Our Fear, Their Inaction

[Jibrin Ibrahim]

Our Collective Fears and the Urgent Need for Presidential Response

 

Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, 24^th January 2020

 

It has been a long time since I have seen Nigerians as frightened as they are currently. It’s the type of all-pervasive fear that emerges when people become acutely aware that they are confronted with multiple threats to their safety and that if one does not get them, another would. It’s above all the fear grounded in the belief that as the numerous threats march towards them, no one in authority is trying to do anything about it. It’s the fear rooted in the knowledge that State authority has substantially collapsed in Nigeria, small arms and light weapons are in the hands of bandits, terrorists and militants and these bad guys are using the arms against the people. As the situation deteriorates, people are frightened that their president is talking to them less and travelling out more to network with the world while they are being killed, abducted and stolen from.

 

If I had access to the President, my advice to him is to declare a one-year moratorium on foreign travel and start talking to Nigerians about what could be done to address the problems facing them. My second advice is that he should warn his spokespersons, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu to stop sending Presidential letters of felicitations and goodwill to all members of the elite over 70 years celebrating their birthday. I see them almost daily and I always ask myself is birthday wishes the most important issue on the President’s desk today? For me, there are more pressing issues that he should concern himself with.    

 

The Presidential narrative on Boko Haram has been that their capacity to fight has been degraded, the territories they took five years ago have since been recovered and they have become a ragtag group capable of inly hitting soft targets and sending girls on suicide missions. Every Nigerian wishes that this is indeed the situation. Every Nigerian knows however that they have moved from attacking soft targets to attacking and killing our gallant soldiers virtually on a daily basis. That over the past week, they have taken over control of the road between Maiduguri and Damaturu and have been killing and abducting travellers. The Borno State Governor has had occasion to complain last week that soldiers have been busy collecting toll from rather than defending road travellers and after his complain, the road fell completely to the control of the insurgents. Nigerians are afraid because they can see a decline in performance of the military and there is no attempt on the part of the Government to get a new leadership for them. Nigerians are also frightened because the security situation in the North East further deteriorated when the Chadian soldiers helping us withdrew. How and why has the mighty fallen?

 

Nigerians have become frightened of travelling on the roads in all geo-political zones in the country because bandits and kidnappers have become the kings of our roads. Hundreds of people are being attacked regularly, killed, kidnapped, raped and forced to pay ransoms in millions. We live in dread because payment of the ransom is itself not a guarantee that our kidnapped loved ones would be returned alive. Meanwhile, so many families and communities are becoming bankrupt as they are forced to sell their belongings to pay ransom that might or might not lead to the release of their loved ones. 

 

Nigerians live in apprehension because there has been a massive expansion of the phenomenon of rural banditry in the country. The problem which started as conflicts between farmers and herders has been transformed into widespread armed attacks on rural communities leading to mass killings, arson, theft and again the despicable action of rape and sexual violence. Many people are no longer able to access their farmlands or stay in their communities leading to the mortal fear that their land would be taken away from them. Armed banditry which was a largely urban phenomenon is now everywhere and people are in anxiety because they are neither safe in their urban abode or in their home communities.

 

Nigerians are dismayed because as fear and dread follow wanton killings and destruction, the phenomenon of hate has enveloped their lives. The narratives emerging on rural banditry in the media and in popular discourse have become part of the drivers for expanding the conflicts and killings. The growth of rural banditry has been grafted upon a background of intense competition over increasingly scarce land and water resources in rural communities. The problem is that the protagonists in these growing conflicts are being reduced in an over simplified manner to nomadic Fulani cattle herders, who are mostly Muslims, and sedentary farmer communities of several other ethnic extractions, who are often non-Muslim. These two distinct groups are usually depicted as perpetrators and victims, respectively. The reality is more complex and more serious as freelance armed banditry has taken over the killings and bandits of all religious and ethnic persuasions have joined the fray while the ethno-religious narratives have remained. Fear is intensifying because more and more Nigerians are convinced that the others hate them, are trying to destroy them and no one is trying to defend them.

 

The danger of the unfolding dynamics is that the expansions of hate speech, stigmatization of communities, religious and ethnic groups is causing growing distrust as negative stereotyping between “the one” and “the other” becomes the national pastime.  The result is the rise of ethnic and religious bigotry, culminating in the escalation of further chains of attacks and counter or revenge attacks being exchanged between these different groups. There is dismay in the country because each group is convinced they are victims and the State is not there to protect them. Life has become in Hobbes words – “nasty, brutish and short”. No one appears worried about the manner in which the social media in particular is mass-producing discourses and narratives that are intensifying conflicts. Each day, we receive numerous reports, especially on our WhatsApp platforms about how the enemy is killing and abducting our people while the State would not act. Nigerians in Katsina, Benue, Bornu, Abia and elsewhere are all convinced about their victimhood and the absent State thereby maintaining the country on the straight path to self-destruction.

