Pita Agbese's response.
Dr. Bitrus Gwamna
Friends: Please permit me to break into your silence, by asking you to read this this note from professor Pita Agbese. It is his personal reaction to Professor Kperogi’s reply to my letter to you about a week ago. I promise you that this will be the last you will read from us about this affair. Blessings.
Farooq Kperogi and I
I thought that Prof. Bitrus Gwamna’s response to the irresponsible piece that Farooq Kperogi wrote about Prof. Gwamna, the Association of Nigerian Scholars in the Diaspora, and me had sufficiently set the record straight but Kperogi’s own reply to that response and his column in last Saturday’s Tribune require my own response. First, in his Tribune column, he warned his readers that our association did not speak for all Nigerians in the Diaspora. We never claimed that it did. He accused us of being fraudulent and strangely enough, he informed his readers that I was the younger brother of Dan Agbese. Yes, Dan is my elder brother of whom I am extremely proud to have come from the same womb. Dan is an outstanding journalist and patriot. Why Farooq saw it fit to drag my brother’s name to his quarrel with us is one of the strangest things that I have ever seen in a scholar. What was the purpose of that? That my “fraudulent behavior” is inexplicable given that my brother is such a man of integrity? That I am not truly Dan’s brother if I could engage in “fraudulent” activities? This type of character assassination is not what I would have expected of a man who wants to be taken seriously as a scholar, but what do I know? Strangely, Kperogi included my picture in the piece as if I was on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.
One of Farooq’s readers, a young man from our village, whom I have never met but who generously called me his uncle, was asked by Farooq to find out why I had changed from his impression of who he thought I was, from our brief encounter in Missouri last year, to this “fraudster” out to launder the image of the Buhari administration and the Nigerian military. This, I thought was also quite strange. There is nothing to investigate about me. I don’t live a double life.
In his response to Prof. Gwamna, Farooq mentioned how I knew many military officers and how I often travel to Nigeria. I think he did this to create the impression that my travels are funded from a secret military slush fund. How I wish! Since 1995, I have traveled from the US to Nigeria at least twice a year. I was a co-director, with Professor George Klay Kieh, on major research projects, “The Military Question in West Africa” and “The State in Africa.” Both were funded by the Ford Foundation. Both projects entailed extensive research, networking and conferences in the United States and Africa. I traveled extensively in the course of co-directing both projects. I was also a co-principal investigator (with Professor John Mukum Mbaku) on another large project, “Ethnicity in the Third World.” Prof. Mbaku managed the finances of that project. He is not just an outstanding scholar but also a highly competent manager of resources. At the end of that project, Prof. Mbaku had so resourcefully managed the funds that we had over $40,000 left unspent. I suggested to him that we should ask the Ford Foundation, which funded the project, if we could use that money to organize a workshop on social research methodologies for postgraduate students in Nigeria. Ford graciously accepted our request and Mbaku, Kieh and I organized a one-week residential workshop at the University of Ibadan for post-graduate students drawn from various Nigerian universities. I traveled to Nigeria three times in connection with this workshop and only one of the trips was paid out of the fund.
For four years (2008-2012), I was a senior consultant on the US State and Defense Departments-funded Trans-Saharan Security Symposium. It was a project designed to train middle-level and senior-level security officers on recognizing and combating threats to national security. It involved one-week in-country trainings and workshops in Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Mauretania, Burkina Faso, and Chad and a two-week regional training for security officers from each of the participating West African countries held in any of the participating states. We had eight to ten week sessions in the various countries annually. My role involved presentations on “The History of Civil-Military Relations in West Africa,” “Introduction to Civil-Military Relations,” “The Role of the Armed Forces in Combating Ethnic and Religious Violence” and in drawing up military simulation exercises. I was also the project’s photographer. I got involved in this project because when the first training session was held at the Kofi Anan International Peacekeeping Training Center, Accra, there was no African among the trainers. The participants were highly critical of this omission saying how inappropriate it was for a training program on threats to national security in West Africa not to draw on the many African experts in this field. It was only then that Dr. Zakaria Ousman (Chad), Naomi Akpan-Ita (Nigeria), Julius Nyan’goro (Tanzania), Prof. Boubacar Ndi’aye (Mauretania), Gen. Jones Arogbofa, Gen. Ishola Williams, and I were approached and asked to serve as senior consultants. This was one of the most outstanding programs of my academic career. I have done most of my academic work on the political economy of military rule, and interacting directly with officers from the participating countries was intellectually rewarding. To be fair, I had a lot of fun. I met some of the most interesting persons on this project. I loved all the travels. The pay was also great. We worked hard and we played very hard during the project. I had some of the best meals of my life in the course of our training programs: red, red in Ghana, roasted rams in Chad and Mauretania, goat-head and roasted fish in Nigeria. Most important of all, our training had practical and real-life impacts. For example, in one of our in-country training programs in Nigeria, we conducted a simulation exercise on responding to a terrorist bombing in a city. Two weeks after our training, Boko Haram bombed the police headquarters in Abuja. Some of the participants in our training program were among the first responders to the terrorist bombing and they were glad that they knew what to do in light of our simulation exercise.
