Africa should prepare for Trump

The world is still reeling from the shock of billionaire businessman and political rookie Donald Trump’s victory in Tuesday last week’s US presidential election. He scored a stunning upset victory and defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton despite predictions by almost every American pollster that she had the upper hand in the contest. A […]

The world is still reeling from the shock of billionaire businessman and political rookie Donald Trump’s victory in Tuesday last week’s US presidential election. He scored a stunning upset victory and defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton despite predictions by almost every American pollster that she had the upper hand in the contest.
A week after the US election, reactions from the most parts of the world have mostly been of discomfort and anxiety as different countries and their leaders weigh the implications of a Trump presidency of the United States from January next year. These worries derive from President-elect Trump’s unconventional, unorthodox and uncouth utterances, postures and policy pronouncements during the US party primaries and presidential campaign proper. He expressed views that the world thought belonged to a bygone misogynist, racially intolerant, crudely nationalistic and trade protectionist era of denial of scientific evidence, lack of respect for disadvantaged social groups and total disregard for the feelings of other nations.
Bolaji Akinyemi, professor of political science and Nigeria’s former Minister of Foreign Affairs, said Trump’s victory “brings uncertainty into international politics because the world now has to deal with a man who is inexperienced, does not understand the complexities of international politics and has no respect for anyone who is not White or American. I think that is dangerous. There has always been an ugly side to the U.S. just as there is with every country in the world but the good side in the U.S. has always prevailed so that in tackling American problems, the interests of the U.S. are not defined in antagonism to the interests of the whole world.”
This view aptly summarises what much of the rest of the civilized world, included America’s European allies, think about what just happened in the United States. Trump’s election hardly offers cheer, given the position of strategic primacy which the US occupies in world affairs. Trump’s presidential campaign was built on base ethnocentric appeal to the American citizenry, through insensitive slogans such as ‘Making America Great Again’ and ‘Taking America Back.’ His mindset was accentuated by circumstances such as his perception of the US as a dumping ground which he has to redeem, his expectation from the 28 member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border to check illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries and a proposed ban on Muslims from entering the US.
Equally unsettling has been Donald Trump’s threat to repudiate or renegotiate a raft of foreign trade agreements, including North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA] and the Asia-Pacific trade deals. While it is not unheard of for a country to seek to renegotiate trade deals, the way Trump approaches the matter is that all deals must be a one-sided gain for the US. Such an approach could wreck the international economic system and unravel the network of interdependencies that are the hallmarks of international economic relations.
The incoming Trump presidency offers Nigeria some valid lessons, one of which is that no condition lasts forever in global geopolitics. Whereas the US may not cease to be a partner with Nigeria in the days of Trump presidency, it may no more be business as usual. The challenge for the country is to reinvent itself into a nation that can do business with any country, with or without a Trump. This calls for a focused proactive political and economic agenda to fast track development of the country. We expect neither compassion nor enlightened self interest to feature in the Trump Administration’s dealings with Nigeria and other African countries in economic, security or political relations.
Nigeria and African nations should together gird their loins and prepare for an era of naked pursuit of national interests without niceties or subtleties. Two can play this game.