DESPITE the tough 19 months of campaigning for the American presidency, with the attack on contestants’ personal and family lives, the electoral process ended last week with the two final contestants commending each other for a great political battle.
Listening to the president-elect, Donald Trump give his victory speech, one would be tempted to believe it wasn’t the same Trump who was speaking after all he had said during the campaign. He sounded reconciliatory, promising that he would be the president for all Americans. Even the defeated Hilary Clinton urged Americans to support Trump so that America can continue to be great.
When President Barack Obama met Donald Trump the following day in the White House, he (Obama) acknowledged that although both of them had their differences, they were, however, after the greatness of the United States.
Even, after attacking Obama on several occasions, Trump described the president as a great American who had contributed immensely to the economic and political progress the US had experienced in the last eight years.
All the attacks during the campaigns were simply dumped in the trash bin, and all are now concerned about the future of their country.
I am glad that we saw this when former President Goodluck Jonathan lost the presidency during last year’s election to Muhammadu Buhari. In the history of presidential elections in this country, an incumbent president congratulated his rival who had defeated him at the polls.
I hope our political leaders will continue to learn from America’s democracy, thereby applying it to the benefit of our own democracy.
I am, therefore, wishing the US president-elect, Donald Trump, a successful tenure in office when he takes over next year. However, he should soften some of the remarks he made during the campaign and work for a world where peace reigns.
- Yakub Aisha,
Zaria, Kaduna State.