SUNDAY MUSING: Johnathan's Impending Non-Presidency - By Bolaji Aluko

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Johnathan's Impending Non-Presidency

Nothing turns more heads in this unfolding political season than the prospect of  a Goodluck Ebele Johnathan's return to Nigeria's presidency, ostensibly to complete his  second term, and  thereafter to return power to the North in a shortened power rotation scheme.

The GEJ trial balloon is a political howler - but why APC and not his PDP? A 2015 anti-APC Pariah suddenly  transforms into a 2023 APC Messiah?   Just like that?

Has someone smoked a bad reefer somewhere or what? 

If in the very unlikely event he contests and wins, he will most probably spend the first year or two fighting legal demons;  Madame Patience's Aso Villa health demons will return - if Reuben Abati's recent surreal account of the national residence's Harry Potter environment is to be believed - and GEJ's simplistic simpleton-icity - if there is a word like that-  will  be confirmed once and for all.   And Nigeria will be the worse off for it.

Chineke ekwena ihe ojoò....

My since advice to my Otuoke compatriot? Don't run please, GEJ.  You will be messed up.

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

May 1, 2022

Shaking his head

------------------------

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Really?

Aluko, one of those who helped bring to power the destroyer now in office?

The same GEJ who provided Aluko with his most significant career opportunity by  inviting Aluko from the US to head a university in GEJ's hometown, even though they both shared no ethnic kinship, a deep irony as  ethnicity was raised to a hitherto unparalleled level in Nigerian history by the man Aluko helped bring into office after GEJ.

  In the spirit of freedom of association, Aluko rejected his benefactor GEJ anyway in supporting a man who could not find his first school leaving certificate, a man of no signficant credentials, an open identifier with Boko Haram Islamic  terrorism, as  Nigerian President.

On entering office, this man appointed a journalist as minister of education who removed Aluko and others chosen by GEJ to head the new universities he had founded, the minister  replacing them with Muslim Northerners, most from the new President's state, Katsina, a move I did not read Aluko even referencing.

Bros, if you have anything to say on GEJ, put  yourself together and say something serious.

You were one of those who helped transform the man who loyally served the anti-NADECO demon Abacha whom you and others fought and yet you championed this man's return to lead Nigetia.

On what grounds?

You are one of those who long tried to obfuscate the facts of Fulani herdsmen terorirism until it became unavoidable, likely beceause you understood the man you helped bring into office as rightly soiled by that problem.

We need from you an explanation for these political gymnastics.

Is such gymnastics, whether from you, Soyinka, Tinubu, OBJ who has had to apologise to GEJ, not the name of the game as you all joined together to repudiate your own political histories in 2015?

So why are you acting surprised at another person playing the same political game of alliance by convenience?

Apologies for the tone of this piece. I could not polish it.

Thanks

Toyin

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,

What’s going on? Have you lost your marbles? 

Is this an inquisition or is it an inquiry with all the dumb-ass,  asinine questions that you expect Professor Mobolaji Aluko, a savvy political commentator to answer? You are not being respectful. Instead of examining and addressing the gist of the matter, to some extent a technical matter of exactly the sort that Professor Akwasi  Oseenoh raised, why hurl all these savage, insulting ad hominem at the man who Goodluck Jonathan deemed fit to appoint Vice-Chancellor of his premier Federal University, Otuoke?

You don’t have to respond to any rhetorical question, because I  too don’t want to have to be nasty.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Not interested in your response, Cornelius.

Aluko, your "savvy political commentator" knows where I'm coming from. 

 A good no of others reading my comments know where I'm coming from.

He's free to be silent.

A man whom I've never read having anything positive to say about the person who provided the most important opportunity of his entire professional life.

Of what value are the words of a political chameleon dismissing another political chameleon, a second chameleon of greater integrity than himself?

If one chameleon has anything to say about another such character, the critic should not pretend as if they are not all playing the same game.

Please don't respond if you have nothing concrete to say. I don't want to have to spend time responding to uninformed comments.

Thanks

Toyin

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Correction: Professor Akwasi Assensoh, and the similar issues that he raised in the thread “ Too Crazy”

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

The Aluko/ GEJ/ Otueke VCship/ Buhari story is a classic case of Nigerian politics and why it's not working.

 I became agitated because a major embodiment of that dysfunctionality is engaging in buck passing.

The reading public  is better served by his  analysing the issue from the lens of his own political and professional  history before and after 2015 instead of dismissing GEJ for playing the same game of political association of convenience,devoid of any ideological or historical centre.

Thanks

Toyin

[Okey Iheduru]

"Apologies for the tone of this piece. I could not polish it." -- Toyin Adepoju.

May Day To Toyin Adepoju

Surprise! Surprise!! Surprise!!! 

The ethnic harvest hasn't occurred over the past seven years.

The woodpecker on AWOL, stricken with a cancerous boil on its beak, now returns.

A luta, louder poisonous noise, continua!

The sabbatical from those obfuscating charts and tables of the Muse must end.

Those propaganda lances thrust at the generous heart of the non-tribal benefactor!

But, Why not? Seriously?

The rumored Clueless-Futa Jallon migrants alliance doth raise mortified antennas. 

Dashed hopes of another impending ethnic harvest--this time with vengeance. 

Yet, history begs to be the wise teacher it has always been.

Since Afonja and Alimi!!!

 

Okey Iheduru

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Okey C. Iheduru

e-mail: okeyi...@gmail.com

[Mobolaji Aluko]

Begin Haiku:

Okey Iheduru turned Poisonous Poet

Egged on by the More Poisonous Adepoju

A Dangerous Handshake 'Cross the Niger

Congratulations!

End Haiku

Okey and Adepoju:

You are both notable hagiographers.

I was not a biting critic of GEJ, benefactor and Otuoke compatriots that we were 2011-2015.  In fact, we have been in correspondence off and on since, but for the sake of the country, it was time for him to go when he did in 2015.  My admiration for him and his simplicity fuel my advice for him to stay away from being messed up, no more, no less.

I was never a throbbing admirer of Buhari - no single write-up by me promoted him - but while he was certainly not an economic guru,  his reputation then for incorruptibility and security credentials fueled a wait-and-see attitude in 2015.  It has been a major disappointment.  He is leaving soon, very soon.

I am, like Tinubu, a desperate democrat.  Another election, another opportunity for reset - or do you have an alternative to Churchill's lamentation?

Another point before I close:  Nigeria does not need a strong-man but strong institutions; needs true federal parliamentary electoral democracy,  a roots-and-branches restructuring, not its present pseudo-military unitary oligarchy,  of captured and captive political parties and citizenry.  Otherwise, it will continue to bumble along its rickety bridge to the future.

So sheathe your bile.  I come in peace.

Bolaji Aluko 

Ado-Ekiti

May 2, 2022

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Before daybreak I compiled a comprehensive response to Aluko on the anticipated GEJ 2023 APC Presidential run.

 It came to almost 3,000 words in an effort to justify my position in the context of the intertwined individual and national historical contexts wrongly served, as I see it, by Aluko's May 1, 2022 piece.

I was particularly incensed by the simpleton characerisation of GEJ in his piece, a major motif of the movement that removed GEJ from power only to elect a figure whose primary legacy has been the further destruction of Nigeria.

Something then whispered to me, "Toyin, don't post this yet. You've been up all night. Shut the computer down and go for a walk. You might find you will then see things in a way that could improve what you've written."

"Really? I asked  myself? Did I write anything that is not factual?"

"It's not about the historical facts," was the response from the advising  inward voice. It's about how the facts are presented, the tone of the discourse."

"So? What other tone except that of righteous anger is valid here, projected through careful analysis of the issues?"I  challenged in response.

"Passionate debate," the voice suggested, is like being inside a room where all windows are closed. Taking a step back from the debate is like opening the windows for fresh air to enter so one may breathe more easily. Do so here. Forget what you have written for a while and go for a walk."

"But I want to finish this issue off and face other things," I countered.

"True, but have you read Aluko's response, which Gmail alerted you a few mins ago has just been posted on the group? You might need to read it to shape your response."

"Why should I?"  I countered. "The issues will not change," I insisted.

"Not necessarily," was the response, "but you might look churlish if you sustain the combative tone while Aluko chooses a conciliatory response."

""Hmm...." I began to reflect.

"Aluko may chose the identity in which you knew him for years in the now defunct Yahoo Nigerian centred groups, a person who does not run from a fight, ready to mud it out while still engaging in intellectual analysis. 

If that Aluko surfaces here, you are free to post the essay as written, angry yet analytical.

But you could see another Aluko, a person more sensitive to the broader range of issues at play here, a conciliatory Aluko, who could present a position without being combative. If that Aluko surfaces, your present tone will look problematic."