The Nigerian Army now has a Civil Affairs unit. This grew directly from the project. I am glad that I was part of the team that drew up the outlines of this unit designed to encourage a cordial relationship between the armed forces and civilians. I came to know many military officers in the course of our training programs. On another personal note, I accumulated over 1 million miles in Delta’s frequent flyer program, mostly for flying for this project.
I also came to know some US military officers as I used to be a visiting instructor at the US Air Force Special Operations University at Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The Trans-Saharan Security Symposium also included several retired US generals as instructors. I have gotten to know many of these, in particular, Gen. Russ Howard.
I should also note that I have done all my sabbaticals in Nigeria. First, at the Yakubu Gowon Center where I directed its projects on, “Consolidating Democracy in Nigeria” and “Creating Stable Civil-Military Relations in Nigeria.” I was also the Center’s principal grants consultant. We wrote several grant proposals that were successfully funded. I did not charge the Center the minimum going-rate of 15% of the funded projects. If I did, I would have made a lot of money. I did not charge anything at all. By biggest reward was in helping the Center to organize an international conference on democracy in Nigeria. President Jimmy Carter, President Olusegun Obasanjo were the keynote speakers. Gen. Gowon and Chief Ernest Shonekan were other former heads-of state who attended. My presentation generated a heated discussion and Chief Shonekan who was seated next to me on the panel, privately told me that I was right in my criticism of some of the pro-democracy organizations. My second sabbatical was at the African Center for Democratic Governance (Afrigov). I believed in what the late Prof. Aaron Gana and the Center stood for. I worked at the Center without any pay, except a furnished one room apartment that was provided for me. This room was so small it did not have enough room for table. I had to stay in my office at night if I needed to work on a table. I enjoyed the Spartan lifestyle. I traveled on behalf of the Center entirely at my own expense. Just as I did at the Yakubu Gowon Center, I wrote grant applications proposals for Afrigov. The most successful was a multimillion Naira grant from the European Union for a one-week workshop on effective legislating for members of states houses of assembly. My third sabbatical was at the University of Jos. My appointment letter stated what my basic salary was going to be. I did not know that allowances raised the amount considerably. When I converted the salary in Naira to dollars, it was so small that I told myself that I would not even bother to ask to be paid. It was only much later that I was told that my calculation was wrong. By the time I realized this, I had already completed my sabbatical. My one year salary had accumulated and by the time I applied to be paid, the amount was so huge that it raised suspicion on the part of the VC. To cut a long story short, the salary was slashed substantially. It was okay by me. I was more interested in teaching. My most recent sabbatical was at Bingham University. As Prof. Zalanga noted in his response, Bingham has had a major financial crisis. My first salary was paid three months after my sabbatical ended. Bingham still owes me for seven months. My several travels from the United States to Bingham, at my own expense, cost me more than the entire salary that Bingham offered to pay me.
I took time to narrate all these to dispel Kperogi’s belief that I travel to Nigeria often on a secret military slush fund. I am not the money-grubbing scholar ready to dispense my expertise for the right amount that Kperogi is intent on portraying. At Bingham, one of my students lost her father and the man who had offered to pay her fees in quick succession. I offered to help but as it has turned out, she has no one else to pay her fees. So, over one third of my Bingham salary will be used to pay her fees. I have taught her photography and given her a camera and equipment worth more than 300,000 Naira. I am happy she has been able to earn a few thousand Naira from her newly-acquired photographic skills.
