TheNewsGuru

Tag: america

  • Trade war: China hits back with 84% tarrifs on US products from Thursday

    Trade war: China hits back with 84% tarrifs on US products from Thursday

    China will impose 84 percent tariffs on US imports, up from 34 percent, the finance ministry said Wednesday, hours after similar levies by the United States came into force.

    US President Donald Trump’s latest salvo of tariffs came into effect on dozens of trading partners Wednesday, including punishing 104 percent duties on imports of Chinese products.

    Beijing has consistently opposed tariff rises and said Wednesday it would take “firm and forceful” steps to protect its interests.

    Its finance ministry later said in a statement that “additional tariff rates” on imports originating in the United States would “rise from 34 percent to 84 percent”, effective from 12:01 pm on Thursday.

    “The tariff escalation against China by the United States simply piles mistakes on top of mistakes (and) severely infringes on China’s legitimate rights and interests,” the ministry said.

    Washington’s moves “severely damage the multilateral rules-based trade system”, it added.

    In a separate statement, Beijing’s commerce ministry said it would blacklist six American artificial intelligence firms, including Shield AI Inc. and Sierra Nevada Corp.

    The companies had either sold arms to Taiwan or collaborated on “military technology” with the island, the commerce ministry said.

  • Trade War: Trump’s 14% tariff places N323.96bn Nigerian non-oil exports to US at risk

    Trade War: Trump’s 14% tariff places N323.96bn Nigerian non-oil exports to US at risk

    President of the United States, Donald Trump, on April 2, 2025, announced the enforcement of sweeping tariffs on all goods imported into the country, a move that has placed over N323.96bn worth of Nigerian exports at risk.

    Tagged the “Universal Baseline Tariff”, the policy imposes a 10 per cent levy on all imported products, with additional reciprocal tariffs for countries considered to maintain unfair trade practices.

    While crude oil and energy-related goods are exempted from the new policy, Nigeria’s growing portfolio of non-oil exports to the U.S. may now face steep challenges.

    Data from the National Bureau of Statistics for 2024 shows that Nigeria earned approximately N4.49tn from the export of crude oil and energy products to the United States.

    These items, which include petroleum oils and gases, were the dominant export from Nigeria to the American market and have been spared from the fresh round of tariffs.

    However, the country’s non-oil and non-energy exports—worth N323.96bn over the same period—are now subject to the new tariff regime.

    A breakdown of Nigeria’s quarterly trade performance highlights how the country’s non-oil exports have grown in volume and variety.

    In the first quarter of 2024, non-oil, non-energy exports to the U.S. were valued at N74.79bn.

    These included flours and meals of soya beans worth N28.21bn, urea at N20.33bn, refined lead at N14.40bn, cashew nuts in shell at N11.09bn, and technically specified natural rubber valued at N769m.

    These products represent key outputs in agriculture, fertiliser manufacturing, and industrial raw materials.

    The second quarter recorded a significant rise in export volume to N123.23bn, driven largely by increased demand for urea, which soared to N86.54bn.

    This was followed by refined lead at N21.88bn, flours and meals of soya beans at N9.44bn, and natural rubber at N4.37bn.

    The sharp increase in urea exports within the period highlights Nigeria’s growing relevance in the global fertiliser market, particularly to U.S. agribusinesses.

    In the third quarter, non-oil exports dipped slightly to N84.38bn. Urea remained the dominant product at N39.20bn, followed by refined lead at N18.94bn.

    Cocoa beans made their entry into the list of major exports during the quarter, with shipments worth N14.48bn.

    Soya meals added N6.78bn, while natural rubber rose to N4.99bn. This quarter marked Nigeria’s deeper integration into the global agricultural value chain, with cocoa and soya meal exports catering to U.S. processing industries.

    By the fourth quarter, Nigeria recorded its lowest non-oil, non-energy export figure of the year, with total value falling to N42.55bn.

    However, superior-quality cocoa beans led the quarter with N29.92bn. In addition, the country exported unwrought aluminium alloys and cathodes, both valued at over N4bn, alongside technically specified natural rubber at N4.37bn and minor shipments of other food preparations worth N61m.

    The drop in total export value, despite the rise in cocoa bean shipments, reflects a narrowing product mix and declining volumes across other categories.

    Altogether, Nigeria’s non-oil, non-energy exports to the U.S. stood at N323.96bn in 2024.

    These products are now exposed to the newly announced 14 per cent tariff, which could alter their competitiveness in the U.S. market.

    Urea, which accounted for N146.06bn in total exports during the year, stands as the single largest item at risk.

    The fertiliser, produced domestically and exported at scale, may now face reduced orders from American buyers seeking cheaper sources elsewhere.

    Cocoa beans, with a total export value of N44.40bn in the second half of the year, are similarly at risk.

    The product plays a critical role in the global confectionery industry, and the U.S. remains a major destination for Nigerian cocoa.

    With the tariffs in place, U.S. importers may shift demand to rival producers.

    Refined lead, which earned Nigeria N55.23bn in exports in 2024, could also be affected, as the U.S. continues to promote domestic mining and refining operations.

    Flours and meals of soya beans, with N44.43bn in exports, are part of global food and livestock feed supply chains.

    Tariffs on these products may lead to reduced competitiveness and prompt buyers to consider alternative markets.

    Similarly, natural rubber, with N14.5bn in exports, could lose its market edge to producers in other countries if cost becomes a determining factor under the new policy.

    Although Nigeria’s crude oil and energy exports—totalling over N4.49tn in 2024—have been exempted from the tariffs, the country’s push for export diversification now faces a serious test.

    Trump, in his address, described the tariff as a necessary step to bring back American manufacturing and curb the country’s dependence on foreign goods.

    However, the fallout from the decision is expected to be global, with many developing nations like Nigeria now facing the challenge of reconfiguring their trade strategies amid rising protectionism from their largest partners.