"Okay. I agree. I'm shutting the computer down and going to enjoy the early morning sun and fresh air."

I shut down the computer and stood up to leave but could not help reading Aluko's response.

Seems the internal voice was right.

Aluko's conciliatory response would make an angry rejoinder problematic. 

What is required is a patient analysis of the issues in a truly scholarly manner, devoid of polemics.

I intend to do that soon.

Great thanks

Toyin

[Salimonu Kadiri]

​The same GEJ who provided Aluko with his most significant career opportunity by inviting Aluko from the US to head a University in GEJ's hometown, even though they both shared no ethnic kinship, a deep irony as ethnicity was raised to a hitherto unparalleled level in Nigerian history by the man Aluko helped bring into office after GEJ - Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju.

To begin with, Aluko is a family surname and since the writer of the article Oluwatoyin is responding to, gave his name as Mobolaji Aluko, it must be either out of lack of home training/etiquette or out of affliction with intellectual rascality or both, to have addressed Mobolaji only with his surname which he shares with his siblings. That is a rude behaviour which is peculiar to street urchins and not intellectuals.

Since Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju is a tribalist he cannot, still in 2022, understand how an Ijaw President like GEJ could appoint an Ekiti, Yoruba man, as vice Chancellor of University of his hometown Otueke, in Bayelsa state of Nigeria. Oluwatoyin's assumed that both GEJ and Mobolaji Aluko did not share ethnic kinship. However, assumption is the lowest level of knowledge and the self-appointed Ifa priest, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, assumed wrongly when he said that GEJ and Mobolaji Aluko did not share ethnic kinship. Paternally, the father of Mobolaji Aluko is from Ekiti State but maternally, his mother is Ijaw from Bayelsa State. Now, only fools will believe that someone is appointed a vice-Chancellor of a University because of his ethnic association and not out of merit and competence. Mobolaji Aluko did not disappoint Nigerians as he built, from the scratch, the University of Otueke, Bayelsa, to international standard before his contract expired and was not extended by the incoming president, Mohammadu Buhari. Mobolaji Aluko could have built a ghost University in Otueke just like the ghost producers and distributors of electricity, ghost RUGA proprietors, ghost Turn Around Maintenance of oil refineries for $7.3 billion with functionless refineries etc., and nothing would have happened. 

We all witnessed the 2015 presidential election in Nigeria, when Mobolaji Aluko was still the vice-chancellor of the University of Otueke. Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju should tell us, maybe after consulting his Ifa oracle, about how Mobolaji Aluko at the time he was busy structuring University of Otueke was able to work to bring Muhammadu Buhari to power. For those who will see Afonja/Alimi in Mobolaji Aluko, I can only advise them to procure a large binocular to peep into the history of how Nigeria got to the present political and economic conditions. When they have performed total x-ray of NIGERIA's history, they would see the picture of the tribalist that stole the revolution of the five Majors in January 1966 and abolished regions through Decree No. 34 of May 24, 1966. They would also see who were Abacha's Economic Minister, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice when the nine Ogoni activists were judicially murdered by the Military Government. They will also see those who organised and danced in a million match called Youth Earnestly Want Abacha as President. It is quite galling for someone that was birthed on the fringe of the society and particularly from a low social status to continuously disparage more accomplished individuals from impressive pedigrees.

S. Kadiri

 

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Okey Iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com>
Sent: 02 May 2022 02:51
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: ovde...@gmail.com <ovde...@gmail.com>; okey iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - SUNDAY MUSING: Johnathan's Impending Non-Presidency - By Bolaji Aluko

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGCbkjqrNTBGAPG6r3UqbL%3DS_0WQaauohoEu6GJWfzT6jMznZw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Adepoju,

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you”

Perhaps you are right when you write, “ A good no of others reading my comments know where I'm coming from” because to be honest I can’t fathom Okey Iheduru’s latest rant; “ May Day To Toyin Adepoju” which sounds like some ethnic jingoism, alternately classical Igbo poetry in Her Majesty’s English, to yours truly

I’m not very good at the psychoanalysis of people or with any degree of certainty, adducing motives to anybody, as you do with Professor Aluko. At least he is not a fair-weather friend, nor has he lost his moral compass.  On the contrary, he strikes me as being, at all times, an Honourable Yoruba man,  a true patriot and a real Nigerian nationalist.

Therefore, you had better wake up, and begin to sharpen up. Everybody knows the dark hole where you’re coming from and where you’re coming from may be fun, but not funny, not funny either when everybody starts getting emotional, indignant, black power powerful and anti-racial racist when Trump uses that famous Ayi Kwei Armah shit as metaphor and reality in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, about the shit-hole “dysfunctionality” that you are perennially either griping or groaning  about, sitting over there in the darkness in your major city without light and in defiance of what Jesus said, prophetically perhaps encompassing Ibadan in his outreach in  Matthew 5 :

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

True: Adepoju probably truly believes that he is “the light of the world” sent to this world to correctly educate the fools or at least one of the 419-megawatt lightbulbs of the world and that this is a special Nigeria matter in which foreigners and non-Nigerians who know no better may not interfere, the beautiful ones are not yet born and Adepoju the Pan-Africanist is a black & beautiful exception, but not Cornelius Ignoramus. Just as you say, Professor Mobalaji Aluko, my esteemed savvy political commentator also knows where you’re coming from and we don’t have to take a lie-detector test on that score. Nor do you have to pray for anything less than his success as a future governor of Ekiti State. 

So, you have never read the Professor saying ”anything positive” about Goodluck Jonathan who appointed him Vice-Chancellor of his esteemed Federal University, Otuoke in his part of the Niger Delta. Is that a crime? Was the Professor not more than deserving of the appointment? Should Goodluck Jonathan be above criticism? Is criticism of the one you regard as his former benefactor tantamount to being a “political chameleon”?  Isn’t this what’s wrong with your country - this ritual genuflection to people like Goodluck Joe as an infallible, no matter what e.g the stench of corruption? By every conceivable definition, in this sorry episode isn’t Goodluck Jonathan the one that’s a political chameleon if the last time he ran as a PDP candidate, lost to Buhari waving the APC anti-corruption flag and now wants to turncoat and contest as an APC candidate, perhaps true to the consolation of better luck next time and the adage “If you can’t beat them then join them”?

It seems to me that the whole tenor of Professor Aluko’s posting is kindly advice to Goodluck, to not contest - because of all kinds of technical difficulties and sordid contradictions ( as I understand it) and perhaps, his, "My sincere advice to my Otuoke compatriot? Don't run please, GEJ.  You will be messed up." is not very different from Barack Obama who also kindly advised Sleepy Joe Biden in almost the same words “You don't have to do this Joe, you really don't”

From the land of Futa-Jallon: Mami Wata

[Toyin Falola]

Dear sir:

I apologize to everyone for approving this post. It is full of insults.

TF

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/HE1P193MB00763AEBBADCF3D9C3D9A3D4AEC19%40HE1P193MB0076.EURP193.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

I am sure that Dr. Aluko is not

a fortune teller to know how Buhari 

would have ruled. Many saw Buhari 

in his first term as an active man of 

change, and anticipated a continuation 

of that enthusiasm and activist

spirit. In politics, hares turn into snails and

princes into frogs, unfortunately. 

But feel free to  share with us the 

fortune telling cookies at your disposal.

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 Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 1, 2022 7:14 PM

To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - SUNDAY MUSING: Johnathan's Impending Non-Presidency - By Bolaji Aluko

 

EXTERNAL EMAIL: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click any links or open any attachments unless you trust the sender and know the content is safe.

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

My critique goes beyond "you should not have supported Buhari".

When a person is able to engage the core of my critique or engage it holistically, we can start talking.

Thanks

Toyin

[segun ogungbemi]

Toyin,

Bolaji Aluko’s mother was from Jonathan’s ethnicity. 

Segun. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/SN7PR06MB72474E41AB7CFA22D59C9017F8C19%40SN7PR06MB7247.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks Segun

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAB0J%2BvpgRcS2HDUKDZE4MBssu6Ux7Y_AMXdZRQvC1Y0-NxRGSQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"I apologize to everyone for approving this post. It is full of insults.

TF"

You may have to apologize again sir if my friend IBK drops his own bombshell.🤣🤣🤣🤣

-CAO

On Monday, May 2, 2022, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

Dear sir:

I apologize to everyone for approving this post. It is full of insults.

