Professor Oyebode apologizes for Buhari Vote

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Moses Ochonu

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Jul 30, 2019, 6:52:38 PM7/30/19
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"I voted for him in 2015; I took the trouble to join the queue and vote for him. I thought anything but Jonathan. Jonathan was clueless but now we got a worse person than Jonathan, so I didn’t believe he deserved a second term. Some people taunted me for supporting him but I told them I was extremely sorry. ....
This man can’t move Nigeria anywhere; the country is collapsing under him. It’s the young people I feel sorry for"

—-Professor Akin Oyebode, emeritus professor of constitutional and international law, university of Lagos.



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Okey Iheduru

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Jul 31, 2019, 4:56:24 AM7/31/19
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Too late, fellows. Prof. Oyebode and all others now shedding crocodile tears and doing last-minute "mea culpa" were warned but hatred and vain hope of an imminent ethnic harvest blinded them all. The PMB effect will be with Nigeria over the next 50 years, if the country survives its current race to the precipice. By the way, American intelligence agencies predicted EVERYTHING that is currently happening--and that WILL HAPPEN-back in 2011, but Nigerians could care less. #BringBackCluless?

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Michael Afolayan

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Jul 31, 2019, 1:21:24 PM7/31/19
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Yes, you are right indeed, Okey Iheduru, for problematizing Moses' nice think-for-yourself parable! His (Oyebode's) is what the Yoruba people call the futile hindsight of the proverbial dog, who started hiding the butcher knife only after its ears have been chopped off! Oyebode's current position is emblematic of the psyche of the majority southwest elite, which was hellbent on the "anything-but-Jonathan" war chant only to discover the warlord it's rooting for is actually fighting on their enemy's side - whatever that means. But, to Oyebode's credit, at least he swallowed his pride. Many are still playing the ostrich game, hiding their heads in the sand. Let's see if those heads would still be attached to their necks when the Shakespearen "hurly-burly is done!" Thanks for your observation!

Michael O. Afoláyan
(Back in Exile)






Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 31, 2019, 1:21:25 PM7/31/19
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Various ethnicities but mainly the North and the SW supported Buhari.

People had various reasons, some ethnic, some truly nationalistic. 

Can you direct me to where I can get info on this- ', American intelligence agencies predicted EVERYTHING that is currently happening--and that WILL HAPPEN-back in 2011, but Nigerians could care less.'

thanks

 Toyin  



Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 31, 2019, 9:28:02 PM7/31/19
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Oga Afolayan,

how are you back in exile?

toyin

Salimonu Kadiri

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Jul 31, 2019, 9:28:02 PM7/31/19
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​In this age of fake news, Professor Moses Ebe Ochonu will allay my fear of false propaganda by supplying the link or the source of statements attributed to Akin Oyebode.
S. Kadiri 



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Ämne: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Oyebode apologizes for Buhari Vote
 

Okey Iheduru

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Jul 31, 2019, 9:28:03 PM7/31/19
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Toyin:

I've copied and pasted below relevant excerpts from a 2012 draft report that I was involved in drafting for the Office of the National Security Adviser, Abuja. Hopefully, it provides sufficient background to enable you pursue the scenario reports and war games written/engaged in by US security and intelligence agencies between 2008 and 2015. See particularly 

Regards,
Okey
+++++++++++++++++++++++

5. These repeated flare-ups and the widening of fault lines they have equally exposed have been of concern to many Nigerian and non-Nigerian academic and policy analysts. Using the tools of their profession, many of these analysts have conducted scenario studies that stress the urgency of addressing these fault lines and the rising insecurity they generate. Some of these studies, particularly those conducted by scholars and analysts from the United States of America (US), have been predicting the eventual failure of the Nigerian state since the mid-1990s. The most apocalyptic of these US-based scenarios was conducted in 2008 by a team of four Air force officer-engineers at the Air University (AU), Alabama, US entitled Failed State 2030: Nigeria- a Case Study. They used Nigeria to represent its fourth scenario of a failed state in a vital area of US interest as part of a five-part Blue Horizon scenario study. Failed State 2030: Nigeria-a Case Study was later published in 2011. Like other studies by US security and intelligence agencies, this Blue Horizon study reinforced the possibility of Nigeria’s failure by 2030 due to the fragilities of a “failed state” deriving from the country’s unresolved socio-cultural, political and economic challenges.

 

6. In February 2012, the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria directed the Commandant, National Defence College, Abuja, R/Admiral ... through the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) to make a comprehensive review of the Failed State 2030: Nigeria- a Case Study and offer a counter-strategy on the issues raised in the report. Consequently, in March 2012, the Commandant, NDC duly constituted a committee of NDC directing staff and research faculty composed of Air Cdre ... (Chairman), Prof OC Iheduru (Member), Dr ... (Member) and ... (esq) (Secretary), and mandated them to make a comprehensive review of the publication and offer a counter-strategy on the claims contained in it.

 

 

AIM

7. The aim of this paper therefore, is to appraise the Failed State 2030: Nigeria as a Case Study report with a view to proffering appropriate response strategies to the central challenges identified in this and other similar scenario reports about the future of Nigeria. 

....

18. Given the concerns and the effect a failed or failing Nigeria would have on its interests, various arms of the United States military and security establishments have conducted series of future scenario studies and war games since the mid-1990s in preparation for Nigeria’s possible implosion. Most of the scenario projections have come out of the United States National Intelligence Council (NIC). Its most audacious scenario study was a 2005 report suggesting that Nigeria risked disintegration by 2015. The latest scenario study about a possible collapse of Nigeria was conducted by four air force colonels at the US Air University in 2008. Published years later in February 2011, the Failed State 2030: Nigeria—a Case Study contends that Nigeria exhibits extraordinarily complex demographics, culture of corruption, and failing national infrastructure. This is worsened by the country’s long history of dangerously destabilizing religious and ethnic violence and potentials for future military coups d’état. It concludes that if urgent steps were not taken to address these danger signals, Nigeria risked collapse in 2030. More importantly, the authors explored the likely technological response of the US air Force to this apocalyptic scenario.

 

 

CONTEXTUALISING AMERICAN “OBSESSION” WITH A FAILING NIGERIA

 

19.   Although the 2011 Air University occasional paper is a student project, many Nigerians are understandably concerned about what may seem like “American obsession” with the possibility of a failed Nigeria. In February 2012, the U. S. ambassador to Nigeria, Terrence McCulley had to embark on an orchestrated campaign to deny media reports and popular concerns among many Nigerians that the U.S. government, rather than U.S.-based researchers and analysts, was the author of these recurring reports of imminent collapse of their country.[i] Whether or not these reports reflect official US government positions, Americans are interested in Nigeria’s future for several reasons. Firstly, Nigeria’s geo-strategic importance to US energy security has been consistently emphasized by US policy and strategic thinkers: it is estimated that Nigeria and the entire GoG would provide up to 25 per cent of US light, sweet crude oil imports by 2030. Secondly, Nigeria’s large and growing population would present a critical challenge to global, and indeed, US economy if it fails. Nigeria’s population which has grown at an average rate of 2 per cent since 2008 is projected to reach over 225 million by 2030.  Thirdly, the US expects Nigeria to play a critical role in the development and stability of other African nations, given its strategic position in Africa.

 

20.   In line with these concerns, therefore, US policy and strategic planners have consistently conducted studies and simulated scenarios about Nigeria’s possible failure, with a view to avoiding it or recommending ways that the US would respond and cope with its consequences. The US National Intelligence Council (NIC) has played a lead role in these scenario studies. Its 2010 scenario study forecast that Nigeria will not have the potential to play the role of a leader in West Africa because its economic mismanagement, corruption, and political instability will not be resolved over the next 15 years. Similarly, an NIC-sponsored one-day conference of US experts on Africa in January 2005 participants predicted that Nigeria would fail by 2015, if some of its fault lines were not properly managed and controlled.

 

21. The conference concluded that a failed Nigerian state could drag down a large part of the West African region. Clearly, if millions of people were to flee a collapsed Nigeria, the surrounding countries, up to and including Ghana, would be destabilized. Further, a failed Nigeria probably could not be reconstituted for many years if ever, and not without massive international assistance. The 2005 projections on Nigeria elicited so much apprehension that the Olusegun Obasanjo administration promptly arrested the leaders of several militant groups in the country, amongst which were the leaders of ‘Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra’ (MASSOB), the ‘Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force’ (NDPVF), Asari Dokubo and  Gani Adams of the O’odua People’s Congress (OPC).

 

22. The year 2008, however, marked a watershed in United States’ interest in the future of Nigeria. This is evidenced by a proliferation of simulation studies and exercises on Nigeria’s likely implosion by several US security and intelligence outfits in that year. A National Intelligence Council report entitled Democratization in Africa: What Progress Towards Institutionalization”, published in February 2008, posited that despite the return to democracy in 1999, ethnic and religious conflicts had persisted with an estimated 14,000 deaths in political and communal clashes, with much of the violence taking resource, ethnic and religious tones. This conclusion may have formed the basis for a later report by the same agency in November 2008, where it further asserted that the encroaching desertification in the north as well as the religious clashes between Muslims and Christians, among other factors, point to a conceivable outbreak of another Biafra-like civil war, only this time along North-South lines.  The report entitled “Global Trends 2025: A Transformed Worldcontended further that unless employment conditions change dramatically, Nigeria will remain ripe for continued instability and state failure. It therefore, warned that Nigeria’s eventual failure may require military intervention by outside powers to stabilize energy flows and guarantee security in the region, thus reinforcing the need for US preparedness.

 

23. It was also in 2008, that the study under review was commissioned. The Failed State 2030: Nigeria-a Case Study shows that the various trends pointing to Nigeria’s possible failure could be used to develop strategies or war games to help the US avoid or test potential responses to the calamity of failed states. By design or coincidence, the U. S. military in May 2008, conducted a war games called Unified Quest 2008 to ascertain how its military might respond to a war in parts of Africa, including Nigeria. Among other scenarios, the war game envisioned the deployment of 20,000 US troops to maintain security in the Niger Delta oil fields within a dissolved anarchic Nigeria. The war game, however, ended without U.S. military intervention because one of the rival factions in the Nigerian army executed a successful coup and formed a government that sought stability in the country, thereby guaranteeing the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market which is one of the guiding principles of AFRICOM.[ii]

 

24. A joint report authored by the NIC and South Africa- based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in 2010 reinforced the same sentiments expressed in the Failed State 2030 monograph. While noting the significant leadership potential that Nigeria holds in the stability and development of Africa, the report contended that internal conflict or collapse of a populous Nigeria would likely overwhelm international conflict management efforts, given the difficult challenges that smaller countries, such as Sudan or Somalia, have so far posed to the international community.

