OPINION Donald Trump as US president may actually be good for Africa

Christopher Kayumba 

By Christopher Kayumba

It’s election season in the US with the Republican and Democratic parties involved in primaries, which are internal processes to elect respective flag-bearers in the November presidential poll.

Whoever is elected will succeed President Barack Obama whose second term ends this year.

As is often the case, election in this famed land of the free attracts interest from the world due to the nation’s relative power in determining the trajectory of world affairs.

This year’s election cycle has however added two entirely new elements to the usually exciting process: the fear of the likely outcome and some kind of external interference or scolding. Both the fear and interference is prompted by the rise of Donald Trump, a real estate billionaire as the front runner in the race to represent the Republican Party in the election.

Mr Trump’s antics, for instance led to the unprecedented move by the UK House of Commons to hold an extraordinary session to debate banning the man from entering the UK. This was after 570,000 citizens petitioned parliament to ban Trump for “hate speech” in his call to ban Muslims from entering the US.

While majority of MPs opposed the ban, the language they used to describe Trump is extraordinarily un-honourable and unparalleled in UK-US relations.

Jack Dromey, a Labour MP noted that while “Donald Trump is free to be a fool… he’s not free to be a dangerous fool in Britain.”

Gavin Robinson, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party from Northern Ireland referred to Trump as “a ridiculous xenophobe.”

Paul Scully, a Conservative MP observed that while he had heard of bans in the past prompted by “incitement or hatred,” he added: “I’ve never heard of one for stupidity”!

Former Mexican president Vicente Fox said, “Trump is saying stupid things” while Felipe Calderon another former Mexican president observed, “Trump is completely demagogical” and “…has tried to play hardball with Mexican people in a very ignorant way.”

This was after Trump pledged that if elected, he would build a wall along the Mexican border and get Mexicans to pay for it.

Others, many within the US have called Trump all sorts of names: including “racist” and more like “Hitler.”

On his ability to be president, The Washington Post columnist, Eugene Robinson lamented: “The Republican party is likely to nominate for a president a man who appears to know next to nothing about the issues that would confront him in the job.”

The likelihood of the billionaire becoming US president has caused enormous distress both within his own country and across the world. Many see him as dangerous to the world due to his extra-nationalistic views, limited knowledge; low temperament and unpredictability.

So what should Africa expect in case Trump is elected president? While I think there is serious cause for the world to worry about the possibility of Trump being entrusted with nuclear weapons as president, I think he might not be very bad for Africa depending on where one stands on matters