 

The rural peace offered by the British following their formal occupation of all of Nigeria’s territory in 1903 has completely crumbled and rural and urban banditry by well-armed criminal gangs, most of them multi-ethnic, is emptying Nigeria of its objects of value – lives, livelihoods, property, liberty and safety. Part of the effects of the process is massive population displacements and as the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) grow, farming becomes impossible in many places and the risk of famine is today very real. The Government appears to believe it has a lot of time to work on these issues so there is no rapid response to multiple crises. The security situation in the country is unravelling and citizens have become despondent as they see no State action addressing the issues. I have not even spoken of the traditional problems including militancy in the Niger Delta and Biafran secessionist movements, not to talk of the new Amotekun challenge.

 

What must get out of the conundrum of the constant relay between a normally absent State and an occupation State that appears when killings have occurred and soldiers are brought in. The President must act, continuously engage with Nigerians on what is happening and what he is doing about it. He and his Government must address our fears, anxieties and concerns and assure us that there is a future for the Nigerian State on the basis of concrete actions being taken to address our collective fears over our security and welfare.

 

 

Professor Jibrin Ibrahim

Senior Fellow

Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja

Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

[Toyin Falola]

An outstanding piece as usual, complementing that of Ayo Olukotun released today.

Reality is tough to cope with

Perception is tougher to handle; it lingers longer than reality.

TF

 

Toyin Falola

Department of History

The University of Texas at Austin

104 Inner Campus Drive

Austin, TX 78712-0220, USA

http://toyinfalolanetwork.org/

 

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAPWX8rWUQ2PKx29UCqSnuQX03VGx6bu78ScDusRT2m_7BgZfmA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jibrin Ibrahim]

Yes indeed, thanks

Professor Jibrin Ibrahim

Senior Fellow

Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja

Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/80BB8134-DE16-4428-9579-0FFDD741E7FC%40austin.utexas.edu.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Beautifully written, but knowing the ideological/ethnic/religious provenance of the writer, I was waiting for certain admissions of reality, which unsurprisingly did not come, being instead subsumed into broad generalizations in the determination not to acknowledge those facts.

How did the current sharp decline in security emerge outside the Boko Haram crisis?

It began, shortly after the ascension of Buhari, with the massacre of hundreds in Agatu by Fulani herdsmen, who owned up to the massacre and justified it, through their umbrella group Miyetti Allah Fulani Socio-Cultural Organisation, and who went on to perpetrate more of such cycles of massacres and justifications, massacring and dispersing various Middle Belt communities and taking over their lands.

They even reached a point, as in Nimbo in the SE, of threatening to strike and doing so successfully, with the governor being powerless to stop them, the soldiers organised for the defense having been ordered to step down by an outside power before the attack, as the governor struggled unsuccessfully to reach Buhari at Aso Rock.

This is the kind of horror we have been subjected to since Buhari came to power.

As these outrages occurred, people like Jibrin Ibrahim from the same demographic as Miyetti Allah did not cry out about the absolute inhumanity demonstrated by  this group led by Nigeria's most elite Fulani, most prominent of whom are the Sultan of Sokoto and the Emir of Kano, ex central bank governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

When these persons eventually spoke up, the consensus among them was to lay the blame for the massacres on problems supposedly suffered by the herdsmen.

 Buhari, from the same demographic, preferred to keep silent until stung into action by the criticism of Ayodele Fayose, then governor of   Ekiti State and Femi Fani Kayode, ex minister of aviation.

The Fulani led govt did everything to accommodate the murderers, from policy initiatives to making sure their foot soldiers were not brought to book and the Miyetti Allah terrorist representatives were never questioned, as they became virtually a part of the Presidency, as demonstrated by the Minister of Defence, the Inspector General of Police and Buhari addressing the nation in tandem with the ideologies of Miyetti Allah.

As their power grew,  right wing Fulani terrorism expanded into kidnapping, a sharp rise in abductions demonstrated by a high no of victims attesting to the fact of their abductors being Fulani.

So, its not factual to attribute the current drastic degeneration in security in Nigeria to faceless 'bandits and brigands'  or to a generalized free for all between Nigerians or to the euphemistic 'herders and farmers' conflict.

It stems from the expansion of terrorism by right wing Fulani aided by their patron in Aso Rock, Muhammadu Buhari.

