Former president of the United States, Donald Trump, embodies what many Nigerians feel is missing in the country.
Despite widespread accusations of racism, Islamophobia, and referring to Africans as those living in “shithole countries”, the controversial billionaire has continued to attract positive attention from Nigerians.
According to The Guardian, Pew research suggests 58% of people in Nigeria say they have confidence in Trump. The figure is the fourth-highest total after the Philippines, Israel, and Kenya. …CONTINUE READING
Trump’s larger-than-life image as a bombastic, straight-talking, self-made billionaire has made his books a hit in Nigeria. Many Nigerians consider Trump a useful avatar for what they desire in their country.
A political analyst in Lagos, Sa’eed Husaini, said: “Trump’s popularity in Nigeria probably preceded his becoming president.”
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A store procurement manager in Lagos, Felix Abiodun, said Trump’s Art of the Deal and Think Big, regularly stocked by the store, are sold out.
“They don’t stay on the shelves, they go too fast.” Abiodun said Trump’s often abrasive, off-the-cuff style shows his authenticity as he says things as they are.
“Some people are careful with what they say, appear holy, and do things in secret that you don’t know. But he just says it as it is”
He highlighted Trump’s restoring Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and opposing gay marriage as a sign Trump’s presidency came at a moment “ordained by God”
According to Abiodun, Trump’s slogans such as “America first”, and policies that disadvantage Nigerian migrants, simply reflect that leaders should put their own countries first.
“With Obama, he prioritised gay rights, an Islamising agenda. Such policies were not good for America”
Another reason Nigerians love and support Trump is his outspoken criticism of Christian persecution when former president Muhammadu Buhari visited the White House in 2018.
“We have had very serious problems with Christians who are being murdered in Nigeria. We are going to be working on that problem very, very hard because we cannot allow that to happen.”
Biafra secessionists in Nigeria’s southeast are another set of Nigerians who have massive love for Trump.
They believed that Trump’s statement that “self-determination is the sacred right of all free peoples” was a veiled support for a Biafran state. The former US President tweeted that in response to Britain’s EU referendum result in 2016
