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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA

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Oct 12, 2022, 11:50:34 AM10/12/22
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Q: How come no poet received the Nigeria national award 2022?

A: Anyway, posterity gives them awards.

-CAO.


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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA

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Oct 13, 2022, 4:46:54 PM10/13/22
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Tompolo is safeguarding crude oil. Nnamdi Kanu is discharged and acquitted. Kudos to strategy.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA

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Oct 15, 2022, 9:28:33 AM10/15/22
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For those who value credibility so much and have their focus on posterity, campaigning for politicians on their social media platforms is totally out because one can never be sure with politicians.

Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 15, 2022, 3:33:11 PM10/15/22
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By way of comparison what springs to mind is the famous/infamous case of Abdullah Öcalan the leader of PKK  who was eventually kidnapped in Kenya and flown to Turkey, for trial. 

The Nergros in Kenya had shipped and sold him downriver.

Nigeria also shipped Liberia’s Charles Taylor downriver, after granting him some kind of political asylum. Nigeria would have probably also shipped Mengistu Haile Mariam, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden downstream after being unable to resist just a little pressure from Uncle Sam…

Of course, Nnamdi Kanu is no Abdullah Öcalan, IPOB is no PKK,  the idea of Biafra is a far cry from the parameters of statehood wished for as Kurdistan, and an even greater differential is that Nigeria is very different from Turkey, not only with regard to due legal process. 

At this point one can demur and wonder aloud if the Umaru Dikko debacle had turned out differently and  Dikko had been successfully landed safely at the Port Harcourt Airport, that on Day 1 of his trial his lawyers would have argued strenuously as their main objection, the “illegal abduction” of their client, to face the music in a Nigerian Court of Law. 

We can well imagine Osama Bin Laden’s lawyers making the same kind of objections after an international arrest warrant had been issued should their client have been kidnapped from Pakistan and brought to trial to face the legal music somewhere near Ground Zero, within the New York Jurisdiction, before being summarily stripped or shipped to Guantanamo Bay…

 It simply doesn’t make sense: The current Nigerian powers that be go to such extraordinary lengths as to kidnap Nnamdi Kanu who for months has been on the run, been spotted bowing at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, like the Scarlet Pimpernel, “ They seek him here, they seek him there. Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven or is he in hell? That damned elusive Pimpernel”, personally, I lose track, according to some sources he was last seen dancing somewhere in London, Merry England. 

Naija’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami goes to such lengths to get the man who jumped bail, and once he’s got him, only to capitulate with a wimpy you are now “discharged and acquitted”, whatever that’s supposed to mean…

Inevitably, Chidi’s somewhat cryptic and condensed “Nnamdi Kanu'' is discharged and acquitted. Kudos to strategy.”,  raises more questions, and can only give speculative or conspiratorial answers.  Surely, an unstated question lurking/surfacing or being suppressed from being uttered though nevertheless on everyone’s mind is this: 

If at any time between now and the day of judgement ( Nigeria’s Presidential Election Day of 25th February 2023) rabble-rouser Nnamdi Kanu were to be re-arraigned for a new trial, predictably found guilty of certain types of alleged sedition/ unlawful possession of firearms/ weapons etc and duly sentenced in fulfilment of Nigerian Law  - instead of being  “discharged and acquitted”, what are we to speculate would be the impact of such an outcome on, the Presidential elections in general? On the presidential elections in  - by definition what Nnamdi Kanu would or has previously laid claim to being  - geographically and politically speaking the Biafra zone, that he ideally would like to see carved out of Nigeria  - after a peaceful constitutional divorce, a referendum maybe, or by any other means necessary or unnecessary, as IPOB had been previously advocating? How would Nnamdi Kanu’s fate at a Nigerian Court of Law affect, Peter Obi’s chances for the Naija presidency, not to mention a man of the moment, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and an even more distant sympathiser to the Biafra cause personified in Alhaji Atiku Abubakar?