Fulani Militia, along with Boko Haram, are rightly described by international terrorism watch agencies,  with reference to personnel, operational style, victim zones and casualties of victims as two of the deadliest terrors groups of the world, a fact that those who share ethno/religious identity with the Fulani militia refuse to acknowledge, in the face of the evidence, as with Jibrin's ostensibly even handed essay above.

Toyin

--

[Ogedi Ohajekwe]

Yes, very nicely written. 

The problem I have though is that it seems that we mostly conclude when writing about Nigerian issues by asking for ”a change of heart” and ”to voluntarily do better” from the people enthrusted  with running the affairs of the public.

Should we not regularly try to offer some concrete, and as far as we can guess, workable solutions as to how to attempt to combat these issues, in addition to enumerating them.

Though he has reversed himself, I was flabbergasted to hear AGF initially come out against Amotekun- regardless of its supposed short comings.

Does he live in Nigeria and what does he want? Does the government owe the public anything?

Ogedi 

On Jan 24, 2020, at 5:55 AM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTR_u%3DmZBRHn7M9%2BVC-haRsOftW8tBh-25UCGZ9jVBswyw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Toyin Adepoju,

To be a more persuasive and more convincing or believable messenger, even as a messenger of your own conscience, you have to at least appear to be even-handed.

To your credit, so far, you are consistent, and you often give some of us the impression that you are mostly preaching to the already converted,  especially when you  take it upon yourself to act as the spokesperson of the Edo people. We are yet to observe you say a bad  or a more nuanced word about them for any kind of infraction, such as  their over-reacting to the mere presence of any Fulani herdsman in the Edo-man’s vicinity – a peaceful herdsman, minding his own business ( his cows), not disturbing anybody, simply passing through gives some people goose-pimples because  of their disposition to all the propaganda out there, that a Fulani herdsman, a fellow Nigerian citizen passing through Edo land cannot be up to any good.

My Edo friend said he saw one on his land  when he was holidaying back home in Edo-land last year, and I believe that for all we know he might have well been hallucinating, just out of fear, because he failed to capture anything apart from some bushes on his mobile phone camera. He assures me that the first thing that should be done when an Edo-man sees a Fulani man with or without cattle on his Edo-land, should be that he should run or reach for his rifle or his revolver as soon as possible. Better safe than sorry.  As if the Fulani herdsman, a fellow citizen is always his enemy. So it was with the Holocaust, that Jews were slaughtered for merely being Jews and so it was with the murder of Fulani man Amadou Diallo. The guy who pulled the trigger on him assumed that Amadou was a fellow American who was well acquainted with the jargon in Hollywood’s cowboy movies, so  that when he ( like John Wayne) shouted at Amadou, “ Reach for the sky”  and Amadou just  kept coming, he had no other option than to pull the trigger.

Does the Edo-man speak Fulani? That’s another question.

Whenever the perception is that you are not being strictly honest, or that you are too one-sided and too Islamophobic to be “strictly honest”, your credibility is thus at stake with the result that you cannot be an honest broker.

For example,  let’s take the Agatu Massacres which you cite. Your words:

“How did the current sharp decline in security emerge outside the Boko Haram crisis?

It began, shortly after the ascension of Buhari, with the massacre of hundreds in Agatu by Fulani herdsmen, who owned up to the massacre and justified it, through their umbrella group Miyetti Allah Fulani Socio-Cultural Organisation, and who went on to perpetrate more of such cycles of massacres and justifications, massacring and dispersing various Middle Belt communities and taking over their lands. “

Dear Toyin, thou shalt not exaggerate!  We live in a world of cause and effect: that is not how  the Agatu Massacres are reported here –  it’s not that Fulani herdsmen went on a mindless rampage of wanton slaughtering;  on the contrary, it started with the massacre of Fulani assets, their cows, their property, their livelihood….

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTR_u%3DmZBRHn7M9%2BVC-haRsOftW8tBh-25UCGZ9jVBswyw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Not true on Agatu massacre, Cornelius.

I followed it closely.

The killers first justified the massacre by claiming that they were acting in revenge for cows that had been killed.

When Nigerians queried the exchange of human lives for those of cows they changed their story to the claim that a Fulani man was killed.

They have sustained a war of conquest in the Middle Belt, massacring communities, displacing the inhabitants and moving in with their cows.

You seem to  forget that I have been chronicling this subject on this and other fora since the 2015 escalation, and even drew up a timeline of these atrocities, with links to news reports of the massacres and the justifications by Miyeti Allah and their celebration by various Fulani groups.

You also forget that I have severally posted here assessments and information mapping the massacres by both the British Parliament and various terrorism mornitoring groups.

Nigerians now recognize the existence of a Fulani terrorist militia led by Miyeti Allah Fulani Socio-Cultural Organisation and enabled by the right wing Fulani led Nigerian govt.

