Today's Quote
Chidi Anthony Opara
Chielozona Eze
Professor, Africana Literature and Cultural Studies, Northeastern Illinois University
Fellow - Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa
https://neiu.academia.edu/ChielozonaEze
It was not poverty or greed or wickedness that made our forebear to sell people as slaves, it was a way to get rid of the "efulefus" (worthless persons).CAO.
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Chidi Anthony Opara
You are politically correct. I, on my part, stated the raw truth, but I am politically wrong.
CAO.
Chidi Anthony Opara
Abolaji Adekeye
Sorry, Chielozona.
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Chielozona Eze
Chidi,
It is interesting how you tactically shifted the argument to the question of political correctness or incorrectness. It is, by the way, none of the above. In order to understand the moral implications of your original claim, or perhaps judgment of your people’s attitude to slavery, it is important to examine the meaning of efulefu, those considered worthless humans. However you understand the term, they are humans, and what a civilized community does to those it considers an aberration is to find a way to rehabilitate them, not to get rid of them. The fact that a people have only one dimensional way of solving protracted problems arising from the human condition doesn’t speak well of their collective IQ or their humanity. That’s my argument, bro.
Professor, African Literature and Cultural Studies, Northeastern Illinois University; Extraordinary Professor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
By implication, you would have been sold as a slave. Not calling you a fool -a fool but this your opinion post is irresponsible, rabid and dangerous.It reeks of the final solution in Nazi Germany. Incinerate the undesirables. Sell the subversives. Assassinate the artists.How are the people vested with the label worthless and by what yardstick?A large number of the people sold as slaves were captured as war booty from their villages where they were held in high esteem.Are you saying those disappeared and delivered into slavery by Arochukwu priests under the guise of the Long Juju judgement are all worthless people?
On Tue, Jun 19, 2018, 10:46 Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com> wrote:
Sorry, Chielozona.
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Chidi Anthony Opara
Don't worry, no need for the clarification, even if in your opinion, you think that I am a fool, it's your opinion and you're entitled to it. Whether your opinion would be valid
when subjected to critical assessment is another thing.
Chielozona,
The Igbos of past years have parameters for determining who is an efulefu(worthless person) and such persons are usually sold as slaves.
Up till this moment, if one exhibits characters that are considered to be the character of an efulefu, you would hear a statement like, "if it were in the days of slave trade, you would have been sold". This however does not mean that all persons sold are efulefus. Other factors can bring about that situation.
Brother Chielozona, I did not invent this, it happened and you can cross check with world class historians here.
Our emotions should not change facts of history.
CAO.
Toyin Falola
With due respect, God does not create any human being that we other human beings should categorize as "worthless". And as you pointed out, then sold into slavery. Human beings like you are I pin that characterization on humans because we have our evil intentions. We "infantilize" people because we stand to benefit from it.
The Atlantic slave trade instigated the criminalization of innocent individuals.
So, let us wander elsewhere, leaving this issue behind us, but human beings are not "worthless". May be they suffer from low energy due to conditions that we have not studied.
TF
Toyin Falola
Department of History
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Chielozona Eze
Professor, African Literature and Cultural Studies, Northeastern Illinois University; Extraordinary Professor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
Fellow - Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa
https://neiu.academia.edu/ChielozonaEze
Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Chidi,
We understand that many of your thoughts which surface under “Today's Quote” are calculated to be profound, paradoxical, ambiguous or provocative, in order to promote some discussion, dissension, debate. If not taken seriously by some people then this your latest could be easily ignored. I guess that Professor John Ayotunde Isola Bewaji could advice you to be careful with that kind of loose lip in a place like Trenchtown, Kingston, Jamaica. The Brethren there would not take take it lightly if you tell them that , “ It was not poverty or greed or wickedness that made our forebear to sell people as slaves, it was a way to get rid of the "efulefus"(worthless persons). “
When you talk like that I'm glad that I didn't join the Arochukwu Society when I was invited to do so. ( I learned a little more about that Society when I lived with the Kalabari people for some twenty months , in Buguma and Bakana)
As you and all the noted, world class historians that you call to your aid all know, even if you think it is talking truth or uttering some nonsense to power, you had better be extra-careful about telling our African-American Brothers and Sisters in the US and Canada and the African Diaspora West - in the United Kingdom, the Caribbean (including Haiti. Cuba , Martinique and Guadeloupe) Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, in fact the whole of South America plus the returnees to Freetown, Monrovia, Lagos, Calabar, Cape Coast in Ghana etc. particularly your cousins in Chicago, that the Igbo ancestors from whom they descended were mostly the efulefu
Here we have Richard Pryor making a statement much deeper than joking
"I think that niggers are the best of people who were slaves, and that’s how they got to be niggers ‘cause they stole the cream-of-the-crop from Africa and brought them over here. And God, as they say, works in mysterious ways, so he made everybody a nigger…he brought us all over here — the best — the kings and queens, the princesses, the princes, put us all together and called us one tribe: Niggers.” — Richard Pryor, Wattstax (1973)
At least even the Poles know that the Senegalese were far from being "efulefu" this evening
Leaving you here, to see how Egypt is daring against the Ruskies.
