Nigerian MAGA fans confirm Donald Trump’s worst fears

On May 30, 2024, former US president Donald J. Trump was convicted by a jury of his peers on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, even though most people preferred to call it the more salacious ‘Hush Money case.’ It was the first time an American ex-president would be convicted of a crime. Meanwhile, Trump is awaiting sentencing on July 11 and I’m fairly certain none of that is breaking news to anyone who follows the news. Even people who don’t keep up with the news or current affairs have an opinion on Trump’s conviction.

The fallout from that conviction have been far reaching as you can imagine. While some people called it sweet justice because despite being embroiled in several civil court cases, and despite being accused of several alleged crimes, nothing stuck on Trump: Not his Trump University which paid $25 million for an out of court settlement in a suit brought students who claimed they were defrauded who the university. Trump University founded in 2004 and shut down in 2011 after that case. Not when he was accused of moving money meant for cancer patients from his son’s charity organization-The Eric Trump Foundation to their family company. For that, he was fined $2million, and had his personal foundation dissolved. And other scandals too numerous to detail here. Yet nothing stuck which gave rise to the nickname Teflon Don. Now finally, he was going to pay for something.

Not unsurprisingly however, there were many others who thought Trump’s conviction was the end of the world, for America at least. Let’s not even get into the maximum tears and cries of witch hunt from Trump fans, the MAGA crowd. What I can’t understand and still trying to wrap my head around is the outsider-weeping-more-than-the-bereaved reactions from MAGA fans outside of the US, especially in Nigeria. What’s our own with MAGA? First off, while MAGA means ‘Make America Great Again,’ in Nigerian slang, maga means someone who’s gullible, who can be duped easily, in other words, a fool or mugu. When you hear ‘Maga don pay,” especially in connection with internet scams, it usually means the greedy fool has taken the bait and sent money. Mugu is on the same side of the coin as maga.

In case you’re wondering what I’m going on about, perhaps I should backtrack. This piece was brought on, mainly because of quoted tweet (by someone I respect) about Trump’s conviction. After the jury (of his peers) found Trump guilty of all the 34 felony counts, British journalist, and I should add, the racist, race-baiting and fraudulent Piers Morgan posted on X (formerly Twitter) something to the effect of it being a dark and shameful day in America. I may never have seen this as I don’t follow Piers, and even if I did, depending on the context, I could have easily ignored Mr. Morgan because I already know the kind of person he is. In 2004, Piers was sacked as editor of the Daily Mirror for publishing fake pictures of the treatment of an Iraqi by British soldiers. I saw Piers’ post because Dr. Sam Amadi who I follow on X quoted it with a single line: “This is my view too.” Ordinarily, I believe everyone is allowed to have an opinion even those I don’t agree with. As the cliché goes, opinions are like ‘mouths’, everyone has them. The only real surprise is Dr. Amadi who’s helping to spread Piers’ post.

I’m always pained by the thought process of Nigerians who hardly pause to consider what they stand to gain. Somebody in Nigeria is querying why someone was convicted by a jury of his peers or rather, how dare charge a former president to court? Trump is not the first ex-president in the world to be convicted. Off the top of my head, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was charged and convicted of corruption in 2021. I don’t recall anyone crying for France. Meanwhile the same people quacking over Trump’s conviction are the same people who claim to be fighting for the rule of law in Nigeria. These people would complain about the inequality in the country yet…This inability to put ourselves first, and the seeming self-hatred where we think ourselves inferior to others may be why Trump called countries like Nigeria ‘shithole’ countries. In fact, his son Don Jnr. While reacting to his father’s conviction said it only happened in ‘shithole’ countries. This is laughable because Donald Trump is better suited to lead a shithole country where he can be Mugabe, Biya, Mobutu, and Idi Amin all rolled into one. This is a man who appointed his daughter to a senior role at the White House. Her husband (and Trump’s son in-law) Jared Kushner who couldn’t even get a security clearance was put in charge of important US government agencies.

I’ll never understand why people support those who see them as less than human. As far as Trump is concerned, I know so many people use Christianity as the excuse. Trump is not a Muslim but does that make him a Christian? Have you never wondered why a man like Trump who’s generally like a snake oil salesman, or plain con man, has never pretended to be a Christian, not even a Sunday church goer. This is someone who says he’s never sinned and as such has no need thing to ask God for forgiveness. As for me and my house, I’ll never accept that God created me inferior to anyone else.

That said, do we not have enough problems in Nigeria to occupy us? People are literally dying of hunger because garri which used to be the commonest and easily afordable food item has turned to gold. My village, Lampese used to be known for cassava and garri making but that’s no longer the case. Cows and herders are chasing farmers and destroying crops and many are opting to preserve their lives by staying away from their farms. Yet the rulers are interested in acquiring yachts, planes, etc. Insecurity has gotten worse, I didn’t think it could get worse. Last week, one of my neighbours was nearly kidnapped in a scenic, tree-lined street in the Jabi area of Abuja, seat of the federal government. And in Lagos, the Fouani brothers: Abbas, Yousse, and Amtal were kidnapped in Lagos. The brothers work for Fouani Nigeria Ltd, sole distributor of electronics products like LG, Hisense and Maxi in Nigeria. Lagos is supposed to be very far from the terrorism-ridden cities in the North. Yet.

 I’ll deliberately leave out the hundreds of women and girls that are periodically kidnapped by ‘bandits’ and Boko Haram, some never to be seen again. All of this to say we have enough problems in Nigeria that need solutions. Why is someone in Nigeria taking issue with one political party over the other in another country? So because you’re now a Christian, you’re ranting like a MAGA (maga-ite) about globalists and nationalists? How many of our brothers and sisters in Christ even know or care about the ‘genocide’ against Christians in some part of Nigeria? We must learn to negotiate better for ourselves.