Trump and the psychiatric test

By Louis Odion FNGE

If a bill proposed by a US Democratic congressman by name Zoe Lofgren from California sails through, then increasingly embattled President Donald Trump will sooner than later be forced to the psychiatrist's studio.

Lofgren's bill, coming on the heels of Trump's misstatements on racial issues thought long settled, would seem inspired by the growing concern over the mental health of the American leader.

He impulsively tweets on even matters considered far beneath the dignity of the American presidency, raising hell when calmness will do, trailed by a litany of unforced errors. 

First to raise the red flag months ago is the American association of psychiatrists. It broke old convention by issuing a public alert that Trump, from their own observation, clearly exhibits disturbing symptoms.

Lofgren's bid appears to lend a new poignancy to the fear Hillary Clinton, Trump's rival in the 2006 presidential polls, had expressed: "A man who is quick to tweet at the slightest provocation is not to be trusted with the nuclear button at the Oval Office."

Back in Nigeria, the Lofgren proposal surely resonates. 

Longstanding has been been the agitation by some including mental health experts that such legal instrument be applied in the leadership recruitment process. However, their own concern is informed mainly by the perceived craze of our politicians and public officials to amass stupendous fortune most unlikely to be expended in three generations assuming each had the DNA of the biblical prodigal child.