Support for US President Donald Trump remains strong among Nigerian Americans as well as Nigerians who live in the West African nation.
According to Pew research, over 104 million Nigerians support President Donald Trump and are confident he will do the right thing internationally. Also according to Pew, 55 percent of Nigerian respondents thought of Trump as “caring about ordinary people”.
Nigeria is the largest black country in the world with a population of over 180 million people.
A New York Times article alleging that Trump insulted Nigerians has done little to nothing to erode that support.
The Times article written based on anonymous sources had alleged that Trump implied Nigerians live in huts.
According to Olamide Aro, an Information Technology consultant based in Lagos, there are two types of Nigerians, those who are liberal minded and those who are not.
He said, “Majority of Nigerians subscribe to Trump’s conservative Christian values and believe the New York Times is part of the Hillary Clinton/ Democratic Party’s propaganda machine and therefore is poised to spread fake news concerning the billionaire President.”
Many Nigerians have either refused to believe the news or see no harm in what the President said.
Popular Nollywood actor Charles Anyabuike posted on Facebook, “So Trump called Nigeria a hut? He was very charitable. Nigeria is a jungle! If you are not happy, boycott dollars, don’t visit US.”
Part of the distrust Nigerians have with the mainstream media stems from the relationship a CNN consultant, David Axelrod’s firm had with the current ruling party before Nigeria’s 2015 election.
Axelrod a close friend and associate of former President Barack Obama, worked with then opposition party Bola Tinubu, to campaign for a former military dictator Muhammad Buhari to become head of state. Buhari’s administration has proven to be incompetent and has again driven Nigeria to economic recession, massive unemployment and fuel scarcity. Most major economic indices have fallen since his rise to power.
Axelrod’s firm had worked with western media companies like New York Times to gain international support for Buhari, an advocate of Sharia Law, the 2015 election.
A political analyst, James Odebunmi, said, “Obama worked to oust Qaddafi and that has caused the modern day slave crisis we have in Nigeria. In his (Obama’s) defense, many criminal elements in Nigeria are involved in selling their fellow citizens abroad. The deficit of leadership in Nigeria brought about by the liberal US media amd leadership has caused even Nigerian citizens to want to be sold into slavery with hope of better fortunes abroad. So even if Trump did say it, so what? Is he lying?”
Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Nigerian minister, and social media commentator who predicted Donald Trump’s ascension to the white house during the 2016 US presidential campaign tweeted, “The @nytimes claim @realDonaldTrump said “Nigerians refuse to return to their huts after seeing America”, “immigrants from Haiti all have aids” and “Afghanistan is a haven of terrorists”. This is nothing but sallacious GOSSIP and quintessential FAKE NEWS.The
@nytimes LIED!”
Also a cross section of posts culled from Nigeria’s largest online discussion forum show many are not perturbed with Trump’s alleged remarks.
Here are a few screens:
