Is Donald Trump a Mikhail Gorbachev?

by Eze Eluchie,

Young and bright, with a meteoric rise on the leadership ladder of the Communist Party of the former Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, spending a mere 6 years from when he became a member of the Politiburo (1979), to when he became the Party’s General Secretary (1985) the selection of Mikhail Gorbachev as the  Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviets (an election that had been predicted by some influential western media outlets over a decade ago) proved to be a monumental landmark in the history of the modern world.

After months of promoting ‘freedoms’ and ‘liberal’ approach to governance under ‘Glassnot’(openness) and ‘Perestroika’ (‘economic’ restructuring), to a people who  had known lifetimes of authoritarian rule and were used to strong central authority, it was clear to discerning observers that Mikhail Gorbachev had ideas which were very distant from those of the founding fathers and leadership (Politiburo) of the Soviet Union. As the consequences of Glassnot and Perestroika unravelled, the world watched in astonishment as the alternate ‘super-power’, the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics {USSR}, which has often times served as a counter-balancing factor in global affairs, disintegrated with stunning rapidity.

Within a period of 6 years, from his ascendance into office as President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev had incredulously achieved the destruction of what had taken previous occupants of the Presidency of the USSR over 70 years to accomplish – the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence in its place of 15 Republics, with more agitation for more divisions.

In all his exploits, Mikhail Gorbachev, who in his later life has severally regretted his ignoble role in the destruction of the Soviet Union, had maintained close friendship with then United States President, Ronald Reagan.

Fast-forward to Year 2017. A President emerges in the United States, who has little to no experience of the workings of the democratic structures and governance mechanisms, and who in his own words, has enormous ‘respect’ and affinity with the Russian leader. Like Gorbachev before him, new US President Donald Trump, with great haste, embarks on courses of action that go to challenge the very fundamentals of the American system,: attacking Free-Trade and Globalization with relish (withdrawing from mutually agreed international treaties and discountenancing rules of free trade); promoting discriminatory and divisive policies (exhibiting mannerisms which inspire increased racist and xenophobic sentiments); utter disregard for the Media and freedom of speech(constantly railing against the media for publishing ‘uncomfortable truths’); holding the Judiciary and Judges in disdain and odium (mocks Judges who arrive at decisions he finds inconvenient) and so on.

Already as a result of the policies and action of President Trump, talks of a split from the United States by some of its constituent States (particularly California) are already been insinuated. If the current trajectory is maintained, the future will certainly become murkier.  

The similarities in mannerisms, antecedents and activities of US President Donald Trump and former leader of the Soviet Union are so worrisomely close that one wonders if indeed the same outcomes are indeed the desired objectives.

With benefit of hindsight and the goings on across the Middle East, it can be successfully argued that the  overall utility of the disintegration of the Soviet Union to the international community is at the very least, questionable, and very likely unfortunate. A repeat of a collapse of a super power should at all costs be avoided.

Picture: Mikhail Gorbachev and Donald Trump

Playing Ostrich as the Earth Quakes: African Rulers Reaction to Changes in the EU and the USA.

by Eze Eluchie,

When the first tremors occurred with the resounding resolve of the British electorate to pull their country out of the European Union, some optimists had wrongly calculated the Brexit votes was merely an aberration that would be internally reversed by efforts of some desperados to have a second Referendum Vote or prolonged delaying tactics that would make the commencement of the exit of Britain from the EU so long drawn out that it would not even ever be initiated. This wishful thinking has since been dispelled with the hardline posture of the new British Prime Minister, May, towards extricating Britain from the EU – a hardline posture that is garnering increasing support from across the increasingly populist and powerful extremist right-wing political actors that now dominate the European landscape.

A greater tremor, that would have registered a 10.0 on the Richter political scale, occurred with the election of a man who campaigned clearly on a pedestal to have an America-centric approach to global affairs; with promises to constrict some of the major life-lines that provide succour to millions of peoples in the African continent (remittances from Africans in diaspora); and threats to shut down global governance and arbitration mechanisms which has  been of immense life-sustaining benefit to Africa. 

To the emerging right-wing political changes in Europe and the emergence of a President Donald Trump in the US, the rulers of Africa, who it must be realized are mainly geriatrics who might be oblivious of the monumental impact the changes at the international arena will mean for their countries, have maintained unholy silence, nonchalance and an uncanny things-will-continue-as-usual attitude. One clear fact, however, is this: things will certainly not continue as usual!

Whilst countries in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America are strategizing and preparing themselves for the fallouts of nationalistic fervour, akin to extreme racism, across Europe and an inwards-focused United States where everything will be about ‘America First’ and hitherto presumed trite facts upon which the global order had been based, free trade and liberalization, were to be discountenanced, the rulers of African states continue to maintain an extremely irrational ostrich-like disposition to fundamental changes in global affairs, wallowing in the presumption that the loot they are able to stash away in Europe and the Americas will continue to act as cushion, shielding them from the angst of the millions of Europeans and Americans whose disenchantment with the current global order has led to the rise in right-wing nationalism and the ongoing change in global order.

