By SKC Ogbonnia<\/p>\n
January 20, 2021<\/p>\n
President Joseph Biden\u2019s inaugural speech says it all. The United
\nStates of America has overcome the attempted coup of January 6, 2021
\nincited by President Donald Trump. The country is set to re-assert
\nitself as the citadel of democracy. \u201cDemocracy has prevailed.\u201d
\nDemocracy has truly prevailed!<\/p>\n
The coming of Biden, therefore, is not a welcome breeze to the temple
\nof the world\u2019s dictators, where President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria
\nnow has a permanent chair.<\/p>\n
Buhari, remember, defeated President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 with the
\nsupport of the United States under President Barrack Obama, whose
\nsecond-in-command happened to be Biden. It was believed that the change
\nmantra of Buhari\u2019s campaign could manifest positive change not only in
\nNigeria but Africa at large.<\/p>\n
But the world quickly found out the hard way. Upon assuming office,
\nBuhari wasted no time before brandishing signs of brazen dictatorship,
\nstocking abject political vendetta, gross human rights abuses, glaring
\ninequity, as well as dizzying dimensions of malfeasance, as well as
\nnonfeasance, especially in the areas of corruption, terrorism, and
\nelectoral malpractice.<\/p>\n
The Obama-Biden administration countered by initiating measurable
\nsanctions against Nigeria commensurate with Buhari\u2019s excesses at the
\ntime. There was also the hope that the succeeding regime in the United
\nStates would keep Buhari accountable.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Nigeria, but fortunately for Muhammadu Buhari,
\nObama\u2019s successor turned out to be Donald Trump, whose foreign policy
\nwas diametrically opposite to those of his predecessors. Not only did
\nTrump spearhead an \u2018America First\u2019 doctrine that generally viewed
\nthe outside world as a miasmic burden, he also equated the entire
\nAfrican continent as a \u201cshithole.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the U.S. issued occasional rebukes of the Buhari regime, it was
\neasy to read that Trump\u2019s shitty notion of Africa was no joke. Any
\nserious attention on Nigeria was appraised as a plain waste.<\/p>\n
Given that America\u2014the only country he is said to fear\u2014did not seem
\nto care, Buhari quickly capitalized. He would carry on with gross abuse
\nof office without fear of serious consequences for his behavior.<\/p>\n
But change has become inevitable with Biden as U.S. President. His
\npeople and policy thus far bear a striking resemblance with those of
\nObama. In short, pundits have already labeled the new American
\ngovernment as the Obama\u2019s third term. Of no less importance is that
\nBiden\u2019s vice-president, Kamala Harris, is an African American with
\ninteresting family ties to Nigeria.<\/p>\n
As the world\u2019s 7th most populous nation, Nigeria matters, and more so
\nto the United States. Unlike the Trump regime, the Biden-Harris
\nadministration is keenly aware. The new team has a good grasp of the
\nsituation in the African country. They do not need to be told that
\nNigeria has taken a turn for the worse since the last time Mr. Biden was
\nin government. Africa\u2019s most resourceful nation becoming the home of
\nthe world\u2019s poorest people is world news.<\/p>\n
Biden knows Buhari is the problem. As a leader whose inaugural address
\nfocused on uniting America regardless of political persuasions, Joseph
\nRobinette Biden knows the problem began with Buhari\u2019s divisive,
\nvindictive, authoritarian, and unapologetic approach. Obama\u2019s
\nVice-President vividly remembers Buhari\u2019s state visit to Washington,
\nDC late July 2015 where the Nigerian leader had the temerity to use the
\naugust occasion to declare that he would perpetrate political vendetta
\non the constituents who opposed him.<\/p>\n
Biden has seen a similar movie before. Donald Trump!<\/p>\n
Though Buhari is a goldbrick, slowpoke, and neither charismatic nor
\nloquacious, the Nigerian president actually has more in common with
\nTrump. For example, both assumed power; preaching integrity, only to
\ngain the power to emerge as stone-cold bigots and, by far, the most
\nauthoritarian, vengeful, tribalistic, and toxic leaders their respective
\ncountries have ever known.<\/p>\n
Like Trump, Buhari not only enables election rigging, he has already
\nleft democracy worse than he met it. Needless to mention that the two
\nmen condone police brutality against certain tribes and creeds in their
\nnative countries. It was not a coincidence that the two deadliest
\nprotests of this century, Black Lives Matter and #EndSARS, were
\nwitnessed under Trump and Buhari, respectively.<\/p>\n
Biden has a sense of history. He remembers Buhari\u2019s broken promises.
\nHe remembers the Chibok schoolgirls. The issues of kidnapping,
\nterrorism, poverty, and corruption, which Buhari heightened to gain
\npower, have only worsened. Fulani herdsmen menace, which was designated
\nas a terrorist group under Obama-Biden administration in 2014, continues
\nto kill and maim the Nigerian people with impunity.<\/p>\n
Significantly, unlike Trump and Buhari, Biden listens and has the
\nappetite for in-depth analysis of issues. Instead of being teleguided by
\nthe daily doses of lies from the fascistic officials of the Nigerian
\ngovernment, Joseph Biden is broadly versed to consider the innocent
\nopinions of Nigerian-Americans. I mean the very Nigerian \u2018Josephs\u2019,
\nmany of whom are captains of industries in the various strata of the
\nAmerican society, and some of whom are serving in the Biden-Harris
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
The true degree of the Nigerian problem will unravel. Biden will learn
\nthat the widely publicized popularity of Trump in Nigeria is merely an
\nopposition to Buhari\u2019s bad governance. It is grounded in the reality
\nthat the former military dictator, who was greenlighted to democratic
\npower by the Obama-Biden administration, turned out to be a huge
\ndisappointment. Take away many Nigerian Christians who thought the
\ndisgraced American leader was truly a man of faith, and others who
\nbought his other daily lies, more gullible citizens had strongly
\nbelieved that only a brutal dictator like Donald J. Trump could tame
\nBuhari and restore Nigeria to a hopeful trajectory.<\/p>\n
Biden\u2019s style is profoundly different. He understands diplomacy
\ntrumps dictatorship. Yet he knows true democracy goes with consequences
\nfor bad behavior. And while Buhari may appear balmy, the Nigerian
\npresident can still tell the difference between night and day. True
\nchange is inevitable. Gbam!<\/p>\n
SKC Ogbonnia writes from Houston, Texas, USA<\/p>\n
Twitter #SKCOgbonnia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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