 

25. Finally, the 2012 annual report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that Nigeria should be designated as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC). The USCIRF claims to be “an independent, bipartisan U. S. Federal Government commission” with principal responsibilities to review the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and make policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress. However, its commissioners are appointed by the US President and the leadership of both political parties in the Senate and the House of Representatives. The commission premised it recommendation on the fact that over 14,000 Nigerians had been killed in religiously-related violence between Muslims and Christians since 1999. Significantly, the USCIRF also noted that "the government of Nigeria continues to fail to prevent and contain acts of religiously-related violence, prevent reprisal attacks, or bring those responsible for such violence to justice.” Other countries recommended for CPC status in 2012 were Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Vietnam, while countries on its watch-list include Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia and Venezuela. Nigeria which had been on USCIRF‘s watch-list since 2002, was first recommended for CPC status in 2009.[iii]

 

26. These military and security reports have been complemented by a number of recent books that have predicted the collapse of the Nigerian state, namely Karl Maier, This House Has Fallen (2002), Robert Calderis, The Trouble with Africa (2007), and Roy Cullen, The Poverty of Corrupt Nations (2008).[iv] Most of these books owe their apocalyptic trade mark to the lurid portrayal of state failure in Africa in Robert Kaplan’s article in the Atlantic Monthly in 1994 which warned that a “coming anarchy” from Africa would engulf much of the post-Cold war world. That article became required reading in the Clinton White House that year.[v] James Campbell, the former US ambassador to Nigeria and the Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the US Council on Foreign Relations, capped these dire predictions with his Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink in 2010. Campbell’s grand thesis is that whereas Nigeria had been resilient in surviving a civil war, the confluence of intensified ethnic and religious violence in the Middle Belt, the insurrection in the Delta, and the paralysis of the Presidency at the time of the 2011 elections would be the defining moments of Nigeria’s state failure.[vi]

 

 

HIGHLIGHTS OF FAILED STATE 2030 NIGERIA—A CASE STUDY

 

27. The contexts of the perceived U. S. “obsession” with a failing Nigeria identified in the preceding section can be further enriched with a highlight of the main findings of the Failed State 2030 Nigeria—a Case Study. As noted earlier, the report is a 2008 study authored by four air force colonels at the Air University Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama USA.  The “failed-state” scenario painted in the study is one of four that comprised the Blue Horizons study of a resurgent Russia, a peer China, a successful jihadist insurgency against a friendly state in the Middle East, and a failed state in a vital area of US interest conducted by the university in 2008.

 

28. Using Nigeria as a case study for its fourth scenario, the report (published in February 2011 as Occasional Paper 167), describes how a failed state in 2030 may impact the United States and the global economy. It also identifies critical capabilities and technologies the US Air Force should possess to respond to a failed state, “especially one of vital interest to the US and at the cusp of a civil war.”[vii]  Nigeria was chosen because of its vast oil wealth which could be up to 25 percent of US light, sweet crude oil imports by 2030. In addition, Nigeria’s large population, strategic position in Africa, and the assumption that its failure would significantly affect the US and the global economy, were part of the rationale for the study.

 

29. The central question which the monograph sought to answer was, “Are there technologies and capabilities the US Air Force could invest in now to prepare itself to respond in 2030 to the challenges and surprises a failed state poses to the United States and the world?”[viii]  To address these questions, Chapter 2 of the book provides an unusually brief definition of “state failure” using omnibus indicators that would send sparks flying among serious scholars. The brief outline of the history of Nigeria through the study year 2008 presented in this chapter is probably the best one could expect from military engineers who had never studied nor engaged Nigeria, except through a crash course of ad hoc lectures and series of interviews of some Nigerian military and civilian personnel as part of the methodology for their study. Nonetheless, it provides a context for their understanding of the evolution of the Nigerian state that helped them identify key vectors that they contend could cause the Nigerian state to implode in 2030.

 

30. In Chapter 3 they argue that while Nigeria’s rich social and cultural makeup offers hope for a successful future for Nigeria, deep fissures within its “extraordinarily complex demographic and cultural makeup could become the fault lines that shatter the nation.” Similarly, Chapter 4, begins on a cautious note of hope for Nigeria’s current and future political situation, but correctly reminds that this hope is bounded by the reality that institutional government corruption and a combination of religious and cultural factionalism is endemic and pervasive. If the poor quality of Nigeria’s governance is left unchecked, these can ultimately corrode the social contract between the government and the people and bring about the failure of the Nigerian state, the book contends.

 

31. Chapter 5 takes on the complexities of Nigeria’s “one commodity” petroleum economy. It notes that while the price of oil will likely continue to rise and fall and although Nigerian government budgets use a lower oil price as a basis for planning, “Nigeria’s oligarchs” reap 80 percent of the oil profits. Three economic scenarios—The Nightmare Continues, The Dream Is Realized, and The Dream Is Derailed—are explored, with the authors noting that a failure by the government to rein in corruption could derail Nigeria’s economy and bring about failure of the state. In chapter 6, the book addresses Nigeria’s military capabilities and technology while examining the role of Nigeria’s military in politics and in preserving this ethnically complex nation. It notes that Nigeria’s military has had a relatively consistent constitutional role because it has overthrown five elected governments, even as the support it receives from the government and the people is inconsistent. A lack of support for the military or a highly fragmented Nigerian military in 2030 during a time of national crisis could also bring down Nigeria.

 

32. Chapter 7 is actually the “meat” of the publication (35 pages in all, compared to an average of 10 pages in other chapters) in that it is here that the authors develop a sequence of events connecting the Nigeria of today to one potential future outcome. It paints a picture of what “day-to-day” Nigeria may look like in 2030 and presents a plausible scenario for a systemic collapse of governance and Nigeria’s failure under the weight of multiple cross-cutting social and cultural issues, infrastructure, the economy, the government, and the influence of outside elements. In their own words:

 

By 2030 the social contract between the weakened federal government and the Nigerian people is effectively broken. An attempt to restore confidence through a national election sweeps the electorally dominant Islamic political structure into power. Buoyed by its electoral success, the new government threatens to ruin family criminal enterprises and confiscate the wealth of the business oligarchs. Its ultimate end state is to rebrand Nigeria as an Islamic republic. The culmination of these negative trends and political actions sparks a violent reaction from the non-Islamic population, the criminal family enterprises, and the oligarchs. In this case, the state fails.[ix]

 

 

33. Although the authors claim that Nigeria is on the cusp of a civil war, they also acknowledge that Nigeria becoming a failed state is not a foregone conclusion. If Nigeria fails however, it would be akin to a piece of fine china dropped on a tile floor, it would simply shatter into potentially hundreds of pieces, a threat too great to ignore. The attendant humanitarian crisis unfolding in the wake of failure and the hard work and cost to repair the damage could take two generations to make Nigeria viable again. A recent study by Oxford University economist Paul Collier and his colleague Lisa Chauvet contends that the total cost of a single country falling into the “fragile state” category, for itself and its neighbours, may reach US$85 billion. This is a gargantuan sum equivalent to 70 per cent of worldwide official development assistance from international donors in 2009.[x] More alarming, according to the authors of Failed State 2030, is the threat that failure poses to the livelihood, security, and general way of life of a projected quarter billion Nigerians by 2030, the effect of which could quickly spread and cause a humanitarian disaster of previously unimagined proportions in the region.

 

34. What then would the US do, and what are some of the desired key capabilities and technologies the US Air Force could use to respond to this scenario in 2030? Chapter 8 attempts to answer these questions, even as the authors contend that the required set of capabilities would apply to any failed state on the brink of civil war. These capabilities are important to future peace operations, peacekeeping, peace enforcement, peacemaking, peace building and have applicability that range far beyond the scenario painted here. Peace enforcement operations in a failed-state scenario in 2030 will require capabilities to anticipate impending threats, understand the operating environment and capabilities of the belligerents, engage with the appropriate force, survive in a highly stressed environment with a small operational and support footprint, rapidly deploy response forces and supplies to the operating area, and quickly replenish materiel and people in order to sustain forces.

 

35. Failed State 2030 Nigeria—a Case Study concludes that despite its best efforts, Nigeria has a long-term struggle ahead to remain a viable state, much less a top-20 economy. While its vast sweet-crude-oil wealth potentially provides Nigeria with great power and influence, the government’s history of rampant corruption and inability and unwillingness to invest in its human resources, industrial infrastructure and the people’s welfare could doom it to failure. The US cannot ignore such a failure because Nigeria will likely account for over 25 percent of US oil imports by 2030, even as other large economies depend on an uninterrupted flow of oil from Nigeria.

 



[i] See Seyi Gesinde, Abiodun Awolaja and Laolu Afolabi, “US Didn’t Predict Nigeria’s Break Up by 2015 –Ambassador,” Tribune, 2 February 2012; http://www.saturday.tribune.com.ng/index.php/news/35397-us-didnt-predict-nigerias-break-up-by-2015-ambassador; accessed 1 April 2012, among numerous newspaper headlines on this issue.

[ii] See Paul Ohia. US Army Prepares for Nigeria’s Possible Break-Up. ThisDay, 17 August 2009; http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=151826; accessed 17August 2009; and Jacob Kubeka. US Army Prepares for Nigeria’s Possible Break-Up. National Accord (Abuja), 4 January 2012; http://www.nationalaccordnewspaper.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4266:us-army-prepares-for-nigerias-possible-break-up-&catid=35:national-news&Itemid=63; accessed 4 January 2012.

[iii] Tokunbo Adedoja, “Report Wants Nigeria Tagged Country of Particular Concern,” ThisDay, 22 Mar 2012.

[iv] See Karl Maier. This House Has Fallen: Nigeria in Crisis. New York: Basic Books, 2002; Robert Calderis. The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn't Working. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007; and Roy Cullen. The Poverty of Corrupt Nations. Toronto: Blue Butterfly Books, 2008.

[v] Kaplan, “The Coming Anarchy,” op cit.

[vi] John Campbell, Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, for Council on Foreign Relations, 2010, p. 131.

[vii] Failed State 2030, p vii.

[viii] Op cit., p. 4.

[ix] Op. cit., p. 65.

[x] Quoted in Stewart Patrick, Weak Links: Fragile States, Global Threats and International Security. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 55.






--
Okey C. Iheduru

Just publishedThe African Corporation, ‘Africapitalism’ and Regional Integration in Africa (September 2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781785362538.

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Aug 1, 2019, 4:18:23 AM8/1/19
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Oyebode 2018 interview



'On whether the killings were politically motivated, Oyebode said the Miyetti Allah had confessed and admitted that because some cows were rustled, that was the reasons for their action, saying that their response was most unfortunate, adding that “I believe that the leaders of the Miyetti ALLAH should be rounded up by now and tried as terrorist and ethnic cleansing and even genocide.”

