Instead of sympathy for insisting on his election promise to keep America for Americans, President Donald Trump, suffered harsh rebuke from African countries who protested against his alleged use of the word “shithole” to describe them. Their pressure forced him to deny being a racist but did not force him to apologize for obsession with his controversial election promise on immigration. The African Union also mounted pressure through their representatives at the United Nations.
However, President Trump rejected the racist tag but reaffirmed commitment to his electoral pledge on immigration. Ripples of the latest controversy echoed in the postponement of his planned meeting with British Prime Minister, Theresa May, in London.
While defending the controversial immigration policy, the American president allegedly referred to Caribbean and African countries as well as El Salvador as shitholes. He said that people from these countries should be discouraged from coming to America, and perhaps to make it more bearable, he said they should be prevented from coming to America but not because of bad leadership in their countries.
Analysts say this should bother African countries more than drama over injury to ego and pride.
The derogatory remark was widely condemned. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, described the comment as “hate-filled, vile, racist and derogatory”. Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake, said he was puzzled an American president could use a phrase that was associated with a killer like late leader of defunct Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin.
And former British Foreign Secretary, Mr. David Milliband, said the language used dragged American diplomacy into the gutter. Alongside South Africa and Ghana, Nigeria, summoned the US ambassador, Mr Stuart Symington, to protest against the comment.
However, not everyone disagreed with President Trump for allegedly taking his dinner talk to the White House. Folks said the protest by the AU was exaggerated drama because depression and frustration with bad and irresponsible leadership drove many Africans to desperation and finally pushed the rich continent into poverty.
The fierceness of criticisms did not suggest that the claim was false. Perhaps not intending to suggest that President Trump is not a typical politician, the Executive Director, Centre for Immigration Studies, Mr. Michael Krikorian, said that politicians in other countries also swear and use strong language.
According to him, Trump’s “gut reaction is usually the first thing that comes out of his mouth” in most situations. But Dr. Hillary Ansa, a public policy analyst, said rather than deny challenges imposed by bad leadership on the continent, African countries engaged in drama by alleging injury to racial pride and ego from the remark that President Trump had since denied.
According to him, bad leadership imposed frustration, which indicted African countries. Ansa said desperate citizens were forced to fleeing to stable societies, regardless of risks involved like the possibility of forced slavery or sexual slavery as in stateless Libya.
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The international jurisprudence expert wondered how Africa that is richly blessed became mismanaged if not by bad and corrupt leaders, consequently forcing many to adopt desperate measures by going abroad by any means. He justified Trump’s remark with statistics of victims who perished in the desert or drowned while trying to escape from artificial hardship imposed by bad leaders in their countries.
“Only shithole countries force citizens to take desperate actions to escape abroad in order to achieve economic fulfillment. The demand for apology by the AU is unnecessary drama driven by ego of leaders,” Ansa further said.
Mr. Tope Adewole, a banker, agreed that bad leadership and impunity in African countries vindicated, rather than condemned, President Trump. He said that asking the court to stop the Senate from investigating smuggling of alleged pensions thief into service; refusal to disclose how much was spent to treat President Muhammadu Buhari in United Kingdom in 2017 and vested interests that encouraged senseless killings of citizens by Fulani herdsmen, among other reasons, made it difficult for the country to deny the derogatory characterization. According to him, the refusal signified contempt for Nigerians.
“Also, the cruel joke where a son inherits leadership from his father as in Zaire and Togo is possible only in a shithole,” Adewole further said.
Before President Trump denied the vulgar remark he allegedly made to justify returning about 200,000 El Salvadoreans back to their country, sympathizers made desperate efforts to play down the statement. They said that instead of shithole, the president said shithouse. But Professor Scot Lucas of the Department of International Politics at the Birmingham University in England dismissed the attempt and emphasized that the difference did not matter.
Like Lucas, Arizona Republican Senator, Jeff Flake, said what puzzled many was that an American president used a phrase such as that. Folks say that given his history of blustering before reflection and unpredictability, the rebuke further imposed on President Trump added pressure to convince critics that he is not obsessed with controversy.
Is the African Union (AU), unaware that Trump’s electoral promise to protect America for Americans by discouraging immigration mostly accounted for why this outsider defied the establishment to become the 45th American president. Instead of slowing him down or moderating his obsession, one year into a most stormy presidency, many attempts by courts to block immigration from shitholes to America have not discouraged Trump’s determination to fulfill this promise to Americans.
What many consider evidence of instability and unpredictability is actually proof of President Trump’s determination to fulfill his electoral promise to Americans. Only people of integrity and character insist on fulfilling their promises. Those devastated or overwhelmed by the shithole experience deploy bluff or hypocrisy to renege on promises.
Trump’s reference to African countries as shitholes really ruffled national pride on the continent that has suffered the greatest leadership disaster in history. However, deep reflection reveals that hypocrisy inspired anger and reluctance to admit that the magnitude of disaster inflicted on African countries by bad leaders eminently qualify these countries as shitholes.
The truth definitely hurts. Trump’s factual assessment of reality in many parts of the world sparked outrage. Through their ambassadors to the United Nations 54 African countries demanded apology for and retraction of the remark that the American president had since denied.