    Defending Trump’s tariff, the United States Trade Representative on Monday criticised Nigeria’s import ban on 25 categories of goods, claiming that the restrictions limit market access for American exporters.

    This came shortly after President Donald Trump introduced tariffs on goods entering the US, with Nigeria facing a 14 per cent duty.

    The USTR highlighted the impact of Nigeria’s import ban on various sectors, particularly agriculture, pharmaceuticals, beverages, and consumer goods.

    The restrictions affect items such as beef, pork, poultry, fruit juices, medicaments, and alcoholic beverages, which the US sees as significant barriers to trade.

    The agency argues that these limitations reduce export opportunities for US businesses and lead to lost revenue.

    “Nigeria’s import ban on 25 different product categories impacts U.S. exporters, particularly in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, beverages, and consumer goods.

    “Restrictions on items like beef, pork, poultry, fruit juices, medicaments, and spirits limit U.S. market access and reduce export opportunities.

    “These policies create significant trade barriers that lead to lost revenue for U.S. businesses looking to expand in the Nigerian market,” the agency said via its X handle.

    In 2016, Nigeria implemented the ban on these 25 items as part of efforts to control imports and stimulate local production.

    Some of the banned items include poultry, pork, refined vegetable oil, sugar, cocoa products, spaghetti, beer, and certain medicines.

    The Federal Government on Sunday acknowledged the adverse impact of the newly imposed tariffs by Trump on Nigeria’s oil and non-oil exports, which could potentially disrupt trade relations and affect the competitiveness of Nigerian products in the US market.

    In a statement, Nigeria’s Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole, responded to the tariff decision, admitting that the policy would undermine the competitiveness of Nigerian goods, especially in sectors reliant on market access and price competitiveness.

    According to the minister, Nigeria’s exports to the United States have averaged $5–6 bn annually in the last two years.

    Oduwole said, “A significant portion (of Nigeria’s exports) — over 90 per cent — comprises crude petroleum, mineral fuels, oils, and gas products. The second-largest export category, accounting for approximately 2–3 per cent, includes fertilizers and urea, followed by lead, representing around 1 per cent of total exports (valued at approx $82m).

    “Nigeria also exports smaller quantities of agricultural products such as live plants, flour, and nuts, which account for less than 2 per cent of our total exports to the U.S.

    “While oil has long dominated Nigeria’s exports to the US, non-oil products—many previously exempt under AGOA—now face potential disruption.

    “A new 10 per cent tariff on key categories may impact the competitiveness of Nigerian goods in the U.S. For businesses in the non-oil sector, these measures present destabilising challenges to price competitiveness and market access, especially in emerging and value-added sectors vital to our diversification agenda.”

    In a related development, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, said the recent 14 per cent tariff imposed by the United States on Nigerian exports will have a negligible effect on the Nigerian economy.

    While recognising the seriousness of escalating global tariff conflicts, Edun emphasised that Nigeria remains relatively insulated from severe impacts, given the exclusion of oil and mineral exports—Nigeria’s primary exports to the US—from the tariff.

    He highlighted the comparatively moderate 14 per cent tariff as favourable when placed alongside Vietnam’s 46 per cent and China’s 34 per cent tariffs.

    “Nigeria’s exports to the US were N1.8tn, N2.6tn and N5.5tn in 2022-2024, respectively. Fortunately, oil and mineral exports accounted for 92 per cent, implying oil and mineral exports amounted to N5.08tn in value, while non-oil was just N0.44tn. Consequently, the tariff effect on exports is negligible if we sustain our oil and minerals export volume.”

    However, Edun admitted the government’s economic management team is closely monitoring the global situation.

    “We are going back to the drawing board to look at our budget all over again because we have to see what changes have been made in the assumptions that underlay the production of that budget and the reality over the first quarter and even projected into the future,” he said.

    Economic experts said that the policy, which would raise the prices of goods and services for consumers, would weaken the standard of living, slow down manufacturing activities, hinder international trade and consequently weaken demand for Nigerian oil in the US, one of its key markets.

    According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s trade with the United States reached a combined N31.1 N31.1tn in ten years between 2015 and 2024. An analysis of the foreign trade report showed that N16.4 tn was recorded as exports and N14.71 tn in imports, indicating a trade surplus of N1.64 tn.

    A breakdown showed that Nigeria exported goods worth N344.27bn in 2015 and received N581.99bn as imports. In 2016, it increased to N1.03 tn in exports and N706.09 bn in imports. Exports surged to N1.73 tn in 2027, N1.094 tn in 2018, and N1.01 tn in 2019 before dropping to N382.19 bn in 2020 due to the pandemic. By 2021, exports increased to N800.34 bn, N1.82 tn in 2022, N2.61 tn in 2023 and N5.52 tn in 2024.

    The Chief Executive Officer of Ecobank Transnational Inc., Jeremy Awori, earlier urged African nations to deepen trade among themselves as a buffer against the potential economic impact of new tariffs imposed by Trump.

  • China hits back at Trump, slams US with 34% tariff on imports

    China hits back at Trump, slams US with 34% tariff on imports

    China has imposed 34% tariffs on imports from the United States US.

    This is coming hours after President Donald Trump unveiled the same amount against Beijing under his reciprocal tariff plan.

    The new China tariffs against the US are expected to go into effect on April 10, according to The Wall Street Journal.

    China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Friday that the tariff, which matches Trump’s latest increase in duties on Beijing, would be imposed on all imported goods from the United States.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, who also confirmed this at a briefing in Beijing, lamented that the US announced tariff hikes on imports from many countries, including China, under the pretext of reciprocity.

    According to him, Trump’s tariffs “gravely violate” World Trade Organization rules, stressing that it undermines the rules-based multilateral trading system.

