The Federal Government (FG) of Nigeria has been urged to place a travel ban on Donald Trump, the outgoing president of the United States of America. Also to be sanctioned with him are his key allies for their ignoble roles in the US 2020 presidential elections particularly the storming of the Capitol.
This advice was given in a press statement issued by an Islamic human rights organization, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), on Monday, 11th January, 2021. The press release was signed by the group’s director, Professor Ishaq Akintola.
The group said:
“We strongly denounce the role played by President Donald Trump in the last US general elections. Trump’s refusal to acknowledge defeat shows acute desertification of the spirit of sportsmanship. His insistence on electoral fraud despite several court declarations to the contrary is a manifestation of selfishness, overambition and inordinate lust for power. Above all, his incitement which led to the storming of the Capitol is despicable, repulsive and preposterous. Trump has stained America’s reputation as a great democracy.
“MURIC calls on the Federal Government (FG) to speak up on the American debacle. America’s condemnation of African and other third world countries has been deafening enough to attract a tornado of backlashes at this moment. We are not happy that FG has remained silent. China, Turkey and Iran have spoken up. The voice of Africa must also be heard and the continent is looking unto Nigeria to lead the way.
“We must tell America to its face that tyranny is colour blind and dictators can emerge from the least expected places on earth. There is no country which is occupied by angels only, least of all America. We call on FG to place travel ban on outgoing President Donald Trump and his key allies. It is hoped that other African countries will key into the idea. It just has to be on record that once upon a time, America produced a tyrant, a bully and an insurrectionist.
“The American tragedy has exposed the weakness in all man-made political and economic theories. Trumpism is the Archile’s heel of Western democracy just as perestroika and glastnost spelled doom for communism. In the same vein, socialism isnot different from a fake drug administered by a quack doctor.
“The only enduring system is the one made by Allah, the Supreme Creator, who knows the nature of man and how best he should be governed. This is why Islamic political thought posits at-taohiid, al-khilafah, ash-shurah and al-akhirah. At-Taohiid is the principle of oneness of all existence: all are a miniature representation of a whole and a microcosm in a macro, which is Islam, a complete way of life.
“Al-khilafah affirms the representative nature of man. The leader holds his position in lieu of the divine physical presence. He is a shadow of Allah on earth. Just as the shadow cannot afford to live in isolation of its substance, a leader must always be conscious of Allah.
“Ash-shurah is consultation with the people. It is a reflection of Islamic democracy. But whereas Western democracy (government of the people, by the people, for the people) lays emphasis on people only, the focus of Shurah is Allah, the Creator of the people. Islamic democracy is therefore government of Allah, by the people created by Allah, for Allah’s own creatures. The leader in Islam must relate both vertically (with Allah) and horizontally (with the people). Whereas the leader only relates horizontally with the people in Western democracy, he interfaces both vertically and horizontally in Islamic political thought.
“The concept of al-akhirah evokes the fear of Allah in the heart of politicians as they weigh the consequences of their actions on the Last Day before taking them. Al-akhirah is about leaders being held accountable on the Day of Judgement. This is what is lacking in Western democracy, including communism and socialism. This is why Donald Trump made a mess of the American written constitution which is based on George Washington’s Boston Tea Party, and Mikhail Gorbachev swept the rug off the feet of Lenin, man of steel and Stalin in a single sweep.”