TF

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com>
Date: Monday, May 2, 2022 at 9:37 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - SUNDAY MUSING: Johnathan's Impending Non-Presidency - By Bolaji Aluko

​The same GEJ who provided Aluko with his most significant career opportunity by inviting Aluko from the US to head a University in GEJ's hometown, even though they both shared no ethnic kinship, a deep irony as ethnicity was raised to a hitherto unparalleled level in Nigerian history by the man Aluko helped bring into office after GEJ - Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju.

 

To begin with, Aluko is a family surname and since the writer of the article Oluwatoyin is responding to, gave his name as Mobolaji Aluko, it must be either out of lack of home training/etiquette or out of affliction with intellectual rascality or both, to have addressed Mobolaji only with his surname which he shares with his siblings. That is a rude behaviour which is peculiar to street urchins and not intellectuals.

 

Since Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju is a tribalist he cannot, still in 2022, understand how an Ijaw President like GEJ could appoint an Ekiti, Yoruba man, as vice Chancellor of University of his hometown Otueke, in Bayelsa state of Nigeria. Oluwatoyin's assumed that both GEJ and Mobolaji Aluko did not share ethnic kinship. However, assumption is the lowest level of knowledge and the self-appointed Ifa priest, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, assumed wrongly when he said that GEJ and Mobolaji Aluko did not share ethnic kinship. Paternally, the father of Mobolaji Aluko is from Ekiti State but maternally, his mother is Ijaw from Bayelsa State. Now, only fools will believe that someone is appointed a vice-Chancellor of a University because of his ethnic association and not out of merit and competence. Mobolaji Aluko did not disappoint Nigerians as he built, from the scratch, the University of Otueke, Bayelsa, to international standard before his contract expired and was not extended by the incoming president, Mohammadu Buhari. Mobolaji Aluko could have built a ghost University in Otueke just like the ghost producers and distributors of electricity, ghost RUGA proprietors, ghost Turn Around Maintenance of oil refineries for $7.3 billion with functionless refineries etc., and nothing would have happened. 

 

We all witnessed the 2015 presidential election in Nigeria, when Mobolaji Aluko was still the vice-chancellor of the University of Otueke. Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju should tell us, maybe after consulting his Ifa oracle, about how Mobolaji Aluko at the time he was busy structuring University of Otueke was able to work to bring Muhammadu Buhari to power. For those who will see Afonja/Alimi in Mobolaji Aluko, I can only advise them to procure a large binocular to peep into the history of how Nigeria got to the present political and economic conditions. When they have performed total x-ray of NIGERIA's history, they would see the picture of the tribalist that stole the revolution of the five Majors in January 1966 and abolished regions through Decree No. 34 of May 24, 1966. They would also see who were Abacha's Economic Minister, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice when the nine Ogoni activists were judicially murdered by the Military Government. They will also see those who organised and danced in a million match called Youth Earnestly Want Abacha as President. It is quite galling for someone that was birthed on the fringe of the society and particularly from a low social status to continuously disparage more accomplished individuals from impressive pedigrees.

S. Kadiri

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Salimonu Kadiri]

​Thank you, Segun, for your expatiation which supports my submission that Bolaji Aluko shares the same ethnicity with GEJ by virtue of having an Ijaw mother. For the sake of clarity, Bolaji Aluko's appointment as Vice Chancellor by GEJ was not based on ethnicity but on merit and competence. Thus, it is much more insulting to the personality and integrity of Bolaji Aluko to attribute his appointment to ethnicity. Buhari has appointed people into various offices and they have failed woefully to produce according to their attested qualifications. Instead of questioning the competence of those academics in the MDAs of Nigeria feeding Nigerians with imaginary productions and fictional developments we are overweighed by the talk of ethnic and religious affiliations of officials in Nigeria. By concentrating on the religion and ethnicity of President Buhari's appointed public officials we allow him and his aides to escape being blamed for gross incompetence in office. If it sounds insulting to discuss the incompetence of officials in Nigeria, it is regrettably so because one cannot sneeze without opening the mouth and just like a woman cannot apply eyelashes without bending the lips.

S. Kadiri

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of segun ogungbemi <segun...@gmail.com>
Sent: 02 May 2022 17:26

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[Nimi Wariboko]

Dear Debaters:

I am not sure if Professor Bolaji Aluko’s mother is Ijaw/Ijo/Izon. If my memory serves me well, in 2011 in Abuja I put this question to him and he told me she was from Edo State. I might be wrong here as I am only  recollecting a conversation we had ten years ago in a busy high class hotel lobby. Thanks. 

Nimi Wariboko 

Boston University

On May 2, 2022, at 2:40 PM, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com> wrote:



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[Mobolaji Aluko]

Dr. Emeagwali:

Adepoju's critique of my Sunday Musing on GEJ  was inaccurate in many particulars:

1.  I could not have been "one of those who helped bring to power the destroyer now in office" because as a public servant VC in GEJ's hometown during the period, I was very careful not to run any partisan political commentary and was not active in the APC.  In fact, I was  Presidential Returning Officer in Delta State in April 2015, a state which was declared  handily for GEJ. (GEJ and I spoke on the phone two nights before the final results declaration by Inec's Jega).

2.  GEJ did not just pull me cold from the US.  I have told the story a number of times how I had already been nominated by Governor Fayemi as VC of the new Federal University Ikole (later sited at Oye)  in Ekiti State in November 2010, at a time when only six universities - three in the North and three in the South - were to be announced.  But a dispute resulted from the fact that all Southern States would then have federal universities, while six states in the North would not.  A Northern pressure group therefore got the announcement delayed until February 2011 when three more new Northern states were included, with the promise of three more by the time GEJ's term expired in 2015.  GEJ further stipulated that no VC's state of origin should be sAme as the 

new university, hence my posting got transferred from Ekiti to Otuoke.  So my two benefactors were actually Fayemi and GEJ, because the latter could easily have scuttled my nomination.

3.  It is also not true that GEJ and I "share(d) no ethnic kinship".  We shared it on two levels.    In fact, an official at NUC and another close adviser of GEJ later told me that there was serious argument in presidential circles as to whether to retain my name in the list since I was said to be a known APC sympathizer nominated by an APC governor - the only one of the entire 12 New Universities.  Common sense prevailed, particularly when the GEJ adviser revealed that my mother was Ijaw,   and Otuoke would be home for me.  Ironically, when I got to Otuoke - which is really Ogbia country rather than Ijaw - I was quickly regaled that I was in Yoruba country, since Otu-Oke means "the People of Oke", Oke being a Yoruba man (pronounced no-no, with dots below the O and the "e")   who settled in the town from Ile-Ife via Benin!    Fascinating!

4.  Again, I never "rejected (my) benefactor GEJ anyway in supporting a man who could not find his first school leaving certificate".  Rather, INEC simultaneously announced the electoral "rejection" of the former and the 'support" of the latter.  I did not even vote in the election- I was on electoral  duty in Delta State during the period.

5.  Finally, no "minister of education (who) removed Aluko and others chosen by GEJ to head the new universities he had founded."  I and seven others out of 12 VCs served our full five-year terms until February 16, 2016.  The four others were unprofessionally removed along with us for no particular reason - someone did not remember that those four did not start their five-year terms on the same day as we eight.

The other issues raised by Adepoju about anti-NAdeco and Abacha and Fulani herdsmen are just cat-whistles,and are of no moment.

There you have it.  I thank you.

Bolaji Aluko 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/BL0PR01MB451454DF757D34D16EAB5938DEC19%40BL0PR01MB4514.prod.exchangelabs.com.

[Okey Iheduru]

We've heard it said many times: If the hole has gotten to your shoulder level, perhaps it's time to stop digging.

Prof. Aluko's nicely-packaged intellectual obfuscation continues. Read/hear this:

"In fact, an official at NUC and another close adviser of GEJ later told me that there was serious argument in presidential circles as to whether to retain my name in the list since I was said to be a known APC sympathizer nominated by an APC governor - the only one of the entire 12 New Universities.  Common sense prevailed, particularly when the GEJ adviser revealed that my mother was Ijaw,   and Otuoke would be home for me." --Prof. Bolaji Aluko

FACTS:

1. Prof. Aluko was appointed VC, FU, Otuoke in February 2011.

2. APC, Nigeria's ruling party, was founded on February 6th, 2013--a full two years after Prof. Aluko had become VC at FU, Otuoke!

3. In 2011, Dr. J. Kayode Fayemi was an ACN Governor of Ekiti State and a staunch stalwart of the anti-GEJ/anti-PDP Southwest Nigerian machine.

4. Dr. Kayo became an APC Governor in 2019--about 8 long years after Prof. Aluko became VC, FU, Otuoke and 4 years after Prof. Aluko had left that position!

