I got the gold-plated invitation card. It was personally addressed to me and had the imprimatur of the inimitable and iconic Donald Trump’s signature that world leaders and the American public service had come to fear. The scribbled spikes that adorned many executive orders and caused reversals, nay, erasures of loads of Biden era legacies. The black diplomatic plate-bearing SUV driven by a smart uniformed chauffeur with a faintly visible bulge indicating a hidden service pistol arrived my home a few minutes before noon. He came with a protocol officer from the American Consulate in Lagos.

“Sir,” he said briskly, “this special invitation is from President Trump. He would be honored to have you and Evelyn join him in Washington at the epochal handover ceremony ushering in President-elect Elon Musk on 20th January, 2029. A private jet will be available to take you and a select group of special invitees from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja. Accommodation has been reserved for you at Legend Hotel near the private jet terminal for the night of January 18th 2029 to enable you depart early for Ronald Reagan International Airport, Washington DC. There will be a cocktail at 8pm and the Consul General would be glad to have you join the other invitees for an informal interaction.”

I gave him our passports which he promised to hand back with the visas at Legend Hotel. All protocol arrangements were being made by the embassy at Abuja and the Consulate in Lagos. To be invited by the two-time President is a huge honour that I considered a lifetime opportunity. I knew I had followed American politics with keen interest. The massive win by the Republican candidate, Elon Musk, had shaken world capitals and its reverberations were still being felt across the world.

My wife was ecstatic that we got invited to this ceremony that would have five former Presidents in attendance and the most technically sound President-elect being sworn in. Besides, our son-in-law and our beautiful daughter had already planned to fly in from Saskatchewan where their tech company was booming after their partnership with a Tesla subsidiary two years earlier.

How did Elon Musk become President-elect? Even presumptive presidential candidate of the Republican Party when all indications were that a former Florida governor was most GOP politicians’ choice? How did Trump pull off such a massive support for Elon Musk among the MAGA crowd that all other contestants withdrew from the primaries that all that Elon needed was a mere ceremonial affirmation?

The Republican field was full in the early days. With the present Secretary of State, Senator Marco Rubio, billionaire owner of Amazon Jeff Bezos, and former governor of Florida Ron DeSantes, an avid Trump supporter before the primaries that took President Trump to his second term at the Oval Office, as well as Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Elon Musk’s triumph was not expected to be that easy. He had not been a politician. He was more known in the tech and electric automobile field as well as space exploration. He had turned space flights to a playground of the stupendously affluent who have come to consider our terrestrial life too boring.

Trump muscled out the other candidates for the primaries. The MAGA fanatics lined up behind Elon’s candidature. Funding was not a problem as the multi-billionaires brought in stupendous campaign funds through their various super PACs. But for statutory restrictions that set limits on campaign funding, Elon Musk could have single-handedly funded his own campaign. Did he not buy OpenAI from Sam Altman for $100 billion after Sam had rejected his offer of $97 billion in February 2025?

Was it not unthinkable that Musk, South Africa-born entrepreneur who naturalized in the United States, could run for American President when a few years earlier such was unconstitutional? President Barack Obama had suffered the indignity of the “birther” campaign led by no other than DJT who claimed that Barack was not born in America and hence, unfit to run! This lie was only put to rest after Obama released his birth certificate at the end of his second term in 2016.

President Trump did the unthinkable in 2026. He rail-roaded a constitutional amendment through a pliant Congress and a Senate scared stiff of the MAGA voting block which made it possible for American citizens born outside the United States to run for the highest office in the land. To ensure this loophole favoured Elon Musk alone, there was a proviso that such a citizen must have investments of not less than $300 billion in America. Elon was already worth more than $378 billion by February 2025.

Iowa caucus and all the others were mere walkovers for Elon and becoming the GOP candidate for the November 2027 election was just a piece of cake. The Democrats had chosen Hakeem Jeffries, the erudite Minority House Leader whose credentials and record of service were spotlessly impeccable. Like Barack Obama, Jeffries was a shining star and had run an impressive campaign across the country. But Trump and Elon and the MAGA voters became an unbeatable combination. They had also pulled in the Pentecostal voting block, successfully using their anti-LGTBTQ rhetoric to devastating advantage.

The landslide was expected but the size of it was unfathomable. With the electoral college votes split at Elon’s unprecedented 350 to Jeffries’ paltry 188, this was a total earthquake accompanied by a tsunami! The popular vote difference was scandalous – a whopping 9 million in favour of President-elect Elon Musk. America’s history was being rewritten. With the former Gaza Strip renamed DJT Reviera with a new 55-storey Trump-Benjamin Towers near the Dier al-Balah beach, the world had really changed!

Even the purchase by Eric Trump, of the CNN, which was previously considered unthinkable had been consummated after the initial outcry that followed the bid. The feeble antagonism and talks of “unwholesome take-over of the fourth estate of the realm” have since abated. A major symposium to drum support to fight suppression of press freedom has since been postponed indefinitely.

Back to my plans for the Presidential inauguration in Washington. I had heard that the Presidential delegation from Nigeria included Sowore, Mr. Charles Oputa and VeryDarkMan. The Nigerian democratic space had opened up and diversity was in the upswing. Rema, the Ozeba Afrobeats crooner and multiple Grammy Award winner, would be playing at one of the pre-inauguration events.

As we boarded the Gulfstream Aerospace G650ER luxury jet, I was pleasantly surprised to meet Yahaya Bello, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the newly sworn-in Senate President from Edo State, and Her Excellency Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the new Governor of Kogi State already on board.

We cruised westwards and two hours later, stopped to pick up the former President of the Gambia and former Vice President of Senegal at the Leopold Sedar-Senghor International Airport in Dakar. For some strange reason, Senator Shehu Sani boarded the flight here. The flight to Washington was memorable with pleasant banters in English and French, two languages in which the beautiful cabin crew were very fluent.

The cuisine was fantastic with varied choice of food and great wines. The superb caviar could only be enjoyed by my wife as doctors have since advised me against red meat. But my throat heaved at Evelyn’s every swallow!

The pilot announced that we had just 30 minutes to arrive at Washington DC but that the air traffic was heavy due to flights bringing dignitaries from all over the world. A few minutes later, he announced that there was going to be a delay due to the arrival of President Putin’s Presidential Aircraft in the airspace. Putin coming to Washington for a Presidential inauguration! A directive had just been received that our plane should be diverted to Dulles International Airport and only aircraft carrying Presidents and Heads of Government should land at Ronald Reagan International.

Coincidentally, the pilot announced that our aircraft was going to run into massive turbulence and that passengers should take their seats and fasten their seat belts. I was already at the lavatory door as my bladder was almost bursting when this announcement came. It was difficult for me to hold on further as my movement to the toilet brought the urine close to release.

It was at this time I woke up and realized it was all a dream. Instead of the luxurious private jet, I was actually on my bed in Lagos and grid power had just been cut by EKEDC! I cannot tell you how angry I was as I rushed to the washroom to empty my bladder.