I should also mention that I have done consultancies for NEMA, INEC and the Ministry of Aviation, all under PDP administrations. These were very small amounts, but I was glad I did them. For NEMA, I organized a training program on how to use digital imaging to document disasters. I was glad I introduced this program at NEMA. I think my “profit” was just enough to pay for my airfare.
It is funny that today, Kperogi is painting me as a cheerleader for the military. Yes, I prefer today’s military to the military we had during military rule but I have always decried military interventions in African politics. I believe that political intervention is neither good for the military nor for Nigeria. My first scholarly publication was on military expenditures and private capital accumulation in Nigeria. I was glad that I was the first scholar to demonstrate how military expenditures in Nigeria are structured with an objective to fleecing Nigeria. I was also very critical of the dubious transition programs, predicting that the Babangida transition was deliberately designed to fail (“The Demise of Nigeria’s Forthcoming Third Republic”).
I don’t have friends among the officer corps in the way that Kperogi implied. I worked with a number of serving and retired officers during our Tran-Saharan project. Among these was General Jones Arogbofa who later became the Chief of Staff to President Jonathan. Arogbofa is an officer and a gentleman and I was glad I got to know him. We were at Dakar shortly after I lost my mother. All my colleagues took me out to a bar to try to cheer me up and to console me over my mother’s death. Gen. Arogbofa did something that night that remained indelible in my mind. He drank a glass of beer in memory of my mother. He had never drunk any alcohol in his life and I don’t think he has had any other drink since that night. I was moved to tears by this gesture. Many people who knew our connection thought that I could make money through him when he was the Chief of Staff to Jonathan. I did not, and I was not expecting to do so. I did not even see him throughout that period. He once asked me, while I was in Nigeria, to come over to his office at Aso Rock. I went but he had flown with President Jonathan to Zamfara State. We laughed about this afterward. An officer I ran into at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, on my way to the country to bury my younger brother, surprised me when he aborted his flight to the UK that night and showed up at my brother’s funeral two days later. I have never given him anything and he has never given me any money but no amount of money from him would have blown me away over the way his coming to my brother’s funeral did. I have been very lucky. It is people like him and Gen. Arogbofa that count themselves my friends and I equally count them as friends. Friendships based entirely on mutual respects and admiration.
I made frequent visits to Nigeria in the 1990s because I was part of a USAID-funded project on university linkages. The Iowa-Nigeria Linkage was a linkage program between four institutions in Iowa and four similar institutions in Nigeria. It brought faculties from UI, Ife, NISER and the Ibadan Polytechnic here on an exchange program. Faculty and students from the four institutions in Iowa made several trips to Nigeria. The project was suspended after the Abacha coup in 1993, leaving $200,000 out of the $1 million grant unspent.
The MacArthur Foundation awarded six other colleagues and I a grant to conduct a research project on the “Crisis in the Niger Delta: Options for Long-term Solutions. I made several trips in connection with that grant.
It may also interest Kperogi to know that I have flown to Nigeria three times using my accumulated frequent flyer mileage. Similarly, I always take advantage of airline offers to passengers when a flight is overbooked and people are asked to volunteer to give up their seats and fly on later flights. I have used coupons from such offers to fly free to Nigeria twice.
Most often when I fly to Nigeria on my own, I rely on loans from our university’s credit union to fund the trips. I have a running joke among the personal bankers there that comes November and May, they expect me to come for a loan for a trip to Africa. I should note that every summer, I either teach a summer class or I get a summer research grant. Since I have been here continuously since 1989, I failed to teach or get a summer research grant only once.
In 2017, while I was at Bingham, the National Defense College invited me to give a lecture on US-Africa relations. When I informed the college that I would have returned to the US by the date of the conference and would come only if the college would pay for my flight, the college declined and withdrew the invitation. I had no way of funding my trip then and I accepted the withdrawal.
