From his first day in office,47th United States President,Donald Trump has demonstrated by words and action that he meant business. And his business is to reduce immigration to the world’s most powerful country for economic reasons.
By issuing the executive order to wage war on illegal immigrants who have had a field day in God’s Own Country and the immediate action by law enforcement agents to pursue and arrest illegal immigrants on the street of America, he translated his campaign slogan of taken back America from non-Americans.
You may not like Trump for his policeman and militant role which surpasses late President Ronald Reagan cow boy mien in the early 80s, yet leaders all over the world often decide how they want to be remembered.
While Trump may fail in his attempt to secure a third term needed to complete his America first crusade, he would at least have sent a strong message that being son of a German immigrant grandfather would not stop him from taking steps to rid his country of birth by those he believes has polluted its space.
This is in spite of America being a land of opportunities inhabited and developed by both Americans and immigrants to justify her being referred to as land of opportunities.
For Trump, opportunities in this age and time has bounds, Globalisation and modernity notwithstanding.
But then,Trumps attitude towards illegal immigrants on which he has commenced mass deportation is a strong message more importantly to Africans than Latin Americans who seems to be in large numbers.
African leaders must at this stage realize that dinner is over even if Trump should reconsider restoring United States funding of the war against AIDS.
With the amount of hundreds of millions of ill- gotten dollars stashed in America and other foreign banks by present and past African leaders is shameful to say the least.
Instead of using same to develop their country and reduce immigration from the continent by both young and old,skilled and unskilled over the years.
The hundreds of millions of dollars stashed away in foreign banks and acquisition of properties in western nations by both Zaires late Mobutu Sese Seko, late Sanni Abacha,Allison Deziani,Godwin Emefiele,former Accountant General of Nigeria, Idris and other public officers and African leaders, is enough to create jobs and provide infrastructures which would stop the brain -drain of youths in the continent.
Africa has no business with poverty if African leaders stop pilfering her resources and stash same away in the vault of Western banks..
Today,Democratic Republic of Congo formerly Zaire,with easily the largest mineral deposit in the world is plagued by poverty,insecurity and instability courtesy of neo- colonists and surreptitious native imperialists who have sold their country for peanut.
If Walter Rodney,the author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa were to be alive today,he would probably have written another book on -How African leaders underdeveloped their continent.
The twin issues behind endless migration by desperate youths from African countries ate basically poverty, joblessness and dearth of infrastructure.
Yours faithfully was at a public launch of an off shore estate sometime in 2012 in Lagos when the designer and consultant declared that half of the funds used to develop the skyrise off- shore estates in Dubai,United Arab Emirate were fleeced from Nigeria by its rapacious,greedy and selfish politicians and public officials .
Trumps attitude is also a direct message to Africans to rise up and get their acts together against leaders who mortgaged their future for immediate pleasure and gains.
The decision by three countries in West Africa namely Niger,Mali and Burkina Faso to opt out of the West African Economic Community,ECOWAS,may be all what the rest of Africa needs to enable them look inward and solve their internal economic problems, stop immigration of Youths out of the continent and earn respect on mutual basis from leaders like Trump who hold them in contempt.
Since,the western powers are in possession of Facts relating to bank account of its selfish and rapacious leaders,it is illogical for them to keep the door to Aids and sundry donations open to continent consistently raped by its leaders.
Norths Sharia Push in the South West:
Inspite of the fact that Islam in the South West part of the country predated the amalgamation in 1914, it is apparent that over the years,the edge given Fulani leaders in the running of the affairs of Nigeria by British colonial masters,cemented the inferiority complex of South West Muslim leaders who over the years have accepted the lordship of the former.
This is reflected both in its political and spiritual leadership consented to the Fulani dominated Northern region.
You ask yourself why South West Muslims accept the spiritual seniority of an average Northen Muslim in leading prayers and sighting of the Moon in observance of simple Islamic celebrations like El del Fitri and Eldel Kabir.
Is the Moon created by God omnipresent made for Northern Ulamas alone and not Southern faithful?