It is this realization that has given birth to Amotekun.

We are facing an ethno/religious jihad as was waged by Omar al Bashir in Sudan using the janjaweed, a civil war waged agst the rest of Nigeria by an entity that is integral to Buhari's govt, an unofficial union of govt/and non-govt forces,  an aspiration towards what Hezbollah has officially achieved in Lebanon.

toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAC50OP-NJgOVv48PhkOB_2dYZ%2B_pRwzfB9tvdYZ1LEGziH0Cmw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Dear Toyin Adepoju,

Have a heart!

Yes, Nigeria is a big country, the most populous in Africa and all set to become the world’s third most heavily populated country in another thirty years’ time. But for now, let’s conduct a headcount. Right now, how many heavily armed and dangerous Fulani Herdsmen are we talking about, that according to you and some other propagandists, are  - on foot and accompanying their herds of cattle are making the onerous journeys, traversing the vast spaces between the North and the South and  from the  East to the West, simultaneously raping the womenfolk that they meet on the way, burning down churches everywhere and terrorising the whole of Nigeria?

An explanation or an accusation is not the same as proof. This means  that it doesn’t matter how often the accusations or allegations are made  or by whom such accusations and allegations are made about those who provide all the beef that’s consumed in Nigeria, in the absence of proof, we are still in the same territory of scepticism and disbelief as with other  mundane occurrences such as tooth fairies, holy trinities, sons of God,  miraculous virgin births, resurrections and ascensions to the throne of heaven.

You say that you “have been chronicling this subject on this and other fora since the 2015 escalation, and even drew up a timeline of these atrocities “. Congratulations!  But of what importance are your chronicles, you sitting over there in Oxford or in Lagos, so far away from the scene s of the crimes reported by others? The unbelieving Thomas, asketh.

About the Agatu massacre – attested by many unresurrected corpses, there is the heinous equation made about the unfair retaliation of killing armed or unarmed human beings – fellow citizens, in retaliation for cows that were killed, the loss of such capital – cows, that are the Fulani herdsman’s private property, their livelihood. It certainly does not boil down to “But if there is a fatality, you shall give a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot; a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise." (Shemot/ Exodus 21:23-25).

 There is also this (so many have judged) the indiscriminate retaliation for the rape of Dinah , her brothers Simeon and Levi wiping out  all  adult the male members of  a whole tribe – as narrated in Genesis 34 of the Holy Bible…

Conspiracy theorists have another explanation of Omar al Bashir in Sudan using the Janjaweed militia – that there are some precious minerals buried in Darfur and that the Janjaweed were being used to clear the ground above the minerals

 There is a similar conspiracy theory that provides a ready explanation as the raison d’être of Boko Haram and their current activities: that they are being supported by the French who want to clear up that area and eventually start mining the uranium that is buried under the earth….

In both instances – and if I may repeat, in all instances, an accusation or an explanation is not a proof.

Last word on your tedious tirades: Baba Kadiri has severally argued  and credibly demonstrated the improbability of the much-vilified Fulani Herdsmen being the agents of all the banditry that has overtaken Nigeria, that has and is plunging the country into lawlessness and anarchy, for which the evil anti- Fulani propaganda wants to make the Fulani Herdsmen the convenient scapegoats

El Toro 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTQdYDJ7ZAxMWcr53fcmkXxM19LNE-xvXLm9WURBNjwbCA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Ayotunde Bewaji]

The foundation of Capitalism was the dispossession of peasant lands in Europe - enforced by bogus Economic theories and Common Law. The foundation of Zionism is the promised land syndrome, whereby Jews are entitled to the possession of their siblings' lands at the behest of their ethnic blood sucking deity. The foundation of Pragmatism is the dispossession of Amerindian lands by vagrant Europeans in the "New World" - John Wayne even was appealing to our youth. The foundation of Modern Australia and New Zealand is the total destruction of Aborigines. The foundation of Modern Latin America is the wiping out of the original inhabitants of South America and whitening of Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, etc, not to even mention the ongoing travails of majority colored population of Brazil. The foundation of Fulanization of Southern Nigeria would be on the rights of Herders to bring their "assets" (Cornelius) to ravage my assets in their passing through from Sokoto to Lagos to make their money. Alagba Cornelius, Sir, and Oloye Jaburata Ojogbon TF, "Who is Afraid of Elesin Oba"? Is someone angling for a reward from Miyetti Devil Government?

