Today's Quote

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

Peacemakers are persons and institutions who speak and act against anything that can cause war or even the slightest breach of peace, not persons or institutions who just speak against war and breach peace when they occur.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

--
Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, Institute Of Information Management Professional Fellow, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador and Editorial Adviser at News Updates.

He is a recipient of International Award/Recognition For Excellence In Data And Information Management.

More about him here: https://independent.academia.edu/ChidiAnthonyOpara

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

"Poets see the world differently, and they can open our eyes to new adventures and thoughts. The most influential poets illustrate everyday themes of life in new and creative ways"-Toni Fitzgerald(via forbes.com)

[cornelius...@gmail.com]

Not only poets ( including "the most influential poets" ) :

 “Painters use their eyes to show us what they see

But when that canvas dries we all see it differently.”

( James Taylor :  Ain't No Song

[cornelius...@gmail.com]

Of relevance :

J.C. Gabel in conversation with Percival Everett about the difference between writing books and making paintings

Some writers ( poets, novelists, dramatists ) are / were also painters...

William Blake and Bruno Schulz come to mind

Also some Bob Dylan paintings

Bob Dylan : When I paint my masterpiece

The search could be reframed " painters who were also writers"

A longer list still : scientists/ mathematicians/ philosophers/politicians/criminals etc who were writers / painters/ artists ( bearing in mind that for a few years T.S. Eliot was a banker, Presidents Leopold Sedar Senghor and Agostinho Neto were poets, the Philosopher Bertrand Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, in1950, as was Bob Dylan, in 2016.

Even Baba Kadiri will readily agree that Hitler's Mein Kampf contributes nothing to the cause of humanity and that’s why it is still enjoying some notoriety up till today 

 

Could Chidi or Oluwatoyin  supply us with a list of Nigerian poets, writers, dramatists etc who are also painters, or other kinds of artists? 

..

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

“The only pleasure almost as great as enjoying art is talking about art.”-Author Unknown 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

Old cultural contexts and concepts are made obsolete by newer concepts and contexts.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

The national youth protest in Nigeria plan, obviously without good planning, coordination, mobilization and demobilization strategies, is dead on arrival.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

253 Academia(academia.edu)Mentions as at July 22nd, 2024 for me, a village boy who had to do all sorts of menial jobs(including working as a casual factory worker in Nigerian Breweries, Iganmu Lagos) to get formal education, it can only be the hands of God Almighty.

-Chidi Anthony Opara(CAO)

--
Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, Institute Of Information Management Professional Fellow, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador and Editorial Adviser at News Updates.

He is a recipient of International Award/Recognition For Excellence In Data And Information Management, with 253 mentions on Academia(academia.edu)as at July 22nd, 2024.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Count your blessings 

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

I disagree with the organizers of the August 2024 nationwide protest, I am a patriotic Nigerian, the protest organizers are also patriotic Nigerians, I believe. We just happen to have different perspectives on the solution to our country's problems.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

--
Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, Institute Of Information Management Professional Fellow, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador and Editorial Adviser at News Updates(https://updatesonnews.substack.com)

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Can you share your perspective?

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

Oluwatoyin,

If Nigeria were like USA, UK, France and other places like those mentioned, where things are better organized, I would not have any problem with using protest as a way of calling attention to the grievances of the citizens, but in Nigeria, (peaceful) protests are not organized, anyone is free to join and consequently usually gets infiltrated by all manners of persons with interests that cannot be described as peaceful. Moreover, security operatives here are not adequately trained and equiped to handle civil unrests, hence the usual high rates of killings in such situations.

Majorly in view of the aforementioned, I prefer aggrieved citizens calling attention to their grievances mainly through their representatives at the National Assembly(Parliament), these representative would in turn present these grievances on the floor of the national parliament.

Presenting these grievances on the floor of the national parliament will attract national and international attention to them and most likely, (executive arm of)government efforts to address them.

Should these representives prove inaccessible or show reluctance in the matters causing grievances, the constitutional provision of recall should be activated.

As an alternative, citizens can also make use of other channels of dialogue(media, civil society groups, etc)or pressure their representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against the head of the executive, if there is reluctance in addressing the grievances.

Thanks.

-CAO.

On Monday 29 July 2024, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:

Can you share your perspective?

