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African's letter to Donald Trump

Feature Article African's letter to Donald Trump
OCT 27, 2017 LISTEN

From Africans who love progress and democracy: Do you keep your words?

Dear Trump,
Do you still remember what you said while addressing American war veterans in Washington; that was on May 29, 2016? Perhaps you have forgotten, and that’s what I have decided to write to you this letter from the bottom of the far-flung heart of Africa to remind you of your own promises.

I still remember as if it were yesterday at a Rolling Thunder rally that Sunday. That day you also promised “a wall”—enclosing America from Mexico. This, you were so quick to fulfill as though it were most urgent, I don’t have much to say now but I would shrug and salute you, well done, sir.

Now let’s go to your foreign policy. Mr. Trump you said you will lock away African Presidents who are frustrating Africa’s political development.

It was a simple promise, and that’s perhaps why you have forgotten but waves of celebrations ran throughout Africa from Cape Town in South Africa to Cairo in Egypt and From Nairobi, Kenya to Senegal in West Africa. Do you undermine the powers of your own words?

Platform Media Intl was excited. They spread their excitements on Facebook and tweeted some to thousands of their followers across Africa. Your words immediately joined local radio stations and with the same confidence and hope reached every fabric of African society, sipping down to the grassroot politics of men and women sharing political grapevines of their suffering in shanty bars of rural trading centres or unhealthy water wells of communities. The youth had a reason to grin from the famous silences of their earphones. Everyone was happy.

I know you can wonder what they were saying. They were saying the same words you said at the rally: African presidents are long-staying in power and are turning dangerous dictators day by day. President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has stayed in power for 31 years. Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since 1987 when the British gave the country independence. The list of dictators continue. Worst still, and what keeps me awake at night, these dictators are now nurturing the new generation breeds of dictators now standing in the way of political and economic freedoms of the people. Do you think there’s independence?

I write to you not as a politician, not as a journalist—no I have never been either. But as an African son of a peasant who heard your promises.

There’s no doubt a dictator-incumbent will do whatever it takes to use the state instruments to keep themselves in power. Why else do you think Africa’s growth and development statistics would rank as one of the most discouraging in the world? Or else why do you think Africa’s hopeful yet suffocated economies are now skewed to the East? Yes, they are looking Chinawise. No one likes to be criticized.

We feel Chinese government is less concerned by the political sufferings of Africans and would do less to help. In return, African governments are finding more ‘peace’ dealing with them—their unconditional grants to build corruption-flawed hydro-power plants and pothole-ridden roads that tear before even completion.

Let me conclude by asking you to see what’s going on in Kenya. Kenya is going to the dogs. Do you think Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta will ever give Mr. Raila Odinga a chance to lead the people of Kenya your former dear colleague Obama’s father’s country? In Rwanda, Kagame is shutting Radio Stations. What about Uganda’s Dr. Col. Kizza Besigye who has attempted to go to office for 15 years!

We thought well, it is okay and thought the constitution and age limitations would be our rescue. But as you have probably seen, Museveni has opened a hot campaign called “Age limit amendment bill” to allow him be president after he is 76 years old.

I wrote to him (Museveni) a letter immediately after the presidential elections back in 2016, but no media risked to publish it. They rejected it. The letter was later published in Ghana. Dictators have all the tricks to rig elections and silence voices like ours.

Today I am happy and alive because I have sacrificed myself to speak on behalf of 3 billion people. It is our right to express our concerns. Africa’s promising economy is suffocated by greedy leaders who still muse in the grey twilight of history. We want new democratic leaders with vision for the future and we thought your coming to power in the US would be the only rescue but it seems you have forgotten. It is my attempt to remind you. What can you do now? We are waiting.

I keep my hope alive that my letter will reach you, and most importantly, you will act on it.

Thanks for your time Mr. President.
Yours sincerely, US President Donald Trump.
Boaz Opio
(Email: [email protected])

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