Ojogbon Jibrin Ibrahim brown-washed evil and people are croaking well-done. How can itinerant herding even be justified in contemporary society by any one with any green matter between their ears? Why do we privilege access to the lucre of power over truth? Why doesn't our famous Jibo say something about bringing the North into "Modernity" (Taiwo), not with all its evils, but managed to reflect African values of humanity? Does anyone notice that the temperature in some parts of Nigeria has moved from 10 C to 40 C over this Christmas? Do we have any brains to harness the Sun Resource/Source? Aren't we waiting for the white man to perfect the energy for us to use? Even what we refine locally, we mess it up so that we can pay subsidies to touts, thieves and rogues! Why are we wasting so much energies being gladiators fighting for primitives from other climes to rule our lives? When you look to the Arabia Desert, what good ever emanated from there except pain, destruction and human destruction? Why do we want all children in Nigeria now to be panhandlers before they can learn humility, humanity, spirituality? Those celebrating these disdain for the humanity of the poor, how many of them would allow their own children to go through this? Is this the best/only way to organize religious education? Baba Gana Kingibe, fortunately, is still here, if he remembers!

I know I have jumbled so much together. I have even been chastised: why are you engaging with people who neither listen to each other or consider each other human? When I raised a number of questions arising from Alagba Gbadamosi's write-up, I expected engagement. Does anyone expect any different in a Trumpian age, when evil ceases to be evil? Truth died with Republican worship of the Devil. In Nigeria, ethnic and religious bigotry trumps reason!

O ma se o.

Dr. John Ayotunde (Tunde) Isola BEWAJI, FJIM, MNAL
Professor of Philosophy
BA, MA, PhD Philosophy, PGDE, MA Distance Education
Postgraduate Certificate in Philosophy for Children
Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy
Faculty of Humanities and Education
University of the West Indies
Mona Campus Kingston 7 Jamaica
Tel:       1-876-927-1661-9 Ext: 3993
             1-876-935-8993 (o)
Fax:      1-876-970-2949
Email:   john....@uwimona.edu.jm      johnayotu...@gmail.com       tunde...@yahoo.com (alternate) 
             tunde....@gmail.com (alternate)

http://www.cap-press.com/books/isbn/9781611630879/Narratives-of-Struggle (2012)
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Aesthetics (2012)

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739185032/Ontologized-Ethics (2013)

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498518383/The-Rule-of-Law-and-Governance-in-Indigenous-Yoruba-Society-A-Study-in-African-Philosophy-of-Law (2016)

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-humanities-and-the-dynamics-of-african-culture-in-the-21st-century (2017)

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTQdYDJ7ZAxMWcr53fcmkXxM19LNE-xvXLm9WURBNjwbCA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Gloria Emeagwali]

“....Knowing the ideological /ethnic/religious provenance of the writer.........”Adepoju

Unfortunately,  you have jumped to stereotypical conclusions about the messenger, without any factual foundations for each category that you have listed.

 Exercise caution and restraint about personal identities and concentrate on the message.


GE

africahistory.net

Sent from my iPhone

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/357071336.177229.1579936862181%40mail.yahoo.com.

[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

Jibrin Ibrahim referred to the uncritical lumping together of events such as represented by Toyin Adepoju, so nobody, at least on this forum is surprised by his monomania.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.e...@gmail.com>

Date: 25/01/2020 14:21 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Our Fear, Their Inaction

This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (gloria.e...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info

“....Knowing the ideological /ethnic/religious provenance of the writer.........”Adepoju

Unfortunately,  you have jumped to stereotypical conclusions about the messenger, without any factual foundations for each category that you have listed.

 Exercise caution and restraint about personal identities and concentrate on the message.


GE

africahistory.net

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 25, 2020, at 2:21 AM, 'Ayotunde Bewaji' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/357071336.177229.1579936862181%40mail.yahoo.com.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/7F2B56C0-2893-47CC-8B92-CE702DB66AB9%40gmail.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

To the passionate philosopher, Dr. John Ayotunde (Tunde) Isola BEWAJI, FJIM, MNAL etc. etc.

Professor of Philosophy: Ę káàá san ooo

Understandably, what you are saying is conditioned by the time, the age and the place from which you are writing (Jamaica, where the Chinese have taken over, and how do you think about that in the light of the various economic theories by which I suppose you want to assess the takeover? ).

Understandably, with a broad brush sweeping, you are justifiably frustrated and railing against all ills and evils, like so many of the otherwise shuffering and shmiling among our people. Understandably, even some of the so-called stoics on occasion do get angry. Not surprisingly either, the broad sweep does not spare Zionism nor do you spare yourself the folly of blaspheming the God of the Hebrew Faith and in that respect as far as I’m concerned, the blasphemer is worthy of nothing less than the bloodthirsty death penalty and what survives of his unrepentant self is beneath contempt. Ditto for Gore Vidal’s atrocious introduction to Israel Shahak’s “Jewish History, Jewish Religion”. Nor is Nigeria supposed to be “a closed utopia”, the quotations at the beginning of chapter one of that book, notwithstanding  (“Plato is a friend, but truth is a greater friend”, “In a free state every man can think what he wants and say what he thinks” ( Spinoza) )

For now, it’s only this sarcastic paragraph that concerns me since my name is mentioned therein:

“The foundation of Fulanization of Southern Nigeria would be on the rights of Herders to bring their "assets" (Cornelius) to ravage my assets in their passing through from Sokoto to Lagos to make their money.”

