This is not about Trump

By Frank Tietie

The US Presidential Election is important to the whole world for many reasons. From my standpoint here in Nigeria, West Africa, I caution that we should neither allow the contrived media hate for Truump nor the bandwagon effect to drive us.

The reason we cry out for credible elections in Africa and particularly in my country, Nigeria is to guarantee legitimacy of a government and those who operate it.

Donald Trump and Republicans have alleged manifest electoral malpractices which by casual evidence appear to be true yet the Democrats and mainstream media simply refute the claims by waving them off as having insufficient proofs.

The Courts, including Supreme Court of The United States (SCOTUS), see modicum of truth in the claims by Republicans that electoral rules were manipulated in key states shortly before the elections by persons who do not have such authority, yet they have refused to adjudicate on the issues on merit. I agree with Trump that the courts failed. Even in Nigeria, my country, however dysfunctional they call it, courts won’t fail in their responsibility like that.

For the last five years as a public commentator, I have warned several times that public disorder and anarchy will ultimately reign when electoral processes are not perceived to be fair by all the political players. Therefore, I have always striven by every strength I had to make the point on national media that our own electoral umpire, INEC must do everything to ensure a credible election at all times to the extent that even those who lose elections would be satisfied that they lost indeed.

The recent US elections and the following attendant allegations of voter fraud- no use of IDs, illegal aliens and dead people voting, no signature verifications and the mighty claim of the use of Dominion software, all show that the recent US elections failed the test of electoral credibility.

What I have warned against in Nigeria and we have always managed, the US ignored and it must face the consequences – confusion and disorder!

On a personal note, I prefer a Trump presidency for the USA with a Republican leadership in Congress. Such justification will be for another writing.

I am convinced that the elections in the key swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, and a few others were not fair. The subsequent hearings by the Pennsylvania legislature prove so. The SCOTUS ought to have had the courage to examine the pieces of evidence that Rudy Gulliani, Sydney Powell and the Trump Campaign came up with.

The US Presidential election has shown who the real purveyors of fake news are. Don’t tell me about news as a news network, when you blank out all negative news about your preferred candidate and only tell me what you prefer for me to know about another candidate. That’s an insult and a mind control agenda taken too far. That’s what I have seen in agreement with other many commentators.

Watching yesterday’s vote count in Georgia as it happened in the presidential elections and listening to the voices at the DC rally today, I knew some people took the hate of Trump and the determination to get him out, too far. A man who could garner over 70 million votes in an election is not someone who should be so hated. Such hate as it is for Trump is as equally divisive and polarising as they accuse him of doing.

I am not surprised at the turned state of violence at the certification hearings at the US Capitol. That’s what injustice breeds naturally and it is just the beginning. When the US allows its system, structures and institutions to be so manipulated, it will pay a huge price, a possible civil war as it once had.

Whether or not the Republicans and the Trump Campaign succeed and Joe Biden is eventually sworn in on January 20, the US will witness an unprecedented internal civil unrest in the ensuing years.

▪︎ Tietie, a legal practitioner, is based in Abuja.