“Now that the SERAP has taken the matter to the US council, I am scandalised that Nigeria could be brought before an international court. More so, Buhari is Fulani. His mother is a Kanuri from Borno State. It appears he is treating his fellow brothers with kid-gloves. The fact that he is a Fulani doesn’t mean he cannot stand for justice. People will obey him and respect him more if he cracks and descend heavily on the self confessed murderers.

“I don’t know any country where self murderers are giving pat on the back. It isn’t done anywhere. If you kill someone and admitted doing so, such person should face the music. In other climes, if one admitted to have killed someone, he faces the music.

“When they killed in Benue, that embolden them. They went to Plateau, but when the crisis in Ife between Yoruba and Hausa occurred, they rounded up the Ife people,  including the monarch, took them to Abuja, we don’t know how many were arrested. Ife is not an Hausa city, but these Hausas themselves, invented Sabo, Sango in all the areas they are living in Yorubaland. Nigerians is treating people unequally. It is not fit and proper for some people to be declared higher than the law,” he said.'


On Thu, 1 Aug 2019 at 07:46, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:
Okey.

Thanks.

I've read it.

So, what should we do?

How do we avert the looming catastrophe?

toyin

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Aug 1, 2019, 4:18:23 AM8/1/19
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'In this age of fake news, Professor Moses Ebe Ochonu will allay my fear of false propaganda by supplying the link or the source of statements attributed to Akin Oyebode.
S. Kadiri '





Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Aug 1, 2019, 4:18:24 AM8/1/19
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Okey.

Thanks.

I've read it.

So, what should we do?

How do we avert the looming catastrophe?

toyin

Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Aug 1, 2019, 7:08:33 PM8/1/19
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I set my email to filter out all posts by Salimonu Kadiri, so I don't see his posts unless someone else reposts them or responds to them in a thread to which I'm contributing. In this case, I just saw Toyin Adepoju's reposting of his demand for a link. Here is the link to the extensive interview where the retired professor made the mea culpa for his 2015 vote for Buhari. 


I am not sure it's entirely fair to blame Oyebode for Buhari happening to Nigeria. I  do not know his motive for voting for Buhari in 2015. As I indicated in an earlier writeup, Buhari was propelled to power in 2015 by a mendacious ethnic coalition. But not all Yorubas supported that ethnic agenda. Some vehemently stood against it. And not all Yoruba who supported Jonathan in 2015 were motivated by the ethnic consensus either. I do feel therefore that we should make a distinction between the individual choices of Yoruba elites and commoners and the broader ethnic calculus that dominated and determined the electoral outcome in the Southwest and even more crucially birthed the APC and the North + West coalition. For me, those who deserve commendation are Northerners and Yoruba people who bucked the dominant political consensuses of their regions in 2015, especially those of them who were not embedded in or beneficiaries of Jonathan's administration. They had courage and conviction.

Even if some Yoruba intellectuals bought into the ethnic agenda in 2015, if they do a mea culpa, and fess up to their participation, you can reason with them. At least, they are not incorrigible ethnic jingoists and can moderate their ethnic political loyalty when confronted with the tragic consequence of their ethnic politics.

My only quibble with Professor Oyebode is the lateness of his mea culpa. If as he said in the interview, he did not think that Buhari deserved a second term, why did he not say that before the election of this year? Why conveniently wait until the election is over and Buhari is sworn in for a second term before going public with your vote of no confidence in Buhari, your damning verdict on Buhari's incompetence and destructive parochialism?

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Aug 3, 2019, 6:16:18 AM8/3/19
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Moses.

I support your view on Prof Oyebode.  I do not support his seeking for attention after Buhari's second win.

I however strongly disagree with your  readings  of 2015 support of Yoruba for Buhari as  ethnic agenda .  Did other ethnicities not benefit from Buhari's victory?

Is that because Osinbajo is VP?  Of what direct benefit is that to the Yoruba?  This campaign I suspect is being sponsored by some from the East due to their usual ethnic jealousy. 

Who else was there credible enough to attract national consensus in 2015 save give Johnathan a third term? 

OAA



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Oyebode apologizes forBuhari  Vote

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I set my email to filter out all posts by Salimonu Kadiri, so I don't see his posts unless someone else reposts them or responds to them in a thread to which I'm contributing. In this case, I just saw Toyin Adepoju's reposting of his demand for a link. Here is the link to the extensive interview where the retired professor made the mea culpa for his 2015 vote for Buhari. 


I am not sure it's entirely fair to blame Oyebode for Buhari happening to Nigeria. I  do not know his motive for voting for Buhari in 2015. As I indicated in an earlier writeup, Buhari was propelled to power in 2015 by a mendacious ethnic coalition. But not all Yorubas supported that ethnic agenda. Some vehemently stood against it. And not all Yoruba who supported Jonathan in 2015 were motivated by the ethnic consensus either. I do feel therefore that we should make a distinction between the individual choices of Yoruba elites and commoners and the broader ethnic calculus that dominated and determined the electoral outcome in the Southwest and even more crucially birthed the APC and the North + West coalition. For me, those who deserve commendation are Northerners and Yoruba people who bucked the dominant political consensuses of their regions in 2015, especially those of them who were not embedded in or beneficiaries of Jonathan's administration. They had courage and conviction.

Even if some Yoruba intellectuals bought into the ethnic agenda in 2015, if they do a mea culpa, and fess up to their participation, you can reason with them. At least, they are not incorrigible ethnic jingoists and can moderate their ethnic political loyalty when confronted with the tragic consequence of their ethnic politics.

My only quibble with Professor Oyebode is the lateness of his mea culpa. If as he said in the interview, he did not think that Buhari deserved a second term, why did he not say that before the election of this year? Why conveniently wait until the election is over and Buhari is sworn in for a second term before going public with your vote of no confidence in Buhari, your damning verdict on Buhari's incompetence and destructive parochialism?

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Moses Ochonu

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Aug 3, 2019, 8:16:22 AM8/3/19
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Yinka,

As far as I know, the first columnist to unequivocally call attention to the ethnic character of the 2015 coalition that toppled Jonathan is Adunni Adelakun. In my essay titled “the ethnic victory of 2015 and an apology,” which went viral, I piggybacked on her perspicacious observation and analysis. Adunni is obviously Yoruba, not an Igbo motivated by ethnic jealousy as you shockingly, despicably put it.

Moreover, the ethnic victory was not just a Yoruba affair but a Yoruba-North coalition. And there were many outside those two ethnic and geopolitical formations who either naively or for nationalist reasons joined the coalition, only to realize that the key political protagonists of that coalition were only interested in ethnic power shift and not national reclamation. Subsequent events have since proven beyond doubt that the ethnic paradigm was the preeminent factor in the 2015 election. 

And of course as I indicated, there were also many Yoruba people who rejected the ethnic coalition and supported Jonathan, as there were other Yoruba who supported Jonathan for nationalistic reasons and went against the Yoruba elite political consensus.

You are degenerating to an unrecognizable defender of ethnic exclusion and hatred. You said on this forum  recently that “Northern minorities” should be banned from holding positions of national leadership because of their opposition to Buhari. You advanced an anti democratic political program of ethnic and geopolitical exclusion. I was scandalized on your behalf and called you out on your inexplicable ethnic bigotry and majoritarian zealotry. Today, you have extended that agenda of ethnic and geopolitical hatred to “ South-easterners” whom you accuse of ethnic jealousy and of sponsoring the ethnic narrative of the 2015 election, a narrative of elite consensus that many Yoruba, whether they supported Buhari or not, now acknowledge and endorse.

Seriously, is this what your love and support for Buhari has done to you? Are you willing to be known as an advocate for such odious ethnic supremacy and hatred because of your support for a fascist, corrupt, and incompetent ruler? And what, if I may ask, makes an otherwise clear-eyed observer like you transform into an unabashed, worshipful pro-regime defender for whom the ruler can do no wrong and even when a wrong is acknowledged we’re alternately told that that is a mark of ruler’s noble, fallible humanity, that it is the fault of his critics,  or that “Buhari will not rule forever” and that we should wait him out, support him, and hope for a better day or wait “your turn”?


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Okechukwu Ukaga

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Aug 3, 2019, 10:34:37 AM8/3/19
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This campaign I suspect is being sponsored by some from the East due to their usual ethnic jealousy. Olayinka Agbetuyi

Really?  OAA, this line of thinking is obviously not based on fact or reality but on ethnic jealousy or hatred of Easterners by folks like you. 
OU


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Just publishedThe African Corporation, ‘Africapitalism’ and Regional Integration in Africa (September 2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781785362538.

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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Aug 3, 2019, 12:14:20 PM8/3/19
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Moses,

God bless you for helping us help Olayinka by telling him what the mirror is seeing.