Very ultimately, we are talking about the rule of law.

Since the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria grants and guarantees each and every Nigerian citizen the unfettered right to free movement within the country’s borders, I fail to see why the Fulani herdsmen should be denied their lawful right to pass through any part of Nigeria with their assets. After all, they are only satisfying the law of demand (for beef) and supply (of beef)  and in that long and onerous trek from grazing grounds to the abattoirs and finally to the cemeteries of so many stomachs, should they infringe any of the laws of the country such as “ ravaging” any of Dr Bewaji’s or anybody else’s “assets”,  then, of course, those affected have every right to take recourse to the Law of the land  and  the lawbreakers  in such a public domain are subject to the fill force of the law, and nowhere can  Cornelius Agrippa  or Cornelius Adebayo or indeed Cornelius Ignoramus be accused or be quoted as having said otherwise.

To that end (understandably) Operation Amotekun is wholly justified in terms of pikuach nefesh and the watchword is, if the government can’t protect us then we have to protect ourselves.

 

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/357071336.177229.1579936862181%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Emeagwali,

Can you justify your claim with reference to particular sections of my comment?

Can you demonstrate why you think my descriptions of Jibrin's ideological/demographic identity does not make my case that Nigeria's central security problems emerges from the greed of the right wing Muslim North central to which are the warlords of the right wing Fulani?

Please if you are going to respond, put in some effort, not the one liners in terms of which you often simplify Nigerian politics in line with your own orientations.

toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/7F2B56C0-2893-47CC-8B92-CE702DB66AB9%40gmail.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

I was about to respond in like manner to one character on this thread in the manner as I had promised I would if he continued with his uncouth antics.

But then, I reasoned, what is the business of a philosopher, of an intercontinental esotericist,  of a voyager in varied worlds of knowledge, with a confused person, lost between admiration at the prowess of the philosopher/esotericist/polymath and envy at the sheer flaming vitality of the intrepid explorer between mind, world and cosmos?

Can I afford to trade words in motor park style even as I seek to map the permutations of being and becoming?

I cant.

So, keeping in mind that those reading can decipher the difference, I let it pass.

I greet you.

toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/VI1PR04MB44933F6C7BD8E6628ED1CFD6A6090%40VI1PR04MB4493.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Cornelius,

Are these protestations of yours not outdated?

Since 2015, we have been on this game of denial on behalf of culprits who dont want your help, being eager to demonstrate how powerful they are, massacring and justifying the massacres again and again, with their evils documented again amd again by various agencies within and outside Nigeria, with clear descriptions of their actions, and you choose to generate dust with claims of 'no proof'. 

Are you not guilty of the equivalent of 'Holocaust denial' all bcs of you want to side Buhari whom you should have jettisoned long ago?

Of recent, you have agreed that its true Nigeria is facing a scourge of  land usurpations by Fulani herdsmen..

Have you changed your mind?

Are you aware that  Miyetti Allah is now presenting itself as a determinant of who becomes Nigeria's President, declaring that the Amotekun initiative could cost the SW the 2023 Presidency?

Various Nigerians, such as myself, have concluded they are speaking for the right wing Fulani warlords who are at the heart of the right wing mindset dominating the Muslim North.

Can this country move forward, composed as it by   these incompatible civilizations?

thanks

toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAC50OP_KrXYVHcLqJLT0HqEPjRCj3iHo4F6D3%3DmNQXGGwJmkxQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

What is ' uncouth" in agreeing with a broad section of the forum as is shown in this particular thread, right from the columnist?

As the Yoruba would put it 'Enikan kii je Awade" ( No single person can be referred to as ' Here we come'.)

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTSEEcKJicTG8MYEjhhSthHBEZM%3De5sf3-Q%3DKR8Xrb_Z4A%40mail.gmail.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Toyin Adepoju,

May the carcasses of the wanton, unrepentant murderers, rot in hell!

My main beef is concern about the violation of this commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

And how can there be “land usurpations by Fulani herdsmen” if there are laws that do not permit that?

