, and Pikin was quickly reinterpreted in terms of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. Translation: A vote for Obi is a vote for the Lord. It is no wonder then that Obi told Bishop Oyedepo in a leaked audio conversation between the two that the election “is a religious war”. The Bishop responded, “I believe that, I believe that, I believe that”, and assured Obi that “the result will be favourable”. Obi almost offered a quid pro quo during the conversation: “Like I keep saying, if this works, you people will never regret the support”.
Another shared feature between Trump and Obi is the use of social media by their supporters for disinformation, misinformation, defamation, and even slander. While Trump’s supporters are famous for conspiracy theories, Obi’s are famous for fake news and trolls.
By the time the election was held, it was clear that Trump and Obi had developed into some cultish figure for their followers. Relying on these followers, religious blessings, and inaccurate opinion poll results, both men became sow psychologically invested in the success of their campaigns that they did not even imagine that they could lose.
Yet, both men lost squarely. Trump had 74.2 million popular votes, whereas Biden had 81.2 million. What is more, Trump did not meet the constitutional requirement of 270 electoral college votes to be elected President. Instead, he had only 232 electoral college votes, while Biden had 306.
Obi’s case is even worse. While Trump was the runner-up in the US election, Obi came third with 6.1 million votes in the Nigerian presidential election. Even the person who came second, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, with 6.9 votes said publicly that Obi could never have won. Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, had 8.7 million votes. Even more importantly, both Atiku and Obi fell short of the constitutional requirement of winning at least 25 percent of the votes in 24 or more states. Both Atiku (21 states) and Obi (17 states) fell short of the requirement, whereas Tinubu, who won, met the requirement in as many as 30 states.
Trump’s and Obi’s denials of the election could only arm their supporters to spew conspiracy theories and misinformation about the election on social media and on TV as well as engage in disruptive behaviour. While Trump’s supporters went as far as attacking the Capitol, which houses Congress, in order to prevent the certification of Biden’s winning result, Obi’s supporters are protesting all over the place and vowing to disrupt Tinubu’s inauguration as Nigeria’s President on May 29, 2023. Instead of inauguration, they advocate an Interim National Government, which is unknown to law.
What makes the political behaviour of these two men most objectionable is that they both have availed themselves of the constitutional means of seeking redress. Trump filed over 60 lawsuits to challenge one aspect or the other of the 2020 US presidential election and lost all of them. Obi’s petition is already with the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. If he is so confident of his evidence, why not wait for the verdict?
By continuing to deny the election and inciting his followers, even after filing his petition, Obi appears to be playing Trump. The last man who did that was Jair Bolsonaro, the former President of Brazil, who lost his reelection bid in 2022 to the present President, Luiz Lula da Silva.
Angered by the loss, and incited by Bolsonaro’s speeches, his supporters attacked the Supreme Court, the Congress, and the Presidential Palace. Like many of Trump’s rioters, many of Bolsonaro’s rioters are now languishing in jail. Bolsonaro earned the nickname of Trump of the Tropics. Obi may well be Trump of Africa.
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