Today's Quote

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Linking phone numbers to NIN is strictly a security precaution by the authorities, it happens every where. It is not a 666/Antichrist thing.

-Chidi Anthony Opara.

--

Chidi Anthony Opara is a "Life Time Achievement" Awardee, Registered Freight Forwarder, Professional Fellow Of Institute Of Information Managerment, Africa, Poet and Publisher of PublicInformationProjects

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

All modern religions came about due to the tendency of radical departure from orthodoxy on the part of the founders.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO).

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Government in Nigeria is more of organized crime.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Who still remembers the name of that young Nigerian who was part of the COVID 19 vaccine development team? Has his state governor received and hosted him? How many organizations in Nigeria have made him their brand ambassador? What we need in Nigeria first, before anything, is the reordering of our values.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO).

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"Spirituality, for me, is a very personal thing. I know what happens when I go in the forest, not really to hunt, but just to be by myself and experience a kind of tranquility which I do not find in urban society and commune with nature—and that’s my spirituality. It’s an internal thing. The crime, the criminality begins when spirituality structures itself in a way in which it wants to control the secular entitlement and the secular rights of humanity. That is when religions break up. One of the goriest expressions of that has been the contest in Iraq where the Shiites and the Sunnis wait for the spiritual day of each other and slaughter one another because one side does not believe in the particularities of history and heritage of the other; and then they butcher one another on their own holidays. Go round the whole world. Go to India; the Sikhs, for instance, have their problems with the Muslims, with the Buddhists, etc., all over the place. Whereas you can just sit in your home or retire to your meditation room and actually drink your fill of spirituality just by an internal process"-Wole Soyinka (in a recent interview by TheNews Magazine)

[Harrow, Kenneth]

 chidi, i agree w you 100% about spirituality. however, the conflicts  between people often use religious identity as a ground for mobilizing populations to attack others not simp;ly because they are different, but as a reason to rationalize the economic advantages. if we attackthem, we get their goods, their land, their women, their oil, their cities, etc., and to make it good, god defends us.... that's the reason.

 bush senior had to demonize hussein to mobilize americans to accept war.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 2, 2021 10:48 AM
To: USA African Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

 

"Spirituality, for me, is a very personal thing. I know what happens when I go in the forest, not really to hunt, but just to be by myself and experience a kind of tranquility which I do not find in urban society and commune with nature—and that’s my spirituality. It’s an internal thing. The crime, the criminality begins when spirituality structures itself in a way in which it wants to control the secular entitlement and the secular rights of humanity. That is when religions break up. One of the goriest expressions of that has been the contest in Iraq where the Shiites and the Sunnis wait for the spiritual day of each other and slaughter one another because one side does not believe in the particularities of history and heritage of the other; and then they butcher one another on their own holidays. Go round the whole world. Go to India; the Sikhs, for instance, have their problems with the Muslims, with the Buddhists, etc., all over the place. Whereas you can just sit in your home or retire to your meditation room and actually drink your fill of spirituality just by an internal process"-Wole Soyinka (in a recent interview by TheNews Magazine)

--

Chidi Anthony Opara is a "Life Time Achievement" Awardee, Registered Freight Forwarder, Professional Fellow Of Institute Of Information Managerment, Africa, Poet and Publisher of PublicInformationProjects

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The major determinant of fatherhood in Igbo land is biological,  there are however alternative /Auxillary platforms on which fatherhood is predicated. 

The legitimacy of those alternative /auxiliary platforms are dependent on their voluntary acceptance by all concerned  based on clearly defined socio-cultural parameters. 

The present day paternity fraud do not fit into this alternative /auxiliary platforms of fatherhood. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

I respect all human creators, creative writers, inventors and business people who create wealth. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara(CAO).

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"If we over rule the voters, we can damage the republic forever"-McConnel(Republican Senate Majority leader).

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

What you endorse defines who you are. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara(CAO)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

One of the implications of what happened in the U.S. is that we in Africa have  lost a democratic model with which we admonish African despotic political leaders. 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

It is not about Trump, it is about you who followed Trump,  a man whose shallow understanding of the intricacies of politics, economics, science, literature, etc is known to be very shallow. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO).