I have been living in the United States since 1980. I come from a very large family. My father had thirteen wives. I therefore had twelve step-mothers and many brothers and sisters. Some of my trips to Nigeria have been funeral trips. I have gone to Nigeria to bury my father and mother, six stepmothers and several brothers and sisters. Nobody paid for any of these trips and I have never asked anyone to do so. Close friends such as Prof. Gwamna, Prof. Zalanga, Prof. Chris Ogbondah and others have given me some money during such sad events. I remain profoundly grateful to them.
One of the most gratifying aspects of my life has been meeting people who have made my life much better through their friendship and fierce loyalty. In teacher’s college, Akila Usman Gwarry, now retired AIG Gwarry, was one of such friends. When I got into a little trouble and some people threatened to beat me up, Akila said that he would burn down their thatched roofs even if that meant that his own father’s house would be burnt down in retaliation. Luckily, it did have to come to that but a friend willing to have his father’s house turned into a heap of ashes because of loyalty to me was really a friend. The late Dr. Joseph Shekwo was such a friend in graduate college and in my working life, I have been fortunate to have two friends like that: Prof. Julius Ihonvbere and Prof. Bitrus Gwamna. Bitrus is the nicest human being that I have ever met and even if all my life had revolved around fraud, I would never involve Bitrus in such fraudulent activities. Bitrus would never hurt a fly and I will never hurt Bitrus or drag his name in the mud. What Bitrus and I have is a friendship of a lifetime. He is an ardent Christian and I am a Chief Priest but our religious differences have never come between us.
We set our organization based on the model of a similar organization that the eminent political scientist, Prof. Peter Ekeh and seven of us set up at the height of the Abacha dictatorship. The association of Nigeria scholars for Dialogue, had only eight members: Ekeh, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, Prof. Ebere Onwudiwe, the late Dr. Pat Williams, Dr. Leslie Obiorah, Prof. Folu Ogundinmu, one other person whose name has escaped me and I served as its executive secretary. We held two conferences and published a monograph. We also sent a memorandum to the Tobi Commission that drafted the 1999 Constitution. The Commission thanked us in its report.
I am sorry if this response has been lengthy and verbose. I don’t know how to respond to personal attacks such as Kperogi has launched against me. I came into this with a serious handicap from my upbringing. My father taught me that if someone calls me a big head and I do have a big head, that would not be a nice thing to say but that the person would be truthfully describing my anatomy. On the other hand, if I don’t have a big head and someone calls me a big head, that person would only be lying and that I should not take that person’s judgment into account. Kperogi reportedly included my picture but most people on this forum, not knowing me may still have no idea whether or not I have a big head. At least, I have introduced myself or reintroduced myself to you.
I have made my position on the Buhari administration very clear. I prefer it to most of Nigeria’s most recent administrations. Those like Kperogi who pillory Buhari can do so to their heart’s content but they can never force me to join them in their excoriation of the administration. I will not join them not because I serve as a hired gun for the administration but because I have a right to disagree with Kperogi and any other critic of the administration. Some have even accused me of supporting Buhari because I was trying to get noticed for an appointment. I have never lobbied for any appointment but those who get appointed do not have two heads or have more educational qualifications than me. No one can lecture me on the ravages of violence in Nigeria. Three times, my homes in Nigeria have been razed to the ground on account of violence. My hometown, Agila, was the only place completely destroyed during the Civil War, a destruction that a Catholic priest compared to the destruction of Carthage.
I wage daily war on the Internet against the sadistic, incompetent and mendacious leadership of Samuel Ortom of my own state, Benue. My stand on Ortom has earned my death threats but I cannot succumb to such threats. I recently celebrated my 65th birthday. Life expectancy for Nigerian males is only 54 years. I have lived 11 years beyond my expected shelf life and if I were to die because I want to see a Nigeria that works for all its citizens, I will regard it an honor and a privilege.
Dr. Bitrus Paul Gwamna
Jibrin Ibrahim
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/007d01d519a9%24b1b2cc30%2415186490%24%40gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Gbolahan Gbadamosi
Bitrus Paul Gwamna,
Thank you for sharing this comprehensive response from Pita Agbese with us giving us some preview of the other side following your earlier response and the comprehensive intervention of Samuel Zalanga.
