'Trumpolitics' as Karma visiting the US, by IKE ABONYI

“Treat other people’s homes as you want them to respect yours because what goes around comes around.” -Ana Monnar

If Karma has a menu, like a wine list to choose from, maybe America will choose what they desire and possibly squeeze off characters like Donald Trump in their polity, but since there is no menu, they have to make do with what they deserve. In six days, precisely on Tuesday, 5 November 2024, the United States of America will go to the polls to elect its 47th President. Either way, the result of the election between the two leading candidates, Vice President Kamal Harris of the Democrat Party and former President Donald Trump of the Republican Party panders, the outcome will be historic, electing the first female President or having a second term for the most disruptive and irksome President in America’s contemporary times. If Trump wins he may also emerge as the oldest US President to be inaugurated at 78 years.

But what we are interrogating this week is the adverse side effects of Trumpolitics in that country that appears to have exposed the obvious negatives of American politics. These negatives had always existed but are usually beautifully coated in America’s designed packaging that hides dirt.

Win or lose the Republican Presidential Candidate in this election has significantly unprotected America’s negative politics beyond the mind’s eye. Trumpolitics, as seen by the global watchers of American politics, has successfully unveiled the real America from what they had habitually packaged to the World away from reality. Whether Trump wins the election or not, his presence in the country’s politics has shown them that what goes around comes around. The inconsistency and duplicitous acts of the United States in global politics in their propagation of the Western brand of democracy have been very obvious. With Trump’s drama and seeing how America now struggles, it looks like God sent Trump to divulge the double standards in their system. Close watchers of American politics noticed that they have always been setting high standards for themselves and the opposite for others, but with Trump, the chicken is home to roost; some dose of what they prescribe and permit for others is now what they are enjoying.

Since the electioneering in the US, the scene has been akin to the African environment, especially Nigeria, with no issue-driven campaigns but quarrels. Accusations and counter-accusations of election maneuvers similar to what you hear during electioneering in Nigeria. Opponents are permanently in court seeking to stop their challenger. At some points, President Joe Biden had to publicly declare that he fears violence may come during the election. With Trump, we now know that electoral malfeasance also exists in the US. We also hear of thugs being mobilized to manipulate elections or foreign involvement in election manipulations. Imagine an almighty America telling the World that Russia helped Trump become the 45th President using hi-tech means. Even Trump’s Presidency from 2016 to 2020 was like one of the brutal African leaders talking and behaving anyhow and climaxing it by mobilizing his supporters to disrupt and chase the American Senate and Congress from the Capitol. Critical Political watchers believe that Trump’s brutal emergence in American politics is not just by happenstance but a design by God to expose the double standards in their system.

Many Nigerians believe that the deteriorating state of Nigeria’s politics as it is today is traceable to America’s insincerity in dealing with Third World nations. While it’s not arguable that the fate of every nation is in the hands of her citizens, we still cannot discount the huge economic and political influence of Western powers when pushing for their brand of democracy as the best mode of governance.

When Nigeria’s military decided to end their era and embrace full democracy in 1979, they threw away the parliamentary system we inherited from the British, the colonial masters, and settled for the American brand, the Presidential system. Four years later, in 1983, the military again disrupted the system and returned to politics, ruling till 1999 when they finally handed over to a democratically elected government that has been uninterrupted ever since.

In these 26 years of uninterrupted democracy in Nigeria, America’s copious meddlesomeness is linked to the mess the country is into today. A frustration that is even forcing some Nigerians to prioritize military rule over democratic governance. In 2014, President Barrack Obama with his crazy gay marriage policy was determined to see off then Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, because he was not cooperating along that line and he injected division into the country’s politics. Obama’s regime helped to mobilize the North to rebel against Jonathan, anchoring their points on zoning, but underneath is the gay issue. This devious act was fueled heavily by the Chicago mafia, whose interest was on how to capture power, not on how to deepen democracy. President Obama sent his Secretary of State, John Kerry, who visited Sokoto State and met with some Northern State Governors who also returned the visit to Washington, where the electoral sack of Jonathan was sealed. This was how Nigeria found itself inside the Muhammedu Buhari bus. Buhari’s eight-year reign worsened our democratic journey, climaxing it by bringing in Bola Ahmad Tinubu, who was also heavily backed by the same America who ensured that all of Tinubu’s pieces of baggage in that country were blocked from judicial and public scrutiny.

After aiding Nigeria to worsen its democratic evolution and seeing how the same US is struggling with theirs, it leaves watchers with no other conclusion but to reason that Trump is a kind of karma to the US for all their dishonest and underhand roles in Nigerian politics. Trump’s very obvious last-ditch efforts in presidential ambition and his other uncanny attitudes while trying to return to the White House suggest unequivocally that America’s past actions or decisions have pointedly lowered their presidency. This perspective implies that Trump’s leadership is a consequence of the nation’s collective actions and it conveys a believable impression that his actions and decisions are causing harm to the country.

India’s Spiritual leader, Paramhansa Yogananda, explains karma as both cause and effect – “as you sow, shall you reap” meaning that every action, good or bad, has consequences. Trump’s eccentric behavior, such as disregarding COVID-19 protocols that led to his being infected, has also led to negative consequences and is now seen as a result of the country’s societal and political dynamics.

Strangely, a sizable number of Nigerians are rooting for Donald Trump and the Republican Party to win this election against Kamal Harris and the Democrats. Their position is not necessarily because they believe he will make a better President than Harris but just to avenge the Democrats’ negative influence in Nigeria’s politics, especially in 2015 and 2023. Trump’s decent position against gays and abortion and his copious defense of genuine Christianity all help to count for him.
For instance, if President Barack Obama, a Democrat with Joe Biden as his Vice President, helped to bring a Buhari, and Joe Biden, the same Democrat with Kamal Harris as Vice President facilitated the coming of Tinubu, why should any lover of Nigeria’s democracy be anxious to have Harris as President? Do Democrats give Nigerian democracy any hope? Rightly or wrongly, not a few Nigerians believe that Kamal Harris’s Presidency will expedite Tinubu into 2027 for his second term, irrespective of how Nigerians feel about the regime. Electoral rejection or people’s goodwill means nothing in Nigeria as votes no longer count in our system, and America endorses it by the implications of what they do thereafter.

While democracy entails that the people, through their votes, decide who rules, in Nigeria, it’s the Electoral Commission, aided by corruption and the ostensibly captured judiciary and security agencies, that determine who rules. When the American court ruled that Trump was guilty of multiple political and economic malfeasances and could still be President, many Nigerians mocked the Democrats whose regime helped to block Nigeria from clearing its political filth in 2023 by refusing to release vital documents to Nigeria. What goes around comes around, and whatever you put into the world in terms of your doings will come back to you in one form or the other.

It’s perhaps in such circumstances that some say that karma is a bitch, but the truth is that karma is actually a mirror, and America is now watching herself in it and seeing how they create storms and worry when the rain comes. In the World of real justice where God is the overseer, it does not work that way. Russian American writer of fantasy, Vera Nazarian aptly concludes this discourse for us this week when she says, “A boomerang returns to the person that throws it.” God helps us.