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"Justice serve the people, it does not protect the powerful"-Joe Biden.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

If Sowore and his people really want to do revolution, they should move out of the big cities to the hinterlands. That is where majority of the people live and in revolutions, the people are the fulcrum of success.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO) 

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

The Lekki Toll Gate EndSars exprience contradicts this view

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

If you watch Amanpour's interview with Museveni (who has ruled Uganda for 35 years and still vying) on CNN, you would know why Africa is still underdeveloped. I had to change channel. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara(CAO)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Oluwatoyin, 

EndSARS was not a revolution.

CAO. 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"Those who have known and watched Trump across the years cannot shake the irony of a president felled by the very formula that powered his rise: inflammatory speech and a self-regard that has congealed at times into functional self-delusion"-New York Times Article.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

You want your wife/daughter/sister to be like Kamala Harris(Current U.S. Vice-president)with all that loads of tradition and marriage orthodoxies hanging on her neck? Impossible! Free her, allow her to fly! 

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Self defence is not a crime. It is a fundamental human right on which all rights hinge. A human have to be alive to enjoy all other human rights. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO).

[Anthony Akinola]

WELL SAID.

Akinola

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The ineptitude of the present Nigerian government have elevated another fringe character into a "freedom fighter".

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

It is worrisome that whenever a court in any African country declares the detention of any citizen illegal and orders the security agency involved to release the illegally detained person, the security agency first declares that it will abide by the order(as if it has a choice in the matter)and proceeds to give timeline of the release and ends up in most cases finding excuses not to abide by the order. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The university system in Nigeria needs total  overhauling, I know because I had three children in three different universities in Nigeria. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara(CAO)

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Can you elaborate?

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Oluwatoyin, 

What is there to elaborate?  I had three children in three different universities in Nigeria and I know that what I went through was not what one should wish for even his enemies. 

I still have another child in another university and I know what I am going through at the moment. 

Believe me, the system needs overhauling, all parents with children in the system will agree to this except if they are part of the system. 

It will take a whole lot of spaces to elaborate on half of the rots going on in the public university system in Nigeria. 

This, for me is not an academic exercise,  it is a statement of fact. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO) 

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

share with us what you have observed.

toyin

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[Moses Ochonu]

Toyin Adepoju, please quit the pretentious ignorance. After many years of discussing and debating the many problems plaguing higher education in Nigeria, you’re still asking Chidi to elaborate on his his and his children’s experiences in Nigerian universities. Can you say in good conscience say that you don’t know what the problems are, or what parents like Chidi are contending with?

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 26, 2021, at 3:17 AM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"At last, Buhari sacks......... "

"At last, Buhari sacks....... "

"At last Buhari sacks.......... "

Haba! 

Buhari did not "sack", they resigned.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Moses, allow Chidi to speak for himself as a father of three children in Nigerian universities, as you are allowed to speak for yourself as a diaspora Nigerian academic with a BA from a Nigerian university and graduate degrees from US universities and as I am allowed to speak for myself as an Independent Scholar in Nigeria with a BA and graduate degrees from Nigeria and the UK.

I am interested in various vantage points, in varieties of perspectives we have been observing in play, even within the same orientation.

I suggest you manage yourself more carefully or you will come across as increasingly petulant and imperialistic of not only your own point of view but of your distinctive style of expressing your point of view.

I'm not interested in going round in circles. Your views are well known.

I want to read from the perspective of a parent of children in Nigerian universities, as Chidi describes himself.

Chidi is primarily a poet and so is not given to elaborating on his views, preferring one liners.

That's okay.

If he he chooses not to elaborate, I'll take it that he chooses not so substantiate  his views, not that the views should simply be taken as self explanatory.

toyin

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[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

"I suggest you manage yourself more carefully or you will come across as increasingly petulant and imperialistic of not only your own point of view but of your distinctive style of expressing your point of view."

But Toyin Adepoju, this is already the perception among ASUU types and I have happily embraced it as a welcome price for speaking out on behalf of our terrorized, abused, shortchanged, and voiceless students. I actually love the notoriety, if you don't know. If I had not chosen the "distinctive style" in which I have been expressing my view, do you think we would be having the debate we're now having? It is precisely because of the style I adopted that my points resonated with like minded folks and critics alike.

Meanwhile, I leave you with this one from a victim on Facebook:

Thank you for being a voice to the voiceless. You article brought me tears. It was like you telling my story. I studied to earn my PhD at UI and at a point when my abstract was delayed for over 2 years without much 'genuine' reason. Now it's in the past but I felt bruised and battered. I am gradually getting back to life but now I have no hope in our academic environment

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Thanks.