If it is also through that the first Central mosque was constructed in Lagos as far as 1884 with presence in large numbers of learned Koranic scholars especially of Yoruba origin,why the deference to the North.
If the religion being practiced in the Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries is called Islam,then the archaic, retrogressive and oppressive religion being practiced and enforced with Sharia law in Northern Nigeri cannot be described as Islam.
Another name should be adopted to suit the strong slavish and retrogressive content of today’s religious practice in the Fulani North now being surreptitiously being smuggled into the Yoruba South West and strangely being imbibed by its naive and gullible adherents who obviously cannot reason beyond their napuritanical.
They failed to realise other hidden motives similar to the conquering of the Hausas by Dan Fodio and the supplanting of the political leadership of non- Fulani states under the guise of religious puritanism.
This brings to question, the latest attempt by the Fulani North led by Sultan Abubakar 111 to influence the adoption of Sharia law by the South West Yoruba states.
Granted that free choice of religion is cultural in Yoruba norms and practises, bringing a retrogressive,oppressive archaic Sharia law into a highly educated, progressive and enlightened region is nothing but an attempt to forcefully arrest its development, pollute its values and supplant its peace loving nature.
The Sharia push in the South West is a plot by religious marauders whose goal is to achieve political conquest as was done with the Hausas in the North.
Unfortunately,the naive proponents in the region cannot reason beyond their nose of the infamous late Alimi plot which destabilise old Oyo Kingdom in the 18th century.
Another plot to disturb the peace which make the region highest Value Added Tax among others in the country.
You ask yourself of what benefit is the adoption of a religious system which today according to United Nations has produced 11 million out of school children and its Almajiri breed which has become not only a problem to the North but has compounded its social crisis.
Today,Sharia is more for the poor than the rich, affluent and privileged in the North.
Governor Ahmed Yerima who introduced the variant in year 2000 is today still standing trial for alleged stealing of public funds. Yet,he made example of citizen Jangedi,whose right hand was cut off for stealing goat in year 2000.
There is a saying in Yoruba..bi Ara Ile Eni ba ng he kokoro buruku,ti a ko ba so fun, kuru Kuru re ko ni je ka sun meaning… if your neighbouring is eating evil ant,his noise in the night will not allow you to sleep well.
Introducing Sharia to the peace loving and accommodating people of Yoruba South West is akin to setting in motion a disruptive religious beliefs with its anti-social and cultural discomfitures.
It is an open secret that the Boko Haram menace which has been fuelled and sustained by widespread poverty has led to death of hundreds of thousands of both Muslim and Christian faithful in a region that hS becom the poverty capital of the world.
To the champion of introduction of Sharia law in the south west,they should pause and ask themselves what benefit Northern islamic leadership has brought to the region other than insecurity on our farmlands and deep cultural disruption of our values and ethos.
There is a popular saying that..”Eni ti o ba Maa daso fun eniyan,ti orun re la maa koko wo”..he who wants to clothe another person must show forth to his benefactor what he is wearing.
I make bold to say that Sharia today has no benefit or added value to South West educational push rather than confusion; retrogression and disruption of its core values which no religion has been able to undermine in the past hundred years.
If Sharia implementation in the North has not added any development value to the region but oppression of the Talakawas-the law is made for them anyway, and disruption of any development thrust, I wonder of what benefit it is for the South West which has lived peacefully among itself with all religious beliefs without impeding its progress.
Yoruba Islam irredentists pushing the adoption of Sharia is the region should pause and re-examine the peaceful region they have over the years amidst its age-long history of regions tolerance, before allowing themselves to be used as Canon fodder to destabilise the region.
Why is the clamor for adoption of Sharia in a Cosmopolitan and highly developed region now more pronounced when Power us not in the hands of those who have underdeveloped their regions over the years of being in power.
Adopting Sharia in the South West uscavsurreptious attempt to cause Social crisis in bigger dimension than the North and arrest the development of the region.
If anything else retrogressive religion has underdeveloped Nigeria more than the four hundred years of slave trade.
To all our Governors and Traditional rulers the time to stand up and and arrest the deliberate attempt to import instability to the region is Now!
