IN the words of Toba Beta, a renowned Indonesian writer and economist, “Men hear loud voices, but they listen to strong words.” The November 9 2016 presidential election in the United States of America won by Donald Trump has proved that, today, the electorate listen to the strong words of vision, direction and reality before taking decisions rather than the humbug, cant and outright lingo that used to characterise the political struggle of the developing nations.
Prior to the election, Trump’s main challenger, Hilary Clinton and her political party, the Democrat Party, had used the instrumentality of the media to turn the people against Trump, the candidate of the Republican Party.The media described Trump as an aberration to governance. In fact, identifying with Trump outside US, especially in the developing countries, was seen as supporting the number one enemy of the Black Movement. The campaign was characterised by mudslinging. But I knew the media were not telling the truth. For instance, I observed that while Hilary was saying things that the electorateloved to hear, Trump was confronting the electorates with what they should hear.The media was filled with many negative stories about Trump, thus reducing his goodwill among the opinion shapers and international political actors. Trump was accused of calling all the Africans in the US criminals and also threatening to deport all Muslims out of the USA, as well as cease sending aid to developing countries and jail perceived political enemies if he wins.
For daring to be open-minded and blunt in his articulations, Trump was termed an agent by the Satan to neocolonize the West and the developing countries. It is worth-mentioning that Donald Trump lost all opinion polls conducted prior to the election in the media. In the meantime, while wild jubilations erupted in the United States over the victory of Donald Trump, a graveyard silence enveloped the medially-hypnotised developing nations over the loss of Hilary Clinton. But is Trump truly a threat to global security as being portrayed by the international press? My position is, no! Those that own the media and other instruments of measuring public opinion and the agents of the agenda setting theory that succeeded in turning the lowly educated people in the developing nations against trump but who were rejected by the highly sagacious people of the United States are the losers.
Now coming to Nigeria; today, when you talk of Donald Trump, you remember an Ayo Fayose, the incumbent governor of Ekiti State. Like Trump, Fayose is a frank, factual, blunt and a courageous man who defeated the elite in his state and triumphed against the politics of agenda setting to become the leader of his people against all odds.The architect of modern Ekiti, as Fayose is fondly called by his people, has changed the face of governance in the state. A populist who sets pace for the philosopher kings, Fayose tarred 95 per cent of all the major roads in Ado-Ekiti, and he’s today, constructing the first flyover bridge in the history of the state.
Justice like Trump vs Mexico drama, the instrumentality of judiciary and the media had been used to attack Fayose just for enacting a law aimed at protecting his people against external aggression by criminals masquerading as herdsmen. Today, virtually all Nigerian opposition leaders maintain a studied silence, refusing to criticise the APC-led Federal Government despite numerous reasons to do so. But Governor Fayose has been speaking gallantly in support of the Nigerian people, not minding whose ox is gored. As the opposition against Fayose would say, the Afao-Ekiti born successful entrepreneur has demystified the once “sacred” office of the governor of Ekiti state. The governor has been bold in following through with his believes, damning all consequences and addressing issues with conviction. The sterling leadership of Fayose reminds us of the Donald Trump methodology which has today thrown the world into frenzy.
As per Fayose, truth must be told always. Hence in December 2015, the governor addressed a press conference in Ado Ekiti, the capital of Ekiti State, where he predicted that in 2016, there would be removal of fuel subsidy and that petrol (PMS) would sell over and above N140 per litre, leaving the masses in more serious hardship. He further said the product would not be available and long queue in petrol stations would persist throughout the first quarter of 2016 and beyond. Fayose said power generation would drop to the lowest ebb; that the Federal Government would increase tariff in 2016 and that millions of jobs would be lost, as against the three million jobs promised by the Buhari’s administration yearly.Like the prophet he is, Fayose predicted at the time that most private owned middle-class businesses would fold up because of the bad economic policies of the Buhari-led government and that the naira would continue to have a free-fall which will take it to as low as N320 to one dollar.
The governor said God told him to tell Nigerians to pray against those predictions from coming to reality but no one listened to him. Pained by the predictions of Fayose against the APC-led administration at the central, the Deputy National Chairman of the ruling party in Abuja and former Ekiti governor, Segun Oni, labeled Fayose a “tragedy.” But like a man who sleeps in the night hoping that it would take 20 years before another day could come, all the predictions of Fayose in December 2015 came into reality before June 2016. To Nigerians, had they known, they would have listened to Fayose when he (Fayose) told them God was speaking through him. Just like the expressive Donald Trump, Fayose has become a selling point for all news agencies in Nigeria.
- Anifowose is a Personal Assistant to Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekity State.
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