  • Shock as Pitbull dog shoots owner in America

    Shock as Pitbull dog shoots owner in America

    A one-year-old pit bull named Oreo has accidentally shot its owner, in Memphis, Tennessee, a police reported on Wednesday.

    The incident occurred early Monday morning after the animal jumped on his bed and set off a loaded gun, while the man was sleeping beside his female partner.

    He sustained a graze wound to his left thigh and was treated in the hospital.

    According to the police report, the dog—a one-year-old pit bull named Oreo—“got his paw stuck in the trigger guard and ended up hitting the trigger.” Although, the type of firearm involved was not specified, and the incident was classified as an “accidental injury.”

  • Come and see American wonder – By Owei Lakemfa

    Come and see American wonder – By Owei Lakemfa

    There was a popular song when I was a child titled ‘Come and see American wonder.’ It was not so much about the celebration of the perceived wonders of the United States, US. It was more about the incredulous things emanating from ‘God’s own country’.

    Some of us thought that as far as the US was concerned, we had seen it all. But the bizarre ways of President Donald Trump and the antics of his fellow billionaires like Ellon Musk, tell us: ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet’; the worst is yet to come.

    How does a rational being wake up in his home and say he is donating the population of another country, 10,726 kilometres away, to other countries? Who, but a clown, would say he wants to turn a land like Palestine, which many had fought and died for, into an holiday resort, perhaps into a private golf resort?

    But Trump must not be taken for granted because, in his mind, he might have mapped out Gaza, the hotels he hopes to build on the corpses of the Palestinians, and the private profits he and his fellow business people hope to make by seizing the territory.

    Nobody should take the American President for a clown. Or if he truly is, then he is a deadly one willing to carry out genocide for the profits he hopes to make.

    This is not the first time he wants to donate lands, that he does not own, to other people or business. He has done more bizarre things. Four years ago, as he was leaving office, Trump issued an American Presidential Declaration donating an African country and Member of the African Union, the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, SADR, better known as Western Sahara, to Morocco.

    This year, he says he has renamed the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. That is a name that has been in existence for over four centuries. In trying to implement this brainwave, Trump’s leg men gathered information that some media were not adhering to the pronouncement. So the Associated Press, AP, reporter was barred from the White House because the news agency insists on sticking to the international name.

    He also renamed the 100-year-old Panama Canal owned by Panama as the American Canal. In January 2025, he threatened to seize the canal for allegedly making too much profit. Then a month later, he repeated his threat to invade and take over the canal but this time, for allegedly allowing the Chinese to run the canal.

    He also threatened to seize Greenland from Denmark for America’s “economic security”. Trump has also asked neigbouring Canada to become the 51st state of the US and erase its 5,525-mile long border with it. He said of Canada: “If people wanted to play the game right, it would be 100 per cent certain that they’d become a state.”

    Interestingly, Canada with a land area of 3,855, 103 square miles is bigger than the US with 3,794,083 square miles. So, if Trump’s clowning is to be taken on face value, USA should join Canada and become its 11th province.

    However, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in February 2025 warned his country’s business leaders to take Trump’s threats seriously. He told them the Trump administration is “very aware of our resources, of what we have and they very much want to be able to benefit from those (Trump) has it in mind that one of the easiest ways of doing that is absorbing our country.”

    Trudeau who had dealt with Trump in his first term as US President, added: “Not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have, but that may be even why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state.”

    Trump had gone on to impose a 25 per cent additional tariff on Canada and neigbhouring Mexico which, he says, he has suspended for one month. Meanwhile, he has imposed an additional 10 per cent tariff on imports from China.

    In his first seven weeks in office, the Trump administration rounded up 14,000 undocumented immigrants some of who were packed into aircraft and dumped in their countries of origin.

    He has also ordered the construction of another immigrants detention centre in the Guantanamo Bay, a Cuban territory US has occupied since 1898. The administration says it is targeting 600,000 immigrants whom it alleges have criminal records.

    He is also working hard to cripple the American public sector. He sacked more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on cases involving the January 6 riot. He is also scrutinising thousands of Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, agents who investigated the riot. So, he has no qualms punishing public servants he perceives as enemies, even when they were merely doing the job they are paid to do.

    He is also dismantling the US Agency for International Development, USAID, in such a cruel manner that hundreds of its staff posted across the world have no idea what to do. They are virtually abandoned abroad with their families.

    Today, US democracy has delivered what is perhaps its most unique verdict and most powerful President since its July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence. Trump, operating outside the majority Republican Party, seized the party with his Make America Great Again, MAGA, group which is now the dominant faction.

    He won both the popular and Electoral College votes. The party he dominates, controls both the Senate and House of Representatives. Additionally, his party has a 6-3 majority in the Supreme Court. So, perhaps for the first time in US history, one man has control of the Executive, Congress and Supreme Court. But for the fact that this is happening in the US, it would have been called a dictatorship.

    Conscious of his powers, Trump is even by-passing the Congress and, side-tracking the US constitution by trying to run the US based on Executive Orders. Given their number, it would be a miracle if he can remember the Orders he is signing.

    Having cornered and virtually conquered his country, Trump is trying to rule the world with sanctions and threats. Europeans who have always been allies of the US are on edge. They are not sure what to expect. So they are meeting to plan some resistance, and possible retaliation if he imposes tariffs and sanctions on them. He will certainly be resisted, but he can do much damage.

    Trump is a product of American democracy; the American electorate have to live with their choice, may be for the next four years. Africans say if you give birth to a problem-child, you have to take responsibility for him. Americans have the duty to rein in Trump before he does incalculable damage to both the country and humanity.

  • From America first to America alone: The lab meets the street – By Azu Ishiekwene

    From America first to America alone: The lab meets the street – By Azu Ishiekwene

    It’s nearly 20 years since Mark Steyn wrote a non-fiction book, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.

    Steyn, a Canadian newspaper columnist, could not have known that the kicker of this book title, which extolled America as the last bastion of civilisation as we know it, would become the metaphor for a wrecking ball.