And please take note of this little point here, in consultation with the historians of slavery, that at no time did Persians ( Iranians) enslave Black Africans.
Chidi Anthony Opara
Well, I have no problems with that.
CAO.
Abolaji Adekeye
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Mobolaji Aluko
It was not poverty or greed or wickedness that made our forebear to sell people as slaves, it was a way to get rid of the "efulefus" (worthless persons).CAO.
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Chidi Anthony Opara
Just as Christ should not have said the things he said that earned him crucifixion and Socrates, those that earned him hemlock and so on.
CAO.
Mobolaji Aluko
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With due respect, God does not create any human being that we other human beings should categorize as "worthless". And as you pointed out, then sold into slavery. Human beings like you are I pin that characterization on humans because we have our evil intentions. We "infantilize" people because we stand to benefit from it.
The Atlantic slave trade instigated the criminalization of innocent individuals.
So, let us wander elsewhere, leaving this issue behind us, but human beings are not "worthless". May be they suffer from low energy due to conditions that we have not studied.
TF
Toyin Falola
Department of History
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://sites.utexas.edu/yoruba-studies-review/
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Chidi Anthony Opara
For everything said, which we now quote, there were people who felt that such saying was "ill conceived" and/or "inaccurate" and that those who said it should apologize!
Thanks, by the way, for the "His Majesty" stuff! I however, subscribe to republicanism.
CAO.
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"'His Majesty' will never apologize for his views. No matter how much proven to be ill conceived or inaccurate!"(OAA)
For everything said, which we now quote, there were people who felt that such saying was "ill conceived" and/or "inaccurate" and that those who said it should apologize!
Thanks, by the way, for the "His Majesty" stuff! I however, subscribe to republicanism.
Mobolaji Aluko
Forgetful me! How can I forget so soon that lesson in Republicanism!
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com>Date: 21/06/2018 10:19 (GMT+00:00)To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote
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"'His Majesty' will never apologize for his views. No matter how much proven to be ill conceived or inaccurate!"(OAA)
For everything said, which we now quote, there were people who felt that such saying was "ill conceived" and/or "inaccurate" and that those who said it should apologize!
Thanks, by the way, for the "His Majesty" stuff! I however, subscribe to republicanism.
CAO.
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This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (Forgetful me! How can I forget so soon that lesson in Republicanism!
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-------- Original message --------From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com>Date: 21/06/2018 10:19 (GMT+00:00)To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote
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"'His Majesty' will never apologize for his views. No matter how much proven to be ill conceived or inaccurate!"(OAA)
For everything said, which we now quote, there were people who felt that such saying was "ill conceived" and/or "inaccurate" and that those who said it should apologize!
Thanks, by the way, for the "His Majesty" stuff! I however, subscribe to republicanism.
CAO.
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Emeagwali, Gloria (History)
This is a disgusting statement Chidi. I just came across it.
You have actually insulted generations of enslaved Africans by this insane perspective.
I am hoping that you don't mean it literally.
History Department
New Britain. CT 06050
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2018 5:23 PM
To: USA African Dialogue Series
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote
Chidi Anthony Opara
That the earth is spherical in shape, used to be an "insane perspective", so also the perspective that the Pope is fallible.
Generations of Africans sold into slavery, were not all sold by Igbos and even those sold by Igbos were not all sold because they were "efulefus", some were captured in wars, etc, and some definitely sold because they were worthless (efulefus) by the laid down community standards(which you are free to disagree with).
This much was explained in the course of the discussion but the tendency toward political correctness have prevented even world class Intellectuals here from interrogating the perspective I provided. I learned a new thing from this discussion.
Good night (it's night here).
CAO.
Chidi Anthony Opara
Michael Afolayan
This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (This is a disgusting statement Chidi. I just came across it.
You have actually insulted generations of enslaved Africans by this insane perspective.
I am hoping that you don't mean it literally.
Professor Gloria EmeagwaliProfessor of History
History DepartmentCentral Connecticut State University1615 Stanley Street
New Britain. CT 06050
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2018 5:23 PM
To: USA African Dialogue Series
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote
It was not poverty or greed or wickedness that made our forebear to sell people as slaves, it was a way to get rid of the "efulefus" (worthless persons).
CAO.
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Cornelius Hamelberg
Chidi,
From the metaphysical and the poetically surreal to the really real :
Re- Your infallibly modern approach . You say that “Accidents are not caused by "the devil"
How do you know that accidents are not caused by the devil ? So you don't want to blame the devil for the Biafra Genocide? ?What About the Nigerian Military's Operation Python Dance II ?