When one is put on the defensive as is the case here, I am guessing it must take a lot of pain to write like this drawing from an entire career history and trajectory of academic achievements, years of funding and building partnerships, friendships and collaborations.
What I take away from this is that often we input motives to what people do. The precursor of this discussion is that there was financial benefit and/or inducement for the promoters of the “Association of Nigerian Scholars in Diaspora” and that they are not registered.
Not being a registered body is not an argument that goes far. I agree with Prof Falola’s logic on this. Many successful groups achieve their objectives without being registered and may or may not pursue registration over time. Being registered in some cases may actually hinder the main objective of an association.
Financial inducement to support government is the big one especially if all the evidence we can adduce only revolves around many travels and some press/public statements. The keyword here is “fraudulent” used by Farooq Kperogi. Often, the one on the receiving end of an accusation is the one that feels the pain. It is particularly more painful if it happens to be untrue. In this case it is yet to be proven and until then remains an allegation. Such allegations may be unfair and far reaching if you are the one being accused. It may be mere words if you are the one throwing the stones.
Scholarly arguments and disagreements are the hallmark of academia. We hardly ever all stand on the same side on any debate. It is acceptable that some may find positive and others completely against a government in power anywhere and at any time. They may do so for the right or for the wrong reasons. They do have a right to stand on one side or even on the fence and should not be called names for their views. I find it discomforting when the argument goes thus: “If you support this person (government) you can only be doing so because you have been paid or you are stupid.” I hope we would be able to draw a line and agree to disagree on this one.
Gbolahan Gbadamosi
--
Farooq A. Kperogi
Professor Agbese,
Thanks for your response. But your response actually only skillfully skirted around the real issues. You have shown that you have won a lot of grants in the past, have been living in the US since the beginning of time, have had opportunities to be Bill Gates but chose to be modest, have made self-abnegating commitments to Nigeria and Nigerians, etc. Good for you! I am in awe!
But that’s not the issue here. In any case, even if what you wrote were true, a past good deed does not atone for a current moral transgression. That's not the way the world works. The issue is that you are part of an--or ARE the-- “association” that pretends to be “the umbrella association of Nigerian scholars in the diaspora.” That’s how Nigerian newspapers describe your unregistered, two-man association, and it’s a wildly false claim.
Your association also habitually deploys a boatload of risible terminological inexactitudes (I won’t say “lies” because I want to be polite and cordial) to propagandize on behalf of the Buhari regime, as I will show again shortly. In a previous response, I showed how you ignored basic, publicly known facts, not to mention the material realities of the real, living people in Nigeria, to proclaim that the Nigerian economy was healthy and that the CBN governor deserved his reappointment for his proficient husbandry of the economy. I also showed that your defense of incompetent service chiefs who are supervising Nigeria's wild descent into the low-water mark of unexampled insecurity was factually impoverished. You ignored the substantive issues I raised in my response to that press statement and instead chose to regale me with tedious, self-indulgent narratives about your putatively unmatched scholarly and moral machismo.
In this response, I will again call attention to another intentionally tendentious, even mendacious, press statement you and Professor Gwamna issued on March 25 on the US State Department’s 2018 human rights report on Nigeria. No sober, rational person would read that statement and be persuaded that you are disinterested scholars commenting on Nigeria gratis. I have reproduced the entire press statement after my analysis (with emphasis in major places for people who may not have the time to read the whole statement).
In the press statement, your two-man group based in Iowa, USA, said (I won’t say “lied” because I don’t want to be disrespectful) that Nigerians scholars met in London to deliberate on the US State Department’s 2018 human rights reports on Nigeria! Where in London did the “association” meet? How many people were at the “meeting”? Who are they? Reminds me of your claim in your latest press statement that your subcommittee on economy (never mind that the entire association is made up of just two people who are professors of political science and communication) examined the CBN governor's tenure and found it to be the best thing since sliced bread.
In the statement, you claim that the US report on human rights abuses in Nigeria by the military and other government agencies, which was basically drawn from Nigerian newspaper reports, was a “covert disguise for putting ammunition in the hands of the opposition.” Why are supposedly disinterested diasporan scholars worried about the “opposition,” which is a core structural constituent in every minimally functioning democracy? That reads like something information minister Lai Mohammed or presidential spokesman Garba Shehu would write.