From here to eternity: Max Tegmark says there’s a real possibility of a nuclear war breaking out…

It’s something more serious when the future of all mankind is at stake…

Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Oct 15, 2022, 4:26:03 PM10/15/22
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Nnamdi Kanu is a political leader, the most impacful political figure in contemporary SE and Igbo politics.

He is not a rabble rouser.

Did he jump bail?

He fled for his life when his then peaceful movement was attacked by the fed govt using troops and tanks, killing people.

What is the right legal response to that act of murderous tyranny by the fed govt?

Thanks

Toyin

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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 15, 2022, 7:23:26 PM10/15/22
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There’s no smoke without fire.

12 conditions were given for Nnamdi Kanu's bail; what has transpired since then is between the prosecution and Nnamdi Kanu & his legal defence team.

Does Nnamdi Kanu want to run for the Naija presidency in 2027? Is anything or anyone stopping him? 

For a surety, INEC would like to conduct a free and fair election   in peace and tranquillity throughout the Federation, without any disruptions, boycotts, disturbances, or insurrection,  by IPOB or any other secessionist organisations 

Rebel-rouser or rabble-rouser of Biafra , Namadi Kanu as a ” political leader, the most impactful political figure in contemporary SE and Igbo politics'',  IPOB as a  law-abiding '' peaceful movement” or not is debatable;. My impression is that at this stage, it’s probably not to the advantage of the powers that be to complicate matters by disturbing the hornet’s nest  thereby unleashing potentially dangerous forces that once again could prove to be beyond their control and beyond the control of the followup to  Operation Python Dance 1 and  Operation Python Dance 2,  followed by Operation Python Dance 3 and  Operation Python Dance 4, possibly to be followed, as required by Operation Python Dance, 5, 6. 7. 8, 9….

Tony Curtis : My God is real

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA

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Oct 16, 2022, 5:19:05 AM10/16/22
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju,

Rabble rousers are also leaders. They lead their roused rabbles. There are definitely rabbles in Southeast Nigeria (Igboland) like in every other places.

I am wondering what your definitions of "impactful" and "peaceful" may be.

-CAO.
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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA

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Oct 16, 2022, 5:35:58 AM10/16/22
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Can any work highlighting the environmental devastations in Nigeria by Oil and Gas conglomerates win the annual Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Prize In Literature?

Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Oct 16, 2022, 9:12:25 AM10/16/22
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IPOB generated a valid vision for the actualization of Biafra through a peaceful referendum.

On account of their agitation, govt figures began to talk publicly about restructuring, a vision they ignored after reaching Aso Rock.

Even Fulani militia atrocities were paused.

IPOB members were killed by the govt for no reason, people in prayer massacred.

In the midst of the ravages from Fulani herdsmen and militia, IPOB formed ESN, Eastern Security Network, predating the SW Amotekun, formed by SW governors to address the same challenges, after they could no longer withstand the sheer effrontery and rivers of blood those destroyers were casusing, amidst cries from various quarters in Yorubaland, and even then, the SW self protection strategies have not been able to break away from the hobbling by the fed govt which enables the reign of terror by Fulani militia and herdsmen.

Kanu foreshadowed Sunday Igboho, pursuing the freedom of Yorubaland from Fulani militia and violent Fulani herdsmen.

NoIbam not aware of anyone after Ojukwu who  has done more than Kanu to foreground the question of the place and future of Ndigbo in Nigeria and the relationship of that subject to the  issue of justice for all nationalities in Nigeria.

I understand he has alienated other ethnicities by insulting them. That his proposed map of Biafra includes non-Igbo regions.

All such are bad moves, if true.

The violence eventually associated with IPOB emerged after fed govt went after Kanu with murderous tanks and soldiers.

After that was done, govt figures stopped talking about restructuring. Fulani miltia attacks resumed.

IPOB members are described as characterised by intolerance of opposing views. Of using violence in forcing their views on others. Possibly also by a split in their ranks.

