The United States Presidential election, which is still a whole four months away, has managed to gather the whole world’s attention as a result of all the major events that have taken place over the last few weeks. Last week Donald Trump was nearly assassinated and that somehow feels like something that happened a long time ago. As a result of all the new developments that have taken place throughout this period, once again, American politics has managed to fill up all the oxygen in the room.
It all seemingly started after the CNN Presidential debate, where Biden’s shocking debate performance left the Democratic Party scrambling. Following the debate, the calls for Biden to step down just continued to get louder and louder, with more and more prominent members of the Democratic Party adding their voice to the chorus of calls. Even Barack Obama, the former Democratic president, reportedly expressed his concerns about Biden’s ability to defeat Donald Trump.
Then you had the shocking assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Which had the ability to potentially alter the current political reality within America. It is honestly a miracle that he managed to survive the attempt on his life, but he did. And just a few days later he would be officially nominated as the Presidential nominee for the Republican Party. Trump would also announce JD Vance as his Vice-Presidential nominee to the shock of many political analysts, and we would then have an entire news cycle about Trump’s Vice-Presidential pick.
However, if that was not enough, the current United States President, Joe Biden, would fall sick with Covid-19 and be forced to take a step back from campaigning to recover at home. And we would receive even more wall-to-wall coverage of US politics. At the same time, the chorus of voices calling on Joe Biden to step down from the Presidential race would continue to grow louder and louder. However, Biden had remained steadfast that he would be staying in the race.
Until Sunday, when Joe Biden announced that he would no longer stay on as the Democratic nominee and endorsed his vice-President, Kamala Harris, to be the nominee for the Democratic Party instead. Now we are dealing with even more coverage of US politics. As there are questions about whether Kamala Harris would receive the full support of the Democratic Party. Likewise, there is all sort of discussions going on now about whom she would pick to be her vice-Presidential nominee.
It is easy to see why US politics manages to captivate so many people. It is definitely interesting to witness, even all the way from the African continent. The events of the last few weeks have certainly been noteworthy. I perhaps don’t even have the right to complain, as I am just a guily. I have pretty managed to keep up with virtually all the news and analysis from political pundits on American media outlets.
American politics has just always just been a lot easier to keep up with because almost all of it is televised and presented in ways that are easy to follow, if that is your interest. In contrast to Nigerian politics, for example, where insightful information and analysis tend to be difficult to come by. In the US, you have charismatic television hosts presenting the news to you using lots of infographics and clips, hosting insightful discussions with pundits that speak in a clear and concise manner.
Whereas Nigerian media, in contrast, tends to leave a lot to be desired, in terms of their presentation and analytical skills. The coverage of political news is just not the same. The investment in media within Nigeria, and other African countries, is severely lacking in contrast to the States. So, the ability of our media outlets to really keep people interested in our politics is severely lacking. So you in many of our countries, we have the phenomenon where many people tend to have a clearer picture of American politics than they do of their own country’s politics.
It is a shame because there is so much happening around the world right now that is really taking a backseat as a result of all the attention on American politics. There have been major protests taking place in Bangladesh over the past few weeks that have barely received any international attention. In Bangladesh, we have seen younger people especially taking to the streets to protest against their government’s quote system. In response, we have seen a harsh crackdown by police which has led to the deaths and disappearances of many students. Yet, it has struggled to receive as much coverage as the US election, which by the way is still four months away.
Around Asia there have been other major developments that should otherwise receive a lot of attention but haven’t. There is the ongoing bloody civil war in Myanmar that has been taking place for many years at this stage. Moreover, we have recently been seeing a large number of Afghan refugees being deported from Pakistan back towards Taliban controlled Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, we have seen a growing threat from ISIS-K which has committed terrorist attacks around Asia. We have even seen the group going as far as targeting Russia in its attacks.
In Africa, the political instability within West Africa is carrying on as the so-called Alliance of Sahel States have broken off from ECOWAS following the military coups in numerous West African states. Moreover, the deadly civil war in Sudan, which has caused the world’s worst displacement crisis, has continued to drag on, with numerous accusations of genocide another atrocities allegedly being committed to Sudanese civilians. And there have been threats of war breaking out between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
These are just some of the major many events taking place that rarely receive any kind of coverage or much discussion among media outlets. And that is without even mentioning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or Israel’s war in Gaza, which are both still ongoing. Though these are two conflicts that normally do manage to receive a lot of international attention. However, even they have managed to take a back seat, as American politics has peaked much of the world’s interest over the last few weeks.
This is a major reason why I wanted to start my blog in the first place. Because, I think that it is important that other stories, specifically African stories, should be highlighted more. Because our local politics are what is more significant to us than anything that is happening with the United States. However, it is difficult for people to really become invested in our own governments and politics, when our media fails to disseminate this information effectively.
That is why, even though this blog is still just a few months old, I am hoping that it is just the beginning of a career where I can contribute towards improving the media landscape with Nigeria and around Africa generally. Because if we are going to affect any kind of change towards our current system, where corruption can thrive, we need to have a media that can truly hold those in positions of power accountable.