I hope that you also understand that I am very far from the equivalent of Holocaust denial, when all I ask for is evidence in support of the allegations that you and others have been making against Fulani herdsmen, that they are responsible for all the banditry and brigandry that is being perpetrated all over Nigeria, when obviously they are not and cannot be…

Once you provide that incontrovertible evidence I will probably be as strident as you in protesting against any such atrocities. Of course, if such evidence is available or obtainable then the major question is why are the perpetrators not being brought to justice? It should not merely be about self-defence and the inevitable rise or proliferation of self-defence outfits such as Amotekun. Obviously, when  people of the moral stature of your namesake, our own Toyin Falola, Messrs Wole Soyinka, Anthony A. Akinola,  Segun Ogunbemi, Tunde Bewaji, Baba Kadiri, your good friend Olayinka Agbetuyi and  the Hon. Bola Tinubu espouse such a just as cause as saving our own lives, then I must also fully embrace such a cause.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTRd1SQ%3DJMbgnyhZA_9bB6i71vnAvW07Tvg7Gdtc6e%3DeiQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

Adepoju,
You are complaining about my one liners.  So you  can’t get enough of it. Like Oliver Twist you want more. Sorry.

Unfortunately I publish papers in
Academic Journals not USA Dialogue Series.

BTW I was reacting to one of your
one- liners that claimed to know the ideological, religious and ethnic profile
of my former colleague Jibo. I advised you to be cautious in your assertions.  Jibo is not Fulani, your favorite punching bag - nor is he  a Muslim or a religious fanatic. Take note.




Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net;  vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished  Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.e...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2020 9:13:04 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Our Fear, Their Inaction

 

Please be cautious: **External Email**

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/7F2B56C0-2893-47CC-8B92-CE702DB66AB9%40gmail.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Emeagwali,

Since you are too busy publishing papers in academic journals to make significant contributions to the efforts represented by others on USA-Africa exerting their precious time and energy trying to find solutions to problems of life and death bedeviling Nigerians, dont you think you should keep your peace while others who consider the effort worth their time go about it?

I used to think academic journals do not operate outside the social contexts of the very issues being discussed on sites like USAAfrica.  

I wrote an essay, though a brief one, not a one liner or brief throw away sentences as you usually do.

If you had read the essay you would have observed that I referenced three layers of demography-

ideological, ethnic and religious.

I described a right wing ethno-religious Islamic mindset as dominant in the Muslim North and right wing Fulani supremacists as at the centre of this demographic. 

This is about mindset, not ethnicity primarily or even completely about religion. It depicts a mindset shaped by religion, ethnicity and region, but which does not have to be configured by all three  factors at once.

On the scourge of the right wing Fulani ethno/religious supremacists in Nigeria, Islam also exists in SW Nigeria. It is not dominated in that regions by right wing ethno/religious thinking. That region is  not at the centre of conquest by a Fulani jihad centred in right wing Islam and the dominance of a Fulani ruling elite. Centre as different from what may be understood as the peripheral cultural and physical geography of the SW in the Fulani jihad enterprise.

Demonstrating this cultural non-centrality, SW Islam is modulated by a range of influences that make impossible the recurrent massacres of non-Muslims and recurrent emergence of murderous Islamic terrorist groups such as Maitasine and Boko Haram, as defines the Muslim North.

It is not possible to find in the SW politicians like Atiku Abubakar threatening Nigeria with violent change bcs he, as a Northern Muslim, was not made PDP 2011 Presidential candidate. You wont find anyone threatening the equivalent of 'the dog and the baboon will be covered in blood' if he loses the Presidential election as Buhari threatened in 2015. 

You will not find the equivalent of a Miyetti Allah Fulani Socio-Cultural Organisation,composed of Nigeria's most eminent Fulani,  that justifies massacres by Fulani herdsmen. In the midst of which  while other Fulani maintain silence or blame the victims.

That would be unimaginable for Afenifere, a prominent Yoruba cultural and political group.

The SW OPC will never venture into other states, massacring people as the Fulani herdsmen militia have done across Nigeria. 

Understand the present in terms of history. 

Can you begin to see the depth of our problem, why I argue that I doubt if progress is possible within such incompatibilities?

If you are ready to provide an analytical justification of your views, as I do with mine, I am ready to engage you with the same seriousness as you bring to the table.

toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/SN6PR01MB45574BF7DBC42A2A62A98352DE080%40SN6PR01MB4557.prod.exchangelabs.com.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Edited

Emeagwali,

Since you are too busy publishing papers in academic journals to make significant contributions to the efforts represented by others on USA-Africa exerting their precious time and energy trying to find solutions to problems of life and death bedeviling Nigerians, dont you think you should keep your peace while others who consider the effort worth their time go about it?

I used to think academic journals do not operate outside the social contexts of the very issues being discussed on sites like USAAfrica.  

