Kogiflame
Kehinde Akinpelu, ilorin
A former governorship aspirant in Kwara State, Engineer Sunday Adebayo Babalola, has congratulated the 47th President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump.
He described Trump as a dogged fighter who did not allow challenges to make him abandon his political ambition.
He has advised politicians in Nigeria to emulate the issue based campaign and tenacity of purpose of Trump.
He also urged the electorate to be more concerned with the character, competence and manifestoes of politicians than after financial inducements and gains.
He said that when politicians and electorates are more concerned with good and quality governance, things will positively change for the country.
In an interview with journalists on Thursday, he also condemned the use of state instruments to oppress and intimate political opponents.
He urged Trump to ensure that his second term will affect Nigeria and the entire globe positively and that he should address transgender issues and other related moral matters.
He congratulated Trump on his victory and for surviving all challenges before and during the election including assassination attempts on his life.
The Kwara-state born philanthropist and politicians urged him to stop all the wars in the Middle East, including the Russian-Ukraine war, and that of Israel with its adversaries.
Babalola said: “I congratulate US 47th President-elect Donald Trump. It is a well-deserved victory. The man went through a lot. He went through assassination attempts. They tried to use everything to stop him. But he was determined and he kept his focus, not allowing all that they did to discourage him. He got the victory, the American people have given him the mandate and my hope and prayers is that he will keep his promises to the people by performing.
“In his first term, we did not have wars all over the war. But immediately he left, war started escalating everything. We hope he will bring normalcy back to the world. I pray for him to succeed. I am happy that he won. The man is getting older so he should choose people who will perform to assist him in running the affairs of the state. I say congratulations to him.
“He should stop the Russian-Ukraine and the war involving Israel and its opponents and other wars. Trump promised to stop the wars, so he should keep his promise. He promised he will take action that will de-escalate the tensions that are in those places. My prayer is that he will be able to fulfil his promises.
“When the economy of America is working, it changes the economy of the world and he did it the first time. The interesting thing is that during his first terms, there were no wars and because there were no wars, prosperity was everywhere until COVID-19 started. Unfortunately, that is what caused him his immediate reelection after his first term. But he did it this time around pragmatically and he promised so many things. There are only two genders: male and female. The issue of transgender, he promised to settle it. Once it is settled in the US, the rest of the world will copy it. America was energy sufficient during his first time, he should go back to that. He should work hard to fulfill his promise as he said.”
He added: “His policies should affect our country very positively because the US economy is always the anchor of almost every economy in the world. As for us, two things I want Nigerians to do: first, politicians should copy his method of campaigning. He really campaigned and he never gave up. Even as an old man, he was going from place to place. The last time we saw that kind of campaign was during the time of Awolowo and Azikiwe. After that we did not see any such campaigns in Nigeria again.
Some of the campaign gatherings are actually rented crowds. I am in politics. Politicians pay and make people to come to campaigns. That of the US is different. They say we are going to campaign here and people there come out without any inducements. They just come to listen to what the politicians want to tell them that they will offer to them. That talks about the followership of our country too. The followership should forget collecting money from politicians to come to campaigns or to vote. They need to sacrifice something to be able to determine the people they want to employ to lead the country because any politician is under the employment of the electorate. The contests or mindsets of politicians in this country is either to get something or get position. I have had many politicians say that they only look for two things in politics: what we will become and what we will eat.
“Now when politics is like that in Nigeria, I do not think it will go anywhere. Until the politicians and followership view politics the way it should be, things may not change. Politicians should go out there, sell themselves while the followership buy into the promises, then things will change for the better. It is possible. My opinion is that we should copy what has happened in the US where in spite of all the attacks, the man kept pushing. We should not copy the government of the day in the US that kept attacking Trump. It was not fair at all.”
