By Olagbemide Osuporu

|

In the United States of America (USA), former Vice President, Senator Joseph (Joe) Biden has been sworn in with Senator Kamala Harris, as the President and Vice President respectively.
I rejoice with Senator Kamala Harris for making history, as the first Black woman and also the first woman of Asian accent, to be elected and ushered into office as Vice President of the most powerful nation on earth.
And so Joe Biden becomes the 46th President of the US, thereby ending the chequered four year reign of embattled ex-President Donald Trump, who had ignominiously refused to concede defeat after the US Presidential poll in November 2020.
As it is now Mr. Donald Trump is no more the President of the US, but he will continue to be in the eye of the storm, for a long time. No thanks to the riotous actions and pronouncements that characterized his stay at the White House, particularly in the twilight of his administration.
As Mr. Trump moves back to his lucratic real estate and property business, historians and revisionists will spring into action, reviewing what seemed to be his lacklustre and visionless Presidency, that was devoid of foresight.
In reviewing Mr. Trump’s Presidency in the US, I will situate my x-ray on the following areas.
First and foremost, Trump, an economist, failed on the economy and developments generally. Instead of leading the US and her people to continuously do the needful – which is research, research and research in science and technology, Trump chased the shadows throughout his tenure. He fought the Republic of China on all fronts, imposing all forms of economic embargo and incessant increase in tariffs on many of its goods being exported to the US.
While China was in haste to overtake the US as the number one economic power of the World, Trump concentrated his energy and focus on how to stop China at all cost from leapfrogging to her planned vision and mission.
All these tendencies of Trump had negative impact on the US economy and interests, even as China continuously warmed her way to the hearts of the World, particularly Africa, where China has overtaken the US as its biggest trading partner.
In Nigeria, for instance, the Chinese has taken over, supplying all manners of goods and providing soft loans, sometimes with almost zero interest, which is aiding business, growth and developments in all sectors of the economy.
While the US under Trump is also talking, relaxing and politicking, China is researching, working and consolidating, aiming at overtaking the US as the largest economy in the World by 2050, if not before then. In fact, it has been predicted that by 2028, China’s economy will overtake the USA’s due to COVID-19.
Trumpnomics did not spare the hitherto friends of the US either, as Trump also imposed tariffs on many goods coming from the European Union (EU), disrupting years of trade partnership. He even led the US to quit the Paris Club and other Economic Summit Group. These economic policies thought to be well intended by Trump, actually hurt the US economy.
Mr. Trump’s personality also contributed to his economic and political failures and the woes of the US. He was not only demagoguery but cantankerous. His cantankerous life style played a major role in his mean Presidency. He was a bully in the White House, who on many occasions fired and even misfired!, his political appointees, and many a time, was at war with some media houses and journalists. Mr. Trump was divisive in his actions and pronouncements . He was loquacious, and abuses opponents – real and imagined at will.
To ex-President Trump, the blacks, the Hispanics and the latino Americans were just tenants in the US, and needed to be treated just at that. Some American Policemen read his body language and subjected the black Americans to various forms of torture and even outright killing, mostly on flimsy offences and got free without being prosecuted. Things actually got to a head last year when a black man, George Floyd was killed unjustly by some Policemen and some other blacks that were felled by bullets. This led to unprecedented violent protests in some cities in the US, with many historical monuments and heritage destroyed. The aftermath become more divided than ever before.
Mr. Trump’s hatred for the blacks was not limited to the black Americans. He loathed Africans and even described Nigeria, nay Africa as “shithole”. At the slightest opportunity, he worked against Africa’s interests.
Remember the role that Mr. Trump’s administration played in the failed bid to see that our own Dr. Adesina was not re-elected as the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 2020. What of the role also played towards the end of his administration, where he had opposed and delayed the election of Dr. NgoziOkonjo-Iweala, to the plum post of Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
His last undoing was his failure to take decisive action at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has put all America’s hitherto robust health care system and technology to test. In China where the disease broke out, the Chinese government took a quick and proactive steps to halt the spread within their borders, but the US, under Trump, where the disease was exported to like in other parts of the World, took a lackadaisical attitude. Ex-President Trump failed to mobilise the scientists and the American people to curb the spread of the disease.
Instead of co-operating with all relevant agencies and experts, Trump resorted to his usual blame game. First, he labelled the disease, a China disease and fought with Dr. Faucci, the American expert and the World Health Organisation (WHO), and even went ahead to withdraw the US from membership of the WHO, despite appeals worldwide against that move, and the consequences has been very very disturbing. As at January 18, 2021, the death toll in the US has reached 400, and its still rising, and the disease unabated, despite vaccine discoveries. And the frequent lockdowns is adversely affecting the US economy. What a catastrophe!.
However, some analysts have said that the Trump administration feared better on the International front. Well, I’ll say there is a mix. Though Mr. Trump deserves some credits here. Firstly, he was not a war monger, and he actually made some successes in international diplomacy. Ex-President Trump tried his best to see that there was no war in the Korean Peninsula. The usual suspicion and tension between South and North Korea were doused in the last four years and he even met with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and saw to it that peace reigned.
He did nothing untoward to aggravate the US frosty relationship with Russia, thereby enhancing World peace.
Mr. Trump also brokered peace between Israel and some countries in the Arab World. He led his administration to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and this is still being celebrated in Christiandom today. To me, it is in International diplomacy that Ex-President Donald Trump has a Legacy.
However, the ignoble invasion of the Capitol Hill, by suspected foot soldiers/supporters of Trump, that led to his impeachment by the House of Representatives, for a second time while still in office, has rubbished whatever he stood for in the US.
As impeachment hangs on his neck, even when outside office, for “inciting insurrection”, I appeal to the US Honourable Congressmen and women to temper justice with mercy and forgive their former President, even of all his ‘sins’. The US and her citizens should take solace in the fact that their new President has promised to reverse major policies of Mr. Trump that tend to be divisive, retrogressive and anachronistic.
However, for America to regain her role as the bastion of democracy and the leading technological and industrial giants in the World, the following questions that hang in the air need to be answered. Can America stop hating each other because they disagree (as engineered by Trump’s recalcitrance)?, Can the economy that is going South, make a quick u-turn and face the North again? Can President Joe Biden make the American work in unison again, and move much much faster as expected? Well, only time and time will tell.
Osuporu sent in this piece from Akure