    Steyn thought demographic shifts, cultural decline, and Islam would ruin Western civilisation. The only redeeming grace was American exceptionalism. Nineteen years after his book, America Alone is remembered not for the threats Steyn feared or the grace of American exceptionalism but for an erratic president almost alone in his insanity.

    The joke is on Steyn

    In less than one month of his second presidency, Donald Trump has declared an imperial intention to seize property outside the US and rename international boundaries. He has hinted at annexing a sovereign country, criminalised migration, and dragged his largest trading partners, including his neighbours, to the negotiation table at gunpoint.

    When America Alone is mentioned today, it’s not a defence against threats to Western values or civilisation; it’s simply that Trump’s America First has turned the country into a clear and present danger to the values that built and prospered America and the rest of the world. America is losing its way, alone and aloof, in a brazen insularity that evokes pity and surprise in equal measure, even amongst its harshest critics.

    Yet, as Trump danced on the grave of Adam Smith by instigating a trade war that has left the world on edge and global markets in turmoil, the president appears determined to take America beyond pity, surprise, and loneliness. America will soon be ignored.

    Trump’s case

    What is Trump’s case against Mexico, Canada, China, America’s neighbours and its most significant trading partners? The US president accused the first two of not doing enough to control the flow of fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid analgesic more than 50 times more powerful than morphine, into the US.

    Apart from his perennial accusations against China of stealing US technology and other unfair trade practices, Trump also accused Beijing of sending ingredients for making fentanyl to Mexico. Mexico has been Trump’s punching bag since his first term when he wanted to build a wall funded by that country to keep out the so-called human caravans, drug cartels and other criminal gangs from entering the US.

    Polariser-in-Chief

    Perhaps Trump has a just cause to take America back from drugs and crime, not to mention his redemptive mission for aliens in some parts of the US now reduced to “eating the dogs and the pets.”

    However, for a president who said in his second inaugural address that his “proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier,” instigating a chaotic trade war, once described by Adam Smith as “beggar-thy-neighbour”, is anything but a peace offering.

    Tariffs might be the most beautiful word in Trumptionary. However, nothing sets the world on fire in the lexicon of international trade, such as tariffs, quotas, and sometimes subsidies.

    A different world

    Even when the world was far less interlinked than it is today, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 (enacted to protect US farmers and businesses from foreign competitors), which imposed a 20 percent tariff on imports, was resisted with retaliatory tariffs by 25 other countries, creating significant distress around the world and worsening the Great Depression.

    The reality in today’s profoundly connected world is worse. Within hours of the president announcing the 25 percent tariffs, the Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso fell. The Canadian dollar reached its lowest value in 20 years, while the peso hit a four-year low. Stock markets lost billions, and commodity prices surged.

    Counting the cost

    Before the one-month tariff pause between the US and its neighbours, analysts forecast the tariffs would hinder US GDP growth by approximately 0.25% to 0.3%. The tariffs on Canada and Mexico alone could decrease overall economic output by around $45 billion, with potential losses escalating to $75 billion following retaliatory measures.

    Of course, these are all aside from the potential impact of unilateral tariffs on US jobs and consumer prices and a global supply chain crisis in fragile recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The pause does not affect China, and a tariff war between the world’s leading economies is afoot. In what must rank as one of the cruellest ironies of these times, China, not the US, is honouring the rules-based system by first taking its case to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), while Trump threw tariff bombs on Truth Social.

    The jury is out on the immediate and long-term damage caused by this trade war. It did not leave any winners the first time Britain used it in the 19th century, when it enacted the protectionist Corn Laws, or when OPEC used it in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. America First is a long winter in America Alone. The damage to the US and the rest of the world will linger long after the Trump years.

    Dagger in Africa’s back

    Africa is not spared in the all-out war. The continent is perplexed that USAID, one of the longest-standing tools of US soft power, is folding in the chaos of America First. The independent US government agency created by Congress 64 years ago to deepen the strategic partnership between America and Africa on issues ranging from security to health and the environment is closed for now, not by an Act of Congress, but by a Trump fiat.

    No one is precisely sure what his official auctioneer, Elon Musk, plans to do with USAID or what will replace it. What is certain is that this bridge is broken.

    Countries like Nigeria received $1.02 billion in 2023, Ethiopia $1.7 billion the same year, and Kenya $512 million in 2024. Others, including Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, and South Africa, also received various sums to fund their food security, humanitarian, and health programmes. USAID was neither perfect nor America’s Hail Mary for Africa. It was, by and large, a mutually beneficial programme. But Africa must now look elsewhere, or better inwards.

    In addition, it’s unlikely that a tariff-obsessed Trump would renew the expiring African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which opens the US to duty-free access to over 6,000 products from the continent.

    Elsewhere, the war may be about human caravans, fentanyl, or pirated chips. In Africa, whose immigrants in the US face deportation in large numbers, it’s about all of these and more. It is about losing friendship with a country that was once an inspiration and, more often than not, a moral force for good.

    Pyrrhic victory

    The White House may be enjoying a victory lap, but chaos was not the only way for Trump to settle his grouse or to save America from the world. For example, under President Joe Biden, Mexico deployed 10,000 troops to the US border before, without a threat. For Canada, the price of appointing a fentanyl czar is far less than the long-term damage to US-Canada relations.

    We already know how the war against China will end: Beijing will make new friends and spread its influence elsewhere, while Washington will make new enemies.

    Africa must accept that America First is more than a slogan under Trump. It is where the unfinished experiments of his first term and the promise of chaos during his last campaign meet the street: America Alone.

     

    Ishiekwene, Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP, is the author of the new book Writing for Media and Monetising It. 

