The All Progressives Congress (APC) and other political parties have expressed concerns that United States President, Donald Trump‘s flurry of executive orders might affect African countries, including Nigeria.
Naija News reports that after Trump’s inauguration last Monday, he said Washington could impose tariffs on major trading partners, including Canada, Mexico and China, as soon as February 1.
He also pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organisation. Among other things, Trump spoke on the issue of gender surgery, saying he had made it an official policy of the United States that his administration would only recognize two genders: male and female.
His sweeping executive orders and immigration promises have generated mixed reactions from major parties, who have discussed their implications and how they may impact Nigeria.
In an interview with Punch, the National Publicity Secretary of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Ladipo Johnson, predicted that there might be a slump in the global price of oil.
He said, “For instance, Trump believes in drilling. He wants to drill and increase production. So, it is expected that oil prices will crash. That, of course, will impact the world, including Nigeria.
“The man has an isolationist view of the world. Trump believes that others are not equal and that Americans are superior.
“You will observe this in his utterances and the way he has been going about things. But I always say whenever any of the Western powers believe that they are better than us, it is a wake-up call to our leaders.
“This is because we have the natural resources, but we lack the leadership and managerial resources. The lesson here is that we must realise that we need to elect leaders who will hasten the growth and development of Nigeria. We cannot continue to go cap in hand to the Western world or even to the Chinese or Russians like they have begun to do now. We can’t continue to beg. We have all it takes to be rich and prosperous.”
Also, the National Publicity Director of the APC, Bala Ibrahim, said Nigeria could learn many lessons from US policies and urged Nigerians to avoid seeking to be in the country illegally.
He said, “The lesson for Nigeria is for every citizen travelling to America to ensure that he has the prerequisite requirements so that he will not get there and find himself becoming a nuisance or a victim of the policy.
“So, the lesson is to make sure that whatever they are going to do, they do it according to the books. Nobody should seek to be in America illegally or illegitimately. As long as Nigerian immigrants into America are law abiding and meet the requirements, America does not molest them.”
The National Legal Adviser of the Labour Party, Kehinde Edun, also stated that Trump’s stance of ‘America first’ should be a case study on how every nation should consider the safety and welfare of its citizens as the priority.
He said, “The man is putting America first. Of course, you cannot fault him for doing that. You cannot just be going to their country and not be making efforts to make things work in yours. Some people are out there just roaming the streets and constituting a nuisance.”
“Now that he (Trump) is taking steps to deny illegal immigrants citizenship and birthright, other Western countries in the world are taking a cue from America.
“They are making it more difficult for people to come to their country. These include some Nigerian elite who are seeking escape routes for their children after spoiling this country.”