One day ( Sunday) , so I should say, one Sunday, the pastor at Umuahia announced in church that “All sickness is from the devil !”, which left me nonplussed especially when he continued that having to wear glasses was the work of the devil and those of us - the devil's victims still wearing glasses should surrender our glasses to him and he would cure us all , “ in Jesus name, Amen” . One by one the bespectacled people stood in line to surrender their glasses to him, and soon enough there was a little pile of googles on his table. Before going up to him, I carefully put my one and only pair of glasses in my pocket ( for security's sake) because it looked as if he was going to smash them all , but the next moment he was only cursing the pile of glasses or the devil in the glasses in Jesus' name. When it was my turn to step up to him in his pulpit, he requested that I close my eyes and then with thumb and forefinger he squeezed one eyeball and then the other for about thirty seconds and then asked me to open my eyes. I did.
Do you see anything? He asked
Yes, I replied
Praise God, said he.
WHAT do you see? ( Perhaps expecting that I would say, “ I see an angel !” , or “I see my Redeemer Jesus! “)
I see many colours, said I - and verily I did see many colours, it was like a kaleidoscope in front of my eyes
Glory be to the Highest , he shouted to the congregation !
We sang the Igbo Negro Spiritual Onye Nworum Ya
The Pastor's fame spread first throughout the church building and then like a river through the city, that just like Jesus the Pastor had healed another Blind Bartimaeus
I was at Ephesus in 2015 visited St. John's burial site. I'll tell you this: to even begin to understand Paul and John , who believed that Jesus' return was just round the corner, one has to imagine the environment in which they lived. A trip along the Caucasus mountain terrain would give you a rough idea. Very different from feeling like a little human being when you walk between the skyscrapers in New York City and have to look up to see the sky....
To get the full import of what somebody told you earlier, “Christ I know, Socrates I have read. You are neither of them.”, you have to re-turn to this piece of Christian scripture:
“Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.”Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.” ( Acts 19 : 13- 16)
Chidi Anthony Opara
Cornelius Hamelberg
Chidi Anthony Opara
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Chidi Anthony Opara
Cornelius Hamelberg
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#2018Quotes
Chidi Anthony Opara
Cornelius Hamelberg
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Cornelius Hamelberg
Methinks that presidential ambitions (the country's top executive job) does not have to be such a dangerous thing after all and surely all but God-forsaken cowards and some of the miscreants and unpatriotic earthworms (of whatever tribe) are welcome?
Chidi, surely, singing about the beauty of Croatia's president is not an act of poetic injustice ? Nor is, " My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun..."
What Sir is your honest opinion about this (for me) inspiring challenge to Nigerian women ( in my opinion it's author would be a Great Nigerian President :
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2241442635870904&id=100000155671155
NIGERIAN WOMEN ARISE - HERE IS A GREAT EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW - The Croatian president Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic has created a storm by her beauty and selfless support of her national team. But do we know what lies beneath her beauty? Born on 29 April 1968, she is a graduate in English and Spanish literature. She has done post-graduation in international relations. She is a Fulbright scholar, who studied at George Washington university, Harvard and John Hopkins university. At the age of 46, in the year 2015, she became president and started pursuing her doctorate in international relations. Don't get waylaid by her beauty because she is an ex army commando and an ace marksman too. From 2007 to 2011 she was the ambassador of Croatia to US. Then she became the first woman to be the NATO assistant secretary general for public diplomacy. In that capacity she visited Afghanistan number of times to raise the morale of NATO troops deployed there. In the NATO circle she is known as SWAMBO. That is she who must be obeyed. Known as a no nonsense woman, she instilled discipline and dedication, leading by her own example. She has been voluminously praised by both George Bush Jr and Barack Obama. She bought her own economy class ticket and came to Russia to see Croatia playing. She put on Croatian Jersey and sat at the VIP box breaking all norms. She mingled with spectators and hugged the players, who were sweating and in briefs in the dressing room. She fluently speaks Croatian, English, Spanish and Danish language. Moreover, she is fairly adept in speaking in German, French, Russian and Italian. She was seen speaking to both Putin and Macron fluently in Russian and French respectively. Therefore, she is epitome what a nation's leader should be, brilliant, savvy and inspiring. Alas, we as a country will perhaps never see such a leader
Oyeronke Oyewumi
Cornelius Hamelberg
Therefore, we can only conclude that IBK is probably looking forward to the day when inspired by his words of encouragement, with Croatia's current female president as role model, Nigeria's first female president will emerge and hopefully, in addition to her presidential duties she will also be capable of performing a few devil miracles in the presidential kitchen.
