We have always had buffoons who found themselves in position of authority. Although they were not many and history did not say mankind had been that very unlucky to have themselves ruled by idiots we still did have a few dotting the pages of history books and ancient dramaturgy.
In recent times however we may start with Joseph Desire Mobutu who having helped the Belgian Monarch and the CIA to murder Africa hero Patrice Lumumba assumed the unmerited leadership of the Congo. And as soon as he found himself on the elevated seat of power he displayed unprecedented buffoonery in that region of Africa by changing his name to a song: Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga! What a mouthful. He followed suit by wearing zany attire made of animal skin. He was a laughing stock even though he ruled with iron hand and became a dreaded monster.
Then came another buffoon; Field marshal Idi Amin Dada the conqueror of Uganda who was aided by Britain to overthrow the highly respected Milton Obote. Idi Amin was a clown in the highest form of the word and for the years he reigned supreme in Uganda [1971-979] he was the lord and master and became the butt of society’s jokes.
The greatest buffoon of the three was Russia’s Boris Yetsin [February 1931-23 April 2001] He mounted the seat of power in 1971 and left in 1999 after he had entertained the world to no end. He was also high on vodka!
The United States of America a country that hijacked the name of a continent and compelled the world to call her by it, had a lot of fun from Yetsin’s entertainment gallery hardly suspecting that they would soon have more than a dose from one of their own.
Enter George W Bush born July 6 1946 who was to rule between 2001 and 2009 as the 43rd president of the USA. George Bush was to come before the intellectual giant Barack Obama who got ranked alongside George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy and Bill Clinton. And after Obama came another Boris Yetsin in USA toga named Donald Trump a man of German ancestry. Donald Trump no doubt belongs to the itinerant slapstick comedians even though he has made plenty of money through inheritance as well as through other known and unknown sources.
The USA is lucky or may I say unlucky to have had a buffoon before and a buffoon after, having between two buffoons a brilliant mind of dignified demeanor and decent comportment. The eight years of Bush was a dramatization of bungling. From pillar to post he hardly knew what he was doing. He understood neither politics nor economics. He understood neither internal affairs nor the dynamics of international affairs. All he had was power which was to be used in accordance with his whims and caprices.
Bush deceived an entire country of well over 350 million people that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction hidden somewhere in the backyard of the cradle of human civilization, the ancient Mesopotamia/Babylon lying between Rivers Tigris and Euphrates simply because Saddam opted to jettison the US Dollar!
One thing common to all buffoons is wickedness and the art of double dealing and crookedness. What buffoons lack in refinement and brilliance they have in smartness and street wisdom. It was not surprising that George Bush did not know the capital of Canada his country’s northern neighbour! And of course we should not even put Donald Trump to test. His knowledge of world geography or history is zero. Capital ZERO!
George W Bush dragged his country into meaningless wars and ended up ruining the economy and whatever was left of his country’s international standing. He bungled from one foreign policy disaster to another and unfortunately for Britain they also had a bimbo as Prime Minister. Blurry bleary bungling Blair was just as mindless as Bush and he also got his country sucked into wars that had no bearing or benefit to his country.
When buffoons have access to power they tend to lead the world to destruction simply because they are not capable of internalizing problems and issues. They are usually one way traffic and they see the world through one narrow perspective. Iraq and Yemen are in ruins today so also are Afghanistan and Pakistan. Many innocent lives have been wasted in those countries and properties in excess of trillion dollars have been callously destroyed.
We should not talk of the stage managed destruction of the World Trade Towers. The truth is gradually coming out and what most educated minds had suspected from the word go are now coming into the open. The big hoax of 9/11 can only be engineered by a bungling buffoon.
Barack Obama was a refreshing interlude.
The buffoon after has mounted the centre stage. A man reputed to talk with his foot in his mouth has come to town. When Obama the Sane was in power other heads of state all over the world took turns to book an appointment to see him and have a word with him. That is no longer the case since Trump the Zani took over the stable.
Not able to construct simple intelligence speeches and lengthy statements Donald Trump has taken to twitter as his escape route sharing space with school children who have found company in twitter, Instagram and Facebook to express themselves.
One common trait of buffoons is that they could be very childish and easily irritable. It was that trait that drove Idi Amin to murder so many innocent people. It is not necessarily due to wickedness as in the case of Anglo-Saxons. It is the fact of being irritable, peevish and easily provoked all traits common to under developed brain.
The world has outlived the regimes of the previous buffoons albeit not without heavy price, the world will certainly outlive the immaturity and the bungling of the current occupant of the US White house. No doubt that White House may be turned red before the expiration of his first term the good people of the United States will certainly be on their guard that they do not have another George Bush leading them to national catastrophe through ill digested domestic and foreign policies.
For now, Donald Trump is having fun. Buffoons usually see the world as a theatre of fun where no serious thought is required and where adults must behave like little children in Disneyland.
Credit: Tola Adeniyi