5. The earliest date Prof. Aluko could have become a card-carrying member, closet member, or sympathizer of APC would have been 2013. Yet, he claims that his supposed nomination as VC by Dr. Kayode was almost imperilled by his sympathies for an APC that didn't exist in November 2010!

6. The truth is that President Goodluck Jonathan did not know, vet, or participate in the appointment of the VCs of any of the 8 universities he established. Period!

QUESTIONS

1. Was Prof. Aluko at his intellectual obfuscation game again when he claimed that "In fact, an official at NUC and another close adviser of GEJ later told me that there was serious argument in presidential circles as to whether to retain my name in the list since I was said to be a known APC sympathizer nominated by an APC governor - the only one of the entire 12 New Universities"? (cf. Facts 1, 2, 3, and 4 above).

 2. The last thing Aso Villa would have done in 2010/2011 is to seek Dr. Kayode's opinion or take nominations from him regarding the VC candidate for any university (new or old) anywhere in Nigeria. Period! So, did Prof. Aluko mix up his facts and dates; or is this another clever attempt at pulling wool over the readers' eyes about how he got his VC-ship, yet again? 

3. Can Prof. Aluko's slickly canned "merit-based" account of his appointment as VC, FU, Otuoke be complete without detailing the role of the "official at NUC" in his appointment, as well as his kinship with that "official at NUC"?

4. Were there other equally well-qualified Ekiti professors who lost out in the VC appointment because they didn't have a nepotistic relationship with the person (not Gov. Kayode or GEJ) that offered or facilitated the offer of the job to Prof. Aluko? 

5. Prof. Aluko lived and worked in GEJ's backyard as a beneficiary of his (GEJ's) benevolence, irrespective of his academic and administrative creds. Throughout 2013-2015 period, Prof. Aluko spent more time and energy than he did on his VC-ship churning out almost daily a barrage of propaganda "charts and tables" and "analysis" dressed up as "facts" from The Muse which he distributed widely to his vast unsuspecting networks (including the USA-Africa Dialogue forum) and GEJ's APC opponents and attack dogs who voraciously consumed and weaponized these "intellectual analysis" to bring down "clueless" GEJ. So, was Prof. Aluko being truthful when he claimed that " 'I could not have been "one of those who helped bring to power the destroyer now in office" because as a public servant VC in GEJ's hometown during the period, I was very careful not to run any partisan political commentary and was not active in the APC' "? 

Finally, Prof. Aluko wrote earlier: "I was never a throbbing admirer of Buhari - no single write-up by me promoted him - but while he was certainly not an economic guru,  his reputation then for incorruptibility and security credentials fueled a wait-and-see attitude in 2015.  It has been a major disappointment.  He is leaving soon, very soon." Of course, there's absolutely nothing President Buhari has done or has not done since 2015 that Nigerians were not warned about (including in this forum), but Prof. Aluko and his co-travellers had their eyes too focused on the impending ethnic harvest to bother about such "cat-whistles ... [that] are of no moment." 

Unfortunately, the hordes are back at work again marketing another Third Mainland Bridge built on maggot-infested stilts as "a democrat," just as these "world-class intellectuals" sold a certified ethno-religious bigot and fiendishly corrupt hypocrite to gullible Nigerians and the world as a "reformed democrat" in 2014-2015. Guess what? These same "pro-democracy activists" who no longer malign everyone else as "the wailing wailers," will be the first to do a mea culpa by the time another Savior in Depends underwear insists he can--and must--rule what's left of Nigeria by "the destroyer now in office" from a convalescent home in London after 2023! 

As in 2014-2015, all the evidence against such a self-defeatist blind ethnic project would have been there, hidden in plain sight!    

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAORq2DBxWTmK-VijJaCq%3D4t1FW5-WDZkxVm0LGJjHHZvZLEEpw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Toyin Falola]

Okey:

Are you saying that a Professor should not have a political leaning or a preference for a political leader?

Or that a citizen cannot change his mind, that is, support Peter Obi today, become disappointed tomorrow, and move to Pat Utomi a year later?

Assuming Professor Bolaji Aluko supported Jonathan some years back (I have no evidence), does it mean that he cannot change his mind in 2022?

TF

Sent from my iPhone

On May 3, 2022, at 3:13 AM, Okey Iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGCbkjoOfdixkhWLHmh0CXuDVfTQLkoyjEQXKRioGofc5Sbgjg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Nimi Wariboko]

Yesterday, I reported that Professor Aluko told me in 2011 that his mother was from Edo State and not from Bayelsa as scholars on this forum had stated. Once he claimed Edo for her I assumed she was not connected to Bayelsa or Rivers, Delta, or Ondo, the generally known states with ethnic Ijaw/Ijo areas. 

I think my discussion with him must have been about her state of origin. I put the question to him in this way: “Is it true that your mother is from Rivers State as one of our mutual friends recently informed me.” He said: “She is from Edo State.” The friend that told me about his mother said she was Ijo like me and from my state, Rivers. Once, he said she was from Edo State, in my mind the friend was wrong on both counts of ethnicity and state. This mistake could have arisen because Nigerians generally claim as their states not where they were born, but where they are covered by indigeneity. 

The announcement of her passing last year stated she was born in Edo State by Ijaw parents. 

I am writing to correct the record of my posting yesterday. 

Nimi Wariboko

Boston University 

On May 3, 2022, at 4:13 AM, Okey Iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGCbkjoOfdixkhWLHmh0CXuDVfTQLkoyjEQXKRioGofc5Sbgjg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

May God be with her and her loved ones.

Toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/PH7PR19MB57035D5A6F584F132E223201CBC09%40PH7PR19MB5703.namprd19.prod.outlook.com.

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

Great detective work,  Sherlock Holmes.

But what does this have to do with

Prof.  Aluko’s well recognized merit and

well earned credentials for the job?

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 Okey Iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 3, 2022 3:41 AM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>; Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com>; okey iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com>

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGCbkjoOfdixkhWLHmh0CXuDVfTQLkoyjEQXKRioGofc5Sbgjg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Nimi Wariboko]

Dear Professor Gloria:

I made my interventions to inform the scholars on this forum about the state of origin of Professor Aluko’s mother for two reasons. First, some of contributors were implying that he got his appointment because he is from the same state as President Jonathan; they said his mother is from Bayelsa State. I did not want such misinformation to take away from his meritorious appointment. 

Second, someone has argued that he was against President Jonathan (whatever this means)  because of ethnicity. The impression was that he is from the Southwest Nigeria and because of that was against Jonathan from the South-south. The impression was also given that he was against Jonathan because of inter-regional political alliance. My point is to nudge some of our scholars away from such a viewpoint and focus on the merits of his opinion and appointment. For people who judge others’ motives on the basis of tribalism or ethnicity alone, complicating matters for them somehow weakens their arguments, so I hoped. 

In all cases, I wanted to demolish the ethnic arguments or ethnic insinuations to let people focus on less emotional matters. We could engage Aluko’s ideas or practices without turning to his ethnicity. 

Thanks,

Nimi Wariboko 

Boston University  

On May 3, 2022, at 8:54 AM, 'Emeagwali, Gloria (History)' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> wrote:



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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Nimi,

Why do you think the ethnic politics argument about Aluko's critique of the GEJ govt is inaccurate?

I'm not saying it is. I'm just curious as to why you think it's not so in relation to the individual and group alliances that brought in Buhari.

Thanks

Toyin

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/MN0PR19MB57081EE883B95BC08001EEF0CBC09%40MN0PR19MB5708.namprd19.prod.outlook.com.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Edited

Nimi,

Why do you think the ethnic politics argument about Aluko's critique of the GEJ govt is inaccurate?

I'm not saying it is  accurate.

I'm just curious as to why you think it's not accurate,  particularly in the context of  the alliances that brought in Buhari.

Thanks

Toyin

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

What is this that I’m responding to? Is it an impromptu, unofficial commission of enquiry being prosecuted by some unqualified lawyers? Is this a mock session including taking oaths on the Bible about telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me GOD? 

I take it for granted that Professor Aluko is/was speaking ad-lib, and retrospectively too, When that is the case ( as you’ll find out when you get around to penning your own memoir or a slightly fictionalised version to circumvent the likelihood of court procedures to face charges of libel and slander) you’ll find out that not only recollection may be faulty, and short of keeping a diary, like Anais Nin, dates may get conflated,  the true sequence of some events, obliterated,  just look at the variant readings in the four gospels - said to be inspired by the Lord! 

In this case, a sine qua non requirement is that we approach the “ hearing” predisposed to giving the person in the mock dock, the benefit of the doubt, in all that he says and is saying, not at all under any kind of duress. 