This two-man, US-based “association” of Nigerian scholars in the diaspora that holds meetings in London from its “members’” base in the US is notoriously flippant with rudimentary facts and loves wild leaps of logic. It said, for instance, that the US report on the heartrending human rights abuses by the Nigerian military against IDPs, IPOB members, Shiites, etc. was evidence that “These groups that qualify as terrorists by internationally accepted definitions are apparently being supported by the United States.” So by the logic of these scholars, vulnerable, internally displaced people who are routinely taken advantage of my soldiers, unarmed IPOB agitators who are murdered for merely wanting self-determination while Fulani brigands are mollycoddled, Shiites hundreds of whose members were murdered in cold blood by the military for protesting the continued incarceration of their leader against several court orders, etc. are “terrorists” and are being supported by the US? I leave you to judge if that makes sense—and if any disinterested scholar would make such an outrageously infantile and unsupportable, not to mention insensate, claim.
But it gets even weirder and wilder. The scholars, through juvenile rhetorical legerdemain, also conflated the “opposition” with “terrorists” as evidenced in this statement: “The support for the opposition and terrorists extends beyond tactical backing with reports like the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2018 include indirect arming of these groups with weapons that are first supplied to third party countries like Syria from where they will find their way into the hands of these US lackeys in Nigeria.”
In another paragraph, the “association” writes: “The report is predicting and expectant of growing disaffection among the opposition, their becoming militarized and terrorists becoming more belligerent and escalating attacks against the state while the fear of censure would have pushed the military into inertia.” (I hope someone can help me translate that into English!) Which disinterested scholar writes that sort of irresponsible, sophomoric claptrap?
Talking of exhibitionistic sophomoric ebullience, the scholars also took the US report to task for not being an “academic work” and for falling short of “the benchmark for a rigorous academic research to warrant being taken seriously by anyone anywhere in the world.” Hahahaha! When have country reports become academic works?
But this sentence takes the cake: “The Association will withdraw recognition for any report to which the US government is connected or affiliated until it withdraws the questionable contents it has published against Nigeria.” A two-man association of Iowa-based buddies, which nonetheless miraculously holds meetings in London while not physically there, is threatening to “withdraw recognition for any report to which the US government is connected or affiliated.” Ha! US government officials must be quaking in their boots now!
The “association” urged “all the government agencies that were maligned in the report to take advantage of the right of reply to set the records straight.” That was the basis for the Minnesota “conference” (to which Nigerian generals were invited) about which I know much more than I am willing to publicly share in order not to betray confidences. Maybe Professor Agbese will also tell us who sponsored the "talk-back" "conference." I have my own facts and evidence.
The “Association of Nigerian Scholars in the Diaspora” is CLEARLY NOT a disinterested scholarly association. It is bed in with the Buhari regime. This isn’t a flippant, ill-natured putdown. They are, of course, at liberty to be in bed with the government--or with anyone-- but doing so under false pretenses, and deploying puerile mendacity to do so, will invite the sort of scrutiny they are getting from me.
Read the press statement below:
The Association of Nigerian Scholars in Diaspora on Monday March 25, 2019 in London, the United Kingdom met to review the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2018 published by the United States. Those in attendance held discussions that drew correlation with past incidents and the recently published report. They noted as follow:
The State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour of the United States sometimes in March 2019 published its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2018.
The 2018 edition was the 43rd annual Country Reports on Human Rights published by the US and it continued in the tradition of maligning Nigeria and countries that it may have other issues with.
Preface to the 2018 report stated that “individuals seeking reforms to end the wrongful interference in the exercise of unalienable rights – whether those individuals are in or out of government – will find a sympathetic friend and strong supporter in the United States of America.”
The section of the report that pertained to Nigeria was filled with half-truths, misleading information and outright lies that are meant to subjugate Nigeria by way of bringing the country to heel in aligning with US geo-strategic interests even where they run contrary to Nigeria’s interests.
It deliberately took aim at crucial government agencies of Nigeria in a bid to make it appear like a repressive regime contrary to its democratic credential as a popularly elected government.