I see the non-verbal negativities as emerging after FG escalated their strong arm tactics against them, targeting Kanu.

As it is, after Ojukwu came MASSOB.

After MASSOB has come IPOB.

The spirit that inspires these movements is not likely to die, even if support for them is slowed down by having an Igbo President.

I see the core vision as a quest for equity within the Nigerian complex.

The IPOB view is arguing that the Nigerian political system cannot deliver such equity, and so Ndigbo should be allowed the choice to exit it while those Igbo who wish to continue living in Nigeria are free to do so, with freedom to live and work anywhere they choose but with a country of their own they can run the way they like.

If you understand any of these issues and history differently, do let me know.

Great thanks

Toyin 


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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA

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Oct 16, 2022, 10:07:30 AM10/16/22
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Oluwatoyin,

You simply swallowed the propaganda which is different from the reality.

If you had taken time to read and ponder the utterances that came out and the actions that followed such utterances, your definition of "peaceful" in this context would have been different.

If you were also able to conduct a field investigation on this matter, your definition of "impactful" would also have been different.

Your "peaceful" friends are currently telling Senator Orji Uzor Kalu to write his will if he doesn't desist from telling the federal government to floursh out criminals from the forests of Abia state. Their spokesperson just released the threat.

-CAO.
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Oct 16, 2022, 3:07:42 PM10/16/22
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Chidi,

All you have done is make declarations.

You have not justified your views.

If you have a perspective on IPOB you can justify with reference to the history of the development of the movement, present it.

I don't recall reading any serious analysis of Nnamdi Kanu from you. 

Only dismissal while ignoring the fact that his impact, however you define it, would be impossible without his resonating with a broad range of people, people who are far from being of the unreasonable  Boko Haram variety.

Thanks

Toyin


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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA

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Oct 17, 2022, 4:41:01 AM10/17/22
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"Chidi,

All you have done is make declarations.

You have not justified your views."-Oluwatoyin

Really? Even when I gave an example of a Senator who asked the federal government to rid Abia state forests of crireminals and was warned publicly to desist or write his will?

The above example was used because it was public. There are several others that are not public.

By the way, the utterances and the actions that arose from those utterances are public knowledge.

It is surprising to me that you believe that a group with a "supreme leader" can be "impactful" in an area majorly populated by people known to be majorly republican, except if you are talking about the "Jesu Oyingbo" type of impact.
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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA

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Oct 17, 2022, 4:41:20 AM10/17/22
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"Men are scum" is another emotional blackmail. Men should ignore it and should never try to prove that they are not.

Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Oct 17, 2022, 6:02:10 AM10/17/22
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With reference to that declaration you reference, can you situate it within it's immediate context and it's relationship to IPOB history, as I tried to do with my own analysis?

In what sense is it justified to characterize IPOB as a group of criminals as that quote you reference suggests?

Are IPOB best understood as opportunists, as freedom fighters or both and how does their history bear out either characterisation?

As for what they said or did not say, we are talking here about interpreting a complex history, not simply referring to what anyone may have said or done.

Kanu and IPOB have issues with glorification of his person. 

Why?

What inspires their devotion?

Is the Biafran vision dismissable?

To what degree does IPOB represent it's dynamics?

Thanks

Toyin

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Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA

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Oluwatoyin,

I do not think that a reharsh of IPOB history here is necessary.

That history is public knowledge. All utterances and actions are public knowledge, so why should I indulge in that unnecessary journey.

The example I gave(which I needn't give in the first place) was also public knowledge and follows in the tradition of IPOB's use of threats and other forms of physical and psychological violence to achieve its objectives.

The antecedents of most ESN commanders, like the late "Ikonso" will fill any normal person with horror. "Ikonso", according to credible reports was promised head of the Biafran army.

You can continue to seen IPOB and Kanu as heroes, it is your right, after all, the Hitlers of this world have admirers.

Have a nice day.

