By Ochereome Nnanna
SHAMEFUL. That is the word I have for it. Hours after Donald Trump, the ebullient presidential candidate of the Republican Party defeated Hillary Clinton his Democratic Party counterpart, her supporters flooded the streets and blocked major highways in some American cities saying they do not want Trump as their president.

Unfortunately for them, they are going to have him as their president for the next four long years. Only death can stop him. Even a putative Donald Trump death cannot stop the Republicans from running the country for the next four years. The finality of the foreclosure of a Hillary Clinton is as sure as death itself. So, these protests are foolish, futile and absolutely of no effect. They are anti-democratic, anti-American, a flagrant disregard for the electoral law and a demonstration of a spirit of impunity worse than the “sins” they level at Trump and his followers.

Demonstrators hold placards that read “No to racism, no to Trump” during a protest outside the US Embassy in London on November 9, 2016 against US President-elect Donald Trump after he was declared the winner of the US presidential election.
Political novice and former reality TV star Donald Trump has defeated Hillary Clinton to take the US presidency, stunning America and the world in an explosive upset fueled by a wave of grassroots anger. / AFP PHOTO

They will do well to follow the noble examples of President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton herself. Both have stressed the importance of a peaceful transfer of power and giving Trump the opportunity to lead and either vindicate himself or prove his critics right. Defeat can be painful, but some of us here in Nigeria bore it with fortitude last year without making trouble for those who won. Americans should learn from us!

We Nigerians back home invested so much emotional energy into this election, with majority of us siding with Clinton. What were their reasons? Hillary and Obama are Democrats, the party followed by the vast majority of Blacks, including “Nigerian-Americans”. Trump said he would deport foreigners who are living illegally in America, and many of those are our brothers and sisters. The polls and media propaganda were orchestrated (“rigged”, in Trump’s language) to make a Hillary Clinton victory seem imminent. Many Nigerians simply followed the herd the way they did last year in favour of Muhammadu Buhari, also on the heat of false propaganda. People did not think beyond the inanities listed above. In fact, most people did not think at all. Nigerians are incurably predisposed to “One Chance” political scams! Let me tell you why I was against Hillary and for Donald. It has everything to do with what I consider in the greatest interest of my country, Nigeria.

Hillary Clinton was going to be a continuation of Obama’s eight years. I supported Obama in 2008 and 2012 and travelled to the USA to bathe in the euphoria of a Black man winning and retaining the office of President of the United States. This history-fed emotional symbolism overpowered and overrode every other consideration. But beyond this, the Obama years in which Hillary played a key role as the Secretary of State for the most part, was a disaster for Nigeria, in my own view, and I will explain.

Obama and Hillary treated Nigeria with disdain. He visited Africa twice and refused to come to Africa’s largest economy and America’s strategic trading partner and top military ally in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was during Obama’s rule that America stopped buying our crude oil (in 2014) which helped to plunge our oil-dependent economy to its current recession. I agree America has the right to pursue energy independence through the shale-oil technology, but America used and dumped us with ignominy when our “brother” was in charge.

Much more importantly, America under Obama with Hillary as his Secretary of State empowered Boko Haram through meddlesome adventures in the Middle East. And when the terrorists had us by the throat, Obama refused to help us. He even sabotaged our efforts to buy arms in the international market. Our soldiers started fleeing from Boko Haram.

America stoked the “Arab Spring”, which started in Tunisia when a street trader, Mohamed Bouaziz, set himself ablaze after the authorities confiscated his wares. Obama and Hillary’s America encouraged, funded and later armed protesters to overthrow the Arab dictators who had managed to perfect the formula for keeping their polities stable and containing Islamist extremists.

Thus, President Zine Abeddin of Tunisia was chased out of power; Muamar Gadhaffi of Libya was killed; Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was overthrown; Yemeni President, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi was forced to resign and the Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad, came under massive American pressure to quit which he has successfully resisted with the aid of Russia and Iran. Today, Al Qaeda and Islamic State have cells in Tunisia. There is anarchy in Libya, and Syria is in the middle of one of the most vicious civil/proxy wars of the modern era. Islamists have their cells all over the Middle East rendered unstable by America.

Egypt only escaped the same fate because its powerful military intervened and chased out the Mohammed Morsi-led Islamic Brotherhood which America-inspired pro-democracy movement enthroned and put the Christian minorities in great danger. Islamic State’s Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi held large swathes of Iraq and Syria for over three years. It was the same America which removed Saddam Hussein that created room for terrorist Abu Musab Al Zarqawi to leave Afghanistan and establish an Al Qaeda franchise in Iraq which eventually led to the rise of Al Baghdadi operating from the oil city of Mosul.

The destabilisation of the Middle East by Obama and Hillary opened Gadhaffi’s huge armouries and brought new life into Boko Haram, which in 2015 was rated as the bloodiest terrorist group in the world. America had in Nigeria, a horrible Ambassador named James Entwistle, who did his best to ensure we never procured the arms to fight Boko Haram. Entwistle was more interested in the “human rights” of Boko Haram fighters than in the travails of their victims. Nigeria had to resort to the black market to source arms, before eventually turning to Russia. This same Entwistle was later to falsely accuse three members of our House of Representatives (Hons. Garba Gololo, Terseer Gbillah and Samuel Ikon) of sexual misconduct while on an official assignment in the USA. He failed to provide proof when requested to do so, but rather quietly left the country.

It was also the Obama/Hillary regime that popularised and glamourised gay marriage all over the US and when we passed a law criminalising gay lifestyle in tune with our own values, America started threatening fire and brimstone as if we are its colony! What incentive should any sensible Nigerian have in supporting Hillary Clinton to continue the evils that the Obama regime foisted on Nigeria and Africa? The Arab world has so far lost $600 billion to the “Arab Spring”, with Syria, Libya and Yemen devastated by civil wars as a direct result of Obama/Clinton’s extreme neo-liberalist evangelism.

ON THURSDAY: WHY I ROOTED FOR TRUMP.

Pa Soyinka must tear it NOW!

NOBEL Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka threatened to tear his American Green Card if Trump won the presidency. Trump has won. Soyinka must honour his name and tear that card publicly NOW, while matters are still hot. He did not promise to do it during Trump’s inauguration. Unless he does this he may never be taken seriously again. It is in Soyinka’s interest to shred that card TODAY!

“Our plane nearly crashed in Owerri Airport because of cattle”

I got this message from one Chima Akalezi: “Nnanna, you must have read of the near fatal crash of Air Peace flight from Lagos on Wednesday (9th November, 2016) by 3pm because cattle (were) grazing at the Imo Airport and runway. But for the dexterity of the pilot over 150 people would have perished and Audu Ogbe and his sponsors would have called it an act of God. I would have perished with three members of my family! Can we consult Governor Ayo Fayose to help us in Igboland?

Good question.