Two lines from Blake’s Auguries of Innocence  :

“A truth that is told with bad intent

Beats all the lies that you can invent”

When an honourable, uncorrupted, incorruptible, God-fearing man tenders an explanation, he ought not to be treated with suspicion, like a common criminal, nor should the unbelieving Thomases approach his testimony with their trademark, sceptical pinch of salt. But it’s true that some dishonest brokers approach honest men with some degree of scepticism because psychologically speaking they project onto others what they see in themselves and sometimes the passionate animosity is an expression of the hatred that they harbour in their hearts. This being the case, the thief thinks that everyone else is a thief, the corrupt ones believe that everybody is corrupt, will even quote Paul for support, that “there is no one righteous, not even one”, and of course, the liar thinks that everybody is a liar like himself and that nobody should be trusted. As Jesus said of such a one, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

 The converse is also true - the honest broker that’s me thought that that bank manager of Savannah Bank at no 10 Aba Road in Port Harcourt was just like me, and in addition to that, at the point, where he was requesting that if I gave him half etc,  I was thinking like an honest, Johnny-just-come, blue-eyed Swede, because, momentarily  I had completely forgotten that corruption was the warp and woof of even that Naija Banking Society,  that it was unabashed corruption that greased the black hole, not the black hole up in the sky, but the one that I was slipping into  - like unto the Mid passage of no return, head first, then shoulders and feet to follow, hook line and sinker as in the anglophile cliche.

To be continued after Sherlock Holmes and Perry Mason  have taken a good look into Okey Iheduru’s obnoxious contentions, hopefully to his own satisfaction 

[segun...@gmail.com]

Nimi,

I only corrected Toyin Adepoju for saying that Bolaji Aluko has no ethnic relationship with the former President Jonathan. I know it is absolutely incorrect. The mother of Bolaji was an Ijaw woman from Bayelsa State. 

I did not insinuate that President Jonathan appointed Bolaji as VC of the Federal University Otuoke in Bayelsa State, because Bolaji’s mother came from there. We need to give accurate information so as not to misinform the public. 

We cannot say exactly what impressed President Jonathan about Bolaji when he decided to make him the VC of Federal University, Otuoke. Yes, Bolaji was eminently qualified for the job just like others and possibly some might be more qualified than Bolaji. We don’t know.  Only President Jonathan is in the best position to tell us. 

Segun

Sent from my iPhone

On May 3, 2022, at 10:04 AM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Fine literary piece from Cornelius, even if I might not identify with his thematic intention on the piece.

Toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/a9873036-4e8b-4ff7-9af6-08ed552db527n%40googlegroups.com.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

The Aluko Otueke VCship is a very rich story at  institutional and political levels, implicating both the university and intersections of regional and national politics.

I hope to contribute to the telling of this story.

A lot of the story is embedded in the archives of Nigerian centred listserves, most of them once owned by Yahoo, and  which no longer exist, along with their archives, a significant blow to sources of Nigerian history, but some of which I have in my own accounts as a member of those groups for some years.

Thanks

Toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/385A1B3D-F556-461E-8229-71BB7D90422A%40gmail.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Here’s Don Cherry doing Multikulti Soothsayer - I like this line:

“I'll talk to God, for you - there’s nothing I can’t do! “

If I were to get into a real satirical mode, Ojogbon Falola would disavow me. If I were to “go after” the likes of his dear Kp  - his sacred calf, and this is not miracle Ifa poetry, he (Kp) would disappear into thin air without leaving a trace, like when a bone is dissolved in sulfuric acid, slowly, except that miracle dis-appearance is instantaneous….

One would have thought that once upon a time, united by the same sense of national purpose and national pride, Okey Iheduru and Brother.Bolaji Aluko both belonged to the same fraternity of academics to be found in the United States, as a result of the much-decried brain drain from Nigeria to places where they are less needed, such as the United States, an already developed country. Many feathers are ruffled by what on the surface sounds like a blanket accusation: Black power hustler, you are needed much more in Nigeria, so what are you doing in the United States? 

All the possible answers to that are easily subsumed into this general category: 

The grass is greener over here ( opportunity wise, moneywise, satisfaction wise.

“Oh, fortune and fame’s

Such a curious game

Perfect strangers

Can call you by name”  ( That’s why I’m here) 

Bad. Bad. Bad. And that is what’s so astounding about Iheduru’s ill-concealed and ill-conceived bad heart towards Brother Bolaji, an ill-conceived bad heart, like a bad poem and unexpectedly so, since we have otherwise been lead to believe that there’s something like a holy spirit of Brotherhood, even a spirit of Pan-Africanism among the voluntary and involuntary diaspora exiles. As the late Richard Pryor joked, “And God, as they say, works in mysterious ways, put us all together and they called us one tribe; Niggers “

Or as Malcolm put it.  We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; the rock was landed on us.

The 20th and 21st-century arrivals from Nigeria were quite different of course. I suppose a full professorship in some backwater college is infinitely better than flipping hamburgers at McDonald's om Moscow, or full-time leisure surfing in Hawaii, when ultimate ambition can be fulfilled by being elected Potus, like Barack Obama, or stepping into the shoes of  Elon Musk. In such a position you would surpass  Dangote and get yourself elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, directly, buy off the upstarts who would gratefully line up to declare you unopposed, forever and ever, forever and ever, Amen. If Iheduru had that kind of money, he wouldn’t be wasting time trying to disparage Brother Bolaji. If you don’t believe me, just ask him what he would be doing for Nigeria if could buy Twitter for $ 44 Billion and still have a lot of change to spare. Or if he would care or have the time to fine-tune his “ May Day to Toyin Adepoju” 

 I’m impressed whenever an African president says, “ All hands on deck” and appeals to the relevant qualified manpower abroad to please return home to help with nation-building - which as we all know starts with the kind of education program that our visionary Chief Obafemi Awolowo promulgated for Western Nigeria when he had the mandate to do so. The country is still reaping the dividends of that wise move. In 2010/11 Professor Aliúko rose to the challenge, indeed, charity begins at home and Nigeria is also reaping the dividends of President  Goodluck Jonathan’s timely  appointment of  Professor Bolaji  Aluko as Vice-Chancellor of Otuoke University, because, from scratch, the hardworking professor built and established that university whilst what Iheduru has to say, so maliciously, makes for painful reading :

” Throughout 2013-2015 period, Prof. Aluko spent more time and energy than he did on his VC-ship churning out almost daily a barrage of propaganda "charts and tables" and "analysis" dressed up as "facts" from The Muse which he distributed widely to his vast unsuspecting networks”

Leaving aside Iheduru’s disgusting tribal tittle-tattle about ethnicity and nepotism, you would have thought that the centre of gravity of his inquisition, could have been whether or not Professor Aluko was a square peg in a round hole - ( because of course with that kind of mindset being worn as the main emotion on his sleeve,  all the indications are  - to the extent that we know for a fact that Ihduru would resent it if the very best and most qualified and brilliant person in the whole world and in all  Nigeria happened to be a Yoruba man being appointed Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University in his neck of the woods.

 In the meantime, Professor Aluko is under no obligation to respond to any of Iheduru’s spurious allegations and speculations, not even to clear the air that Idehuru is so anxious to pollute with his underhand and  unfounded suspicions

( to be really continued) 

On Tuesday, 3 May 2022 at 10:13:13 UTC+2 okeyiheduru wrote:

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

This final comment on the w-hole mess is being influenced by what I just read, that Nigeria has an Igbo problem. According to all the evidence made available in this short thread, I’d say that people like Okey Iheduru are a contributory cause of it ( it = The Igbo problem). In a less congenial mood, a less generous mood, Baba Kadiri fleshed out the acronym I.G.B.O. to mean” I Go Before Others'', and In this thread, Iheduru ( one man) typifies the usual self-righteous Igbo attitude. He is a good representative of that propensity.

The world has racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism - “The Jewish Problem “ persists without abruption, as does tribal-ism and corruption, witchcraft, islamophobia, neo-colonialism, Ukraine,  Nuclear North Korea, and in Nigeria, it’s not just the Igbo problem. My short view is, that if, unlike Fulani cattle, Igbos can roam freely throughout the Federation, so should the other ethnic nationalities also be free to set up their businesses everywhere, including in ancestral Igbo-land. 

Another petticoat husband - understandably married to an Igbo woman who has also probably also taken over control and colonised his brain, has been yabbing that “it’s time for an Igbo president” 

There was this powerful sentence in Nwanze’s piece that caught my attention: “I’d rather not have an Igbo man replace Buhari as Nigeria’s president next year, for the simple fact that the disaster the man has wrought on Nigeria is so great and it is his successor that will be blamed for it.”