toyin

DR SIKIRU ENIOLA

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Aug 3, 2019, 8:58:55 PM8/3/19
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  This is an instructive recap of the various theses on the theories of a likely Nigerian breakup. My due respects to the authors. The duplicitous positioning of the US on the calamitous consequences of a Nigerian breakup on the regions and the tacit collaborative conspiracy that is typical of the US against  Asian and African countries are obvious. The likelihood of a booster to the insatiable US oil politics and the projective collaboration of internal saboteurs are still driving this doomsday prophecy.
At the inception of the Buhari led Administration, Nigeria was on the precipice of a political and economic disaster. The Governor of the central Bank then, Prof Chukwuma Soludo and the Finance Minister,  Madam Okonjo Iweala and a few other technocrats outside the Jonathan Administration accurately predicted an impending recession owing to the fiscal recklessness of the Jonathan Administration. Although the Buhari Administration did not directly pursue any fiscal probing of its predecessor, but the festering Boko haram insurgency brought to the fore the despicable misappropriation of the huge sums meant for the procurement of arms for the military. In fact, the BH was controlling several Local Governments in the North East. The subsequent questions raised on this arms' deal started a ferocious fightback from the pro-corruption cabal. The rank has swollen since then. 
Another tragic dimension is the resuscitation of the historic Fulani/ Igbo bitter rivalry. Some elements who served under the Jonathan Administration from the other regions automatically bought into this agenda. Thus, a terrible era of ethnic and religious hatred and propaganda began. For example, the Benue valley was not strange to herdsmen and farmers' activities. There had been clashes among them for ages but the dimension which the anti Buhari propaganda propped up was widely tragic. The various deaths that followed wild clashes became a launching pad for a national campaign against herdsmen and the Fulani. It wasn't until recently that it was discovered that the ethnic militia that assisted Governor Orton in his elections was of the followership of Gabriel Suswan. The pre-election deal was breached in a way not disclosed by all the parties involved and this caused a bitter clash between the two big wigs. However, what came out of this was the anti grazing task force that was composed of the members of the ethnic militia. This militia went on rampage after the international media coverage of the initial Benue killings. The strange dimension to this Benue story is that today, the ethnic militia is still on rampage and there are no herdsmen to blame. 
The most tragic dimension in this conspiracy of national disintegration was the resuscitation of old and bloody rivalries among opposing ethnic groups in Nassarawa, Plateau, Taraba etc. Ethnic and religious conflicts became the other of the day. Even while ritual killings were going on in the south East and other places, the media was not bothered about the reports except for all incidents in which tge herdsmen coukd be linked. Presumably, the election losers of 2015 seemed to be determined to aid the American prophecy of the 2015 disintegration for Nigeria. This was probable in view of the havoc which the Niger Avengers recked on the nation early in the Administration.
In succession, various propaganda followed one another and with the vulnerable Nigerian media, most citizens entered a season of anomie against their fatherland. The arts of kidnapping and banditry that are the major planks of insecurity in Nigeria today are fallouts of the stigmatization of a Fulani President. Without being economic with realities, Fulani herdsmen became a problem for so many communities in Nigeria. Unfortunately, the inability of most Nigerians to actually distinguish between cattle rustlers, who are well organised, armed and cabalistic and herdsmen most of whom shepherd and maintain ranches of cows for rich owners in many parts of Nigeria. The logic that tends to defy political diagnosis is the sudden upsurge of kidnapping and banditry in the South West Nigeria that has been hitherto calm. The fact on ground is that the collaboration of the south west with the Hausa Fulani to electorally defeat a south south and south East alliance in 2015 created a scenario which presupposed that if the south west remains calm and the states are not incited against the Fulani North, an electoral victory for the opposition or the alternative option of the disintegration of Nigeria cannot be achieved. The faction of Afenifere comprising the lackeys of Jonathan had been on ground aiding and abetting this agenda. Their inflammatory utterances and actions are pointers to this fact for those who are likely to disagree with this thesis. 
Secondly, Buhari had moved against big politicians and Army generals who were sabotaging the Nigerian economy. Atiku's Intel was disenfranchised for criminal defaults in remitting alarming sums of money to the federation account at the Nigerian ports' Authority. Pa Obasanjo had the patronages of the FG withdrawn from his library, farms and his Bells' University. Religious leaders who had their private jets parked free of charge across the nation's airports lost these privileges and the TSA crippled super permanent secretaries and most categories of civil servants. The coalition that swelled against the Buhari led APC in the 2019 election was massive and unprecedented. Obasanjo, Danjuma and other retired generals mounted negative campaigns of monumental proportions against Buhari. Even now, the opposition has assumed international dimensions. Probably aside from Rwanda, no nation in the world ever had a mighty circulation of hate messages than Nigeria. The election has been lost and won on the field but the legal battle is on. 
What we are seeing in Nigeria today is beyond any act of imperialism by any Fulani world council. In the south west Nigeria, the indiscriminate acts of kidnapping cannot be without local collaboration. Farmsteads, farm settlements and forests plowed and  plied by farmers and local hunters stretch across the entire south west. The inability of local hunters, rain makers and very powerful cult members in this region to curb or even arrest some of the Fulani marauders or bandits leave much to desire. The statement of Odumakin just after the tragic news of Mrs Olakunrin's murder was disclosed showed a desperate pattern. How could he have announced to the press even before the first responders that it was the herdsmen that shot the innocent woman? The dimensions to the investigations have since shown that what is at stake is more than arts of kidnapping and banditry. Why was chief Fasoranti's daughter targeted? Were there other motives? His being a chieftain of Afenifere in the axis must have been expected to ignite a civil strife that will spread quickly. 
The larger picture here is that patriotism is a scarce commodity among the Nigerian citizenry. While Americans and other citizens  rally round their countries, the media are always agog with numerous vulnerable Nigerians who have one single line of reasoning. One can imagine the publication of the obituary of the living president and the myth of the Jibrin of Sudan. Even when the President was recuperating after a fatal incident of poisoning, many Nigerians were harassing him. 
 As a matter of fact, It is very true that the only solution to the Nigerian problem is restructuring but the agitators are not all sincere. They are the resemblances of that Biblical woman who wanted Solomon to slice a baby into two just to waste what she could not have. Restructuring can only happen gradually because no nation has restructured in crisis, mutual distrust and under economic woes. The Buhari Administration should start with fiscal restructuring to pave a way gradually for true federalism. Although, the south south states had nothing to show for the huge oil derivation funds while other governors frittered away all Federal fiscal interventions, this should not stop fiscal restructuring. Nigerians should learn to ask their political leaders about the huge allocations that they have been getting. Apart from Dr Kayode Fayemi and a few other governors who have impacted positively on their states, it has been stories of wastages and primitive acquisition of wealth among others. Tragically enough, those who are being arraigned for corruption among the people of yesteryears are enjoying inexplicable freedom courtesy of the nation's porous judicial institutions. The counter noise making of armchair corruption judges and media urchins who are carried away by the ethnic and political propaganda, the origin and motive of which they knew nothing about are worsening the situation. 
There is no doubt about it that the Buhari Administration has been courageous in confronting the multi dimensional conspiracies of a nascent democracy, the situation can be improved if the security agencies could put aside their needless rivalries and perform their responsibilities creditably as they have done during international assignments. 
Also, the judiciary should be repositioned. As it were, the slow motion of the machineries of justice in the judiciary is unlike what we know about the judiciary of other nations. 
In order to have an economically prosperous nation, the Senate could be scrapped as it is a drain pipe in the economy. The Saraki tenure was a convincing tale of the needlessness of a Nigerian Senate. 
In conclusion, Nigerians must face the realities of the Buhari Administration, acknowledge the progress and be prudent in pointing out the flash points. The culture of celebrating every disaster by the opposition is unafrican and anti social. The Administration is visibly overwhelmed by multi dimensional conspiracies but with a focused President and the few Nigerians who are analysing issues objectively, Nigeria is improving remarkably. The idea of regretting a vote for the Administration is therefore playing to the gallery. 

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Aug 4, 2019, 2:45:52 AM8/4/19
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This more or less contextualizes the battle frenzy mien of Buhari bashing on this forum and outside if it.

People should imbibe the democratic norm and accept that once an election is won and lost, it is won ans lost. Like I said before all should now embrace their day jobs.

Resorting to name calling and seeing the despicable in the posting of others will not alter the material facts.

Buhari has been given another 4 years of stewardship (love him or loathe him)  We will examine his balance sheet at the end of that period and not before.

That.  - is democracy in action!

OAA


Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: DR SIKIRU ENIOLA <drsikir...@gmail.com>
Date: 04/08/2019 02:14 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Oyebode apologizes forBuhari  Vote

Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (drsikir...@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
  This is an instructive recap of the various theses on the theories of a likely Nigerian breakup. My due respects to the authors. The duplicitous positioning of the US on the calamitous consequences of a Nigerian breakup on the regions and the tacit collaborative conspiracy that is typical of the US against  Asian and African countries are obvious. The likelihood of a booster to the insatiable US oil politics and the projective collaboration of internal saboteurs are still driving this doomsday prophecy.
At the inception of the Buhari led Administration, Nigeria was on the precipice of a political and economic disaster. The Governor of the central Bank then, Prof Chukwuma Soludo and the Finance Minister,  Madam Okonjo Iweala and a few other technocrats outside the Jonathan Administration accurately predicted an impending recession owing to the fiscal recklessness of the Jonathan Administration. Although the Buhari Administration did not directly pursue any fiscal probing of its predecessor, but the festering Boko haram insurgency brought to the fore the despicable misappropriation of the huge sums meant for the procurement of arms for the military. In fact, the BH was controlling several Local Governments in the North East. The subsequent questions raised on this arms' deal started a ferocious fightback from the pro-corruption cabal. The rank has swollen since then. 
Another tragic dimension is the resuscitation of the historic Fulani/ Igbo bitter rivalry. Some elements who served under the Jonathan Administration from the other regions automatically bought into this agenda. Thus, a terrible era of ethnic and religious hatred and propaganda began. For example, the Benue valley was not strange to herdsmen and farmers' activities. There had been clashes among them for ages but the dimension which the anti Buhari propaganda propped up was widely tragic. The various deaths that followed wild clashes became a launching pad for a national campaign against herdsmen and the Fulani. It wasn't until recently that it was discovered that the ethnic militia that assisted Governor Orton in his elections was of the followership of Gabriel Suswan. The pre-election deal was breached in a way not disclosed by all the parties involved and this caused a bitter clash between the two big wigs. However, what came out of this was the anti grazing task force that was composed of the members of the ethnic militia. This militia went on rampage after the international media coverage of the initial Benue killings. The strange dimension to this Benue story is that today, the ethnic militia is still on rampage and there are no herdsmen to blame. 
The most tragic dimension in this conspiracy of national disintegration was the resuscitation of old and bloody rivalries among opposing ethnic groups in Nassarawa, Plateau, Taraba etc. Ethnic and religious conflicts became the other of the day. Even while ritual killings were going on in the south East and other places, the media was not bothered about the reports except for all incidents in which tge herdsmen coukd be linked. Presumably, the election losers of 2015 seemed to be determined to aid the American prophecy of the 2015 disintegration for Nigeria. This was probable in view of the havoc which the Niger Avengers recked on the nation early in the Administration.
In succession, various propaganda followed one another and with the vulnerable Nigerian media, most citizens entered a season of anomie against their fatherland. The arts of kidnapping and banditry that are the major planks of insecurity in Nigeria today are fallouts of the stigmatization of a Fulani President. Without being economic with realities, Fulani herdsmen became a problem for so many communities in Nigeria. Unfortunately, the inability of most Nigerians to actually distinguish between cattle rustlers, who are well organised, armed and cabalistic and herdsmen most of whom shepherd and maintain ranches of cows for rich owners in many parts of Nigeria. The logic that tends to defy political diagnosis is the sudden upsurge of kidnapping and banditry in the South West Nigeria that has been hitherto calm. The fact on ground is that the collaboration of the south west with the Hausa Fulani to electorally defeat a south south and south East alliance in 2015 created a scenario which presupposed that if the south west remains calm and the states are not incited against the Fulani North, an electoral victory for the opposition or the alternative option of the disintegration of Nigeria cannot be achieved. The faction of Afenifere comprising the lackeys of Jonathan had been on ground aiding and abetting this agenda. Their inflammatory utterances and actions are pointers to this fact for those who are likely to disagree with this thesis. 
Secondly, Buhari had moved against big politicians and Army generals who were sabotaging the Nigerian economy. Atiku's Intel was disenfranchised for criminal defaults in remitting alarming sums of money to the federation account at the Nigerian ports' Authority. Pa Obasanjo had the patronages of the FG withdrawn from his library, farms and his Bells' University. Religious leaders who had their private jets parked free of charge across the nation's airports lost these privileges and the TSA crippled super permanent secretaries and most categories of civil servants. The coalition that swelled against the Buhari led APC in the 2019 election was massive and unprecedented. Obasanjo, Danjuma and other retired generals mounted negative campaigns of monumental proportions against Buhari. Even now, the opposition has assumed international dimensions. Probably aside from Rwanda, no nation in the world ever had a mighty circulation of hate messages than Nigeria. The election has been lost and won on the field but the legal battle is on. 
What we are seeing in Nigeria today is beyond any act of imperialism by any Fulani world council. In the south west Nigeria, the indiscriminate acts of kidnapping cannot be without local collaboration. Farmsteads, farm settlements and forests plowed and  plied by farmers and local hunters stretch across the entire south west. The inability of local hunters, rain makers and very powerful cult members in this region to curb or even arrest some of the Fulani marauders or bandits leave much to desire. The statement of Odumakin just after the tragic news of Mrs Olakunrin's murder was disclosed showed a desperate pattern. How could he have announced to the press even before the first responders that it was the herdsmen that shot the innocent woman? The dimensions to the investigations have since shown that what is at stake is more than arts of kidnapping and banditry. Why was chief Fasoranti's daughter targeted? Were there other motives? His being a chieftain of Afenifere in the axis must have been expected to ignite a civil strife that will spread quickly. 
The larger picture here is that patriotism is a scarce commodity among the Nigerian citizenry. While Americans and other citizens  rally round their countries, the media are always agog with numerous vulnerable Nigerians who have one single line of reasoning. One can imagine the publication of the obituary of the living president and the myth of the Jibrin of Sudan. Even when the President was recuperating after a fatal incident of poisoning, many Nigerians were harassing him. 
 As a matter of fact, It is very true that the only solution to the Nigerian problem is restructuring but the agitators are not all sincere. They are the resemblances of that Biblical woman who wanted Solomon to slice a baby into two just to waste what she could not have. Restructuring can only happen gradually because no nation has restructured in crisis, mutual distrust and under economic woes. The Buhari Administration should start with fiscal restructuring to pave a way gradually for true federalism. Although, the south south states had nothing to show for the huge oil derivation funds while other governors frittered away all Federal fiscal interventions, this should not stop fiscal restructuring. Nigerians should learn to ask their political leaders about the huge allocations that they have been getting. Apart from Dr Kayode Fayemi and a few other governors who have impacted positively on their states, it has been stories of wastages and primitive acquisition of wealth among others. Tragically enough, those who are being arraigned for corruption among the people of yesteryears are enjoying inexplicable freedom courtesy of the nation's porous judicial institutions. The counter noise making of armchair corruption judges and media urchins who are carried away by the ethnic and political propaganda, the origin and motive of which they knew nothing about are worsening the situation. 
There is no doubt about it that the Buhari Administration has been courageous in confronting the multi dimensional conspiracies of a nascent democracy, the situation can be improved if the security agencies could put aside their needless rivalries and perform their responsibilities creditably as they have done during international assignments. 
Also, the judiciary should be repositioned. As it were, the slow motion of the machineries of justice in the judiciary is unlike what we know about the judiciary of other nations. 
In order to have an economically prosperous nation, the Senate could be scrapped as it is a drain pipe in the economy. The Saraki tenure was a convincing tale of the needlessness of a Nigerian Senate. 
In conclusion, Nigerians must face the realities of the Buhari Administration, acknowledge the progress and be prudent in pointing out the flash points. The culture of celebrating every disaster by the opposition is unafrican and anti social. The Administration is visibly overwhelmed by multi dimensional conspiracies but with a focused President and the few Nigerians who are analysing issues objectively, Nigeria is improving remarkably. The idea of regretting a vote for the Administration is therefore playing to the gallery. 
On Thu, Aug 1, 2019, 2:28 AM Okey Iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com wrote:

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Moses Ebe Ochonu

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Aug 4, 2019, 11:16:13 AM8/4/19
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"People should imbibe the democratic norm and accept that once an election is won and lost, it is won ans lost. Like I said before all should now embrace their day jobs.

Buhari has been given another 4 years of stewardship (love him or loathe him)  We will examine his balance sheet at the end of that period and not before."

---Olayinka Agbetuyi


Yinka,

Your strange, bizarre logic puzzles me but let me try and humor you as I'm too shellshocked to do anything else with your latest post. 

I guess I was naive or was not taught properly. I thought participation and citizen engagement were the essence of democracy. And I thought that such participation/engagement was not supposed to end at the election but continue throughout the term of political office holders. My American hosts, in their foolishness, even have a saying that encapsulates this thinking: "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." 

Anyway, like I stated, I didn't know that once elections are concluded, we were all supposed to "go back to your day jobs," as you put it, and not hold the elected officials accountable or criticize them for missteps, diabolical polices, incompetence, and corruption. Thanks for the new education in democratic participation and engagement. We're, according to your new theory, supposed to simply melt away, keep quiet, allow the leaders to do whatever they want to us, and wait till the next election to participate in another electoral ritual that grants a four-year blank cheque to do as they please. 

How come scholars are not teaching this strangely novel brand of democratic (non)participation in schools? How come they're miseducating people about holding their elected leaders accountable, asking tough questions of them, and protesting their maladministration and corruption? How come they're making a lot of noise about the importance of a vibrant, engaged civil society in a democracy. Why all the published articles and theories and books on the importance of citizen vigilance and an engaged, critical, and skeptical citizenry in deepening democracy, holding elected leaders to account, and constraining their behavioral excesses. 

Well, you've just propounded a radically different theory of democracy. You have to write a book to espouse your new iconoclastic theory of democracy: you vote and you go back to your day jobs or unemployment, as the case may be, and wait for the next election.

I also did not know that according to the law of democracy--or "democracy in action"--we're supposed to wait till the end of a leader's term before we can judge, evaluate, or comment on his/her performance. I didn't realize that we had to leave the leader alone if he is burning the country down and we may not be alive at the end of his tenure. The people who opposed Hitler and Mussolini and the Americans who are now challenging Trump needed/need your democratic wisdom. They should have simply waited/should wait until the end of the leader's term before protesting and criticizing them.

Leaving aside the pesky issue of Buhari's brazenly stolen election of 2019, a theft so crude and thorough that credible international and local observers have discredited the poll, I guess I will have to heed your wise counsel and "go back [my] day job" and leave Buhari alone to continue in his corrupt, incompetent, and nation-wrecking ways and evaluate his scorecard in 2023--that is, if we still have a nation at that time.

Thanks again for this lesson on democracy. 

In the future, when this national calamity is over, we must study what it is about Buhari that produces alternate universes of logic and bizarre understandings of established principles in people who love and support him.



OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Aug 4, 2019, 7:38:02 PM8/4/19
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The problem with the list serve at the moment is that in the past couple of months my posts were being censored!

I wrote two direct robust rejoinders to Your Majesty which were not posted before I sneaked this in by the back door of another persons post.
.OAA



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com>
Date: 04/08/2019 16:17 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Oyebode apologizesforBuhari  Vote

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"People should imbibe the democratic norm and accept that once an election is won and lost, it is won ans lost. Like I said before all should now embrace their day jobs.

Buhari has been given another 4 years of stewardship (love him or loathe him)  We will examine his balance sheet at the end of that period and not before."

---Olayinka Agbetuyi


Yinka,

Your strange, bizarre logic puzzles me but let me try and humor you as I'm too shellshocked to do anything else with your latest post. 

I guess I was naive or was not taught properly. I thought participation and citizen engagement were the essence of democracy. And I thought that such participation/engagement was not supposed to end at the election but continue throughout the term of political office holders. My American hosts, in their foolishness, even have a saying that encapsulates this thinking: "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." 

Anyway, like I stated, I didn't know that once elections are concluded, we were all supposed to "go back to your day jobs," as you put it, and not hold the elected officials accountable or criticize them for missteps, diabolical polices, incompetence, and corruption. Thanks for the new education in democratic participation and engagement. We're, according to your new theory, supposed to simply melt away, keep quiet, allow the leaders to do whatever they want to us, and wait till the next election to participate in another electoral ritual that grants a four-year blank cheque to do as they please. 

How come scholars are not teaching this strangely novel brand of democratic (non)participation in schools? How come they're miseducating people about holding their elected leaders accountable, asking tough questions of them, and protesting their maladministration and corruption? How come they're making a lot of noise about the importance of a vibrant, engaged civil society in a democracy. Why all the published articles and theories and books on the importance of citizen vigilance and an engaged, critical, and skeptical citizenry in deepening democracy, holding elected leaders to account, and constraining their behavioral excesses. 

Well, you've just propounded a radically different theory of democracy. You have to write a book to espouse your new iconoclastic theory of democracy: you vote and you go back to your day jobs or unemployment, as the case may be, and wait for the next election.

I also did not know that according to the law of democracy--or "democracy in action"--we're supposed to wait till the end of a leader's term before we can judge, evaluate, or comment on his/her performance. I didn't realize that we had to leave the leader alone if he is burning the country down and we may not be alive at the end of his tenure. The people who opposed Hitler and Mussolini and the Americans who are now challenging Trump needed/need your democratic wisdom. They should have simply waited/should wait until the end of the leader's term before protesting and criticizing them.

Leaving aside the pesky issue of Buhari's brazenly stolen election of 2019, a theft so crude and thorough that credible international and local observers have discredited the poll, I guess I will have to heed your wise counsel and "go back [my] day job" and leave Buhari alone to continue in his corrupt, incompetent, and nation-wrecking ways and evaluate his scorecard in 2023--that is, if we still have a nation at that time.

Thanks again for this lesson on democracy. 

In the future, when this national calamity is over, we must study what it is about Buhari that produces alternate universes of logic and bizarre understandings of established principles in people who love and support him.


