The two major political parties that dominate the United States of America’s democratic ecosystem are squaring up today, as the 2024 USA presidential contest reaches a climax. The election will yield the 47th president of the union.
The presidential campaign has not been short of the usual drama, grandstanding and festivity of punditry that characterize America’s quadrennial power contestation.
In the red corner, for this duel, is Donald Trump, the often scowling, old, embattled, unrelenting and unrepentant commandant of his self-created pro-America nationalist legion of the Republican party. His goal, he says, is to make America great again – in his own image.
At the other end, on the blue corner, is Vice president Kamala Harris, luminous, but obviously tough and as evasive and dimly defined as they come. She comes along with a rich resume that cuts across the executive and the legislature branches, in addition to her background as a prosecutor.
For the vice president, this surely has been the most intensive and definitive four months of her life. Who knows? Hers may yet be the shortest dash in history, to the White House. The dismal performance of President Joe Biden at the first debate with Trump on June 28 2024, opened the gate for a Harris candidacy, which she embraced with great elan.
She formally entered the race on July 21 2024 and has remained competitive all through. Trump, having dispatched Biden at a preliminary round in the contest, must be wishing now that Biden stayed on in the race. Harris has turned out to be a tough nut to crack.
Interestingly, even as America goes to the poll today, with a 50 percent possibility of electing its first woman president, another woman political leader sprang up on the global democracy landscape, proclaiming from across the Atlantic, as it were, that women are coming on strong in major democracies.
Though her emergence was not as leader of government, at least, not yet, the election of Kemi Badenoch,three days ago, as leader of the Conservative Party in Britain, holds no significance, in Britain and beyond.
The Nigerian-born Badenoch emerging leader of the Tories, marks a new chapter in the annals of the Conservative Party.
Roundedly defeated by the Labour Party in the general election of July 4 2024, in Britain, the Conservative Party, not only saw its fourteen years in government brought to an end at the election, it was so badly thrashed, with very little or no redeeming prospect in the immediate future.
The choice of Ms. Kemi Badenoch by the Conservative Party, at this point in time, could mean one of several things in the circumstances in which she emerged.
The 44-year-old lady has proved herself beyond doubt, in at least two areas.One, she is a thorough conservative in British politics, with all the disturbing mannerisms that connotes. Two, she is a fighter. Tories certainly picked her with these qualities in view. By winning 57 per cent of the votes in the party election, she certainly won herself a strong standing in leadership.
Kemi Badenoch is arch conservative, proudly British and disturbingly unconcerned about issues that worry immigrants in Britain, among the such. Her record speaks of a conservative party stalwart, in spirit, policy and disposition.
She is particularly not enamoured of Nigeria. There are stories about her habouring personal scares that derived from traumatising failures of the Nigerian system.
Indeed, just before she emerged leader of the Conservative Party, Mail newspaper online in Britain, reported her as saying emphatically of Britain, “This is my country…I don’t want it to become like the place I ran away from. I want it to get better and better, not just for me, but for the next generation”.
That is the spirit of a purposeful, patriotic political leader, concerned for a better future for her country. You cannot begrudge her the stance.
The predominant mindset and disposition of political leaders in the place she “ran away from” is, of course, different. If she has no patience or romantic sentiment for the ways of Nigeria of her birth, the place she ran away from, she cannot be blamed. As a matter of fact, many in the place she ran away from, are far from being proud of what goes on in the place.
There is, however, another side to the story, a cause-and-effect dimension of Kemi’s lot. Britain, Kemi Badenoch’s proud country, which she is committed to improving and elevating, the country she does not want to be like “the place she ran away from”, happens to be substantially responsible for the dyslexia that has hobbled the place she ran away from.
The handiwork of Britain may have created the condition that made her to run away.If Britain, Kemi Badenoch’s Britain, caused only a foundational problem for the country of her birth, which she ran away from, chances are, that the faulty system could have been rectified over time. But no, Britain, Kemi’s Britain, has ensured, to the best of its ability, and to the worst of its design, that Nigeria, the place of her birth, that she ran away from, never properly got its act together,till date.So she ran away.
Now, she has emerged leader of the Conservative Party, a prospective prime minister in the future, all things being equal. There are plenty things to reflect on.
Kemi Badenoch owes Nigeria a duty, indeed an expiation, on behalf of Britain. It is not enough for her to run away. Now that providence has thrust her onto a prime political leadership position, she should strive to get Britain’s knees off Nigeria’s neck.
As leader of the Conservative Party in Britain, Ms Badenoch should do all within her powers, to stop Britain from promoting underdevelopment of Nigeria, through such steps as validating rogue outcome of elections and supporting bad government policies that disorient the society, as well as consenting to ignoble conducts by elements in government, the type of things no British government condones at home.
If she cannot make this marked difference in her country’s actions towards her place of birth, then her disparaging reference to the place she ran away from, amounts to nothing more than British uppishness.
Badenoch and Harris, two dogged women on international political limelight this week, signal a significant prospect for women in world affairs. The two women couldn’t be more different in orientation and ideology, though.
One is of that liberal orientation that has reached the dangerous extreme where nature is under threat, such that distinguishing between them is an issue for them.
The other is so conservative, to that level where they no longer hear the cry of anguish from the poor.
Of the two ladies, Nigeria has more reasons to expect greater beneficial impact from Badenoch, in the long run, if she is inclined. The reason is obvious. There is, also, the closer, historical connection between Nigeria and Britain, the cost and benefit of which are beyond the scope of this discourse.
As for Harris, her victory in today’s election in the USA, holds out no particular benefit to Nigeria, beyond sentiment. To say this is not to say that Trump offers any better prospect. Not at all. The point being made here, is that Kamala Harris shares political pedigree in the Democratic party with Barack Obama, a political lineage that Joe Biden has sustained.
Obama was not an asset to Nigeria and Africa. Biden too. So, what is there to expect from Kamala Harris? The last US presidents that were meaningful friends to Nigeria and Africa were Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The policy records are there.
The Catholic pontiff, Pope Francis made an inspired recommendation to Americans not long ago After contemplating Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the Pope counselled Americans to choose the least of two evils.
Instructively, up till this moment, even on the polling day, many Americans still seem to be grappling with who between the two candidates is less evil.
The many prospective voters still caught in this dilemma are the ones euphemistically called the undecided. So, help them, God.
-
EZEANI is a renowned journalist and media consultant. Trained at the University of Lagos, Nigeria and the University of Maryland, College Park, USA, he is a widely acclaimed columnist and veteran newspaper editor.