I know your views.

I'm also happy to read from others from.different perspectives and even the same perspective and a different contextualization.

We should not be stuck in the unhelpful binary of " if you are asking for elaboration you must be trying to discredit the view being expressed" or " you must approach  the subject in the same way as myself or you are aiding and abetting evil."

Thanks

Toyin

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Moses,

You get carried away at times in your critique

Your overly broad strokes and sweeping denunciations, at times uncritically presented, are not why you are responded to

From.my own petsonal view, as much as I appreciate your doggedness in critiquing negativities on the Nigerian educational system, you don't seem sensitive to the institutional extraversion you are championing.

You lament the decline of Nigerian universities as global knowledge centres but your suggested corrective blueprint does not go beyond the use of Western publishing platforms as global asessment matrices.

Is that the best we can aspire to?

Are the days of African based journals as global standard journals a thing for ever  of past history?

As much as I admire the Western educational system, particularly in its highest point of actualisation in Europe and North America, I am not inspired by the idea of being able to sealmessly cross over from a Nigerian University to US academia as a celebration of global standing, which it actually is and which you are celebrating but in a spirit that might need to be more critical.

Still formative thoughts, though.

Toyin

[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

Chidi.

I empathise with hordes of parents like you, my own siblings and colleagues who are being shortchanged by the system and who are stuck because they could not afford to educate their wards abroad.

Where change should begin is hitting those shortchanging the system where it hurts most: their pockets by NUC reforming the criteria for promotion to reflect the hard work done on the final products: the students.

Right now the emphasis is on how long is spent on the last post plus publications.  It should be reformed to include the number of students graduated and at what level.  Candidates for professorship should be required to have a track record of production of Phds within specified periods.  Candidates for senior lecturership must have a track record of producing Masters graduates within specified period in addition to publications.  As it is candidates can be producing for their own elevation and marking time for the next round of promotion exercise while ignoring the needs of the students and the same time making progress in their own career.

We know there are those who are doing the right thing on Nigerian university campuses among the lecturers and this is not about them.

In fact they should lead the movement for change by periodically holding placard carrying demonstrations on campus, calling for change and standing up to be counted.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

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

From: "Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM" <chidi...@gmail.com>

Date: 26/01/2021 08:53 (GMT+00:00)

To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

Oluwatoyin, 

What is there to elaborate?  I had three children in three different universities in Nigeria and I know that what I went through was not what one should wish for even his enemies. 

I still have another child in another university and I know what I am going through at the moment. 

Believe me, the system needs overhauling, all parents with children in the system will agree to this except if they are part of the system. 

It will take a whole lot of spaces to elaborate on half of the rots going on in the public university system in Nigeria. 

This, for me is not an academic exercise,  it is a statement of fact. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO) 

On Tuesday, 26 January 2021 at 08:58:17 UTC+1 toyin....@gmail.com wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/5fb78078-f899-4b54-b2ab-3c932055714en%40googlegroups.com.

[Harrow, Kenneth]

i'm going to repeat an idea i had while finishing up my teaching in dakar. i wanted a university to university link, where digital resources (in this case literature) could be shared across campuses. there was an enormous problem getting the needed panoply of texts for the students to access, so as to be qualified to certify as knowledgeable in a given area. we were having students in dakar focus on maybe 3 books a semester, or a year, with the notion that in-depth study would have the highest value. back in michigan i might teach 10 novels a semester, 20 a year. that difference extended to most levels, or more. the faculty at msu were expected to be up on all the significant, current research on their area. the ones in dakar could never access all the journals or books, or hope to acquire anything on a comparable scale--so some took a year or more abroad to get up to speed.

this is nothing new.

but if the books were available digitally, if the journals were e-journal shared, which many many libraries were working on acquiring, or were getting free from project muse, there would be hope to do something about it.

that was not satisfying as formulated since the assumption was a one-way street of resources and information flowing one way. yet significant research was being carried out in africa, which scholars and students needed in america. there are obvious examples, such as oral literature or historical studies, but much more. there are african presses whose publications remained essentially local, and to which we had little or no access, no real knowledge about. our libraries had limited resources, couldn't acquire all those texts. there was research being carried out in african depts that carried enormous value for reading texts, even if they were not vectored through dominant theories in the west.