On Sun, Aug 4, 2019 at 1:45 AM OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:

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Salimonu Kadiri

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Aug 8, 2019, 9:05:29 AM8/8/19
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 If Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju had filtered away my post from his email inbox, he would not have seen my request to Professor Moses Ebe Ochonu about his excerpt from Professor Oyebode's interview with unspecified source, making it look fake. Before commenting on the said interview, let me narrate why I read not only the opinions I agree with but those that I disagree with. I once had a Caucasian friend as a visitor and during our discussion on family affairs he asked me if I was a Communist. Since, to me, the question was off the track, I enquired from him why he asked if I was a Communist? He responded by pointing at my volumes of Lenin's collected selected works in one of my bookshelves. Replying, I demonstratively pointed to the volumes of New Cambridge Modern History, Will Durant's History of Civilisation, Winstons Churchill's History of the Second World War and various titles authored by Henry Kissinger on the other shelves. Feeling that my response was inadequate, I pulled out a copy of Quran and a Bible from one of the book shelves to illustrate that it is not what I read that determines my belief. I read to have an independent judgment of mine on issues. When I showed him where Henry Kissinger was quoting copiously from Max and Lenin in one of his book even though he was not a Communist, and he remained speechless. I will always read, not only those whose opinions agree with mine but against mine. Moreover, it is an ineffective way to punish anyone whose opinion one does not share by filtering a person from ones email inbox.

​Now let's go through the Punch interview with Professor Akin Oyebode. When the interviewer drew the attention of Professor Emeritus, Akin Oyebode, to the fact that Buhari had referred to killer herders in Nigeria as ECOWA's herdsmen, he responded partly thus, "For me, Buhari wants to be clever by half by talking of invaders, whereas he's just shopping for an excuse to justify the tyranny of his kinsmen who want to impose themselves on the Country. ​The fact which one does not need to be a professor to know is that Buhari could not have been president of Nigeria if based on Fulani votes alone because the Fulani are minority ethnic group in Nigeria. Considering, the composition of the National Assembly and the Nigerian Armed Forces, Fulani are in absolute minority. The question then is, what magic wand would the Fulani deploy to impose themselves on Nigeria?

Professor Emeritus, Akin Oyebode claimed that Fulani are not Nigerians and attributed their origin to Futta Jallon, Senegal and Mali. How long back in history was Fulani migration into Nigeria, he failed to tell the interviewer. As a result of his aversion for Fulani people, Oyebode said he didn't vote in the last election because the choice was between two Fulani, Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar. Yet, there were 71 other presidential candidates of with over 90% non-Fulani identity. Oyebode is wishing for united Africa by 2063. Therefore, he is praying and hoping that a day would come when the boundaries (in Africa) would be irrelevant because as Africans our destinies are intertwined. He stated further that 'as a pan-Africanists, I'm perfectly in favour of opening up African countries to other Africans and I'm against xenophobia like you find in South Africa.' If one may ask Professor Oyebode, are Fulani not Africans whose destinies are intertwined with other Africans and especially with Nigerians? Towards the end of the interview, Professor Emeritus, Akin Oyebode expressed his regret for voting for Buhari in 2015. That aspect of the interview was very exciting to Professor Ochonu who extracted and posted it without comment and ethnic warriors had a field day. Due to my enquiry, he got the opportunity to debunk ethnicity associated with his excerpt from Oyebode's interview. Professor Ochonu's objection to the quoted passage is why professor Oyebode did not make his views on Buhari known before the 2019 election. But professor Akin Oyebode is only seeking the attention of Buhari for his own personal benefit as he once did with Jonathan. Hence, at the end of the interview he said, ".... and that is why I respect Jonathan. As hard as I was on him, he nominated me to the Council of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs." After his nomination, an easy guess for the discerning minds should be that the professor emeritus, Akin Oyebode, became soft on Jonathan. 

​Akin Oyebode does not believe that the population of Nigeria is up to 200 million because according to him the Nigerian Economy cannot sustain that population which he guessed should be 100 million. But national census was conducted in 2006 when Obasanjo was the President and the name of the Chairman of National Population Commission was Sumaila Makama. On Friday, 29 December 2006, Chief Makama presented the breakdown of 2006 Nigeria's population census as follows : Males 71,709,859; Females - 68,293,683 and total population as 140,003,542. The National Council of State at its meeting, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, chaired by President Olusegun Obasanjo, adopted the census figures presented by the NPC. Normally, a new head count of Nigerians should have taken place in 2016, but Buhari inherited looted treasury in 2015 which was worsened by international economic recession and dwindling income from crude oil export. If the Emeritus Professor, has another means of estimating the population of Nigeria, he should share it with Nigerians so that we can know that the 2006 population census that cost millions of dollars to produce was a bluff. If the real population of Nigeria is in doubt, what do we know about the population of Fulani in Nigeria. Their population must be greater than all other ethnic groups in Nigeria in order to be able to perpetrate all the crimes that are being attributed to them. Practically, it is impossible to kidnap, rape and rob in the company of cows unless one has become a Herdsman Emeritus. And Nigeria should be harbouring millions of Herdsmen Emeritus in order that only them can be responsible for all the crimes in villages, towns and cities of Nigeria that are being attributed to them. The latest kidnappings attributed to Herdsmen Emeritus was the reported abduction of five pastors of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) at Benin Shagamu Expressway, on Thursday, 1 August 2019. On Friday, 2 August 2019, one of the captives, deaconess Chidinma Ibelegbu claimed to have escaped from her abductors. How? She told the media, "I prayed to God to make them fall asleep, and they fell asleep and continued to sleep until I began to make my way out of the bush. I was asking God for direction to the road." If the abductors were asleep, why did the four others not follow the deaconess? On Saturday, 3 August 2019, Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, announced the rescue of the four others whose name were given as, Chidozie Eluwa, Chiemela Iroha, Okoro Ohowukwe and Ndubisi Owuabueze. According to online PM News Nigeria, none of the four was a pastor or belonged to RCCG. So the intended story of Muslim herdsmen abducting Christians for ransom fell flat. What remains of the whole story is that the kidnappers, although not captured, were Fulani Herdsmen Emeritus since they were not in company of cows and no one saw cattle at the scene of the kidnapping.
In Oyo State on 1 August 2019, police arrested suspected arms dealers with 10,000 live ammunitions and on 4 August 2019, in Anambra State, notorious armed robbery gang terrorising Anambra people were arrested. Before the arrests in Oyo and Anambra States, all crimes committed there were blamed on Emeritus Fulani Herdsmen.

Luck has ran out on some notorious armed robbers terrorising residents of Idemili in Anambra state after they were nabbed.
​We now know better.
​S. Kadiri
       



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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Aug 8, 2019, 2:34:46 PM8/8/19
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Alagba Kadiri

Let me reply at once to two posts of yours: your letter to ex- President Obasanjo and this particular post, Toyin Adepoju being the link.

I could not find the part in the actual newspaper interview where Toyin Adepoju got the last part of his excerpt regarding the US putting the Fulani on trial where nothing is done at home to bring them to justice.  I agree with you that if a president succumbs to blackmail to reward a blackmailer that does not mean another President is bound to honour that inglorious precedent.  I could see Professor Oyebode boring us with the fact of Vice President Osinbajo being his former student and asking him to leave Buhari's government pointing in that direction. He (Oyebode, like Farooq Kperogi) could not stomach the idea of Buhari being helped to achieve power and then distancing himself from them.

Now to ex President Obasanjo, I agree with most of your criticism of him having been disillusioned, as I formally indicated on the forum, by hi attempt at self-succession Abacha style even within a civilian dispensation thereby bastardising the Nigerian Constitution.  But Obasanjo's criticism of both Goodluck Johnathan and Muhammadu Buhari seems to stem from an oversight by both Presidents: passifyind and rewarding blackmail bordering on terrorism.

When Toyin Adepoju railed against Buhari rewarding ' Miyetti Allah terrorism enablers' with N100 billion payoff he conveniently forgot that it was his defended kinsman President Goodluck Johnathan who sett the bad precedent which Miyetti Allah latched on to when he paid off the terrorist organisation MEND a recourse that sent President Obasanjo bristling with anger at such odious precedent when he acvused Johnathan of acting as if he was President only over his own people instead of President of the whole country.

Obasanjo you well know has more political friends up North than his home base.  He was therefore acting as the mouth piece of his northern constituency who promptly removed Johnathan at the polls for this ' original sin'

You can then imagine his consternation at Buhari repeating the same offence for which Johnathan was 'excommunicated,'

OAA


From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 8, 2019 12:50:22 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Sv: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Oyebode apologizes forBuhari Vote
 
Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (ogunl...@hotmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
 If Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju had filtered away my post from his email inbox, he would not have seen my request to Professor Moses Ebe Ochonu about his excerpt from Professor Oyebode's interview with unspecified source, making it look fake. Before commenting on the said interview, let me narrate why I read not only the opinions I agree with but those that I disagree with. I once had a Caucasian friend as a visitor and during our discussion on family affairs he asked me if I was a Communist. Since, to me, the question was off the track, I enquired from him why he asked if I was a Communist? He responded by pointing at my volumes of Lenin's collected selected works in one of my bookshelves. Replying, I demonstratively pointed to the volumes of New Cambridge Modern History, Will Durant's History of Civilisation, Winstons Churchill's History of the Second World War and various titles authored by Henry Kissinger on the other shelves. Feeling that my response was inadequate, I pulled out a copy of Quran and a Bible from one of the book shelves to illustrate that it is not what I read that determines my belief. I read to have an independent judgment of mine on issues. When I showed him where Henry Kissinger was quoting copiously from Max and Lenin in one of his book even though he was not a Communist, and he remained speechless. I will always read, not only those whose opinions agree with mine but against mine. Moreover, it is an ineffective way to punish anyone whose opinion one does not share by filtering a person from ones email inbox.

​Now let's go through the Punch interview with Professor Akin Oyebode. When the interviewer drew the attention of Professor Emeritus, Akin Oyebode, to the fact that Buhari had referred to killer herders in Nigeria as ECOWA's herdsmen, he responded partly thus, "For me, Buhari wants to be clever by half by talking of invaders, whereas he's just shopping for an excuse to justify the tyranny of his kinsmen who want to impose themselves on the Country. ​The fact which one does not need to be a professor to know is that Buhari could not have been president of Nigeria if based on Fulani votes alone because the Fulani are minority ethnic group in Nigeria. Considering, the composition of the National Assembly and the Nigerian Armed Forces, Fulani are in absolute minority. The question then is, what magic wand would the Fulani deploy to impose themselves on Nigeria?