Otherwise it's still pretty much a man's world even in Uganda ( "The pearl of Africa") : https://classic105.com/serikali-saidia-man-with-13-wives-10-girlfriends-and-176-children-pleads-for-help-to-raise-his-children/
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Cornelius Hamelberg
Three great men :
1. Muhammad ( s.a.w) Prophet of Islam ( Prophet and President of the First Muslim State, headquartered in Medina)
2. Ali (a.s.) Imam
There was so much huffing and puffing about President Obama's Birth Certificate, the school leaving certificate of President Buhari , and it was not so long ago that US Secretary of State US Rex Tillerson is reported to have disrespected his President by referring to him as “a moron”...
Bearing in mind that “a Muslim is by definition an intellectual” the intelligentsia in Nigeria can be said to be very broad based indeed. Or maybe not? Nigerian intelligentsia ( including all the technocrats , scholars, Professors who produce light only)
One cannot be sure about who Chidi is alluding to, hinting at or targetting when he talks about “a highly rated intellectual". Maybe, all of the Super-Alagbas in this forum? Maybe, all of the front runners in the February 2019 presidential race? Maybe, it's just a general statement , unless of course Chidi is doing some double-speak, on the one hand railing against Nigeria ( Nigerians) being hell-bent on instituting a geniocracy – and at the same time saying cautioning that a “highly rated” intellectual does not necessarily have to be elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria but in the name of meritocracy, as Chidi advises, “If one is "a highly rated intellectual", then, one should be an adviser/consultant/trainer, not necessarily a President. “
Chidi why did you delete my Facebook comment which I posted last night on this your quote of the day ? Do you have the poetic licence to do that ? Is that part of your freedom of speech to delete other people's comments?
Afolayan, Funso
"If this(Nigerian) current democratic dispensation is truncated, we know those to hold responsible!” - Chidi Opara
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
CAO.
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
"I assume that we have always known them, right from the abortion of the First Republic in 1966, through the Biafran war and decades of military autocracy, to the present macabre dance (e.g. the party switch and re-alignemts) going on among our politicians and their acolytes all over the country." (Funsho Afolayan)
Yes, we have always known them.
CAO.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Chidi,
This really hurts; I'm so sorry. My most humble apologies (although I blame it on so much confusion about the various apps and what not. I thought that I had responded to you in the Africa Lit. section and to tell you the truth , I was hopping mad when I couldn't find it after I had searched for it everywhere and thought ( forgive me) that you, like a dictator (Saddam Hussein) had impishly deleted my comment, perhaps because you didn't like it. And again, to tell you the honest truth, even then I was a little puzzled because I think that it's not at all like Chidi to delete someone's comment because he doesn't like the particular sequence of words....
Well, here it is again in all its innocuous glory:
"Highly rated" by the electorate ? The Senate? The Sycophants? Praise Singers? Pastor Adeboye? Church Choir ? Adejobi? Mosque Prayer Leaders ? Criminal Justice System? The Swedish Academy?”
To Funso Afolayan :
Ai beg, enough of negativity, pessimism and despair. Nigeria has a lot of talent when it comes to manpower qualifications ( even within the military) , to overcome all frustrations and to move Nigeria forward. When it comes to that kind of potential, the rest of Africa South of the Sahara, is second to Nigeria.
Here's one of many illustrious examples: Ben Murray-Bruce
Something to dance to : SYLVAIN LUC Nomad's Land -
As Patrick Wilmot wrote in that 1981 article that appeared in the Guardian Nigerian) - about Nigeria going nuclear , we must also learn to dance "mathematical rhythms”
Michael Afolayan
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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
CAO.
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Cornelius Hamelberg
With just a little more poetic tolerance, the distinction between to God / for God / to be used in the service of / serving God, is at best nebulous...
Part of the Shema is Deuteronomy 6:5 : “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” ( The “ and with all your might”, is traditionally meant to include all your resources ( i.e. money etc...
The Quran 2.3 talks about those “Who believe in the Unseen, and establish worship, and spend of that We have bestowed upon them; “ ( Among many others, Talha and Zubair were millionaires who fisabilillah, spent in the cause of Allah ...
When it comes to Christianity and the prosperity gospel , isn't it based on the theory that the more you give, the more you get in return from God the Father Almighty?
As to the frequent criticism of pastors having their own private jets, the answer is that this is not the age of transportation by camel, horse, donkey, this is the age of science and technology , and covering vast spaces in order to fulfil the Great Commission is more easily done by air travel....
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Adeshina Afolayan
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan
+23480-3928-8429
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Farfetched! I must say.
CAO.
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Salimonu Kadiri
Democracy died the day those who were elected on the platform of a political party crossed to another party and retained seats which the electorates granted to the party from which they defected. Firstly Section 68 (1) of the 1999 constitution prohibits carpet crossing. Secondly, no one can stand for election in Nigeria without belonging to a political party which must sponsor one. Hence, an elected person is holding his/her position in trust for, and on behalf of, the party that supports him/her to victory. Constitutionally, legally and commonsense wisely, a carpet crosser or political defector will lose his/her seat in the National Assembly immediately after announcing exit from the party on which platform he/she was elected. Defectors are not democrats when they steal mandates given to a political party and sell them to another party.
