As they say in the world of stereotypes, beware of short people, what they lack in height, they compensate for in stubbornness. How else could one describe the global reaction that followed the unprecedented encounter between the comedian of Kiev, Volodymyr Zelensky and his meeting with the Emperor of Washington DC, Donald J Trump. For those sold on the propaganda that Russia is the aggressor because it ‘invaded’ Ukraine, Zelensky would win an election for the global presidency if one were possible. Everyone, except MAGA republicans are commending the bravado of Zelensky before an array of American bullies led by Trump.

The short-fused warmonger traveled to Washington decided to exert his own pound of flesh for the man who first called him a dictator before gathering his group of deal makers to draft a deal of the century. The expectation was that, like African ruiners, Zelensky would come to the White House, do as he is told, lick Trump’s behind and sign off his country’s mineral resources for America’s protection against supposed Russian aggression. After all, Zelensky allowed himself to be prodded into a proxy war for America, Europe, Canada and their NATO allies.

The comedian turned president had a golden opportunity to dialogue with the Kremlin strongman, Vladimir Putin to secure a subtle truce with minimal casualties. However, Zelensky’s puppeteers told him not to negotiate. They convinced him that negotiation is a sign of weakness and that if he signed for it, Putin would invade Ukraine at his whims. Zelensky bought the argument and signed off his citizens to a sure slaughter.

In return, the coalition of puppeteers also known as the ‘friends of Ukraine’ stoked the embers of war on the one hand, while helping themselves to the rare earth minerals of Ukraine as its rightful owners were dying in the battlefield. It is the stuff for which war thrillers are made if it is not happening right before our eyes.

So, when the transactional Trump deployed his bullying tactics by claiming to have the magic wand to stop the war, then calling Zelensky a dictator and later recanting; those familiar with the script knew that this would be a thriller with a twist of comedy. Zelensky may be a fool for signing off his country for destruction, but he is no pushover. He was not going to let Trump ride all over him.

When he was invited to Washington DC to sign off his country’s wealth to the bully, he decided to honour the invite on his own terms. He appeared in the White House in his gym wear. A White House reporter tried to embarrass the Kiev strongman with a question on breaking the dress protocol. Deputy emperor, JD Vance pulled the card of Zelensky meddling in American elections by turning up at a democrat campaign rally. All these were to cow the Ukrainian president to shame and cast Trump as the peace negotiator.

Zelensky had rejected every previous effort to abandon his dream of becoming the modern David who defeated the modern Goliath. Trump wanted to shore up his chances of winning the Nobel Peace Prize for restoring global peace, including the pogrom against Palestinians. After all, both the war between Israel and Palestine and the one between Ukraine and Russia have identical history that is being ignored by the West and its ultra-powerful media propaganda machinery.

To ensure a soft landing, both France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Keir Stammer swallowed their pride to travel to Washington to massage Trump’s ego. Stammer, who had rejected an invitation to Trump’s inauguration, convinced his King Charles to dangle the carrot of a second state visit to the emperor.

Convinced that they had softened the ground they probably encouraged Zelensky to go and get the job done.  They miscalculated. Zelensky buckled under fire, refusing to be humiliated into signing off his country’s minerals and sovereignty. As a comedian, Zelensky borrowed Olivia Mitchell’s script on handling hecklers. She suggested OAR, which stands for Observe, Affect and Request.

Zelensky scored with the insolent reporter, but when JD Vance laid the ambush for Trump’ s kill shot, he showed the Oval Office and the virtual observers that he would lose ground at America’s behest. That recalcitrance has now earned him the respect of many, including the chief puppeteers in London, Paris, Ottawa and across NATO.

For Africans, the lesson is not that this tactic of matching a bully to his face turned Zelensky into a global hero overnight; it is more. It is the revelation of the putrid underbelly of how Africa’s colonial overlords have been conducting ‘businesses’ with our so-called leaders.

Africans owe a depth of gratitude to Trump’s narcissism. In Nigeria, it explains why every frontrunning candidate had to ‘campaign’ in Chatham House and why they have to ‘report’ in Washington. It explains why Francophone leaders must genuflect at the Elysee Palace. By what happened to Zelensky, we now know that Western nations do not treat African leaders as equals and that they write deals that favour them and impoverish their subjects under duress.

The Zelensky saga made the jigsaw fall in its right places, providing answers to why Babangida chose the devaluation of the naira and IMF loans to a robust Nigerian economy. It specifies why even on the point of death; Sani Abacha chose not to kiss anybody’s ring. It explains why Obasanjo took a fresh loan after getting the first one cancelled. It explains why Goodluck Jonathan was obsessed with ‘America will know’. It exposed Muhammadu Buhari’s lacklustre performance in two terms of office and why his second coming demystified the performances of his first.

We know why France demands gratitude from the vassal states on whose resources it lives large. It explains why the West harps on pseudo-democracy instead of a dictatorship that meets the people’s dreams and aspirations and why the West is happy with sit-tight ruiners over popular revolutionaries. We now know why Trump threatens South Africa’s land redistribution project over apartheid policies that leaves the masses landless. These revelations only irk those who have sold their conscience to the propaganda of those who acquired citizenship rights by exterminating the original inhabitants of lands they expropriated.

It explains why Trump was happy to ask Palestinians to give up their rights to their lands and settle for becoming perpetual aliens in other lands so that he could create a prostitution and gambling empire. The Zelensky saga has revealed why Russia is seen as the aggressor while the invasion of Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Syria was a benign plan to water the seeds of democracy even on dodgy dossiers.

These revelations have been the modus vivendi of the old order and the surviving principle of the new world order. And with a military industrial complex, the acquisition of nuclear weapons and the capacity to bully any nation into submission, it is little wonder that wealth distribution is skewed in favour of those whose lands can least sustain life while those blessed with fertility are ever dependent on financial and other forms of aid. This is why the new slogan should be – oppressed of the world, unite!