-CAO.
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Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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You are yet to even attempt to debunk the account I gave of IPOB history.

Is anything I wrote false?

Did IPOB not begin as a wholly peaceful movement seeking referendum for the SE?

We they not massacred even when they posed no threat of violence?

You have refused to respond to my assertive responses to these questions but instead point to an IPOB history which you say everyone can see.

You are refusing to give this grave issue the seriousness it deserves, preferring to be dismissive.

Pro-Igbo and Pro-Biafra-not always identiical-sentiments among Igbo people are very real.

Is there anyone or any group consistently adressing these issues?

Thanks

Toyin

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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 17, 2022, 10:40:38 AM10/17/22
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Chidi,

Another side issue

Why do you always provoke/generate this kind of response from me? 

I'll be weighing in on Nnamdi Kanu after you conclude your poetic little tittle-tattle with OVA.

Consider : The humility of the Prophet of Islam - sallallahu alaihi wa salaam…

There’s the story of someone threw rubbish on the Prophet of Islam,  sallallahu alaihi wa salaam…

Check out how he reacted…

Check out  Ali Ibn Talib (alaihi salaam) on humility

According to the devil’s dictionary definition of abasement, sometimes, some people choose to consciously, at least temporarily forget who they are or who they are supposed to be when in the presence of a superior authority. 

This definition was vividly brought to life one afternoon circa July 1981 while I was having tea with Mrs Orji, the Secretary of the Education Department in her office at Port Harcourt. There was a knock on the door and who was it if not the rector of the college where I was working? He entered with what one of the Naipauls  ( I can’t remember exactly which one, Shiva or V.S.) has described elsewhere as a “preformed cringe” and enquired of her, rather timidly, apologetically, with a diffidence that was in perfect synchronicity with the cringe, “ Madam, I hope that I’m not disturbing you.”  It was time for me to light my cigarette…

Later on that same day he would be terrorising everybody ( his underlings at work) like a Black Stalin. With reference to “a superior authority” for the believer that he was ( his name was Mr Mboma and he was a Catholic,  which means that for him, Almighty God is and was the Superior Authority for us all and of course the Vicar of Christ/  Vicar of Rome, dear Pope John Paul II was the superior authority for us all perishable human beings on earth, including Mrs Orji. 

What has all this got to do with, “Men are scum" is another emotional blackmail. Men should ignore it and should never try to prove that they are not.”? 

Well,  heaven forbid that I should refer to my grandfather,  my boss, my fellow human being, my prime minister, or president as “scum”, “ scumbag” or worse still  “vermin''  - but my boss did once tell me that my hair was “ unkempt” and on that occasion, I had asked him, “ Where did you learn to use such a word?” and he had not answered the question. I suppose that he had merely “ignored it ''

 He had also complained about my wearing my buba and sokoto to work and I had told him that I thought I would look too pompous in an agbada, and anyway, although my salary was more than his, I could not afford it. However, when Pope John Paul 11 was suddenly visiting Nigeria he demanded that all members of staff should wear their “ traditional attire”....You see what I mean?

About ignoring those who suffer from whatever inferiority complex that makes them want to put others “down”, I guess it would depend on who you are or who you think you are and how far you are prepared to go with getting rid of the ego, by conscious self-abasement.

For example:  “kindness in response to insults and humiliation: fools never defended themselves and did not take revenge on those who hated, insulted, despised, humiliated them, but on the contrary - loved them, forgave everything, prayed for all of them, healed them from diseases, even did secret good deeds”   - from   FOOLISHNESS FOR CHRIST

So, a racist could say, “ Scumbag, I don't believe that a black person can be British. In my opinion, the term "Black British" is an oxymoron. One could be born in Britain, reside in Britain, marry a Briton or have a British passport, but as long as you are black, your nationality will always be questioned. Hence, the standard follow-up question to _Where are you from?_ is _Where are you from originally?”