  • The return of President Donald Trump – Hope Eghagha

    The return of President Donald Trump – Hope Eghagha

    One of the much vaunted and supposedly sacrosanct features of democracy according to America, is the power of the people and the inviolability of the ballot box in choosing who leads the country. Added to this is a smooth transition of power from one administration to another even where there is a ‘hostile takeover’, that is, when the Democrats defeat the Republican party candidate or vice versa! So, it was so much out of character when President Donald Trump attempted to truncate a smooth transition when he lost in 2020, unleashing one of the most disturbing and blistering physical attacks on the symbol of government – the Capitol. Four years later, upon returning to the White House, he has pardoned all the violent demonstrators, including those were found guilty of attacking police officers.

    In simple terms, the Donald Trump of January 6 2021 punctured our idealistic notions of the sanctity of American voting system by insisting that the elections were rigged against him. Rigging in America? In the 21st Century? In the bastion of democracy? Is it possible for the entire system to be rigged as we experience in Nigeria to produce a foreknown result? How Donald Trump and his accomplices reacted after Biden was declared winner was a study in a coup attempt and a subversion of the Constitution of America. Trump ought to be an African politician! It showed something though: not even America is immune to the pitfalls of democracy. Before that day we had though that the events of January 6 could only happen in Africa or Latin America. And to think that arch rival to America in global politics, Russia, is also singing the song of Donald Trump being rigged out of the race!

    Of course, America has come a long way in trying to establish the principles and practice of democracy, having gone through years of turbulence in the 18th and 19th centuries. To be sure, we are aware of the 1996 Larry Sabato and Glenn Simpson book Dirty Little Secrets: The Persistence of Corruption in American Politics in which the authors stated that Democrats ‘featured prominently in almost all of the instances of fraud in the 19th and 20th century, although Republicans were also fully capable of fraud when circumstances permit. Wikipedia says that ‘Electoral fraud was prevalent in the US during the 19th century when safeguards against fraud and electioneering were considerably weaker, and political machines wielded significantly more power…voter fraud was so common that it developed its own vocabulary. ‘Colonizers’ were groups of bought voters who moved en masse between wards! This could have been a description of electioneering in Nigeria in the 21st century. American has since gone beyond this stage!

    President Trump’s re-election and subsequent events like pardoning all those felons who tried to stop the process by attacking the Capitol have contribute, in my view, to the unravelling of America. Rather than making America great, the second coming of Trump shows a great decline in the moral strength of the shinning light or City-set-on-a-hill America. Which is sad. Watching from the sidelines we are puzzled that the legal/judicial system waited for Trump to win or lose the election before taking action. Can this be extended to ordinary citizens? The subtext is that a man who is popular in politics should not go to jail, even if he committed a criminal act. Some justice! Some democracy!

    A felon now sits in the White House as President of America! Picture this and dwell on the implication of such an anomaly on the very basis of the United States. Political crooks and demagogues around the world now have a godfather and model in America. It would seem that the people do not care about the law or the power of the jury system. It would seem that justice is seen from the point of view of the majority. How else can we interpret the laid-back position of the judges in handling the palpably criminal offences of Donald Trump as proved in the court system? This is really American wonder!

    Also unraveled is the partisan nature of the American media. It is now clear that those ideas of independence and freedoms which they have propounded in mass media studies are hogwash. The judiciary is not independent. While Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were jostling for the American presidency late last year, the dominant narrative from cable television was that the race was a tight one. There were projections of a fifty/fifty outcome. Some even attributed victory to Kamala Harris. CNN turned out to be blatantly partisan. Fox News has remained foxy.

    But on 5th November, the American people spoke. They spoke in clear terms. They were tired with the Democrats, and perhaps the way Kamala Harris emerged as the flagbearer. Also, the Supreme Court of America cannot be looked up to for justice because justice is based on perspective – the perspective of the conservatives and the perspective of liberals. Facts are skewed in the direction of the majority. The politicization of the judicial system is not a sign of greatness.

    It is in messianic terms that some ardent supporters of Donald Trump view his second coming to the White House. This is made more poignant by the near martyrdom which he went through twice in the course of the campaigns. God must have a reason for saving his life. He must cleanse America of the prurient filth unleashed by the ungodly and immoral Democrats. A House member has introduced a bill that will make it possible for Trump to run a third term! I thought this was possible only in Africa! This is dangerous for a man who had declared that he would like to govern as a dictator. Little wonder Democrats campaigned with the theme of Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. Obviously, voters did not buy that narrative. But the threat is there.

    Some of his pronouncements have resonated with the Christian community. For the next four years all the nonsense going on about transgender will take a backseat in American society. It is ridiculous to expend state funds on persons who want a sex change, even for kids who are not allowed to vote or take alcohol. Evangelicals see this as a devilish anti-God agenda. His anti-immigrants’ rhetorics are palpably racist. But the cheerleaders are egging him on because it was a campaign promise. On the world stage, Israel has agreed to negotiate. There is a ceasefire to honour Trump, embarrass Biden. By the way, how would it have sounded if President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris boycotted the handover ceremony as Trump did in 2021?

    President Donald Trump sits in the White House. He is no messiah. He is a businessman, a hardcore capitalist who has visions of a great America for the rich. He has won the election. Can he win in governance? The next four years will tell. So, Trump is on trial. When he is done with attacking his predecessor, the people – friends and foe -, the world would begin to judge how much impact he has made in making America great again. Time will tell!

  • Trump’s America, still America, their America – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    Trump’s America, still America, their America – By Ikeddy Isiguzo

    AMERICA, as most of us call the United States of America, USA, is a big country with confusions that match its size. The latest is the presidency of Donald Trump, whose face knots delightfully when he issues another threat – it could be to the unborn.

    Racism, genderisation of issues, in a country clawing itself back to global (ir)relevance by isolation, threats of war, lawlessness within a democracy almost summarise how Trump wants to ruin America.

