By Eyobong Ita

The late legendary singer Ray Charles had Georgia on his mind. Today, I have two Donalds on my mind – the American and Nigerian Donald.

By now you must have known that real estate millionaire Donald Trump shocked the world with his upset victory over the favored Hillary Clinton to be elected the 45th U.S. president. So shocked are most Americans that the election outcome sparked protests, which have continued in some U.S. cities and are gradually extending to some colleges, including George Washington University in the Washington metropolis. About the protests? Too little too late! The American people have spoken, and so shall it be.

Unless a majority of electors in the Electoral College decide on Dec. 19 to vote against the will of the people and change the outcome of the election – which would be crazy but constitutional. Even with an enigma like Donald Trump in an election filled with surprises, such an act by the Electoral College is really unthinkable at this point. The protests are not totally useless, though.

At least they should help remind Trump that although he legally won the election based on Electoral College requirements, he lost the popular votes by more than 800,000. So if this were Nigeria or other countries that do not operate the Electoral College system, Hillary Clinton would have been president today because she had  800,000 votes than Trump.

Should that make Clinton feel better? Of course not. Winning more votes nationwide (a.k.a. popular votes) and losing the Electoral College votes doesn’t amount to anything. Ask former V/P Al Gore. He won the popular votes but then Gov. George W. Bush went on to become a two-term president of the United States. Trump is so lucky that President Barack Obama is not Ibrahim Babangida.

Had those protests erupted after any election during IBB tenure, “Maradona” would have dribbled Trump out of victory and annulled the election with a smile (hello June 12!) Now, where were we before I digressed? Oh yes, the protests should actually help Trump buckle up to shock the nation with an outstanding tenure. Which reminds me of the Nigerian Donald – Donald Duke. Back in 1999, a stunningly handsome young millionaire aspired to be governor of Cross River State, my home state.

Like Trump, nobody gave him a winning chance because for one, no Efik son (or daughter for that matter) had ever been elected governor of the state. Before Akwa Ibom was created out of Cross River, the elected governors were either Ibibio or Annang. And after Akwa Ibom was separated from Cross River, Northern and Central parts of the state became the manufacturers of the state governors.

The Efiks, though more popular in the state, were the minorities in population, so they never really could muster enough support (or votes) from outside Calabar metropolis.…until the Don came around. Against all odds, (just like Trump) Donald Duke won the governorship and went on to perform a total makeover on Cross River State. He changed the mindset of Cross Riverians and turned a previously infamous “Civil Service State” to the biggest tourism attraction in the country.

Among several innovations, Donald Duke made Cross River the cleanest state in Nigeria, turned the Obudu Ranch into a tourism haven, introduced the wildly popular Carnival Calabar, gave Tinapa hope and for the first time in ages, Donald Duke shot Calabar and Cross River into the consciousness of the nation.

Can Donald Trump emulate Donald Duke? Now, considering how well Nigeria is doing now and how happy Nigerians are with “Change” (Sai Baba!), Donald Duke is really on my mind today. Quick disclaimer: I’m not Prophet T. B. Joshua, so this is not a prediction that Donald Trump will shock us like Donald Duke did. But I wouldn’t completely discard the vision.

Californian, five states vote for marijuana

I bet you’ve been wondering what happened to those ballot initiatives I wrote about before the election, especially marijuana.

Good news to pot smokers in Florida, North Dakota and Montana. They can now have marijuana legally for medical reasons. In layman’s terms, that means a medical doctor would have to determine that they need marijuana to address or heal their medical problems. Florida voters approved the ballot measure by 71.1 percent, North Dakota by 64 percent and Montana by 56.9 percent. They are a few restrictions, depending on each state and the ballot language, but there’s no need going into all the details. The most important thing is, they were approved.

The news is even better for pot lovers in California, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Maine, and Nevada. In those five states, they don’t even need doctor’s prescription to have a joint, Indian hemp. To smoke marijuana for recreational purpose, California voters approved the ballot issue by 55 percent, Massachusetts by 53 percent, Arkansas by 53 percent, Maine by 51 percent and Nevada by 54 percent.

Of all the nine states that had marijuana initiatives on the November 8 ballot, only Arizona voters rejected having marijuana for recreational purpose by 52.1 percent. So if you’ve been hiding to smoke pot in Nigeria, the next time you visit the U.S. you’ll know where to go, right?