S. Kadiri
Skickat: den 7 augusti 2018 10:16
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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Salimonu Kadiri
You should feel not only embarrassed but ashamed to be a Nigerian from the day elected politicians blatantly violated the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 68 (1) (g) that prohibits political defection thus, "A member of the Senate or the House of Representatives shall vacate his seat in the House which he is a member if being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected." Also violated is Section 65 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution that states that for anyone to contest election in Nigeria, one must belong to a political party and must be sponsored by that party. The implication of that section is that it is not a person that voters vote for in an election but a party. That is why, according to Section 68 (1) (g), a defector to another party must vacate his/her seat in the House.
In view of the above, none of your hope will be restored or rather you will continue to nurse false hope infinitely until Nigerians learn to obey and respect the letters and spirit of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Political defectors are fraudsters of the electorates and not democrats.
S. Kadiri
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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
CAO.
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Salimonu Kadiri
Thank you Chidi Anthony Opara, the problem is that there has never been democracy in Nigeria since English was imposed on Nigerians as the language of governance and over ninety per cent of Nigerians are denied the opportunity of learning and understanding English language. However, Aminu Tambuwal's political harlotry in 2014 was Constitutionally challenged in the Court but the corrupt Nigerian judiciary failed to adjudicate on the case and allowed it to die after the lifespan of the House on which Tambuwal presided had expired.
S. Kadiri
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CAO.
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Cornelius Hamelberg
Dear Baba Kadiri,
I should hope that Cornelius Ignoramus is not trying to be profound or abstruse again or going in search of any holy grail, fishing in the muddy waters of the Naija political bureau...
I read with some trepidation Anthony Chidi Opara's premonition, his doomsday prophecy : “Democracy may die today in Nigeria!” followed by Professor Adeshina Afolayan's philosophically practical rejoinder ; “Was democracy ever born in Nigeria in the first place? There is no death for something that didn't even taste life.”, and you Baba Kadiri retroactively confirming by post mortem, although you don't give an exact date when you authoritatively declare:
“Democracy died the day those who were elected on the platform of a political party crossed to another party and retained seats which the electorates granted to the party from which they defected” ( And the rest , as they say, is history)
There have been other improbable and absurd propositions such as the regressus ad infinitum that proposes “God is dead” or postulates “The end of history”, neither postulate needing a poetic license to escape verification since these statements can be falsified by the converse God is not dead, history does not end , just as some of the onward Christian soldiers conclude their forward-looking prayers with “World without end, Amen”. The latter is not on a different plain of reality from/ than Auden's “Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone”. In Ahoada in Nigeria I often listened to Peter Tosh's Mystic Man but winced every time it got to “The day the dollar die” just thinking of the US and the World economy and that our ass would be all grass if that were to happen and so I hope and pray that we will never see such a day...
We cannot afford to be too dogmatic or too literalist when speaking about the birth or even the putative death of democracy( crazy-demo) in Nigeria, even if there are many of the erudite thinking along the same line in relation to the past. So, I was and am pleasantly surprised, by the prologue to Simon Schama's
The American Future: A History From The Founding Fathers To Barack Obama
which begins with these disputable words :
“I can tell you exactly, give or take a minute or two, when American democracy came back from the dead because I was there : 7:15 p.m. Central Time, 3 January 2008, Precinct 53, Theodore Roosevelt High. I know this as I was regularly checking my watch, and bedsides you couldn't miss the schoolroom clock, its old white face the object of teenage hatred and longing. I suppose a visitor from another world - London , say – might have thought there was not all that much going on in the west Des Moines that evening...”
By the way Baba Kadiri you are once again in my good books, with your helping hand outstretched, confirming that irrespective of tribe, “a friend in need is a friend indeed.” And so let us all wish this : Long live democracy! ( Crazy demo)
With so much talk about death and dying we could listen here :
Rabbi Friedman - The Soul and the Afterlife: Where Do We Go From Here?
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Salimonu Kadiri
Anti human elements whose expertise is the fertilization of misery in Nigeria are fraternizing with the plunderers of Nigeria's treasury and turning themselves into their bodyguards. It seems to me that Nigeria has the highest number of PhDs and professors per household in the world, yet there is no corner of the globe where excellence and honour are in such huge deficits per household as in Nigeria.
Where was Professor Farooq Kperogi on June 8, 2015, when the Senate President and his Deputy were elected through a process similar to those described under Article 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code, which is obtainment by false pretence? On 29 October 2016, Professor Farooq Kperogi proudly posted on this forum thus, "I write my language columns (in the Daily Trust) because I am paid well to do so." Bashing Buhari is what mercenary writers have been doing since he became President because they are well paid to do so. Buhari bashers are like people who Robert Ingersoll claimed are beset with the heart of snake and conscience of hyena.