    His idea of “making America great again” is to exaggerate America’s global “victimhood” thanks to Presidents before him, in particular his predecessor Joe Biden, for whom he cannot find a word of praise. If Trump has the powers, he would expunge Biden from a list of American Presidents.

    How Trump intends to make or mar America is only known to him. In a country with huge democratic credentials, Trump is busy ingraining his lawlessness into his version of democracy. Executive Orders provide perfect covers for Trump. He is already abusing them because some of the matters he glibly orders on are constitutional, and altering them would involve States, Congress, and the Supreme.

    His Orders take immediate effect in the manner of a military officer hauling orders at a parade. Immigrants must leave. Some are at the borders trying to enter Americans. Would some children qualify as legal Americans while their parents and guardians may be sent out of America?

    The judiciary is weighing in to order Trump’s steps.

    When JP Clark wrote, America, Their America, his 1964 criticism of things American and the racism that hides under the cloak of its over-rated democratic practices, he made it clear that America was essentially about itself, thorned by racism in itself, and against others.

    America, Their America, drew as much applauses as criticisms against Clark, whose studies at Princeton University ended abruptly, some believe, as a result of the vapid vortex of racism he countered. America, Their America is the product his Princeton days.

    The deceit that American democracy spreads, blinds the world to the monstrous human rights records of the USA. America is built on the blood of the indigenous populations of what became North America, plus slaves taken mainly from West Africa. The remnants of those populations still suffer racism that has been blunted by the “successes” of attacks, massacres, genocides that keep them from the attention of the world. They have been pushed into forests and reserves.

    Loads of literature abound on these human abuses that could have belonged to darker ages but still replicated in the way the United States treats others. Words fail to capture these atrocities. Latest accounts tend to minimise the mal-treatment of the indigenes of North America. They are even explained with excuses that diseases that arrived with Europeans, the new settlers, were responsible for the deaths.

    Donald L. Fixico in, “When Native Americans Were Slaughtered in the Name of ‘Civilization’”, a 2018 publication, detailed a series of programmes of annihilation of indigenous peoples to create space for the new settlers.

    “From the time Europeans arrived on American shores, the frontier – the edge territory between white man’s civilization and the untamed natural world – became a shared space of vast, clashing differences that led the U.S. government to authorise over 1,500 wars, attacks and raids on Indians, the most of any country in the world against its indigenous people. By the close of the Indian Wars in the late 19th century, fewer than 238,000 Indigenous people remained, a sharp decline from the estimated 5 million to 15 million living in North America when Columbus arrived in 1492.

    Doctrine of discovery described as an international law that authorised explorers to claim uninhabited land in the name of their sovereign when the land was not populated by Christians, had the imprimatur of the Vatican which only repudiated the Doctrine in 2023.

    In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the bull Dum Diversas, which authorised King Afonso V of Portugal to “subjugate the Saracens and pagans and any other unbelievers and enemies of

    Christ”, and “reduce their persons to perpetual servitude”, to take their belongings, including land, “to convert them to you, and your use, and your successors the Kings of Portugal”, Brain Slattery noted in Paper Empires, his 2005 book.

    In 1455, Pope Nicholas V issued Romanus Pontifex, which extended Portugal’s authority to conquer the lands of infidels and pagans for “the salvation of all” in order to “pardon … their souls”. The document also granted Portugal a specific right to conquest in West Africa and to trade with Saracens and infidels in designated areas. The Doctrine has been implicated in slave trade and colonisation.

    While the Doctrine seemed to have ameliorated disputes in Europe, its introduction by US Supreme Court Justice John Marshall in Johnson v. McIntosh (1823) was disputed. Marshall’s formulation of the Doctrine gave the discovering nation title to that territory against all other European nations, and this title could be perfected by effective possession.

    Trump’s threats to the rest of the world are not new to America which has run out of ideas about being the world leader, a title and role that has been vastly diluted by the contradictions of American democracy that places USA’s interests above global peace, and the steady gains of other powerful nations as the USA receded from involvement in global stability.
    Americans chose Trump for reasons best known to them. They acted much like Nigerians in the choices we made since 2015. Trump wants to turn round an America tied to his strings, on his own terms. He has no time for the domino effect that is loading.

    Didn’t the world watch as President George Bush invaded Panama City on 20 December 1989, in that operation that spanned over one month, to arrest Panamanian President General Manuel Noreiga, a CIA informant, when Bush was the CIA boss?

    Noreiga was captured and jailed in America for charges that included threatening and killing American forces in Panama, narcotics racketeering, swinging relations with traditional enemies of Libya, Cuba, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and members of the Warsaw Pact.

    The Panama Canal that Trump says he will take over was also mentioned as Noriega’s sin.

    Will the world watch again for America to occupy Panama City and determine the use of the Canal?

    Trump feels nobody will stop him; nobody can stop. Morning Star Online, an English newspaper blazoned Trump’s return as President thus, THE RETURN OF THE VILLAGE IDIOT.

    Finally…

    SENATOR Sampson Ekong, Chairman, Senate Committee on Solid Minerals, has a solid recommendation that the Ministry’s capital budget of N9 billion be increased to ₦539 billion. The Naira has suffered!

    INDICATIONS are that the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, who would go down in history as the first IG not seen wearing dark glasses, has ordered that policemen (and women) should nor wear dark spectacles while in uniform. He may need to appoint an Assistant Inspector-General of Police to deal with the petitions that would flood his table over this matter.

    SECURITY challenges across the country are multiplying daily. We would not panic. We, however, expect the security agencies to do more than telling us daily that new groups are being formed. It is simple economics – the insecurity economy is profitable; the businesses have to open more branches or new companies to reap the profits.

    ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues

  • From America to Nigeria, good technology possible without pains – By Okoh Aihe

    From America to Nigeria, good technology possible without pains – By Okoh Aihe

    The tech industry promises to be very interesting this year. It will bring excitment, it will also inflict pain. Nations will go after each other and try to sabotage each other’s growth where possible. Others will expand growth and dominance and even extend it to conquest as manifest display of strength. The weaklings will lap up the crumbs from the master’s table and remain ever so grateful in that beggarly position. But the world will continue on a swing, on a roll that has little accommodation for the laggard.

    In a few days, Donald Trump will return to the White House as the President of the United States of America. He has been there before. He was also in show business. And he is well aware of the powers reposited in his person and office; there is no need swearing that he  will take maximum advantage of such powers. Americans like to associate their President with chutzpah. Donald Trump is an embodiment of such euphoric feel.

    His beef with China will continue. Under him America will not allow China to maintain a clear lead in niche technology like 5G and then 6G that is already dancing around the corner. Semiconductors will enjoy more attention and more coveted, even new laws, just anything to slow China down. But you can’t blame a man who wants his nation to enjoy some advantages over other nations of the world. It was the plank of his campaign – America First.

    Donald Trump will impose his own image and likeness on the tech sector to such an extent that the local and international markets will buckle under the weight.  He will meddle with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and plant the people that will pursue his vision with aggression beyond cohesion. The Social Media that has not been very kind to his kind of lifestyle, with a lot of focus on Iife in the past, and sustained hubris, will come under intense scrutiny. Granted that big tech companies are already flocking around him as a show of support or even penitence but that may still not cut a deal.

    Already one of their own is in the inner chambers enjoying some deserved advantages. Elon Musk threw his cash in the fray to campaign with Donald Trump, he couldn’t have made better investment. He is the founder of SpaceX which created Starlink, a satellite megaconstellation with about 6,714 satellites working as at November last year out of a projected 42,000 satellites.

    The strength of the US telecoms sector is in fibre to homes which makes triple play an enjoyable feature. But Starlink is designed to provide low cost Internet to remote locations. In most parts of the world, including the US, dealing with connectivity in underserved locations is spearheaded by the Universal Service Fund. But there is also the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program in the US which places fibre optics as the surest connection to high-speed internet. There are fears however, that the very visible presence of Elon Musk in the Trump administration will influence attention to shift to satellite as the best alternative internet connection to remote and underserved communities.

    Elon Musk’s influence will not be confined to America. Already Starlink Services LLC, has coverage in over 100 countries, including Nigeria where it has a cocktail of licences to provide telecommunications services. Starlink and its local partners are dropping terminals across the nation for more affordable internet connectivity. If he markets his connection with the most powerful man in the world, the Musk way, he can only conquer more territories of the world for Starlink and other business operations.

    Just the way that Starlink has come into our world with little announcement, some other nondescript operators may still find their way to the country except the industry faces proper regulation. With strong signs already popping up in different places, the telecommunications industry may witness a shaking. The operators, with their backs to the wall, will continue to press for higher tariffs in order to remain in business.

    Tariffs therefore will be a major issue this year. The Nigerian consumers who couldn’t do anything about fuel hike and soaring food prices, will suddenly find their voice and venge their anger on the hapless telecommunications sector. The easiest thing to do is to go to court to stop whatever the operators and the regulator may want to do.  It is not impossible that the regulator will want to stay on the side of the consumers but how long the industry can continue to take losses on behalf of the consumers or subscribers in this case is an early decision the regulator will have to make this year.

    The handshake that goes beyond the elbow means a different thing. The relationship between the operators and the subscribers have since soured, and it shouldn’t be a parasitic one indefinitely. Both parties should nurse a healthy relationship to the growth and good of society.

    Without using harsh words for 5G licensing in Nigeria and introduction of its services, let me say that I am not expecting any miracle growth in the sector, for the simple reason that operators are still struggling for funds to remain in mainstream business, without ceding emphasis to what may be termed prestige business. Something has to give for 5G to do well in Nigeria, including victory over hunger and endemic poverty.  5G may not find traction until the later end of the year.

    We already observed that technology may inflict pain this year. Let me state what you already know, that Social Media afforded people a lot of opportunity and latitude to speak their minds and even release harmful effluents at times. They call it freedom of speech but others have argued that what you call freedom of speech can harm others gravely.

    The Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015, amended in 2024, has suddenly become a convenient weapon in the hands of those fighting the excesses of loud mouths and light and loose fingers. For careless and even harmless words, some people have become guests to the various security arms or have even ended up in the court. I am a fanatical supporter of the Act because, even now, I still believe that it has the capacity to cure the ills of cyberspace but also want to warn that the content can be interpreted so loosely to trap even ordinary minds without the intention to hurt or hate. Without doubt, there are mischief makers that must be made to reap the reward of their wickedness but, I am afraid, there are a number of simple minds that could pay painfully as the year unfolds. Dear friends, beware of the Cybercrimes Act.

    Broadcasting may continue to enjoy some disreputable silence except something is done urgently to return fire to the industry and ignite low-hanging programmes that can stir the industry to the fore. The Digital Switchover (DSO) must be given a new approach if Nigeria is ever to successfully implement the switchover. This will demand that present desultory rhetorics be changed for something more pragmatic while subterranean manoeuvring for personal advantage and benefits should be given a moral thrashing. May it not be said that Nigeria, with all its human capital, technical competence and even track record cannot complete a simple process that smaller countries on the continent have since completed.

    In all these bubbles, the answer remains simple: the regulators will have to develop  the gravitas to speak simple truth to this government, about urgent steps that have to be taken for the country to enjoy only the good side of technology and avoid the pain. Very good results are possible without needless torture.

  • Even in technology, it’s America First – By Okoh Aihe

    Even in technology, it’s America First – By Okoh Aihe

    The American Elections are over and President Donald Trump won convincingly, literally blowing Kamala Harris out of the political space. The contrarians had their emotional expectations but the big boys who spent their money for Trump and the ordinary folks in the motley crowd, had their way.

