I am a black conservative. Being out west, people struggle with that. A lot of times when I talk, some people wonder if I am just trying to get opportunities and not trying to wrong people. They never understand that it’s truly who I am. I grew up blue collar, a little bit. I worked for everything that I had. I have my own views on police, rascism, sex, and all that. I am very very welcoming of everything. I always want to listen to people, but I also have my own beliefs.
In Nigeria, it’s called ‘democracy’, but it ain’t no democracy. It’s military rule. The governor, the mayor, or the president is the boss. Nowadays, because of social media, people slander our President. With Trump, I have seen him multiple times be like, “Don’t ever talk to me. I am the President of the United States.” In Nigeria, you don’t even need to do that. The President can lock up a person for the rest of their life. It’s that bad.
It’s starting to change. This summer was huge for us because of the end SARS movement. I think it was the first time youths in Nigeria realized that they actually have a voice and power. I think it’s going to change the upcoming election in two years. It is actually going to change it a lot because that will be the first time that they will not vote for someone if they aren’t doing anything for them. I think you are going to see more youths running for positions and stuff. You are going to see a lot of individuals that are educated and have a goal to try to lead the country. The elections are going to mean more in Nigeria. I feel like this year in America was kind of the same way. The elections meant a little bit more.
I am not republican, but I will always want a conservative in office.
TAXATION
I don’t really believe in taxing the rich like most democrats feel like you should do. I don’t believe in that. I think that if someone makes a lot of money, they should be able to do service out of their own pocket. I don’t want the government taxing them so much because they worked so hard. I don’t understand that concept. One day I want to make that type of money and if I work as hard as I work, I don’t want to be taxed because I worked hard.
ABORTION
I don’t believe in abortion just because the mother of the child is like, “I just don’t want to have this kid.” I don’t believe in that. I do believe in circumstances and there are certain situations where I truly agree. It depends on the situation when it comes to stuff like that, but I believe everyone has a right to decide what to do or not do. I have never been pregnant, or should I say pregnant with an unwanted child so I cannot tell you what is going on in people with unwanted pregnancies. But I believe that no man should control their right to decide what is best for them in that instance.
LGBTQ+ RIGHTS
Coming from Nigeria, being gay was seen as the worst thing. It was almost like you were the devil himself. You already have a private jet booked to hell the day you say your gay. It’s that bad. Coming here, I was able to understand that certain people feel certain ways, or feel like that is their purpose in life and that’s who they are.
As much as I am straight, and I love being straight, I still also believe that it’s okay to be gay if that’s what you want to do. Even with being transgender, that’s something that had taken me the most time to finally say, “you know what, maybe that’s okay.” I’m open about it. I don’t try to paint myself as a saint of anything, but I tell people my struggles with stuff like that. In my culture, I was just raised so differently. It was just unheard of.
People say that people who are gay and transgender knew from a young age. I have always thought that it was not true, that it was impossible. How can an eight year old feel like they are a little more girly. I would always be like, “Well stop buying them girly stuff.” I was alway blunt like that. “Stop buying them all these dolls and buy them some cranes and stuff. Buy them some gloves so they can go punch some stuff.” I ended up learning. I have grown a lot more and thought that it’s a possibility. There have been little things for myself that I have been able to learn and been able to understand that everyone has a good heart deep down.
We are all God's children and are all human beings. I’m straight but I have no problem with someone in the LGBTQ community. You tell me who you are and I will accept you for who you are. It’s all love.
RACIAL MOVEMENTS
With police, I don’t believe in people defunding the police. I studied criminal justice, so I understand it a little bit more. I truly don’t believe in defunding the police. It’s never made sense to me. It’s so hard for me to understand why we would defund the police.
With Black Lives Matter, I am pro black lives matter, but the actual organization BLM, when I read their platform and everything I was thrown off. When I try to explain to people why I don’t agree with the actual BLM group itself, people think I am crazy. I read it and it says they don’t support nuclear families. Stats have shown that a lot of the problems we have as minorities here is partly because we don’t have nuclear families. We have one dad in jail, the mom is doing crack, and all of the siblings are selling drugs and getting in trouble. We need nuclear families!
Everyone is not fortunate enough to have nuclear families. You can’t control what your dad did ten years before you were born. You can’t control that, but I always believe in looking for ways to create your own family. Go look for people that care about you because there is always someone that cares about you. Go look for those people and try to put yourself in situations where you have support.
I am a black man. My siblings are black. My mom is black. I grew up in a black house, a black country, and everything. I am pro black. I understand that there is a lot of systematic racism that has gone on for so long. Trying to explain things sometimes, with my culture, how I was raised, and being blunt a lot of the time kind of makes me feel misunderstood. Sometimes, I try to convey a message and I truly don’t mean it one way, but it doesn’t come across the right way.
AMERICA FROM AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
From as much as I know, America so far is the greatest country for me. Even with all of the troubles and problems in America, you go to some other country and let me know if you want to stay in America or Nigeria. It’s as simple as that. There are just a lot more opportunities here. Even for an international student like me where it is a lot harder to get a job because I have to get a visa and a green card. There are still a lot more opportunities here than anywhere, at least from my home countries and countries in Africa. There is just better education and better standard of living.
People are naturally different. Everyone does not think the same. I think there’s always going to be problems and it’s just part of how life is. At the end of the day, America has provided me a lot of opportunities and it has provided a lot of people a lot of opportunities. If you want to make it in America, you have to believe, you have to work hard, and you have to be a good person. Well, you don’t even have to be a good person. I have seen a lot of terrible people who still make it in America.
It is really difficult to be able to bridge the gap because of how different people seem to be in America. I truly don’t think they are as different as they think they are. But we don’t have the time to have those deep conversations because people don’t want to listen.
Being able to bridge the gap is going to be through education. So far, education is not doing a great job because you go to college and you really don’t learn much about what is going on. Colleges are pretty liberal, even colleges in Utah where it’s a republican state. The concepts and the ideologies in most colleges are pretty liberal. I am not saying that it should not be liberal, but it’s never really balanced. We have to do a better job at educating people about what’s going on, all of the ideologies out there, and all of the beliefs. We need to educate people that it’s okay to think differently. The reason we think differently is because we are not the same. It’s so simple, but it’s so hard because people are not willing to go that route.
It’s one thing explaining your own views, your own culture, and everything, but it’s another thing listening to the other side of the spectrum and being able to see where people are coming from, why they think a certain way, why they do things a certain way, and how they grew up. You can’t start with beliefs on politics. You start with how people grow up and it paints a picture. It’s not tunnel vision. A lot of people say it’s good to have tunnel vision in life, but I don’t think so. Don’t block out all the noise. We need to be able to teach people how to listen.
When people say that the democrats are trying to destroy America, or the republicans are trying to destroy America, I think that the one thing I can promise them is that any person that is in office as the President actually wants to see the United States as a better place than it was before. The way they are doing it might not be the way that you agree with it, but at the end of the day, they want to see America as the best country in the world. People in America can just be so hypocritical.
