By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Twitter: @farooqkperogi The stubborn, pigheaded, and religion-inspired support for Donald Trump by large swath...
By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
Twitter: @farooqkperogi
The stubborn, pigheaded, and religion-inspired support for
Donald Trump by large swathes of Nigerian Christians (who also happen to be virulent
critics of Muhammadu Buhari) is the clearest evidence that their criticisms of
Buhari isn’t informed by Buhari’s tragic missteps in governance but by the mere
fact of his being a Muslim.
Buhari and Trump have a lot of things in common. They both
live in alternate realities. They both lack empathy. They are both bigots who exploit
the primordial loyalties of their natal constituents to divide their countries.
They both supervise the most corrupt regimes in their countries’ histories. And
they both deploy state-sanctioned violence to squelch dissent that rattles
them.
But Nigerian Trump supporters criticize in Buhari what they praise
in Trump. For instance, when Trump ordered the military to crack down on
peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters, Nigerian Trumptards praised it. They
are even ferocious opponents of Black Lives Matter and repeat racist rightwing
propaganda against it. They say it’s a coordinated stratagem to dislodge Trump
from power, not to protest and seek systemic redress against police brutality.
Interestingly, Nigerian Trumptards are enthusiasts of the #EndSARS revolt against police brutality who resent Buhari’s brutal military
action against protesters. They resist the government’s narrative that #EndSARS
is a well-planned civil insurrection to unseat the Buhari regime.
Nigerian Trumptards defend Trump’s white supremacist
bigotry. They see no wrong in Trump characterizing African countries as “shitholes”;
in limiting visa issuance to Africans;
in halting immigration from African countries; in preferring only immigrants “from
countries like Norway”; in appointing only white judges; in having the whitest,
least diverse cabinet in recent American history; and in defending negrophobic,
white supremacist, domestic terrorist groups such as the Proud Boys (whom he
told to “stand back and stand by”).
They also see no big deal in Trump’s habitual preferential
treatment to “red” Republican states that voted for him and his antagonism to “blue”
Democratic states that voted against him.
But they impotently rail against Buhari’s Arewacentric
appointments, his inveterate defense of his Fulani kinfolk, his mollycoddling
of Boko Haram terrorists, and his systematic exclusion of states that he said
gave him only “5 percent” of their votes.
Nigerian Trumptards also defend Trump’s unprecedented nepotism
and exploitation of the presidency for personal gains—in contravention of the U.S.
Constitution. Trump’s employment of his daughter and her husband as his senior
advisers with undeserved national security clearance has no precedent in recent
American history. As I showed in a recent column, several watchdog groups have
found Trump guilty of corrupt enrichment. Nigerian Trumptards said it was small
potatoes.
But my revelations about the unprecedented number of Buhari’s family members who work in his government drew the fury of these same defenders
of Trump’s nepotism and corruption. Apparently, for them, only Trump has the
right to be nepotistic and corrupt.
When Buhari lost previous elections and perpetually
complained that he was “rigged out” even though he never even campaigned outside
the Muslim North and therefore couldn’t possibly have won a national mandate,
he was dismissed as a sore loser by the same Nigerian Trumptards who are now
defending Trump’s infantile, mendacious claims that he lost because he was
cheated.
Buhari lost his second term election in 2019 but used the
power of incumbency to steal it. He was roundly condemned by the same Nigerian
Trumptards who are excited that Trump is refusing to concede an election he has
clearly lost.
In 1985, Buhari was accused of betraying Nigeria by supporting
a Hausa-speaking diplomat from Niger Republic to become Secretary General of
the Organization of African Unity at the expense of a Nigerian by the name of
Peter Onu.
Well, largely because of his racial animus toward Black
people, Trump has also voted against Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to become Director
General of the World Trade Organization even though Okonjo-Iweala became a US
citizen in 2019.