say i taught a course in african lit, and say that course was being taught by another prof in dakar. we could have shared time where the combined classes would meet together, with discussions and teaching shared. the value would be incalculable.

all it took would be for the deans and dept heads and others who run the money and business of the universiity, to agree to this value.

but this would go enormously far in bridging the two worlds, and eliminate one ofthe great problems, resource famine. when i taught my grad course in caribbean lit in dakar, i took copies of my books and had them photocopied by the campus where all the studennts could buy copies. that way we had enough to study. that was the first caribbean lit course taught in dakar, in english.

i couldn't make this idea work on my own; but if enough administrators could be convinced of the value i am sure it could work

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagb...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2021 6:26 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

 

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Ken,

Sublime ideas on information integration and collaboration

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[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

Well this boils down to one thing, for Moses:

My adopted Mama cooks the best soup.

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 Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2021 3:42 PM
To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote

 

Please be cautious: **External Email**

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[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Gloria,

But you can't have it both ways. You lament that African academics are below and behind Western ones because they lack the resources and money of Western academics, which is your way of explaining away the egregious deficits and misconducts in teaching, research, supervision, and scholarly ethics in Nigerian academia. 

Then you turn around to say African academics don't need to adopt the standards of Western academies and should be judged by their own standards. Which is it? You must be consistent in your frame of reference. Your frame of reference cannot be resource discrepancy between African and Western academics but then when it comes to standards you change the goalpost and reject that frame of reference.

That is just an aside.

My position is not at all that Western standards, modes of thought, ontological rubrics, or categories of analysis are better and should be paradigms for African scholars. You have heard me speak and may have read some of my work, which critiques the universalization of Western post-Enlightenment modernity, and the effort to make European ways of seeing and knowing into paradigmatic and hegemonic knowledge systems. So, I think you know that that is not my position at all. I let Toyin Adepoju's mistaken assertion stand because he has a knack for misreading people and crudely reducing one's position to a caricature that suits his purpose.

My position is for rigor. rigor is neither Western nor African. It is universal. You cannot in the name of some alphabet, convenient Afrocentrism and pseudo-nationalist epistemology throw away rigor or justify/rationalize subpar scholarship, teaching, and mentorship. 

I know that this would conflict with your insufferable, dichotomously simplistic view of everything in terms of "Africa= totally good; West= totally bad." In that reductive frame, one cannot critique African institutions, practices, peoples, and vices without uncritically endorsing their Western counterparts. What kind of simplistic thought process is this?

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[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

Me? Say that African academics are behind Western ones? Moses, are you hallucinating?

I have criticized you for years for such lame generalizations. Is there a lawyer in the house?

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 Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2021 12:57 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

I come across odd views about Adepoju from time to time coming from only God knows where, from commentators whose views are constructed in the shadows of self justificatory opinion beceause they are not aired except to the closed mind of the commentator and when aired are delivered without any signficant effort at justification

  

I salute the professors of self justified knowledge, concoted in sollipsistic shadows, of unavailable rationale, masters of rigor defined by their lone universe.

Sir, in your relentness admonitions to Nigerian scholars to publish in prestigious, necessarily Western fora, please take pains to add a broader view of the challenge at hand.

I am yet to read from you the beautiful contextualisations you describe above.

Are they perhaps in your scholarly works but not in your social media commentary?

Help us go beyond "you must publish in A BC journal in North America bcs it is the best" to "how can we publish in ABC journals and also develop our own journals of such calibre?"

Within such a context, the campaign for cleansing the Nigerian University system becomes not simply a prelude to being able to cross over to the West or to publish in the West but to develop our own centres of global excellence round which the world would also gravitate as it once did.

Too much effort is spent on extravertionist aspirations.

Thanks

Toyin

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[Moses Ochonu]

There you go again, Toyin Adepoju, claiming that my position is that our colleagues in Nigeria must publish in Western venues. I want them to publish in rigorous venues. These rigorous venues just happen to be LARGELY located in the global North today. That is a statement of fact. 

Where are the rigorously established and run journals in Nigeria? With a few exceptions, all I see are incestuous and mediocre publications that have been proliferating since the early 2000s.