After all the attitude displayed in this thread, about ethnicity, nepotism etc, I wonder what my friends in Umuahai, Aba and Owerri think about this proposition about a possible “Igbo President” as the panacea to all evil, in the post-Buhari era. 

With regard to the UK as the role model of parliamentary democracy, I’m familiar with Professor Porter’s relentless dismemberment of his Prime MInister Boris Johnson  - from the very beginning. Before that, it was Theresa May. I guess that there’s nothing ethically wrong with the Professor hating his neighbour, in this case, his Prime Minister.

Similarly, in Nigeria, there are those who hate their President, some of them from the very beginning. Even in this thread where the main issue is supposedly the circumstances, the ethics,  the geographic factor,  the ethnic, the elements of party politics, and the allegedly nepotistic impacting someone’s appointment as Vice-Chancellor of an educational institution in the then President Jonathan’s hometown, the palaver eventually morphs into an area of agreement  - and disillusionment, namely the vile criticism of  Nigeria’s current President, Brother Muhammadu Buhari who both of the antagonists - no love lost between them and  otherwise at perpetual loggerheads with each other, agree, that our Brother Buhari  is a “disaster” - and if he acted otherwise to solve some of the problems, more drastically, they’d be calling him a “ dictator” 

Kipling was  totally wrong when he opined more generally speaking in that opening statement in his ballad 

“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, 

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat”

Not true of the Yoruba West and the Igbo East, temporarily shaking hands over Brother Buhari but not about whether it’s a candidate from the East or from the West, that should succeed him.

In my humble opinion, Messrs Iheduru ( Igbo & Catholic) and Aluko ( Yoruba & Protestant) are both manifestly unjust to Brother Buhari. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have mercy on Iheduru and Aluko.

It is often like that when some people look back, retrospectively, that they want to arrogate  to themselves the powers of prophecy that they did not have at the beginning of Brother Buhari’s presidential campaign which swept away Goodluck Jonathan on the premises on which we really hoped,  that everything would be changed for the better, pernicious corruption would be asphyxiated, the loot channelled to the state coffers, the looters would pay heavy fines and serve long term imprisonment with hard labour, Boko Haram would be tamed or wiped out,  we would witness the Chobok Girls being brought back in glory, to their parents who would be eternally grateful to President Buhari., described by the BBC, as “The Honest  General” 

Iheduru is certain that the APC only came into existence on February 6th, 2013, which does not mean that the APC was not conceived and incubated long before that date and some of the steller participants and sympathisers to the conception were not identifiable and had their camp meetings long before they were officially registered as a party ( I know how long in gestation the UPP was, in Sierra Leone  - it was even preceded by their newspaper Shekpendeh, long before the party leader Cyril Rogers- Wright was announced along with senior members like  John Nelson-Williams, Barthes Wilson,  H.E. B. John etc. Nor was the Settlers Descendants Union ( which eventually took the crown to court and won their case at the highest level - the Privy Council.) The Settlers' Descendants  Union was not formed overnight - I know. because  I eavesdropped on some of their meetings which were held at our home.

 Here ina Sweden I went to collect my mother at Arlanda Airport, didn’t know that I had been standing next to Ian Wachtmeister the leader of the newly formed “ New Democracy “ Party,  so I appeared on the STV News standing next to him at the airport, and the next day everybody was asking me if I had joined his party. I’m not too sure about this, but I think that his party soon moped into becoming another party…

Sorry, I’m stopping here.  This 4th vaccine has completely fkkkd up my natural immunity. I have been sneezing on average twenty times every fifteen minutes. 

[Ogedi Ohajekwe]

You really seem to know and understand Nigerian politics well. I am particularly impressed that you took time to roam through Umuahia, Aba and Owerri and from the friends you made you roamed through the inhabited areas not the forests. 

Did anyone or any of your friends prevent you from setting up any businesses in those areas when you were there?

Is it possible, to give your opinions on:

1) “Igbo presidency” in Nigeria.

2) How will you rate Buhari’s presidency?

3) Is Nigeria better today than 7 years ago? (Thanks to Reagan).

On May 4, 2022, at 12:07 PM, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/74488a81-3c12-4b58-9f6d-323927130688n%40googlegroups.com.

[Salimonu Kadiri]

​A novice may be impressed by the infantile, simplistic and superficial prank presented by Professor Okey Iheduru as analytical facts on Professor Mobolaji Aluko's appointment as Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Otuoke in 2011, but not the mentally alert. Citing Bolaji Aluko's claim that someone had told him that his appointment was about to be scuttled because of his alleged sympathy with APC and being nominated by an APC governor, Professor Okey Iheduru averred correctly that Professor Mobolaji Aluko could not have been a sympathizer of APC in February 2011 when he was appointed VC of Federal University of Otuoke, since APC was not official formed until 6 February 2013. This, Professor Iheduru maliciously referred to as Prof. Aluko's nicely-packaged intellectual obfuscation.' Consciously or unconsciously, Professor Iheduru made mountain out of molehill. While Professor Bolaji Aluko was referring to APC in the present tense, Professor Okey Iheduru was referring to ACN in the past tense. That juxtaposition becomes obvious in Professor Iheduru's Fact No 3 that states, "In 2011, Dr J. Kayode Fayemi was an ACN Governor of Ekiti State and a staunch stalwart of the anti-GEJ/PDP Southwest Nigerian machine.'' This statement corroborates Professor Aluko's narrative that his appointment was about to be revoked due to his alleged sympathy with APC as well as being nominated by an APC Governor. ACN and CPC were the two largest political parties that formed APC in 2013. Since there is no longer ACN, Professor Aluko is right to refer to the then ACN as APC in 2022. Professor Iheduru himself admitted that ACN, which was absorbed into APC was anti-GEJ/PDP just like the APC that wrestled power from President Jonathan in 2015. If ACN is equal to APC the premise on which Prof. Aluko's nicely-packaged intellectual obfuscation is based is completely illogical and nonsensical.

Traditionally, employments/appointments in Nigeria are ethnically and religiously based and not on merit and competence. Thus, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju who started this debate accused Professor Aluko of betrayal and ungratefulness by politically opposing President Jonathan who appointed him a Vice Chancellor of FU of Otuoke despite the fact that they do not share the same ethnicity. In my response to Adepoju, I proved that Professor Aluko actually share the same ethnicity maternally with GEJ but added that his appointment was based on qualification and merit. Approximately, six years ago, Professor Aluko left Otuoke after his contract had expired and now in 2022, Professor Iheduru is casting five jaundiced backward glances at how Professor Aluko was appointed VC of FU of Otuoke in 2011, with five questions. As a prelude to the five questions Prof. Iheduru wrote, "The truth is that President Goodluck Jonathan did not know, vet, or participate in the appointment of the VCs of any of the 8 universities he established." Professor Iheduru's submission would imply that Professor Aluko's appointment was not made or influenced by President Jonathan but on merit. Yet, Professor Iheduru went on to cast aspersion on Professor Aluko's integrity about how he got appointed as the VC of FU of Otuoke with his five questions of which I will only deal with two most disgusting of them. His question 3 states, "Can Prof. Aluko's slickly canned 'merit-based' account of his appointment as VC FU, Otuoke be complete without detailing the role of the 'official at NUC' in his appointment as well as his kinship with that 'official' at NUC?" As of now, Professor Aluko is no longer a VC of Federal University of Otuoke and the questions any rational thinking person can ask today are: Was he qualified for the VC appointment?; and did he perform well as a VC, FU of Otuoke? If Professor Otuoke knew those who helped Professor Aluko to secure the VC chair and felt himself side-tracked, perhaps because he thought himself more qualified, he should mention the name of the official that helped Professor Aluko at NUC instead of posting insinuating questions?

Professor Iheduru's fifth question was introduced thus : Throughout 2013-2015 period, Professor Aluko spent more time and energy than he did on his VC-ship churning out almost daily a barrage of propaganda " charts and tables" and "analysis" dressed up as "facts" from the muse which he distributed widely to his vast unsuspecting networks (including the USA-Africa Dialogue forum) and GEJ's APC opponents and attack dogs who voraciously consumed and weaponized these ''intellectual analysis'' to bring down ''clueless'' GEJ. In view of the aforesaid, Prof. Iheduru queried, "So, was Prof. Aluko being truthful when he claimed that 'I could not have been one of those who helped bring to power the destroyer now in office' because as a public servant VC in GEJ hometown during the period, I was very careful not to run any partisan political commentary and was not active in the APC''? Paragraph one of Professor Aluko's response to Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju contained three sentences of which Professor Iheduru had extracted the first sentence to question the truthfulness of Pro. Aluko. Had Professor Iheduru been an honest person he would have seen the second sentence in the said paragraph that reads, "In fact, I WAS PRESIDENTIAL RETURNING OFFICER IN DELTA STATE IN APRIL 2015, A STATE WHICH WAS DECLARED HANDILY FOR GEJ." If Prof. Aluko had been an open critic of PDP and GEJ, he would not have been appointed a Presidential Returning Officer and what more Goodluck Jonathan won over 90% of the votes in Delta State. So, the question posed by Prof. Iheduru doubting Prof. Aluko's truthfulness is premised on perverted logic and irritating sophistry. It amounts to Jankara intellectualism to accuse someone of churning out charts and tables and analysis dressed as facts without making available to readers one example of such.