Professor Emeritus, Akin Oyebode claimed that Fulani are not Nigerians and attributed their origin to Futta Jallon, Senegal and Mali. How long back in history was Fulani migration into Nigeria, he failed to tell the interviewer. As a result of his aversion for Fulani people, Oyebode said he didn't vote in the last election because the choice was between two Fulani, Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar. Yet, there were 71 other presidential candidates of with over 90% non-Fulani identity. Oyebode is wishing for united Africa by 2063. Therefore, he is praying and hoping that a day would come when the boundaries (in Africa) would be irrelevant because as Africans our destinies are intertwined. He stated further that 'as a pan-Africanists, I'm perfectly in favour of opening up African countries to other Africans and I'm against xenophobia like you find in South Africa.' If one may ask Professor Oyebode, are Fulani not Africans whose destinies are intertwined with other Africans and especially with Nigerians? Towards the end of the interview, Professor Emeritus, Akin Oyebode expressed his regret for voting for Buhari in 2015. That aspect of the interview was very exciting to Professor Ochonu who extracted and posted it without comment and ethnic warriors had a field day. Due to my enquiry, he got the opportunity to debunk ethnicity associated with his excerpt from Oyebode's interview. Professor Ochonu's objection to the quoted passage is why professor Oyebode did not make his views on Buhari known before the 2019 election. But professor Akin Oyebode is only seeking the attention of Buhari for his own personal benefit as he once did with Jonathan. Hence, at the end of the interview he said, ".... and that is why I respect Jonathan. As hard as I was on him, he nominated me to the Council of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs." After his nomination, an easy guess for the discerning minds should be that the professor emeritus, Akin Oyebode, became soft on Jonathan. 

​Akin Oyebode does not believe that the population of Nigeria is up to 200 million because according to him the Nigerian Economy cannot sustain that population which he guessed should be 100 million. But national census was conducted in 2006 when Obasanjo was the President and the name of the Chairman of National Population Commission was Sumaila Makama. On Friday, 29 December 2006, Chief Makama presented the breakdown of 2006 Nigeria's population census as follows : Males 71,709,859; Females - 68,293,683 and total population as 140,003,542. The National Council of State at its meeting, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, chaired by President Olusegun Obasanjo, adopted the census figures presented by the NPC. Normally, a new head count of Nigerians should have taken place in 2016, but Buhari inherited looted treasury in 2015 which was worsened by international economic recession and dwindling income from crude oil export. If the Emeritus Professor, has another means of estimating the population of Nigeria, he should share it with Nigerians so that we can know that the 2006 population census that cost millions of dollars to produce was a bluff. If the real population of Nigeria is in doubt, what do we know about the population of Fulani in Nigeria. Their population must be greater than all other ethnic groups in Nigeria in order to be able to perpetrate all the crimes that are being attributed to them. Practically, it is impossible to kidnap, rape and rob in the company of cows unless one has become a Herdsman Emeritus. And Nigeria should be harbouring millions of Herdsmen Emeritus in order that only them can be responsible for all the crimes in villages, towns and cities of Nigeria that are being attributed to them. The latest kidnappings attributed to Herdsmen Emeritus was the reported abduction of five pastors of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) at Benin Shagamu Expressway, on Thursday, 1 August 2019. On Friday, 2 August 2019, one of the captives, deaconess Chidinma Ibelegbu claimed to have escaped from her abductors. How? She told the media, "I prayed to God to make them fall asleep, and they fell asleep and continued to sleep until I began to make my way out of the bush. I was asking God for direction to the road." If the abductors were asleep, why did the four others not follow the deaconess? On Saturday, 3 August 2019, Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, announced the rescue of the four others whose name were given as, Chidozie Eluwa, Chiemela Iroha, Okoro Ohowukwe and Ndubisi Owuabueze. According to online PM News Nigeria, none of the four was a pastor or belonged to RCCG. So the intended story of Muslim herdsmen abducting Christians for ransom fell flat. What remains of the whole story is that the kidnappers, although not captured, were Fulani Herdsmen Emeritus since they were not in company of cows and no one saw cattle at the scene of the kidnapping.
In Oyo State on 1 August 2019, police arrested suspected arms dealers with 10,000 live ammunitions and on 4 August 2019, in Anambra State, notorious armed robbery gang terrorising Anambra people were arrested. Before the arrests in Oyo and Anambra States, all crimes committed there were blamed on Emeritus Fulani Herdsmen.

Luck has ran out on some notorious armed robbers terrorising residents of Idemili in Anambra state after they were nabbed.
​We now know better.
​S. Kadiri
       


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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Aug 8, 2019, 3:59:18 PM8/8/19
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you three-kadiri, olayinka and cornelius devote yourself to regime congratulatory discussions among the three of you that bear little relationship to the evidence about and the general verdict on buhari's govt outside his northern muslim stronghold  and even among some in the muslim north.

keep it up.

toyin

Femi Segun

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Aug 9, 2019, 3:11:57 AM8/9/19
to 'Chika Onyeani' via USA Africa Dialogue Series
'The question then is, what magic wand would the Fulani deploy to impose themselves on Nigeria?' Salimonu Kadiri. The simple answer can be found in honestly reading and understanding the history of how Uthman Dan Fodio conquered the Hausas and subsequently imposed his religion and emirate system on the people-Brute Violence and heartless destruction of innocent hosts. For any discerning mind, who is not sold to defending the indefensible, (perhaps for mere academic purposes without empathy for victims of violence perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen), the answer can also be found in the zealotry of El Rufai in undermining non-Muslims in Southern Kaduna with brazen impunity since he came power in 2015. 
Femi   

Salimonu Kadiri

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Aug 9, 2019, 4:41:10 PM8/9/19
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​Human history is replete with atrocities, of unspeakable dimension, committed by human beings against fellow mankind.  It is a well-known fact that America, Australia and New Zealand became white man's land due to the annihilation of the aborigins of those territories by the European conquerors notably from, England, France, Spain and Portugal. The trans Atlantic slave trade that involved capturing of Africans, chaining and carting them like cattle into ships to America as slaves was perpetrated, majorly, by Europeans. Africa was subsequently partitioned into Western Europe possessions from which Nigeria evolved as a British colony. How North Africa became Arab countries was due to genocidal war against the Black inhabitants of that part of Africa. In fact, before the arrival of Europeans in Africa, the Arabs had started capturing Africans as slaves too. If Europeans introduced Christianity into Africa, the Arabs also introduced Islam. As history has it, freed black slaves in Arabia were sent back to Africa to propagate Islamic religion of which Uthman Dan Fodio, a Fula, played prominent part in Nigeria. The language of the Fula, etymologically, is Fulani but known nowadays in Nigeria as Fulfude. The language Fulani, is said to be pidgin or counterfeit Arabic. The only difference between the freed Blacks that returned from America and Arabia to Africa is that the former did not constitute themselves into an ethnic (American) negro while the latter converted their pidgin Arabic language into ethnic identity. Uthman Dan Fodio, a freed Arabic slave was enlisted by the Arabians as a commander of Islamic army to convert the Hausa by force into Islam. Similarly, the Portuguese, and later the English men, converted most of the people in Southern Nigeria into Christans. What then has Uthman Dan Fodio got to do with the current situation Nigeria?

​Uthman Dan Fodio was not a herdsman but an Islamic warrior. Even if he was herdsman and Islamic warrior simultaneously, we cannot in 2019 blame his actions on nowadays Fulani irrespective of whether they are Muslim herdsmen or not. Not every German man with moustache is Hitler and regardless of our political and economic experience as Africans, in the hands of Europeans not all Europeans are Nazists. In all States of Nigeria, Fulani herdsmen have lived and practised their occupation as cattle breeders in archaic manner, roaming randomly to find free wild-grown bush to graze their cattle. All over Nigeria, herdsmen are confronted not only by cattle rustlers but organised bandits who want to tax herders for grazing their cattle in wild-grown bushes. It is the responsibility of States' and Federal government to subsidize livestock farming as it has be done to crops farmers. If private motor car owners are being subsidised with cheap petrol by the Federal government, it makes much more sense to subsidise ranches for professional livestock farmers. We have problems with open grazing for cattle and the solution is ranching but the neo third Reich intellectuals are insisting that Fulani herdsmen should be evacuated from their permanent place of abode in Nigeria for over fifty years to nowhere. I look at the face of the fascists and call them by their right name, NAZISTS.
S. Kadiri      



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Femi Segun

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Aug 9, 2019, 6:06:13 PM8/9/19
to 'Chika Onyeani' via USA Africa Dialogue Series
"What then has Uthman Dan Fodio got to do with the current situation Nigeria?" Salimonu Kadiri. My answer is EVERYTHING. A tree has a root. A river has it source. The rain comes from the sky. The forest is formed from the combination of trees. A wildfire has its source from just one click of a stick of matches.  Hamarttan has its source from the wind from the Sahara. Please decode and be objective for once. 


Ibrahim Abdullah

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Aug 9, 2019, 6:23:51 PM8/9/19
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Dan Fodio is a Saudi mercenary? There is no relationship between Fulbe and Arabic language. By 1804 when the Jihad broke out there was no Saudia. The land that we call Saudi today was under Ottoman control including the holy cities of Makkah and Medina. Saudi Arabia was carved out by the British after World War One.

The connections and linkages that you make here are frightening. The Europeans did not introduce Christianity in Africa—Parts of what became Africa was Christian before what became Europe adopted Christianity. Almost all the categories you deploy here where invented after what you describe. You don’t write or do history is a backward loop—-avant la lettre. 

Sent from my iPhone

Salimonu Kadiri

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Aug 9, 2019, 7:41:54 PM8/9/19
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​I agree with you that there was no Saudia in 1804, but there had been Arab Jihad long before that. Jihad is an Arabic word and before the free slaves from Arabia invaded Hausa land under the pretence of Islamic Jihad (war), Hausa people had word for God which is not Allah. As you know, the word Allah in Arabic is God. What is the name of God in the language of the Fula? From where did Uthman Dan Fodio get the word Jihad and from where did he learn how to read Arabic and study Quran?
​S. Kadiri

Salimonu Kadiri

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Aug 9, 2019, 7:42:01 PM8/9/19
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​You one, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, must tell us the population of Fulani in Nigeria and how many of them are *Emeritus Herdsmen.* That statistic will enable us to calculate their geographical spread and their ability to strike at various places in Nigeria with criminal or military intension. So far we have been fed with malicious guess where every crime in Nigeria is attributed to *suspected Fulani herdsmen.*
S. Kadiri



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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Aug 9, 2019, 8:36:57 PM8/9/19
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Toyin.

I could not find anywhere in my post where I congratulated Buhari.  All I did was point to your double standards in your evaluation of Jonathan and Buhari.  That is not fair or just.  

To you the tactics of MEND are not terrorist even though they instill fear with the use of guns ans kidnapped Europeans while Fulani herdsmen and Miyetti Allah are terrorists because they are northerners.