I didn’t create that situation. Nigeria-based colleagues are partly responsible for it by setting up a thousand departmental and faculty journals that have no rigorous standards of peer review and in some cases no peer review at all. In some scandalous cases they’ve allowed prestigious, rigorous Nigerian journals to atrophy and die and have established easy, non-rigorous journals in their place. Most now publish strictly in vanity venues and pay-to-publish journals located offshore.

Ban vanity publishing, kill most of the rag sheet journals (or consolidate them), and set up only a few journals with proper quality controls, peer review, and rigorous standards. The editors and boards and articles should be drawn from as broad an institutional spread as possible. 

If the content is rigorous and of good quality even those of us in the diaspora would want to publish in them. And they would be taken seriously, the same way Nigeria-based journals were taken seriously from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 27, 2021, at 4:21 PM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTQS1U_0BdgGjZkCxOKX%3DkYh%2BaF8ySKbc_k%3DQ61_T6tyBw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

Some of the best students I have ever taught in my life to date  2021, were in the Nigerian universities I taught in.  I have made this point privately and publicly.

I will never retract, no matter how painful that is for you to hear. I can even call their names and their accomplishments, their dedication and their commitment to the quest for knowledge.

The list is long.

I will leave it at that and will not take the 

rat bait that you have thrown out. 

Gloria Emeagwali

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 Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2021 12:57 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAAHJfPouyLd1s4F%3DqixgsNwQrT-L%2BZZcJaOnOXvTQEDc%3D%3DiRGg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

“Within such a context, the campaign for cleansing the Nigerian University system becomes not simply a prelude to being able to cross over to the West or to publish in the West but to develop our own centres of global excellence round which the world would also gravitate as it once did.”

Agreed. 

Gloria Emeagwali 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTQS1U_0BdgGjZkCxOKX%3DkYh%2BaF8ySKbc_k%3DQ61_T6tyBw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Moses Ochonu]

But we’re not talking about students. I thought we were talking about colleagues, fellow academics. Why are you changing the subject? I know what Nigerian students, when properly taught, guided, and mentored, are capable of, so you’re singing to the proverbial choir here. It is precisely because teaching, mentorship, and ethics have declined that the quality of Nigerian graduates has deteriorated precipitously in the last thirty years. Is that not why we’re debating poor and unethical pedagogical practices? Let’s stick the academics/lecturers/professors, please.

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 27, 2021, at 5:14 PM, Moses Ochonu <Meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

But we’re not talking about students. I thought we were talking about colleagues, fellow academics. Why are you changing the subject? I know what Nigerian students, when properly taught, guided, and mentored, are capable of, so you’re singing to the proverbial choir here. It is precisely because teaching, mentorship, and ethics have declined that the quality of Nigerian graduates has deteriorated precipitously in the last thirty years. Is that not why we’re debating poor and unethical pedagogical practices? Let’s stick the academics/lecturers/professors, please.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 27, 2021, at 4:47 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@ccsu.edu> wrote:



Some of the best students I have ever taught in my life to date  2021, were in the Nigerian universities I taught in.  I have made this point privately and publicly.

I will never retract, no matter how painful that is for you to hear. I can even call their names and their accomplishments, their dedication and their commitment to the quest for knowledge.

The list is long.

I will leave it at that and will not take the 

rat bait that you have thrown out. 

Gloria Emeagwali

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 Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2021 12:57 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Nigeria cannot solve the problem of insecurity with lawlessness. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Oga Ochonu,

There you go again, erecting a simplistic argument constructed by you alone but attributed to a person who sees your stance as needing enrichment.

I clearly stated, if I may amplify my point beyond journals, that we all know the best publishing houses, the most prestigious journals, even the best known and often the best books on Africa come from Western academia.

I am stating that I am dissatisfied with the end goal you project in your worthy though at times excessively generalising and at times perhaps unkind criques of Nigerian academia.

The vision I have read you project as the marker of success in the global market place of ideas for Nigerian academia is that of acceptance by the Western academic establishment, as demonstrated by being able to cross over to the West as the Falolas and others did in the 80s and being published in the best journals, which are in the West.

Your critiques for improving the system end there.

They are not embedded in a discussion of how to mobilize human resources, through the robust scholarly, mentoring and pedagogical culture you advocate, in order to generate an endogenously grounded and yet globally magnetising scholarly and academic culture.