Nigerian Trumptards’ defense is that Barack Obama also
denied Okonjo-Iweala the headship of the World Bank in 2012. Well, at the time
she vied for the headship of the World Bank, Okonjo-Iweala wasn’t a U.S.
citizen.
As I pointed out in my April 27, 2012 column titled, “Nigeria’s Failed World Bank Presidency Bid,” “Historically, Europeans lead the IMF
and Americans lead the World Bank. That's how it has been from the beginning.
While it makes sense to demand that this undemocratic practice be stopped, it
is unreasonable to let Europe lead the IMF but insist that America give up its
own hold on the World Bank.”
The similarities between Trump and Buhari are almost endless.
But it’s amazing what kind of self-indulgent cognitive bias causes people to
condemn a vice in one person but praise it as a virtue in another.
This isn’t altogether surprising, though. Nigerian
Trumptards also tend to be knee-jerk Goodluck Jonathan partisans who defended
Jonathan for exactly what they criticize Buhari for. For instance, they attacked
Bring Back Our Girls activists who demanded that the government rescue schoolgirls
abducted by Boko Haram in April 2014. They even said the abduction never
happened—or that it was staged to bring down Jonathan’s government.
But they are the most strident in condemning Buhari for Boko
Haram’s February 19, 2018 abduction of more than 100 schoolgirls in Dapchi,
Yobe State on Buhari’s watch.
When Jonathan signed a draconian anti-social media law before
he left power in 2015, which is now being used to muzzle and try activists like
Omoyele Sowore, Jonathanian-Trumptards-turned-Buhari-critics praised it as a
necessity to guarantee “national security.” Now they are up in arms against the
series of duplicative anti-social media bills the Buhari regime is planning on unleashing
shortly.
(Jonathan’s Cybercrime Act, which he signed into law in
2015, prescribes a three-year jail term or a fine of 7 million naira or both
for anyone convicted of “causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction,
insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless
anxiety to another.”)
The Jonathanians-turned-Nigerian-Trumptards also opposed the #OccupyNigeria protest, saw it as a coup against Jonathan, and had not the feeblest
compunction that the Jonathan government murdered at least 12 #OccupyNigeria protesters. Now they criticize Buhari’s strong-arm
tactics against protesters and even gaslight Nigerians by falsely claiming that
Jonathan gave Nigerians “total freedom” and never murdered anyone for
protesting.
What has become apparent is that Trump-supporting Buhari
critics don’t criticize Buhari because of his disastrous policies; they do so
because of his religious, ethnic, and regional identity. They aren’t animated
by the imperatives of critical democratic citizenship; they are simply two-bit
religious and ethnic bigots who hate Buhari for who he is and not for what he
does or doesn’t do.
They support Trump because, in their twisted, infantile, and
impoverished minds, he is the Christian messiah who has come to establish a Talibangelical
theocracy in America and the rest of the world. Never mind that Trump isn’t a Christian and has deep-seated contempt for believing Christians.
In other words, Trump-loving Nigerians are Christofascists.
Like Islamofascists, their only goal in life is to impose their religious beliefs
on others, to merge religion and everyday life, and to close off secular spaces.
In the last few years, because of my consistently searing
critiques of the Buhari regime’s frightful ineptitude, I’ve become popular with
Nigerian Trumptards. But I block them on social media now because I share
nothing in common with them. I criticize Buhari, as I criticized his
predecessors, out of a civic obligation to hold the government accountable.
If I were as bigoted
as they are, I would either ignore or vigorously defend Buhari because he and I
share the same religious and regional identity. Plus, I had related personally
with Buhari in the past and have personal relationships with many people who
serve at the highest levels of his government.
I can’t stand Nigerian Trumptards the same way I can’t stand
Buharists. They are two sides of the same sordid, bigoted coin. Buharists also
criticize Trump for the same things they defend in Buhari—just like they gave
Jonathan hell for the exact same things they are defending Buhari for. I was
also their hero when Jonathan was in power, but they can’t stand me now.
