THIS week, I am going to do what I never thought I would do — present Donald Trump as a decent human being who cares for his nation.
Donald Trump has brought humour, created apprehension and bombarded audiences with plain bigotry as the nation prepares for the 2016 Presidential election.
Donald Trump’s background has been well examined and what you see is pretty much what you get.
He is not an unknown commodity at this point and we probably have seen most of his worst attributes already.
However, one should notice that in any presidential election you could probably make a laundry list of the worst attributes of any candidate and come up with lots of negatives equal to or worse than Trump’s.
Anyone remembers Sarah Palin?
Trump’s business experience involves negotiations with business leaders and even governments around the world and he likely has connections behind the scenes that surpass those of simply purely political candidates.
This gives him keen, realistic insights into economics in different parts of the world.
Trump has a confidence and powerful personality that, like it or not, tend to work well in politics and make it far less likely he would become too strongly beholden to this or that external influencer.
We complain often about our elected officials being in the pocket of lobbyists and special interests, but Trump is his own special interest and he seems unlikely to let his own sense of personal power and rightness become manipulated or dominated by outside forces.
Trump is undeniably a great negotiator and despite his bombastic public statements, he has also mastered the fine art of navigating complex deals and convincing a wide variety of governments, industries, businesses, and investors to do what he wants and to work with him to achieve his goals.
That being said, Trump also has his challenges.
Despite being well-educated on finance, Trump often seems extremely prone to embrace uninformed positions that turn into major embarrassments for him.
Remember his search for President Barack Obama’s birth certificate?
He repeatedly makes comments that have racial undertones, especially against blacks and Latinos.  
He has been repeatedly accused of being untrustworthy by investors and buyers as well as others, and some of the accusations include allegations of fraud, lack of trust and concern about corruption are major problems for a presidential candidate.
Trump’s campaign slogan is ‘Make American Great Again’ and what he is selling seems to be finding takers, especially among Republicans because they are buying all his ‘nonsense’, hook line and sinker.
In a recent interview, Trump said that America should accept some refugees from Syria.
Trump has made anti-immigration rhetoric a cornerstone of his campaign, but on the issue of the immigrants flooding Europe, America should do its humanitarian part.
So why the change of heart one might ask?
Trump has indicated that public officials should not let their personal beliefs get in the way of executing their government duties.
He has also taken on the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign saying that all lives matter.
So one might ask, am I endorsing Donald Trump?
Yes and no.
Trump in his warped way is fighting and standing up for what he believes.
He is saying what many would like to say, but are afraid to say.
I would define a nation-builder as one who works for the good and benefit of their nation while a nation-wrecker, is an individual who abuses the system, for personal gain.
Failure to participate in the nation’s political processes has made many citizens nation-wreckers.
For example, those who have the right to vote, but choose not to vote; citizens who choose not to participate in decision making processes in their communities and when decisions are eventually made for them, they become the biggest wailers.
For such people, participation in the political sphere begins and ends on election day.
As much as I might not favour Trump, I regard him as a nation-builder.
His concept of making America great again comes from his belief systems as a rich, white privileged man in America.
So when Trump says blacks are the major perpetrators of crimes in America’s urban centres, the reasons and bigotry aside, is that not the case?
The question the outraged should ask Trump is what he is going to do about it, not to merely protest and label him racist.
Protests and outrage do not take away from the fact that over half of the African-American male is in prison.
It does not take away the fact that black men are moving targets on the nation’s streets.
Nation-builders understand that accountability and transparency are the cornerstones of a healthy democracy.
The black community has failed for the past two terms to hold President Obama accountable.
It is no secret that blacks and other minorities voted for Obama because they saw him as their ‘saviour’ because he was one of them.
Instead of honouring his promises, Obama turned around and slapped his supporters in the face, taking a subdued approach to the ever-increasing tensions between black communities and law enforcement officers.
Going to Africa, the greatest challenge to nation-building is that more often than not, we as a people have failed to find common ground.
I always give the example of Democrats and Republicans in Congress when it comes to matters to do with foreign policy.
They speak with one voice, whenever America’s interests are threatened.
These interests include: safeguarding US national security, access to cheap crude oil, access to cheap raw materials, ensure American goods and products receive preferential market access, proliferation of American culture across the globe.
I recently read one Zimbabwean saying; “If you are to take two Zimbos to the moon, after a month they will have formed three political parties.”
Ordinarily, there would be nothing wrong if those political parties were created around a shared vision of Zimbabwe’s national interest. As it is, we have no shared vision of what is national interest. For example, any American would find it shocking that their crippling sanctions bill, ZDERA, was actually crafted by Zimbabweans!
It’s time Zimbabweans realised that the power to build or destroy the country is in their hands and stop the blame game.