Such a broader vision could take the discussion beyond a monilistic focus on the ills of the system to a mobilisation of aspiration to overcome those ills in the effort to maximize home grown potential as once existed in Nigerian academic up till the mid to late 80s.

I'm simply adding my bit to the question of how best to frame the struggle to refine and reposition Nigerian and perhaps African academia.

Your ideas on journal integrity are good ideas.

The discussion does not have to be broken into camps of stark disagreement.

Thanks

Toyin

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB846AE1-0892-4749-ABFD-0E4F1F55C4B5%40gmail.com.

[Gloria Emeagwali]

Moses it is time to translate your concerns, real or imagined into

practical solutions to fulfill your passion.

When I came to the US, I discovereda dire shortage of materials on Africa.The library was pathetic on that issue.That was how Africa Update emerged, at least one of the major considerations. That was how my video documentaries arose as well, the first in 2012 when I discovered the shabby treatment of Nubia.I got a flight to Chicago to meet

one of the genuine experts on the subject, Bruce Williams and got three interviews on the subject.I have about 100 documentaries including lectures.

Then there is the master, Toyin Falola.

To fill the gap on knowledge of Africa he embarked on a journey that now has yielded 200 books plus.He even created a publishing house.Now he is adding documentaries.This is all fantastic.

But You? Complaints, complaints and more complaints spiced with insults thrown at your colleagues. 

Do something to fulfill 

your passion. You are part of the problem if you are not part of the solution to the problem identified, real or imagined.

Gloria

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/A7ED0AED-CB70-468C-8C0E-AB79BEE8B6D5%40gmail.com.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

"3rd class" or "pass" in some situations do not indicate the actual intelligence quotient of an individual. 

Circumstances and situations can conspire to disorientate someone in an examination period and the outcome would be "3rd class" or "pass".

The quintessential lawyer,  Gani Fawehime made 3rd class both in the university and at the law school due to the financial stress he was going through at the time. 

Moreover,  geniuses are usually poor in academic endeavours.

The musical great, Fela  Kuti could not make enough grades in the high school to gain a university admission. 

Even in the music school, his performance in theory was poor.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Most people who don't like you secretly want to be like you. 

[Michael Afolayan]

Sorry, I am reading and responding to this thread late. It's the nature of internet connectivity in my neck of the wood. But I am so thankful to Gloria for this comment and I hope (and pray) that Moses takes it to heart. 

Moses is one of the folks in the Falola group that I truly respect. In my assessment, he is brilliant and communicates his ideas succinctly. I love his relentless prosecution of mediocrity in scholarship coming from some quarters in Nigeria's higher education institutions. I sometimes agree with some of the issues he raises and disagree with some. However, in agreement with Gloria, I am also of the opinion that he needs to please translate his anger and frustration into empirical actions. 

As an endowed professor, Moses has what it takes to influence academia in Nigeria (and anywhere in the world). Look, we all know that endowed professorship is serious. It is a recognition of the depth of contribution to the field to the extent that some individuals and/or institutions are willing to bet their lives on you. I was in the United States when there was only one Nigerian endowed professor, and that was the great (and, I must add, controversial, to some extent) John Ogbu of UC-Berkley. He spoke and the world listened to him, which was how he came up with the famous immigrant typology in anthropology.  I'm saying this just to underscore the seriousness of the Chair on which Moses sits. I think Moses once said he mentors some young Nigerians and I applaud his effort in that regard. I think he needs to start taking some more specific actions in helping our struggling institutions in Nigeria. Please follow Gloria's example of initiating various activities to fill the void she saw in African scholarship in her institution, and probably in the United States on arrival in the US. Falola's example is also laudable. He turned his frustration into what I see as a positive influence on Africa scholarship with a global magnitude. With the energy and smartness of Moses plus his relative youth, he can do equally well, if not even more.

The advice about "insults thrown at colleagues" is what I would counsel Moses to please adhere to. It is okay to critique (or even criticize) colleagues, but when it becomes insulting one's peers, that moves from the realm of objectivity to street-styled disrespect. I recently read the tribute that Moses paid his friend on FaceBook, Saheed Aderinto, and I was personally offended. It was okay to pay tribute to a friend and professional colleague, but it should not be at the expense of another, bordering on verbal assault and extreme putdown. This is the paragraph I aim referring to:

"I know this will get me in trouble with the denialist, evasive, and defensive ASUU lynch mob, but I'll say it anyway: Saheed has done more for our young humanities and social science scholars than the entire ASUU-affiliated professoriate has done for these young people. Yes, I said it!"