I wrote an essay, though a brief one, not a one liner or brief throw away sentences as you usually do.

 I referenced four layers of demography, in my first and subsequent responses, although I needed to use them in a more specific manner-

regional, ideological, ethnic and religious.

I described a right wing ethno-religious Islamic mindset as dominant in the Muslim North and right wing Fulani supremacists as at the centre of this demographic. 

This is about mindset, not ethnicity primarily or even completely about religion. It depicts a mindset shaped by religion, ethnicity and region, but which does not have to be configured by all three  factors at once.

Jibrin might not be Fulani or Muslim, but how different is his style of thinking from that exemplified by right wing Northern Muslims, core to whom are Fulani supremacists?

 Most people from the Muslim North, who may or may not be Muslims, and who will not explicitly champion the massacres by Fulani militia or support the declarations of justifications of those massacres by Miyetti Allah, are unified by  a conspiracy of acquiescence in never referencing the one sided scale of casualties, high level of militarization  and national geographical penetration of Fulani herdsmen terrorism, describing the situation in the distorting euphemism of 'herdsmen farmer clashes' , 'more complex than is described by the media' as Jibrin does. 

These people are unified in never acknowledging the absolute horror, the absolute brutality to the national psyche, represented by Miyetti Allah Fulani Socio-Cultural Organisation, an organisation composed of Nigeria's most eminent Fulani, operating in effect as a terrorist coordinator,   justifying massacres of Nigerians by Fulani herdsmen militia. Again and again.

On the scourge of the right wing Fulani ethno/religious supremacists in Nigeria, Islam also exists in SW Nigeria. It is not dominated in that regions by right wing ethno/religious thinking. That region is  not at the centre of conquest by a Fulani jihad centred in right wing Islam and the dominance of a Fulani ruling elite. Centre as different from what may be understood as the peripheral cultural and physical geography of the SW in the Fulani jihad enterprise.

Demonstrating this cultural non-centrality, SW Islam is modulated by a range of influences that make impossible the recurrent massacres of non-Muslims and recurrent emergence of murderous Islamic terrorist groups such as Maitasine and Boko Haram, as defines the Muslim North.

It is not possible to find in the SW politicians like Atiku Abubakar threatening Nigeria with violent change bcs he, as a Northern Muslim, was not made PDP 2011 Presidential candidate. You wont find anyone threatening the equivalent of 'the dog and the baboon will be covered in blood' if he loses the Presidential election as Buhari threatened in 2015. 

You will not find the equivalent of a Miyetti Allah Fulani Socio-Cultural Organisation,composed of Nigeria's most eminent Fulani,  that justifies massacres by Fulani herdsmen. In the midst of which  while other Fulani maintain silence or blame the victims.

That would be unimaginable for Afenifere, a prominent Yoruba cultural and political group.

The SW OPC will never venture into other states, massacring people as the Fulani herdsmen militia have done across Nigeria. 

Understand the present in terms of history. 

Can you begin to see the depth of our problem, why I argue that I doubt if progress is possible within such incompatibilities?

If you are ready to provide an analytical justification of your views, as I do with mine, I am ready to engage you with the same seriousness as you bring to the table.

toyin

[Gloria Emeagwali]

Oliver Twister.

This is laughable, indeed.
Not worth a response.

G

Sent from my iPhone

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTS%3DVS5%3D9XE_L_-mFsV67W9tmwVt3R9PAWB%3DWLthJ3igYg%40mail.gmail.com.

[segun ogungbemi]

A good write up but Nigeria does not have a listening and acting government.

Segun Ogungbemi 

--

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Toyin,

Why, "Emeagwali"?  So terse. You could rue the day...

Why not Gloria, Sista Gloria, Professor Emeagwali, or better still, Gloria in Excelsis Emeagwali?

Think: Glorious booty!  (I know it’s always on your mind, when not far off or near, like that Cameroonian Sista crossing the road.  You shouldn’t burn your bridges. Think: there could be a rainy day.

The existence of Amotekun (as a lethal fighting force?) is guaranteed to ward off evil. There should be no “Fulani Herdsmen” incidents. But what about the bandits who are ravaging the countryside, and who are neither Fulani, nor herdsmen?

My real fear now is this dangerous scenario: Should some mischievous, good-for-nothing bandits disguised as “Amotekun” gun down some innocent Fulani Herdsmen that could spark off a running battle between retaliatory Herdsmen and the real Amotekun. Could cause some real bad blood between the people of the South West ethnicity and the Fulani 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTRfVxGyObqL7wKsQJ436rm-0HdbTk89RB0gO3tZom%3DLpQ%40mail.gmail.com.