On Mon, Jul 29, 2024, 6:15 AM Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA <chidi...@gmail.com> wrote:

I disagree with the organizers of the August 2024 nationwide protest, I am a patriotic Nigerian, the protest organizers are also patriotic Nigerians, I believe. We just happen to have different perspectives on the solution to our country's problems.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

--
Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, Institute Of Information Management Professional Fellow, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador and Editorial Adviser at News Updates(https://updatesonnews.substack.com)

He is a recipient of International Award/Recognition For Excellence In Data And Information Management, with 253 mentions on Academia(academia.edu)as at July 22nd, 2024.

More about him here: https://independent.academia.edu/ChidiAnthonyOpara

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks Chidi.

The argument is that the political system is inherently anti-the general populace and so people are not convinced it will work as an agent of creative change.

The protesters are saying they are ready for anything.

The govt is saying that they have a right to peaceful protest.

Perhaps we are moving towards the change we have long cried for but not touched.

Thanks

Toyin

On Wed, Jul 31, 2024, 5:00 AM Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA <chidi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Oluwatoyin,

If Nigeria were like USA, UK, France and other places like those mentioned, where things are better organized, I would not have any problem with using protest as a way of calling attention to the grievances of the citizens, but in Nigeria, (peaceful) protests are not organized, anyone is free to join and consequently usually gets infiltrated by all manners of persons with interests that cannot be described as peaceful. Moreover, security operatives here are not adequately trained and equiped to handle civil unrests, hence the usual high rates of killings in such situations.

Majorly in view of the aforementioned, I prefer aggrieved citizens calling attention to their grievances mainly through their representatives at the National Assembly(Parliament), these representative would in turn present these grievances on the floor of the national parliament.

Presenting these grievances on the floor of the national parliament will attract national and international attention to them and most likely, (executive arm of)government efforts to address them.

Should these representives prove inaccessible or show reluctance in the matters causing grievances, the constitutional provision of recall should be activated.

As an alternative, citizens can also make use of other channels of dialogue(media, civil society groups, etc)or pressure their representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against the head of the executive, if there is reluctance in addressing the grievances.

Thanks.

-CAO.

On Monday 29 July 2024, Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:

Can you share your perspective?

On Mon, Jul 29, 2024, 6:15 AM Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA <chidi...@gmail.com> wrote:

I disagree with the organizers of the August 2024 nationwide protest, I am a patriotic Nigerian, the protest organizers are also patriotic Nigerians, I believe. We just happen to have different perspectives on the solution to our country's problems.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

--
Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, Institute Of Information Management Professional Fellow, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador and Editorial Adviser at News Updates(https://updatesonnews.substack.com)

He is a recipient of International Award/Recognition For Excellence In Data And Information Management, with 253 mentions on Academia(academia.edu)as at July 22nd, 2024.

More about him here: https://independent.academia.edu/ChidiAnthonyOpara

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--
Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet, Institute Of Information Management Professional Fellow, MIT Chief Data Officer Ambassador and Editorial Adviser at News Updates(https://updatesonnews.substack.com)

He is a recipient of International Award/Recognition For Excellence In Data And Information Management, with 253 mentions on Academia(academia.edu)as at July 22nd, 2024.

More about him here: https://independent.academia.edu/ChidiAnthonyOpara

--

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

The recent fake video of Peter Obi addressing protesters in Abuja while he is at his Onitsha residence justifies what some of us told the "Obidients" during the presidential election campaign that those negative videos of Tinubu they were bandying about was fake.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

Any calls to (peaceful)protests without prior sensitization of the potential protesters of the requirements of(peaceful)protests and availability of "Protest Martials" to ensure compliance, is a call for anarchy.

[cornelius...@gmail.com]

Chidi, 

So the sky cries,

bursts into tears… 

 

According to you the sky 

urinates, and, maybe,

sometimes, just like you,

the sky also

defecates ?

There are

the ongoing mass demonstrations in Venezuela

the current student protests in  Bangladesh 

and before that the Civil Rights Movement and the marches, later on the demonstrations against the Vietnam War etc etc etc.; if people had stayed at home and left it all to their senators and congressmen , it’s doubtful that Apartheid would have ever been dismantled. 

Your president has called for an end to the protests .Don’t you think that he is being reasonable? 

I'm suggesting a creative dialogue between you “the mouthpieces / Of the Supreme Deity '' and what the Late Jiddu Krishnamurti says here below. Please look into it 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

A non state actor used by state actors to pocket the common wealth of the people is now the main grassroots hunger alleviator in Nigeria, sharing mini bags of rice and getting thanked for that.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA]

In Nigeria, critics of government insist on their rights to do so, tagging themselves patriotic, but at the same time tagging those who praise government unpatriotic and denying them their own rights to do so by the psychological attacks of accusing them of receiving bribes from the president for the praises.