Just slightly over a week ago, the political landscape in the United States went 180 degrees with the announcement by President Joe Biden that he was withdrawing from the presidential race. Before then, Biden had been recalcitrant that he would not withdraw from the race. He insisted that he was strong and healthy and was the only person who could defeat the Republican candidate, Donald Trump.
Even though Biden had given the American public many signs that indicated that he was mentally and physically unfit for the job, it was during the first presidential debate that his shortcomings became indisputable. Biden spoke in a raspy voice without any force. He looked feeble. But that was not all. He regularly lost his train of thought and mixed up the names of people and incidents. Even his opponent at that debate, Trump, had occasions when he was surprised at the lack of coherence in what Biden was saying. At a point in the debate, Trump said, while responding to an answer Biden gave to the moderators: “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, and I don’t think he did, either.”
Biden’s performance was embarrassing. Opinion polls showed that Trump was widening the gap between them. Many Democrats, including legislators, began to openly ask him to withdraw from the race and save the party from not just losing the presidency but also losing some of their strongholds in Congress to Republicans and becoming weakened. To show their seriousness, many sponsors of the party withdrew their support.
But the more Democrats asked Biden to withdraw, the more he said no and insisted that he was the person who could defeat Trump just as he did in 2020. The Democratic Party was divided and confused. The morale of members was low. Their case was worsened by the fact that Biden was (and still is) an incumbent president. As a result, he did not face any strong challenge for the ticket of the party earlier this year.
Another factor – not usually publicly discussed – was the fact that Biden’s deputy, Vice President Kamala Harris, is a woman as well as a person of non-White race. Despite the high level of human rights in the United States, it has never elected a woman. It took America 232 years to elect a non-White person in 2008 in the person of Barack Obama. And it was because Obama had an amazing personality and showed exceptional promise with no bad story associated with him. It would be disastrous to sideline Harris because of her gender and race to pick a White male as Biden’s replacement at the polls. But with less than four months to the presidential election, even if Harris became the candidate of the Democratic Party, it was not obvious whether she could make any impact.
Conversely, the Republican Party was upbeat. The morale of members was high. The missed assassination attempt on Trump some weeks ago drew him sympathy and helped to shoot up his rating. At the Republican Party’s convention, where Trump was officially confirmed as the presidential candidate and where he named his running mate, the party was as united and confident as it had not been in many years. All polls showed that Trump was ahead. It was obvious that Trump would rout Biden in the presidential race in November.
Then on Sunday, July 21, Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race and support for Harris. Within 48 hours, the presidential bid of Kamala Harris received over $100 million in donations: a record. (Within one week, it raised $200 million). The Democratic Party was rejuvenated. Attention shifted from the Republicans to the Democrats.
The campaign dynamics also completely changed. Before that Sunday, Trump was the younger and healthier candidate, while Biden was the old and feeble candidate. That was meant to be the focal point of the campaign. Immediately after Biden’s announcement, Trump became the old candidate: the oldest candidate in American history to run for president. The Republicans would be forced to change their campaign message and focus. Opinion polls showed that Harris had gone narrowly ahead of Trump, even though it is still within the margin of error, which makes it an open game.
The Republicans believe that Trump will rescue the United States from the dangerous grip of Biden and the Democrats. The Democrats believe that Kamala Harris and the Democrats will save America from falling into the dangerous hands of Trump a second time.
Another thing that happened after Biden’s announcement was the resignation of the Director of the American Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle. Since the attempt on Trump, Cheatle had vowed not to resign. Last week, she was grilled by Congress and both Democrats and Republicans tore her to shreds and told her to write her resignation letter immediately. She refused. But the next day, she resigned.
This is why warts and all, the United States is an exemplary and exciting democracy. The system is above everyone. One person does not decide what happens in the country. People take responsibility for any lapses under their watch. There is no room for excuses. If they refuse to do that, they are put under pressure until they do the right thing.
Biden is the president of the strongest country in the world. Therefore, he is the strongest president and individual in the world. But he had to succumb to the pressure from his party members to withdraw from the presidential race. The difference between the US and the Nigerian situation is that in cases like this, the Nigerian president would not resign. It happened when Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was ill. It happened when Muhammadu Buhari was also ill. It happened when Bola Tinubu was contesting for the presidency. Besides, there were many allies of theirs who came out and spoke strongly in their support, giving all kinds of reasons why their health situation was not an issue.
Another point is the importance Americans place on presidential debates. Any candidate who refuses to attend a presidential debate is seen as showing disrespect to the American populace. The presidential debate is the avenue through which the American people, as well as citizens of all developed countries, gauge the physical and mental acuity of those who wish to lead them. They use it to find out who seems prepared for leadership. But in Nigeria, politicians snub debates and all attempts to answer unscripted questions. Tinubu did not participate in any presidential debate before the 2023 election. Before him, Buhari did the same thing. Likewise, Goodluck Jonathan, Yar’Adua and Olusegun Obasanjo either avoided presidential debates or participated in the one they created. There were always people who defended them and argued that talking is not the same thing as leadership.
Nigeria copies most things from the US. The current presidential system of government which Nigeria practises was copied from the US after the First Republic failed and it was blamed on the British parliamentary system. The presidential system has not succeeded in delivering a reliable system that creates progress and stability. That proves that Nigeria’s governance failure has no connection with the system of government in place. The problem of Nigeria is that of a bad workman who continuously quarrels with his tools.
Nigeria does not copy the transparency that the American system is known for. It does not copy the proclivity of Americans to put the interest of the country before their personal and parochial interests. Resigning from positions is almost unthinkable. Individuals are most times above the law. This makes it difficult for democracy to produce the desired dividends that are associated with it. The only dividend of democracy that has accrued to Nigeria is the fact that no president has stayed in power for more than two terms like what obtains in countries like Russia, Rwanda, Cameroon, etc, which purport to practise democracy. Nigerians look forward to the time their politicians will start copying the good examples from the United States.
Credit: Azuka Onwuka