If all personnel in the MDAs in Nigeria under President Jonathan had demonstrated capacity to match production with academic titles as Professor Mobolaji Aluko did at the Federal University of Otuoke, Goodluck Jonathan would have won 2015 Presidential election. Just for an instance, let's look at the Power Sector in Nigeria under Jonathan whose government contained more professors than any country on this planet. In 2012, the Minister of power was Professor Baths Nnaji who was said to have worked with General Electric in the US. High hope was placed on him to fix Nigeria's epileptic electricity supplies. There was a Road Map To Power Generation in which Jonathan promised 14,000MW of power supply to Nigerians by December 2013. By December 2012, President Jonathan's Minister of Power was uncovered planning to privatise the Power Sector through his private company. Therefore, Jonathan dismissed him and nominated another Professor, by the name, Chinedu Ositadinma Ndubuisi Nebo as Minister of Power for Senate's confirmation. During Senate screening on Wednesday 23 January 2013, Professor Nebo was asked how he was going to solve the problem of epileptic power in Nigeria? Professor Nebo told the Senate, "If the President deploys me in the power sector, I believe that given my performance at the University of Nsukka (UNN), where as a Chancellor, I drove out the witches and demons, God will also give me power to drive out demons in the Power Sector." It was never declared whether Professor Nebo succeeded in driving out witches and demons from the Power Sector but by the time Buhari replaced Jonathan in 2015 as the President, the power supply was 3,000 MW. However, Professor Nebo left office as a millionaire just as Sam Amadi, the Chairman of Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) pocketed N400 million as severance package for regulating darkness for Nigerians.

S. Kadiri  

   

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Okey Iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com>
Sent: 03 May 2022 09:41

To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>; Mobolaji Aluko <alu...@gmail.com>; okey iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com>

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGCbkjoOfdixkhWLHmh0CXuDVfTQLkoyjEQXKRioGofc5Sbgjg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

I neither stated nor suggested that Aluko was being ungrateful to GEJ in being the then President's critic.

Thanks

Toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/HE1P193MB00760BF225F74E7AB351681FAEC09%40HE1P193MB0076.EURP193.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

I was baptised by the Assemblies of God people in a river in Umuahia, in 1981 - full immersion - they almost drowned me.: Omewo rom ya

I returned to Nigeria in March 1983 after a three month leave in Sweden. I travelled back with Solomon a former captain in the Biafran army ( his wife was a magistrate in Aba) and stayed with his family for a week before returning to Port Harcourt to the Ministry of education to report for duty. I had travelled with Solomon to London in December and he had changed my excess naira at Gatwick Airport, so, coincidentally when we met again on the plane back to Nigeria he had said, “ You again! ” and insisted that I be his guest in Aba. We travelled on the Port. Harcourt - Aba Road in a jeep under heavy military escort. Whilst in Aba I  ordered Volvo Car filters from the Volvo Headquarters in Göteborg for the sum of £500 for his younger Brother. The next time I visited them, a few months later he had extended his business to include two more garages and built a house on top of the bargain. Indeed, the industriousness of the Igbo is proverbial - perhaps if I had married an Igbo woman - with a good business sense, I would have become a billionaire, but I at all costs avoided any deep entanglement with any  Igbo or Kalabari woman because I knew that would have meant the end of my freedom and I would have been stuck in Nigeria forever. In 1983, I was invited to join the Arochukwu Society

But to answer your question, no Sir, nobody prevented me from starting up a business or investing or entering into some form of business partnership in Nigeria. If I had returned in 1985, it would have been to explore some possibilities for the canning industry. Business?  I knew the manager of Scanastra, Mr Johnson and his Yoruba crew of transport entrepreneurs from Ondo, Senator Francis Ellah and his fish farm at Umoku which netted him some $ 8 million annually - catfish  - a non-kosher fish…

 I’ll answer your question about an Igbo Presidency - I mean a real Igbo presidency, a little later; I must give it some more thought ( Goodluck Jonathan was not a real Igbo presidency

 Ditto, a final verdict on two-termer Muhammadu Buhari with all the obstacles strewn in his path, should not be a haphazard undertaking 

Your last question is, of course, rhetorical, but according to economic indices  Nigeria is doing fairly well and the economic forecast promises a growth rate of 3, 4%:.

For most countries, the economy is of the essence. In Nigeria, insecurity is still rearing its ugly head. In Sweden, of late there’s the growing problem of gang criminality, and just now a debate raging about whether or not to join NATO, the alarmists say that if we don’t our ass will surely burn with the grass 

[Ogedi Ohajekwe]

Thank you for sharing some of your experiences and opinions. 

I hope to read the opinion on Igbo presidency when you are ready.

On May 4, 2022, at 7:13 PM, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/093d1553-9f5c-42e4-b26c-f2e2ac5a844dn%40googlegroups.com.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Dear Dr Ohajekwe,

One saying is, “ Justice delayed, is justice denied”, and the other relevant saying is that “Procrastination is the thief of time”, so, I hesitate no more in addressing the issue of an Igbo presidency.

The third saying is, “They tell you "Time is money," as if your life was worth its weight in gold.“

In Nigeria, I think that it’s certainly a matter of Justice delayed and denied, not least of all 

for  the Almajiris

It’s all about leadership. The Almajiris for example have one of their own kith and kin, a fellow Muslim and Northerner in the Nigerian White House, and what has he done for them since he took office? One word:  Nothing. What do I think of the Buhari leadership so far? Brother Buhari as captain or Major-General of the ship known as NIGERIA? 

Lord hear our prayers and let our cries come unto Thee. Please, God, bless  Nigeria!

 The Northern Muslims of Nigeria have to take to heart these words of Surah Ar-Ra'd Ayat 11  which may sound a little too fatalistic to those they may refer to as the kuffar : 

“There are guardians over everyone, both before him and behind him, who guard him by Allah's command. Verily Allah does not change a people's condition unless they change their inner selves. And when Allah decides to make a people suffer punishment, no one can avert it.” ( Quran 13:11) 

That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not change a people unless they want to change themselves; except that the long-suffering masses in Nigeria are certainly not masochists who enjoy suffering and wallowing in poverty. The long-suffering people of Nigeria are in the majority and they certainly want to see real change in their own lives and in the life of the country. 

About the Buhari presidency soon to begin its seventh year, we ought not to discount his military background and the record sheet of some of his predecessors with a very similar background. To be fair to him, seven years is a long time, within which to accomplish at least something on the scale of Germany’s reconstruction after the Second World War, in fact, as Prime Minister Harold Wilson tells us,  “a week is a long time in politics”, and President Muhammadu “don’t expect any miracles” Buhari has been in power since May 29, 2015, minus the x  number of weeks when he has been on sick leave in Merry England and the other times he has boarded Nigerian Airways to London, for medical consultations, because (1) Dr Ohajekwe is not there in Nigeria in person to give his Nigerian President the best medical treatment possible, administer a local anaesthetic that’s so readily available elsewhere and (2) Dr Ohajekwe is not there in Nigeria to minister to President Buhari personally because President Buhari has not created   - has failed to create - the conditions that would be conducive to attracting, developing and maintaining the necessary medical expertise that would help save Nigerian lives. Prescient Buhari himself would be the first to agree that it would be an anomaly and unwise for President Putin for example to have to travel all the way to Boris Johnson or Joe Biden territory to fix a mere earache and if he were to be foolish enough to do so he would most likely wind up in the morgue, like dear  Dr Obadiah Mailafia, due to circumstances beyond his control…

Like, “ What passing bells for those who die as cattle “ ( think  - the Nigerian and the Biafran dead - never again!)  this aside too is to the young Nigerian poets to not give in to despair and gloom, even  if  Wordsworth opines 

“We Poets in our youth begin in gladness;

 But thereof come in the end despondency and madness”

And before the current despondency and madness, so it was at the beginning of the election victory that catapulted Muhammadu Buhari to the pinnacle of power in Nigeria   -  gladness  -  not through the barrel of a gun, as the last time on 31/12/ 1983  -  Kperogi diagnosed dementia, at a much later date but Kperogi is not a medical doctor  and in my opinion, when someone who is not a medical doctor, speak less of being Mr President's own personal physician, makes that kind of diagnosis ( projection ?)  such a one is himself in need of some medical attention from a certified psychiatrist or special psychiatric care 