OAA

 



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From: Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com>
Date: 10/08/2019 00:55 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Sv: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Oyebode apologizesforBuhari  Vote

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​You one, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, must tell us the population of Fulani in Nigeria and how many of them are *Emeritus Herdsmen.* That statistic will enable us to calculate their geographical spread and their ability to strike at various places in Nigeria with criminal or military intension. So far we have been fed with malicious guess where every crime in Nigeria is attributed to *suspected Fulani herdsmen.*
S. Kadiri



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Ibrahim Abdullah

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Aug 9, 2019, 8:37:08 PM8/9/19
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Arabic was written and spoke in the Western Sudan since ninth century—-almost a thousand years before Dan Fodio emerged. My grand father—a Fulbe from Senegal born in 1880 spoke and wrote Arabic before he did Hajj in 1930. By 1500 Arabic was lingua Franca in the major city state in the Western and Central Sudan. The major written forces for the reconstruction of the history of this area is Arabic and Ajami. 

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On 10 Aug 2019, at 00:02, Ibrahim Abdullah <ibdu...@gmail.com> wrote:

There is no evidence of Arabs invading Kasar Hausa—Hausaland at any time in the past. The Bayagida legend cannot be reduced to Arab invasion. The pre-Islamic word for Allah in Hausa—Ubanjiji—is still in use. 
You are on a slippery slope here—your claims are truly frightening. 

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Ibrahim Abdullah

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Aug 9, 2019, 8:37:19 PM8/9/19
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There is no evidence of Arabs invading Kasar Hausa—Hausaland at any time in the past. The Bayagida legend cannot be reduced to Arab invasion. The pre-Islamic word for Allah in Hausa—Ubanjiji—is still in use. 
You are on a slippery slope here—your claims are truly frightening. 

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On 9 Aug 2019, at 22:47, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com> wrote:

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Aug 9, 2019, 8:37:32 PM8/9/19
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The Yoruba invented the word Fulani from the word Fulani and that is why it is only in Nigeria that the Fula are called Fulani.  Etymologically, Fula+ ni = He/she is a Fula.

OAA



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-------- Original message --------
From: Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com>
Date: 10/08/2019 00:41 (GMT+00:00)

Ibukunolu. A. Babajide

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Aug 9, 2019, 9:05:06 PM8/9/19
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Toyin Adepoju’s jaundiced Atikulated views are the evidence. Not so?

Continue fooling yourself. 

Cheers. 

IBK 

Sent from IBK’s iPhone X Max

Salimonu Kadiri

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Aug 10, 2019, 3:22:06 PM8/10/19
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​There is no evidence of Arabs invading Kasar Hausa - Hausaland at anytime in the past, you asserted. That is true because Uthman Dan Fodio and his fellow *Jihadists* were racially not Caucasian Arabs but *Negroid African Slaves freed in Arabia* who returned to Africa to fight *the holy war (Jihad)* in order to force people to accept the *religion of the Arabs, Islam* as the only religion of God and Arabic as the only language understood by God. What *Jihad* is to Islamists is what *Crusade* is to Christians. Negroid Africa suffered the same fate as slaves in the hands of Islamists and Christians from Caucasian Western Europe and Middle East.

​You wrote that the pre-Islamic word for Allah in Hausa is *Ubanjiji* and is still in use. I must substitute still in use with seldom in use since Hausa language has strongly been polluted by Arabic in similar way that the indigenous languages in the South have strongly been polluted with English words. If Fulfude or Fulani language is not a pidgin or counterfeit Arabic, what is the word for God in Fulani? I am certain that the word Allah is Arabic and not Fulani.

People of Western Sudan had their own language(s) before the Arab conquerors imposed Arabic on them as written and spoken language. That the imposition of Arabic on Western Sudan occurred almost a thousand year before Uthman Dan Fodio Islamic Jihad is of no significance. The established fact is that he was not an Arab but a black man and ex-slave in Arabia. He was freed and armed to expand the influence of Arabs in Nigeria through Islamic Jihad and he succeeded to some extent. I am not proud of him as I do not of those African Kings who raided their neighbours' territories to capture fellow blacks and sold them to Western Europeans as slaves in exchange for pittance. Nevertheless, whatever might have been the shortcomings of our forbears, the current should not take their mis-judgment as a platform on which to lay the foundation of modern politics. All Nigerians, including the Fulani, should be accorded the rights of citizenship as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution. That is my main request.
S.Kadiri  



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Ämne: Re: Sv: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Professor Oyebode apologizes for Buhari Vote
 

Ibrahim Abdullah

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Aug 10, 2019, 4:43:16 PM8/10/19
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Salimonu:
You think the past and write history avant la lettre. You do not like those African Kings who invaded......”.  There was no consciousness of/about Africa in 1500. Africa was invented in the course of the slave trade. Arabs never invaded or conquered Hausaland. The Fulani you are putting forward entered present day Nigeria from the West——around Senegal/Guinea. If they were Arabs the would have come from the North-East. These are basic 101 stuff that every undergraduate in a decent history department in Africa should know.
Your “reading” of the past truly frightens. 

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Salimonu Kadiri

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Aug 11, 2019, 1:30:39 PM8/11/19
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Arabs never invaded or conquered Hausaland - Ibrahim Abdullah. I don't know why you are repeating yourself since you have previously stated that, *there is no evidence of Arabs invading Kasar Hausa -Hausaland at anytime in the past.* I unambiguously agreed with you and backed it up that Uthman Dan Fodio who led the Islamic Jihad into Hausa land was racially not a Caucasian Arab but a Negro. What I have said is that Black Slaves who were freed in Arabia returned to Africa to fight Islamic religious war known as Jihad. In Hausaland it was Uthman Dan Fodio who led the conquest of Hausaland through Jihad and forcibly imposed the Arabic religion, Islam, on the Hausa. From which base Uthman Dan Fodio led his Jihadists into Hausaland is of less importance in this narrative. If you have read and understood what I have written on the Fula, you would appreciate that I regard them as my fellow brothers and sisters, implying that I have no aversion whatsoever against them as a people. And that is why I am in support of subsidy to livestock farmers of which the Fula are in the majority. I must confess to you that I read history as a free-lancer and I will be grateful if you as a professor of history can enlighten me on how the charcoal dark-skinned Uthman Dan Fodio learned how to read and understand the Quran, written in the Caucasian Arabic Language. Finally, may I remind you that you failed to answer my question about what God is called in the language of the Fula?
S. Kadiri  

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Aug 11, 2019, 7:16:58 PM8/11/19
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'I must confess to you that I read history as a free-lancer and I will be grateful if you as a professor of history can enlighten me on how the charcoal dark-skinned Uthman Dan Fodio learned how to read and understand the Quran, written in the Caucasian Arabic Language.'

islam has been transmitted by various means

 'Finally, may I remind you that you failed to answer my question about what God is called in the language of the Fula? '

i responded to this. was it not posted. here is the response again-

If Fulfude or Fulani language is not a pidgin or counterfeit Arabic, what is the word for God in Fulani? I am certain that the word Allah is Arabic and not Fulani.'

A version of the Fulani creation story gives the names of the creator of the universe as Doondari and Gueno.

The work of Ahmadou Hampte Ba-Kaidara: A Fulani Cosmological Epicamong others- and  Germaine Dieterlen-"Initiation Among the Peul Pastoral Fulani," among others- take that text further in being  very insightful on pre-Islamic Fulani culture. 

https://www.webpulaaku.net  used to be a great site on Fulani culture, showcasing its endogenous, non-Islamic genius but I dont know if its still live.

On Sun, 11 Aug 2019 at 18:30, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunl...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Arabs never invaded or conquered Hausaland - Ibrahim Abdullah. I don't know why you are repeating yourself since you have previously stated that, *there is no evidence of Arabs invading Kasar Hausa -Hausaland at anytime in the past.* I unambiguously agreed with you and backed it up that Uthman Dan Fodio who led the Islamic Jihad into Hausa land was racially not a Caucasian Arab but a Negro. What I have said is that Black Slaves who were freed in Arabia returned to Africa to fight Islamic religious war known as Jihad. In Hausaland it was Uthman Dan Fodio who led the conquest of Hausaland through Jihad and forcibly imposed the Arabic religion, Islam, on the Hausa. From which base Uthman Dan Fodio led his Jihadists into Hausaland is of less importance in this narrative. If you have read and understood what I have written on the Fula, you would appreciate that I regard them as my fellow brothers and sisters, implying that I have no aversion whatsoever against them as a people. And that is why I am in support of subsidy to livestock farmers of which the Fula are in the majority. I must confess to you that I read history as a free-lancer and I will be grateful if you as a professor of history can enlighten me on how the charcoal dark-skinned Uthman Dan Fodio learned how to read and understand the Quran, written in the Caucasian Arabic Language. Finally, may I remind you that you failed to answer my question about what God is called in the language of the Fula?
S. Kadiri  

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Cornelius Hamelberg

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Aug 11, 2019, 8:18:30 PM8/11/19
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Baba Kadiri,

O me miserum!

You cause Cornelius Ignoramus the simpleton to be pedantic, even slightly sophistic, not at all “sophisticated.”

Considering the probable Arabic origin of your name Kadiri, I am not at all happy about the disdainful manner in which you describe the Arabic language fertilising and enriching the Hausa Language, as Hausa language has strongly been polluted by Arabic

Surely, you know the emotive and connotative meaning of the word “pollute”?

You surely know about some of the eloquent qualities of Arabic?

I have only heard some chronic Persian nationalists and Persian chauvinists, “ language purists” and Islamophobes expressing themselves in that manner, about “purifying” their language Farsi, from any Arabic accretions. (I have yet to hear a single Englishman complain about the Latin and Greek etymology of most English words to be found in the Buckingham Palace Language which after all is a Germanic Language,)

Secondly, can you vouchsafe the historical accuracy of what you say here, that

1. “Uthman Dan Fodio and his fellow*Jihadists* were racially not Caucasian Arabs but *Negroid African Slaves freed in Arabia* 

2. they “returned to Africa to fight *the holy war (Jihad)* in order to force people to accept the *religion of the Arabs, Islam* as the only religion of God and Arabic as the only language understood by God.

Baba Kadiri, please be serious: On what basis have you formed your erroneous belief that the very learned Shehu Uthman Dan Fodio ever thought that of Arabic as “the only language understood by God.” - by God the omniscient and omnipotent ? Don’t you know that the God of Islam listens to and understand duas (supplications) in any language, including pidgin English and Yoruba?

Here is another Scot who learned Arabic - the language of the Quran: Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi

You are of course aware that Moses Maimonides wrote some of his works in Arabic…

By the way, Wole Soyinka suggested many years ago that if the continent of Africa were to adopt a single language of communication, it should be Swahili . Don’t ask me or Professor Google, ask Soyinka about his suggestion...

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