Recent meetings of the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) held in the course of the past few months since the quakes started with Brexit, have taken place without any formal recognition of the imminent collapse of the European Union and its implications for the various protocols and agreements entered between the various intra African organizations jointly or severally, with the EU. Rather than discuss unified continental approaches to addressing changes in Europe and the Americas or even preparing their populations for the oncoming quakes, it’s been business as usual at the various Summits of the AU, ECOWAS, SADC and the EAC, with the focus being the usual mundane communiqués which by now most close watchers of these intra-African organizations can recite off hand.

Some of the questions which should be agitating the minds of African states as the new dawn manifests ought to include: what becomes of the European Union-African Caribbean Pacific  (EU-ACP) Economic Partnership Agreements {the Cotonou Agreements) upon which the bulk of trade between the African continent and Europe is undertaken; and what becomes of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) a carrot routinely dangled across the face of African countries, by the US, as a means of access to the lucrative American market? Amongst other issues.  

Ordinarily, one would have expected African states to seize upon the unravelling of Europe to strive to extricate their economies from the stranglehold of the Cotonou Agreements which basically undermined the value commodities which represent the main contributions of African countries to global commerce whilst foisting slave-era practices on African states to compel purchase of exorbitant European products. US President Donald Trump’s insistence on ensuring ‘America First’, such as when he announced at his Florida ‘campaign-style’ rally that he approved the construction of contentious pipeline projects under the sole condition that the pipes to be used in the projects were manufactured in the USA, should, wherever possible, spur an equal Afro-centric insistence in use of domestically produced goods and services and reliance on indigenous personnel in all international contractual agreements with the US.

If sufficient proactive measures are not taken by African states to unshackle the continent and its over-exploited peoples from the burdens and chains foisted by past agreements with the EU which are weighed against Africa, Africa may merely be consigning itself to another lengthy bout of victimhood, of being serially raped, used and dumped under the guise of international trade agreements. Wake up Africa! The dawn of a new beginning is set.

Picture: Ostrich with heads in the sand.

Ruled By The Shameless.

by Eze Eluchie,

It is now exactly one month (31 whole days) that the Nigerian ruler departed the shores of the contraption on a so-called medical vacation to Britain. Buhari departed Nigeria on the 19th of January 2017 and is yet to either return to Nigeria or address Nigerians on his whereabouts or condition, till date.

Since his departure, all manner of despicable efforts at attempting to prove that Mr. Buhari is alive and ‘hale and hearty’ has been spewed on Nigerians by all manners of characters. In all these efforts, these characters overlook the inherent shame in having a ruler of a contraption perpetually on a brink, idling away in an undisclosed location outside the shores of the contraption over which he rules.

If in one month of his absence, Nigeria has clogged on as usual, perhaps, like the Financial Times columnist wrote, whether dead or alive, Buhari is insignificant to Nigeria and the contraption can now formally dispense with thoughts of his presence and move on.

If indeed he is still in alive and in Britain, does Mr. Buhari ever wonder what the British will be thinking of him and his continued stay in their country? Does Buhari wonder what harm his continued unending sojourn is causing the Nigerian state, economically and politically? An Igbo adage posits that when an in-law over stays, he will begin to be sent on errands by his hosts. Buhari has since overstayed his welcome in Britain, it will thus not be surprising if soon enough altercations which simply ought never to have occurred begin to be reported of the man who unfortunately still parades with the insignia of office of the President of the Federal Republic.  

If on the other hand the maximum ruler is ‘waiting for the results of his tests and convalescing’, is it not possible to replicate, anywhere in Nigeria, the entirety of the medical facilities and procedures and personnel (buildings, equipment and medical staff and whatsoever else) that has caused the shame of the contraptions ruler having to hide in some obscure locations for treatment for so long? Nigeria can certainly afford the cost of such replication. Such replication will also make the facilities made available in Nigeria be available to other Nigerians who might suffer from a similar ailment as is allegedly befalling the ruler. Such thinking will be sacrilegious to those who know that deep down, despite their pontificating, that they have no interest in the survival of the Nigerian state or its constituent citizenry.  

  

And probably when and if he does return to Nigeria, Mr. Buhari will have the guts to stand before Nigerians and talk about the need to ‘sacrifice for Nigeria’, ‘cut costs’, ‘fight corruption’ and whatsoever other such hogwash that has become his preferred topics in his second misadventure in governing the contraption. Good grief.

The inherent shamelessness is mindboggling.

Picture: Buhari’s ghoulish departure from Nigeria on 19^th January 2017 – yet to return till date.