The redemption of our world from ruin will come not from bigoted, self-interested, and situational critics of leaders but from people who transcend cheap emotions and show willingness for dispassionate examination of the ills that ail us.
Related Articles:
Fake Trump Quotes about Nigerians and Africans
Making Sense of Trump’s Victory for Nigerians
Sleepy Joe is in, Sleepless Donald is Out, and Nigerian-Americans on the Rise
Trump NOT a Christian. Here’re 7 Proofs
Trump, Chauvin, and English Morphology of Vileness
Adesina and Trump’s America: A Case of Corruption Fighting Corruption?
Biden is Right; If You Vote Trump You Ain’t Black
Nigerian Trumptards Are the World’s Most Annoying Humans
Social Media, Mental Health, and Nigerian Trumpists
Mangled Trumpian Grammar as New American English?
Video of Young Senator Biden Fighting for South African Blacks in US Senate
You are just like what happen or happening to Dr. Ahmad Gumi and I cannot believe more with you.
ReplyDeleteIt takes only a bigot not to be at home with Farook Kperogi.
ReplyDeleteI commend your resolution to stand with the truth and speak the truth to tyrants and bigots at all times. I concur with your rational and conviction. I used to be bothered with your constant criticism of Buhari because I thought Buhari wasn't corrupt as PDP politicians, but eventually he disappointed us his supporters in the long run. And right don't what's the way forward for Nigeria because all I see is the same scenario repeating itself because the youth who are supposed to come and take over from our rotten old politicians are as well divided along same ethnic and regional sentimentality and religious bigotry. I think our biggest task now should be to unite the youths on mutual, genuine and patriotic course.
ReplyDeletesir, what about buhari`s famous pharase: i belong to no body,but i belong to everybody, is this also what the administration mastered of(plagarisim)
DeleteWhen the position of an individual is predicated on anything other than principle, said individual will inevitably get caught in the contradiction of their own hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteAs a Nigerian Christian, I could not possibly agree more with you Sir.
May the truth continue to find a willing vessel in you.
So, in conclusion. They are Bird of a feather.
ReplyDeleteThank you for blocking these bigots. Like I told someone the other day, Trump supporters in Nigeria have shown that there are as much Christian fanatics as there are Muslim fanatics in Nigeria.
ReplyDeleteSpot on bro, but why cast #EndSARS in the mould of Trumptards?
ReplyDeleteDear Farooq. Pardon me for responding very late to your writeup. I agree with you on everything but your insinuation that #EndSARS is "a civil insurrection to unseat the Buhari regime" and anti-northern Nigeria. I was particularly gutted by the views expressed by a few bigoted Trump-loving Christian friends (whom you rightly referred to as Trumptards) in the days leading to the Presidential election and, hence, strongly share your sentiments on their hypocrisy. Indeed they are Christofarcist who deluded themselves with the hope of Trump's messianic rule.
Having said that, I think you were wrong in hinting that #EndSARS protesters and those sympathetic to the cause are against the Northern establishment. For starters, #EndSARS was a vociferous response to years of abuse and brutality by the Nigerian police, and by extension the rape of the citizens by the leadership class. It had no ethnic, regional or religious colouration, eventhough some detractors tried futilely to make us believe so. Perhaps, you should furnish us with any evidence to the contrary. And I think tacitly supporting such view does seem to contradict your ever objective stance on issues, which has endeared you to your numerous readers, including me. I ardently supported the #EndSARS protest/movement, eventhough I am not a Trumptard or an ethnic bigot, and I believe it is same for majority of those who threw their weight behind the cause. As an Igbo man from Imo State, in 2015, I committed what many who are of the Eastern Nigerian extraction would refer to as an ethnic suicide by supporting Buhari and vilifying Jonathan for his administration's ineptitude. Even if you know anyone of them in the mould of Trumptards, you should not generalise from that standpoint.
Notwithstanding, I still hold you in high esteem for your objective and dispassionate views.
Lawrence Amaku