    That is the way of politics. Some get really hurt badly. That is what happened to the Democratic Party, to those who followed Kamala Harris and her smiles. They would wish they are having a very long sleep where waking up is not going to be immediate.

    Anyway, I don’t write politics; I write technology. But permit me to observe that people are attributing Trump’s victory to his unrepentant call for America First and Make America Great Again (MAGA). He was smart enough to latch on to a new thinking amongst a segment of the American population and there is nothing anybody could do about it. After all, people are free to stick to their various political consciousness and beliefs.

    Here is my point of interest this morning. Whether it is the Democrats or the Republicans, it has always been about America, it has always been about Americans, the flag and the country which they believe in and love so much. You can’t begrudge a leader for being lavish in his patriotic beliefs or being nearly psychotic in pursuing the details.

    Instead, you blame your leaders for their horrendous policies which destroy every fabric of life, including education and healthcare, policies which pursue the intelligentsia and intellectuals out of their country, to sell their knowledge to countries that appreciate and can pay some life-sustaining amounts for what is despised by their country.

    Trump has only accentuated that latent feeling with his maverick nature and star influence – real estate billionaire, billionaire friends with a large crowd who are waiting on the big boys to make choices for them while being allowed to romanticise about their involvement in the process. But let’s return to technology.

    Under the title, Technology, always about National Interest, we wrote on March 22, 2023: “For some of these nations, technology is always about national interest irrespective of the government in power. They demonstrate the veracity of the statement, government is a continuum.”

    At the time, we tried to demonstrate that no matter the government in power in America, they will always initiate policies that promote the American interest before any other thing or country. We had looked at Trump’s positon on 5G and TIkTok owned  by ByteDance, a Chinese company. Today we shall add President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on AI and President J. F. Kennedy epochal declaration on Space Technology.  It is always about America First, and please, don’t misunderstand them, as there are different levels of patriotism.

    We also gave a list of other countries who had trouble with TikTok by putting their National interest first, not out of spite or arrogated patriotic feelings, but out of pure love for their countries. They include: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Canada, United Kingdom and a host of other countries.

    However, let’s restrict our interest to America for the sake of this writing. On September 12, 2019, President Trump took a very strong position on the development and deployment of 5G technology when he said America would never leave the industry to any other country to lead.

    At the time, Chinese companies, Huawei and ZTE were in clear lead globally, but Trump applied the brakes. He rallied the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Wireless industry whose promoters readily pledged the sum of $275bn to grow the industry.

    “We cannot allow any other country to out-compete the United States in this powerful industry of the future.  We are leading by so much in so many different industries of that type, and we just can’t let that happen.  The race to 5G is a race America must win, and it’s a race, frankly, that our great companies are now involved in.  We’ve given them the incentive they need.  It’s a race that we will win,” he vowed.

    Trump didn’t play games or appoint surrogates to drive the American dream. He challenged the industry which responded so spontaneously by pledging hefty investment which they projected could yield 3 million American jobs while adding $500bn to the economy.

    Trump’s position on TikTok was not less vehement. August 6, 2020, he signed An Executive Order asking Chinese owners – ByteDance and Zhang Yiming to divest from the video sharing  platform of snackable contents for Americans to take ownership of the company which at the time was worth over $50bn.

    There is the fear that the Chinese government laces Chinese equipment and platforms with spyware thus, for instance, making it possible for the Chinese government to exploit its relationship with TikTok to  mine data which the company collects from its subscribers and gain an advantage over the US government or spy on journalists who report China, President Trump signed an executive order to the effect that TIkTok cedes ownership to American investors. He has since adjusted his position of a complete ban, saying the company needs to exist to resist Facebook, which he described as “enemy of the people.”

    This is further fuelled by the fact that China has national security laws that require companies under its jurisdiction to cooperate with broad range of security activities.

    June 9, 2021, President Biden rescinded Trump’s Executive Order but continued with the scrutiny of the organisation. He would eventually ban TikTok from government platforms and terminals. He didn’t meddle with the sensitive idea of ownership change. Mind you, Biden didn’t also do anything that could affect Trump’s policy on 5G. It’s actually all about America in taking critical decisions affecting the people. It’s about America First.

    On October 30, 2023, Biden issued an Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence. Here is what it says in the introduction: The Executive Order establishes new standards for AI safety and security, protects Americans’ privacy, advances equity and civil rights, stands up for consumers and workers, promotes innovation and competition, advances American leadership around the world, and more.

    This wasn’t Trump speaking, it was Biden. Its not about the Democrats or Republicans, it’s about the country and her people. That is what leadership is all about. The people first before pecuniary advantages. In our part of the world, it’s reverse thinking and we blame the world for being unfair, never for once thinking that some of our actions undermine nationhood and the potency of people’s power.

    Okay, let’s take a little walk back in time to May 25, 1961, when the race for space was boiling over. In his epochal  Man on the Moon speech, President John F Kennedy, declared: “Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others.

    We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share……First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.”

    JFK, as he was popularly called, made a veiled reference to the Soviet Union which, in 1957, had sent the Sputnik into space. He challenged and committed America to lead the way, to put a man on the moon not a machine. The feat was achieved on July 20, 1969, when America landed Apollo 11 on the moon.

    JFK was a Republican not a Democrat. There are major leadership decisions that must be driven by patriotism and a feeling for the people. The party is irrelevant. The people and country are the only constant in the equation. During the campaigns, Trump reached out to a segment of the people and secured their hearts. They may have helped him to win the elections but what he will do will be for America and Americans.

    That formed the nexus of his campaign. There may be a little nastiness in achieving his goals but that is Donald Trump. You cannot change his character but you cannot also put his patriotism to question. It’s all about America, dear friend. Be rest assured a newly fired-up  Trump is coming  with a mission where the rest of the world comes a distant second to the patriotic fire burning inside of him which only he can interpret to the rest of the world.