Personally, I pray to the Almighty to divest me of arrogance ( I have plenty of it, more than you could possibly imagine) - it is arrogance and egotism that makes people angry when they are referred to as e.g. “vermin”.  So,  last night, I listened to Rabbi David Bar-Hayim on my new Bluetooth app on this subject: Overcoming Anger and Haughtiness

Remember: “Now this man Moses was exceedingly humble, more so than any person on the face of the earth.”

From circa 1981 : Kadima 







Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 18, 2022, 9:34:07 AM10/18/22
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“You see, war is not the answer

For only love can conquer hate”  ( What’s Going On 

Preliminaries: 

Haven’t we learned anything from the Biafra War? Ojukwu?  Achebe? Ben Okri?Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie?

In the world context we could review the panorama of Liberation movements and the circumstances which gave birth to their existence, and, when passing judgment, bear in mind that one man’s freedom fighter is in the eyes of the other side nothing less than a terrorist. 

We need to look no further than this primer: C.L.R. James: The Black Jacobins

Of course, the imperialist and other ill-willed revisionists purvey other views about the slave rebellion which morphed into the Haitian Revolution 

In the Nigerian context in which some of the Adepojus would like to situate IPOB’s chief of staff Nnamdi Kanu we could take a good look at his various predecessors who were on the same quest - first and foremost in my history book, Shehu Usman Dan Fodio and his stunning achievement, the Sokoto Caliphate  - and we are to suppose that if Nnamdi Kanu had been of the same creed and bent as Dan Fodio, and not a self-defined, self-loving Jew  - like Ukraine’s Zelensky -  then in his earlier call to arms, Jihad would have been the most resounding word in his militant vocabulary, the term used in his rallying call to arms

That, plus the term that was coined long after Dan Fodio and the Fulani jihads in West Africa, namely the imperative of  “by any means necessary!” with such a wide range of possibilities  or as Mutabaruka sang, 

“ By de ballot or de bullet

By de Bible or de gun

Any which way freedom mus' come”

Freedom

O Freedom

That's why some people were born in Freetown and some jive ass monkey can’t lecture or talk down to such a one about the importance of  that precious word; Freedom

So, in the Nigerian context, the question is, are the Igbos in Nigeria being marginalised, oppressed and downtrodden? 

An honest answer, please! 

Secondly, what should be the borders of Biafra? 

Back in the day : 

Très impoli

Tailleur




On Monday, 17 October 2022 at 10:41:20 UTC+2 chidi...@gmail.com wrote:

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA

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Oct 21, 2022, 4:44:04 AM10/21/22
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Political leadership is so easy in Nigeria. All a political leader needs to do to gain high rating is to allign with the(mostly shallow) popular narratives.

Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM, CDOA

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Oct 21, 2022, 12:36:31 PM10/21/22
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There were writers in the era when there were no papers and printing presses. There will be writers in the paperless era of the future.

Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 22, 2022, 10:10:48 AM10/22/22
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Chidi, writers and slow readers, 

Maybe this is worth repeating as a poetic refrain :

Should Rishi Sunak be elected the next Prime Minister/king of Great Britain as he seems all set to be  - and to me, this sounds like a statement coming from you, the kind of statement that you could have made, “then the UK  would have joined the ranks of the other poor, corrupt, under-developed, developing third world nations.”

And now you look forward to, as you predict and prophesy, a paperless future, the abolition or end of pen and paper, the paper press, and maybe, thereby, freedom of expression, press freedom when people have nowhere to bring their thoughts  - or will everything be replaced by BBC, LBC, Social Media and the towers of Babel? 

As the brain drain and exodus of certified Nigerian doctors continues to  Merry England, here’s my 5 % to the academy's economy: 

I recommend David Byrne: The Knee Plays . 

Better Still ( if you’re frightened by the “music “, David Byrne: The Knee Plays ( lyrics)

It’s a very scary and unnerving  proposition - a decree of the kind that could be issued by a future docile, literate, illiterate / semi-literate Nigerian dictator or poet laureate,  to wit, that “There will be writers in the paperless era of the future.”