S. Kadiri
Till: USA African Dialogue Series
Cornelius Hamelberg
Baba Kadiri
I am disappointed. With a sense of impunity, some of the louts attack the President, the Sultan of Sokoto, the Emir of Kano in the most vile language!
Baba Kadiri : If respect begets respect, then should the opposite not also be true?
Whatever happened to your sense of proportion? Proportionality? That was an extremely mild , in fact an extremely effete, innocuous and ineffective rejoinder from you, and in my view, inadequate when measured against Professor Pepperoni's extreme insult to all Buharists and that includes circumcised & bona fide Buharists. You should kick Pepperoni so hard ( verbally speaking of course) where he is likely to feel it the most, so that to start with, he actually feels it at the pit of the stomach or the groin and from there it should spread to the other region from which such insults are usually conceived .
But in your case it is wisdom that is replying to an insult, you intend to meet him point by point; it's not a case of sinking down to the very low level of plying the dozens
If not for the fact that President Buhari was democratically elected by a majority of sensible Nigerians and that Nigeria is still very much a democratic country, “in another lifetime, one of toil and blood, when blackness was a virtue the road was full of mud”, Pepperoni's remarks would have qualified as treason which means that although “ all is vanity” (a) Pepperoni would have joined or rejoined the equivalent of Muhammad's Dead Poets Society and secondly, (b) for Peperoni the punishment could have been of the kind detailed in Quran 5: 33
“The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom.. “
Some temperament here : Angelo Debarre
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Adeshina Afolayan
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan
+23480-3928-8429
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Harrow, Kenneth
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2018 4:31 PM
To: USA African Dialogue Series
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote
Malami buba
‘… is the greatest love of all’, doing away with a partner altogether.
Cornelius Hamelberg
Respect !
“The greatest need of a man in a relationship is not respect as opined in some quarters. Respect can be gotten from any quarters, just like sex and food.” ?
Chidi: Ai beg to disagree, strongly! Sex with some ugly monkey? Food, ice cream, from the garbage bin? A man is thirsty should not mean that he has to drink dirty water. No Sir. Our governments and politicians have to respect us , that's the very least we can ask. We put them where they are : Every Mouth Must Be Fed
“some quarters” indeed” !
Same quarters : Chidi's methinks like Paul's methinks: “the greatest is love.” (two eyes wide open” or tightly shut)
“Now I know we have great respect
For the sister, and mother it's even better yet
But there's the joker in the street
Loving one brother and killing the other
When the time comes and we are really free
There'll be no brothers left you see” (We People Who are Darker Than Blue)
There's the fool who can't help falling
in-love
in-fatuation.
There's this wonderful story
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland :
Alice Falls
into a Rabbit Hole ( some people's favourite hole)
“The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then she looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down ajar from one of the shelves as she passed: it was labeled "ORANGE MARMALADE" but to her great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar, for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as she fell past it.
"Well!" thought Alice to herself "After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down-stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!" (which was very likely true.)
Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? "I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?" she said aloud. "I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think-" (for, you see, Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the school-room, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to her, still it was good practice to say it over) "-- yes that's about the right distance -- but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got to?" (Alice had not the slightest idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but she thought they were nice grand words to say.)
Presently she began again. "I wonder if I shall fall fight through the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The antipathies, I think-" (she was rather glad there was no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) "-but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand? Or Australia?" (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke- fancy, curtseying as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) "And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere."
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do...”'
That was Alice. Well, so long, farewell Alce"
This is about Ragshag Bill from Buffalo:
“One day he fell in a prospect hole, in a roaring bad design
And in that hole he roared out his soul, in the days of '49 (Dylan : Days of '49
As the pastor knows, the opposite of love
is hate ( two eyes open or two eyes closed.
OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Cornelius Hamelberg
Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' reading - BBC Newsnight
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FixGa96Bg_Q
On Monday, 18 June 2018 23:53:49 UTC+2, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM wrote:
It was not poverty or greed or wickedness that made our forebear to sell people as slaves, it was a way to get rid of the "efulefus" (worthless persons).CAO.
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Cornelius Hamelberg
Chidi,
I know that you are probably all jazzed up and on fire, maybe burning or you want to burn somebody after keeping company with Ayi Kwei Armah's Two Thousand Seasons
With impeccable presenters such as such as my two personal favourites the lovely Elizabeth Puranam and Hazem Sika (I love his self-assured chutzpah) - we cannot accuse Al-Jazeera which is one of the top TV networks in the world, of negligence or of ignoring or what psychologists refer to as “avoidance” any of the various aspect of slavery – on the basis of a single programme that you viewed, Chidi. We could note that each programme has its own focus : there's the trans-Atlantic slave trade from West Africa to the New World quite distinct and separate from “the Arab Slave Trade” in which their supplies were mainly from the East...