Pardon me if you gave a disclaimer of that statement in paragraphs after that but I could not read beyond that point. I would also hope that Saheed Aderinto quickly fell on his face to say "Oh no, Moses, I am not that superhuman!"

Haba, Moses, how fair is this indictment? How would you feel if you were to be a member of that "ASUU-affiliated professoriate"? What if you had a true friend, former colleague, family member or just an old classmate that you know to be ASUU-affiliated, yet hardworking, devoted and down-to-earth? Guess what? I happen to know such people and was too embarrassed and saddened upon rrunning into this your indictment of "the entire ASUU-affiliated professoriate." And mind you, I am not a "denialist, evasive, and defensive ASUU Lynch mob." I am not an ASUU apologist. I gain nothing from ASUU and cannot foresee ever benefiting from it. I am a retired academic and 100% of my retirement comes from the US. I just want to be fair. Unfairness to some of us is unfairness to us, all. 

Thanks!

Michael O. Afolayan

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/1225E048-6853-4BAA-A2D6-5D11A70B7489%40gmail.com.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The current Yoruba fringe character like his current Igbo counterpart have done what most fringe characters do when they find themselves in emergency fame. They deviate from their mission and start insulting persons who represent revered institutions. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Realistically, how far can our kids go with speaking vernacular?  Can they study Law,  Medicine,  Engineering, etc,  in their native language? If the answer is no,  then they should better start learning to be proficient in the language in which they would study these disciplines. 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Militancy, banditry and separatist agitations are alternative political negotiation platforms in Nigeria. 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Offerings and tithes in the early church are meant for the upkeep of priests(they have no sources of livelihood by scriptural injunction), strangers, orphans, widows and other indigent members of the church, but now,  church general overseers have cornered church offerings and tithes for self use, hence the resentment.

-Chidi Anthony Opara(CAO)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Critics of obnoxious modern day pastors are not mocking God, it is rather the tricksters who falsely claim that God called them that are mocking God. 2000+ years ago,  Christ criticized them too.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The Bible and other scriptures are the words of God recorded by humans. Human inadequacies in the recording cannot be ruled out. Such inadequacies cannot be attributed to God but to the humans who did the recordings. 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Interpretations generally(biblical interpretations included)are dependent on many factors like education, culture, etc.  This is why interpretations differ even among same religious sects.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

When real revolutionary tendencies in Nigeria (they are few and not loud) plan a revolution (not self advertising protests and carnivals), it will be a success. 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Nigeria security will always flex muscles to peaceful protesters because there is no "balance of terror". They would never flex muscles to terrorists and bandits. 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The boundaries of "famous", "popularity" and "notoriety" should be properly demarcated. 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

High political offices do not have to have "technocrats" as leaders for things to work. 

If a solid workable system is created, the system will produce high political office holders who appreciate the work of "technocrats", consult them and make use of the blueprints arising from such consultations. 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Kudos to women who remain wives after achieving success.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Leadership should entail personal sacrifices and selflessness. Loosing personal privileges, comforts, etc, for the general good of the people the leader is leading. 

If the above tendencies are missing, any claim to leadership is false. 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Criminality is primarily a legal concept. Most things can be criminalized by law(legislation) and vice versa. Practice of prostitution for example is criminal(against the law) in some countries, while in other countries,  it is a legally backed taxable practice. So, the concept of criminality is dependent on the operative laws of a country and the scope of the conceptualization of criminality by such laws. 

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Proficiency in English language will definitely be an index for measuring good education if the language of the education is English language. If the language of the education is not English, the index then will be any other language of the education, reason being that having been  instructed in a particular language, proficiency in the language of instruction should be indication of mastery of the instruction.

Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO).

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Quest for sovereignty involves 85% negotiations and negotiations thrive on compromise. Even when violence is employed initially,  parties must go through the imperatives of negotiations. It then follows that leaders of groups seeking sovereignty must project  personalities that believe in negotiations. 

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

I have no problems with tithes and offerings, but just don't tell me that they are for God, heck, no! Tithes and offerings are for the running of the Church, every organization needs such funds. God's blessings are anchored on his infinite mercies, not on what any one can give in monetary terms.