Like Sani Abacha; “I gave commands and all smiles stopped”

O me miserum !

The end of the era of Wole Soyinka and kipi pierogi

applying to the University of Oxford to be appointed

the Buckingham Palace Professor of Poetry

Caliban & the Balakante big grammar highway robber

as the Big Boss, Supreme Leader, and Super President 

of the English Poetry Empire, respectively, so help me God! 

Maybe, due to climate change, the final end and extinction of papyrus and paper, the end of the quill a milepost long passed as is the era of the Parker Fountain Pen and the little jar of Quink Ink along with a subscription to “ The Pick of Punch'' which I got from my Scottish stepfather for Christmas in 1960, and now that pen and ink are more or less abolished and we no longer have to worry about handwriting ( speak less of handwriting styles  - and national handwriting styles   -various English, almost uniformly one American style, the well-formed Swedish and  Hungarian styles) you want to abolish paper altogether, convert the dollar and the naira into cryptocurrency, dispatch the holy tradition of  Sefer Torah, the Vedas and Upanishads,  the Dhammapada, the so-called  “New Testament”, the Holy Quran, the Gita, and the Lotus Sutra, to the Internet? But the major question is, on what will you write your poetry and with what, since even now, the fountain pen, the bic and biro are almost long gone, fallen into desuetude? 

Further down the line, you’ll be reading about Allah  - Subhan wa t’ala 

“Who teacheth by the pen,

Teacheth man that which he knew not.

Nay, but verily man is rebellious

That he thinketh himself independent!

Lo! unto thy Lord is the return.”

What you learned at Sunday School:

Bereshit / Genesis 1  

And circa the year 85 - 90 of the Gregorian calendar,

 John 1 

which begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Jesus: “ Before Abraham was, I am”

Jesus quotes the Torah of Moses

 What you probably didn’t learn at Sunday School :

The first revelation to the prophet of Islam Sallallahu alaihi wa salaam:

 Surah Al-Alaq

which translates: 

“Read: In the name of thy Lord Who createth,

Createth man from a clot.

Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous,

Who teacheth by the pen,

Teacheth man that which he knew not.

Nay, but verily man is rebellious

That he thinketh himself independent!

Lo! unto thy Lord is the return.

Hast thou seen him who dissuadeth

A slave when he prayeth ?

Hast thou seen if he relieth on the guidance (of Allah)

Or enjoineth piety ?

Hast thou seen if he denieth (Allah's guidance) and is forward ?

Is he then unaware that Allah seeth ?

Nay, but if he cease not We will seize him by the forelock -

The lying, sinful forelock -

Then let him call upon his henchmen!

We will call the guards of hell.

Nay, Obey not thou him. But prostrate thyself, and draw near (unto Allah).”

Cornelius Hamelberg

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Oct 23, 2022, 6:34:18 PM10/23/22
to USA Africa Dialogue Series

Dear Chidi,

Re- Your saying that “ “There will be writers in the paperless era of the future.”

It could be that consciously or unconsciously, unbeknownst to you, you are prophetically speaking, absolutely right.

Consider what HASHEM says  here :

Yirmiyahu / Jeremiah : 31:32 : “For this is the covenant that I will form with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will place My law in their midst and I will inscribe it upon their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be My people.”

“…and I will inscribe it upon their hearts…” 

Not on paper….

Secondly, if you could please follow this delightful story :( self-explanatory )

As we slowly progress deeper into the digital age,  soon enough we'll enter the era of the abolition of “ useless paper money”....some of the doomsday prophets say that by then we won't be able to buy or sell without the universal prefix, 666…. 

Papa Wemba & Strervos Niarcos : Champs-Elysees (1984)

 (Guitare Solo: Rigo Star

Guitare Rythmique: Teddy Sukami

Guitare Basse: Rigo Star

Clavier: Maurice Poto

Percussion: Armando)

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