You should at least be impressed by the attention al-Jazeera gives to the recent sale of Africans in Libya : Al Jazeera TV : The slave trade
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Cornelius Hamelberg
Oh, this cruel world in which we live. In normal circumstances after the extended event known as the Holocaust , you would have thought that all of post-war Europe should find this hard to believe, but circumstances are no longer normal and with the rise of neo-Nazism in Europe once again, it's a fact that today, this holy Sabbath Day, the Nazis were granted the legal right to demonstrate in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, and this they did, the neo-Nazis marched in Stockholm, Sweden, today .
This is happening just two weeks before the general elections in Sweden : Sweden's militant neo-Nazis marching through the heart of the city – but although this time it was expected that they would turn out in large numbers, to show their faces – about 2,000 to 3,000 of them, such was their fear of the counter-demonstrations , that they mostly chickened out and only 200 to 300 of them dared to appear.
Nigeria. Chidi, my sympathies. If only you were a bulldozer type like Ariel Sharon ( that was his nick name - Arik - "the bulldozer"). It's unfortunate that the peaceful, non-violent, law-abiding IPOB has been gazetted and proscribed by the Nigerian government as “a terror group” - perhaps to prevent them from committing any terrorist acts and also to pre-empt any of their members seeking or aspiring to political office, via the democratic process , whereas, apparently the same authorities do not feel that the “Armed Fulani Herdsmen” who actively constitute a threat to the peace and security of the remaining fellow Nigerian citizens still living within the confines of the Federation – have not designated their fellow herdsmen citizens as a terrorist group – the assumption being that Fulani gunfire is incidental, only retaliatory and in self-defence but is not politically motivated , they could and should be entitled their own grazing / state-subsidized Fulani cattle colonies and ranches in the greener pastures of the Federation - with the blessings and willing co-operation of Nigerian tax payers/ but since they are not agitating to break away from Nigeria or to create their own separate special state or to go to war against constituted authority, unlike Boko Haram, the terrorist label does not apply to them . Or to the armed robbers, and certainly not to the lootocracy or the looters of the national treasury which is every Nigerian's patrimony and inheritance : looting is not a capital offence.
As the gazetting of IPOB as a terror group continues, un-abrogated a mere five months to the Presidential elections, this effectively guarantees that no IPOB member or sympathiser is going to vote for Brer Buhari, although there could be one or two who could be foolish enough to do so. Ditto the Niger Delta Avengers even if up till now, unlike their Igbo Brethren, they have not been gazetted as “a terror organisation”
However, who the Fulani herdsmen and the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria are going to vote for in the forthcoming Presidential elections, is anybody's guess.
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Cornelius Hamelberg
Chidi,
Your each and every “today's Quote” is most often tendentious and intended to provoke or generate dissension/ disagreement, disputes, sometimes hatred. Kudos. The ensuing dialogues and discussions are a good and essential part social service you provide the Naija body politic. Without your antithetical thesis how would any antithesis be born? Ultimately, maybe, through the mother of all battles, and if we look back since the history of mankind began there have been many of those, each latest “mother of all battles” promising to be worse than the ones that preceded it...
You today's quote raises a few questions.
We know that you don't like President Buhari, that you probably detest him and that this is particularly true for you and many others after the Nigerian Military's latest waltz in Igbo-land as they romped and rampaged through Igboland ( like Fulani Cattle & their herdsmen) when they did their Operation Python Dance 11. However, don't forget, even as we lament the blood shed, we cannot speak of any “sovereign Igbo territory” because, constitutionally speaking, there is no such place on the map of Nigeria. So it's still more of “insecurity somewhere is a threat to security everywhere”...
I have also said previously and I should like to extend on that – in view of your “Today's Quote” - must qualify, modify and to some extent amend what I said earlier that
“In my opinion Brother Buhari in his second coming is as mild as either Kofi Annan or Madiba Nelson Mandela in the circumstances and all the current obstacles considered, beneath the surface this is very much a fact even if it sounds like a controversial statement.”
As President, ex- Military man Muhammadu Buhari is after all “ commander- in-chief” which suggests ( but I don't know) that the Nigerian military takes orders from him and that it's not the other way around : he - as Commander-in-Chief does not take orders from the military. (Or does he?)
President Buhari addressing lawyers opined “Rule of law must be subject to supremacy of Nigeria's security, national interest
“ He opined , or was it a presidential decree? Who is best qualified to interpret that statement? The judiciary? The constitutional lawyers? The Senate? The Chief of Staff ( military)? The Police?
In the light of that sort of statement how does Muhammadu Buhari justify his 1983 New Year's Eve coup d'etat ?