That day in May it was gladness - we  ( some Iranians and I) celebrated till dawn in the Hotel where we were staying in Ephesus, in Turkey, that 15th of May  - the day President Buhari's victory was announced coincided with the Iranian Nuclear deal coming through, so we partied till dawn

And now, what do we have? One massacre after the other 

The Zaria massacre - of Shia  Muslims  and mind you these massacres are on-going

Operation Python Dance 1 & 2

The Lekki Massacre 

And his ineptitude in dealing with the  Boko Haram jihadist terrorist insurrection against the people and government of Nigeria,  the general collapse of law and order in Nigeria, as Nigeria is now obviously ungovernable under the Buhari dispensation ever presently lurching on into deeper anarchy and recession,  Fulani Herdsmen trespasses, bandits, armed robberies, ransom kidnappings, church arsons, record youth unemployment, the unceremonious unseating of the Emir of Kano,  it’s a long litany of charges that Muhammadu Buhari will have to answer to on the Day of Judgement when he will have to give an account of his stewardship as President of Nigeria. On that day he will probably be down on his presidential knees, sobbing and begging for mercy. In his own defence, he will probably brag to the Almighty that he himself was not personally corrupt and that he built the Lagos - Ibadan Expressway - at which point Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala could well ask him, “ What about my children the Almajiris - how much sadaqah did you give them? 

There are all kinds of questions that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala ‘s heavenly attorney general will be asking Brother Buhari and Abubakar Malami …about the massacres, about Boko Haram, about the Church Arsons,  the harassment of Christians…

On 11th April 2016, I attended Chigozie Obioma’s presentation of his then topical novel “ The Fishermen'' at the International Writers Venue in Stockholm and after the show,  once more I was treated to some strong Biafra vibes from one Brother George Amadi  - I had given him my extra ticket to the show, we sat together, shook hands with Chiigozie, but later on, in discussing Biafra with Mr Amadi  I told him that I didn’t want anyone to die at which point he got very angry:  Biafra is a heart matter and a matter of life versus death for some people. This was in April, four months after Nnamdi Kanu had been refused bail, so, understandably, many people were getting overly emotional…

The ghost/s of Biafra is/are still casting a shadow over the question of an Igbo presidency. The whole issue is compounded by pretty ethnic jealousies and the inordinate fear of what life could be like for other ethnicities should an Igbo presidency succeed beyond our most optimistic expectations. As Baba Kadi has repeated times without number in this series, it’s not ethnicity that counts, it’s competence. Can the man do the job? 

All of the above is but a brief background and preamble to why Nigeria is in desperate need of change and in the next instalment of this brief reply I should want to spell out the kind of alternative that an as yet untried and unproved Igbo presidency could achieve. What has to be carefully considered is - as Chidi pointed out a few days ago, it would be disingenuous that e.g. today's frontrunners Osinbajo and Tinubu should come up with some codswallop about the “ continuity” of the presidential politics of incompetence or the continuity of  Brother Buhari's failed agendas, even if that is what they have to say when they lay their bellies down in order to obtain his  blessings for the 2023 APC ticket to Aso Rock  - so that the long-suffering will continue to cry as  Africa -Ameria cried post the Pilgrim Fathers landing at Plymouth Rock, ” the rock was landed on us!”

I also believe that an Igbo presidency would also vitiate the kind of South-Eastern insurrection  that would presage the peaceful or violent dissolution of Nigeria 

 B'ezrat Hashem, to be continued 

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

What genre of writing is represented by Cornelius' idiosyncratic, creatively unusual essays?

Thanks

Toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/6c6e1b60-1837-4be5-bb3d-8babd756d89dn%40googlegroups.com.

[Toyin Falola]

Great Adepoju:

Let me remove Cornelius from your statement below and rephrase:

What genre of writing is represented by Adepoju’s idiosyncratic, creatively unusual

essays?

You and Cornelius are God’s gift to the world. It is how you see realities that differ. I marvel at your originality, the extensive knowledge, the genius to cook ideas into chemistry.

TF

Sent from my iPhone

On May 5, 2022, at 12:42 PM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:



Thanks

Toyin

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

wow

you have lifted me very high  prof

very  great thanks

toyin

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Dear Dr Ohajekwe,

Omeworom Ya

I’m slowly warming to the idea but have to get more acquainted with the political and religious landscape from where I’m sitting, so please expect to hear from me more fully by the end of this month. I know quite a bit about Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe  who can be said to have been the first Igbo president of Nigeria, although in his case and in his time, the Presidency was more ceremonial, as is the Presidency of Israel 

I talked to my Yoruba mentor this evening, for a good 56 minutes and got some clarity about the idea of an Igbo President of Nigeria, adjacent issues, and other matters arising. 

Biafra was not one of the issues discussed 

On a lighter note, I’m thinking that if Barack Obama could be elected President of the United States twice, why should it be so difficult to contemplate an Igbo man or woman being elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? 

The first thing that Smart Alec will point out is that of the many Igbo wannabes who are vying for both the APC and the PDP presidential ticket, we don’t know which of them is of Barack Hussein Obama quality, or even better - or even worse, and secondly, Smart Alec will be quick to point out that it’s quite a misleading comparison because running for President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a very different proposition from running to be Potus of the Almighty United States - of course, whichever Igbo wannabe bags his party’s nomination would have had a brighter feather in his hat if Barack Obama’s father had been Igbo and from e.g  Enugu, instead of Luo and from Kenya.

To begin with, we can take it for granted that Igbo-Americans / Nigerian-Americans of Igbo extraction would have voted solidly for him - in the name of solidarity ( a word that’s mostly missing in the Nigerian political dictionary - it’s seldom we come across that word being used in any tense or sene) what is uncertain is the extent to which the other Nigerian-Americans who are not of Igbo extraction would have voted for such a candidate and how many out of spite or ethnic animosity would have voted against such a candidate, abstained from voting or voted for his Oyibo rival such as John McCain & his Sarah Palin. The same question applies to  Nigeria: How many non-Igbos would not dream of voting for an Igbo President even if before election day he performed a few miracles such as bringing down some holy fire from heaven? 

I presuppose that if an Igbo candidate emerges as the flag-bearer of a party that has a chance of winning the Presidential election, he will have to be fully prepared to tell the Nigerian electorate and the world how he relates to the idea of Biafra.

Of course, as a good politician, he will have to say that his holy intention is to maintain the unity of Nigeria, no matter what, that the unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable - and it’s important that he does so, although the way things are going eight long months before the election, and the hysteria is gathering momentum that the next candidate has to be an Igbo - the gravity of which sentiment could eventually result in a quite opposite effect, in opposition to the stridency of the idea,  the rest of Nigeria could gang up against such a candidate to punish him in the name of an  Igbo phobia which might increase in proportion to the stridency of the insistence that the next President must be Igbo and since it’s the one man one vote democracy that we’äre talking about, it doesn’t augur well for any candidate to be beating his chest about his exalted or not so exalted ethnicity. when his future is at the mercy of the multi-ethnic electorate

I have not yet found the time to review the field of Igbo candidates who have been presenting themselves so far  - in fact, so far, the only candidates I’m aware of are Yemi Osinbajo who discharged his vice-presidential duties very credibly whilst President Buhari was undergoing treatment in London, who otherwise strikes me as calm,  conscientious, collected, unobtrusive and not boisterous  - unlike Atiku Abubakar of whom two-term President Olusegun Obasanjo said, “ God will never forgive me if I support Atiku for president !"  Atiku never gives up, does he?  He is now  knocking at Pastor Obasanjo’s door, as a penitent  - he may even have to repent  and accept Jesus as his Lord and saviour before  Almighty God will forgive the Pastor for  even thinking of supporting Abubakr Atiku’s ambition to be elected the president that comes after Muhammadu Buhari

The other candidate that I’m equally impressed by is Bola Tinubu who I listened to holding forth in one of these videos, last week, and now the latest rumour is that he's stepping down even though money talks bullshit walks 

 

Also true: two-thirds  of Nigeria's billionaires are Igbo 

On Thursday, 5 May 2022 at 11:30:51 UTC+2 ged...@gmail.com wrote:

[Ogedi Ohajekwe]

Again, thank you for the scintillating “brief reply” that hits appropriately on the contemporary dreadful Nigerian social ‘musical notes’. 

I am looking forward to the expanded version that includes your suggestions as to the way forward.

On May 5, 2022, at 12:45 PM, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:



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