If indeed he is ultimately responsible for what the Nigerian Military does or does not do what circumstances are to blame as responsible for
(a) The Nigerian Army's Massacre of Shia Muslims (in December 2015)
If past history is anything to go by your premonition is not without foundation, when you say, about ““Rule of law must be subject to supremacy of Nigeria's security, national interest“ that from Chidi's point of view, “This is the mind of a natural dictator at work! “
In the light of Bolaji Aluko's statement about one of the citadels of democracy, that “The unlimited powers of the Presidency which were presumed would never be tested by a "reasonable" President have been found to be dangerous under ...” we have to be on our watch in Nigeria too. For the simple reason that even people who were considered considerably less than dictators, not to mention those with “the mind of a natural dictator” have often conflated self-interest with national interest and invoked “ in the interests of national security” to silence opposition or to get rid of their enemies. Sierra Leone's President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah invoked “national security” when prosecuting Paul Kamara for a newspaper article in which Kamara alleged that Kabbah had a house in Guinea-Conakry (where he ( Kabbah) had taken a ten-month refuge - ousted by Johnny Paul Koroma). President Kabbah invoked “ National Security) his lawyer argued that Kamara's maliciously false allegation discredited his ( Kabbah's) integrity and that any ensuing loss of confidence in his Presidency would be a threat to Sierra Leone's national security.
Poor Paul spent the first 100 days of his prison sentence in Foday Sankoh's former solitary confinement cell.
Re- coup d'etat , civil war, revolution, in Iran just around when the Shah's SAVAK were getting tired of gunning down their fellow citizens, it was all over when Ayatollah Khomeini said, The people are the army and the army is the people....
Cornelius Hamelberg
Re – does the military take orders from the head of state or is it the other way around : the Commander-in-Chief takes orders from the military ?
There's this extra-ordinary example of Sierra Leone's president and Commander-in-Chief in very extenuating circumstances taking orders from, in this case some foreign military :Sierra Leone in 1998 : 24 soldiers including a pregnant woman were executed by firing squad in spite of many appeals and petitions from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and more or less the whole world to President Kabbah to stay the executions by using his executive power of clemency. He did not. One of the explanations of his unmerciful behaviour/ decision was that the ECOMOG force then under Nigerian leadership presented him with this stark alternative: either he agreed to the executions – as a deterrent or they would leave him to fight all his future battles on his own.
This must be a consequence of foreign interventions , wherever they occur
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Salimonu Kadiri
Justice delayed, is justice denied!! It is against Nigeria's security and national interest whenever corrupt judges discretionally abuse their judicial powers by granting bails to criminals whose actions have caused thousands of deaths and condemned millions into miserable lives in refugee camps around Nigeria. It is not rule of law, but ruse of law, whenever judges remand some suspects indefinitely in prison while others are granted bails and their cases adjourned sine die. To my mind, it is a reckless abuse of judicial power for any judge to keep an accused person in prison for 22 years awaiting judgment. Let me illustrate with a real case sample.
On 19 September 1996, Ikechukwu Okoronkwo, a 11-year-old boy groundnut seller was lured into a hotel called Otokoto in Owerri and beheaded. Okoronkwo was reportedly given a bottle of coca-cola that had been spiked with drug before he was killed. The hotel was owned by one Vincent Duru, who became known as Chief Otokoto during the trial. Besides beheading Okoronkwo, the suspects who were seven in number reportedly removed different organs from his body, including his genitals, before burying the corpse in a shallow grave. Unfortunately for the murderers, the crime was discovered when one of the culprits, a 32-year-old Innocent Ekeanyanwu, left the hotel to deliver the head of Okoronkwo in a polythene bag to a client. An Okada rider, who gave Ekeanyanwu a ride, observed the fresh human head and alerted the Police, leading to the arrest of Ekeanyanwu. One of the seven accused of murdering Ikechukwu Okoronkwo was a gardener, at Okotoko hotel, called Alban Ajaegbu who was proven not to be at the hotel when the murder took place. Nevertheless, Alban Ajaegbu maintained his innocence and appealed the death sentence passed on him to the Supreme Court of Nigeria. On Friday, 18 May 2018, the Supreme Court of Nigeria in a judgment delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun discharged and acquitted Alban Ajaegbu of participating in the murder of 11-year-old boy groundnut seller,Ikechukwu Okoronkwo. Alban Ajaegbu had been in prison for almost 22 years before his case was finally decided by the Supreme Court. Alban Ajaegbu shared the same fate with about 32 thousand Nigerians who are reportedly incarcerated in various prisons in Nigeria awaiting trials and have been forgotten there by the court registrars and judges who ordered their remands. Now I ask you, what kind of rule of law permits judges to grant bails to treasury looters of millions of dollars and then adjourn their trials indefinitely? What kind of rule law permits judges to preside over corruption cases in Nigeria since 2007, and still in 2018 without conclusions after granting bails to the accused? The natural dictators in Nigeria are the treasury looters and the corrupt judiciary. Correct me if treasury looters and corrupt judicial officers are democrats.
S. Kadiri.
Skickat: den 27 augusti 2018 10:36
Till: USA African Dialogue Series