The report was a covert disguise for putting ammunition in the hands of the opposition as proven by the assertion made by the United States in (3) above, by which it accepts that it is willing to work with individuals that sabotage Nigeria provided they serve the interest of America.
The questionable support for criminals as itemized in (3) above is the excuse under which the United States issued the report and similar reports that undermine the Armed Forces of Nigeria for the benefit of terrorists like Boko Haram, ISWAP, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) and militants in the Niger-Delta. These groups that qualify as terrorists by internationally accepted definitions are apparently being supported by the United States.
The support for the opposition and terrorists extends beyond tactical backing with reports like the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2018 include indirect arming of these groups with weapons that are first supplied to third party countries like Syria from where they will find their way into the hands of these US lackeys in Nigeria. The incursion of the US into Venezuela is a model that the opposition in Nigeria continued to use as blackmail against the government as they vowed to repeat something similar.
The US report made another attempt at delegitimizing the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act 2014 by presenting it as repressive, an inference that ignored the legislative process adopted by elected Federal Lawmakers to arrive at the legislation.
OBSERVATIONS
The meeting observed based on the linkages established with the antecedents of the US that:
The report is a recognized work of fiction taken too far. The kind of make-believe rendition and account of events showed that the people behind the report have lost the capacity to distinguish between what impacts the wellbeing of country’s citizens and the Hollywood script they modelled the report after.
Bearing in mind that a report is ordinarily supposed to be an academic work with facts and figures accurately stated to stand up to intense scrutiny and debates, the work of fiction being bandied around by the US group is a dent on the mental capacity of its authors.
It is most unfortunate that the US went ahead to publish the section meant to discredit Nigeria even when it is clearly does not meet the benchmark for a rigorous academic research to warrant being taken seriously by anyone anywhere in the world.
Considering the United States’ stated geo-political objective as stated in the general preface to the report, it is apparent that the assessment of Nigeria would have still been negative irrespective what steps the country had taken to address known lapses from decades ago.
The report is predicting and expectant of growing disaffection among the opposition, their becoming militarized and terrorists becoming more belligerent and escalating attacks against the state while the fear of censure would have pushed the military into inertia.
RESOLUTIONS
Following the background provided and the observations made, the Association of Nigerian Scholars in Diaspora resolved as follow:
The Association rejects the report in its entirety and invites other professional bodies of Nigerian origin to do the same, while mandating the Federal Government to communicate the rejection of the report in writing to the United States through its embassy in Nigeria.
The Association will withdraw recognition for any report to which the US government is connected or affiliated until it withdraws the questionable contents it has published against Nigeria. Such reports, including the Country Reports on Human Rights in its entire series, will not be recognized until the lies contained in the 2018 edition are corrected.
It urges all the government agencies that were maligned in the report to take advantage of the right of reply to set the records straight.
The Association urges the Federal Government to take all steps guaranteed under international conventions to demand that the United States correct the malicious lies being told against the country.
CONCLUSION
The meeting of the Association agreed to be proactive in preparing the correct assessment of Nigeria to coincide with the 2019 edition of the Country Reports on Human Rights to ensure that the records are not muddled up for Nigeria in another consecutive year. Source: https://www.summit.ng/news/nigeria/us-report-on-nigeria-aimed-at-legitimizing-criminal-activities-of-terrorists-extremists-ansd/
--
OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/007d01d519a9%24b1b2cc30%2415186490%24%40gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/AM0PR04MB42754E6E9EA9BD7E82511D25A6150%40AM0PR04MB4275.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
Tell your Farooq to publish the type of interests that he wants us to show in his Nigeria (those that are not questionable), so that we would be guided.
CAO.
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/cf758a02-c645-4cbc-b8d2-6758b9d58339%40googlegroups.com.
Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM
If a group of Nigerian poets decide, for example to form an association and name it "Nigerian Poets Association", without consulting me and decide to support the Buhari administration, which I do not support, it would not mean that the association is "fraudulent" and/or that what they are doing would be "wrong".
The best I can do is to come out and say that I am not associated with the association and that should end it!
I would not start some unnecesary arrogant postulations about the group being "fraudulent" and all that!
CAO.
Adeshina Afolayan
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subs...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsub...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/6eb81829-9240-4566-96b4-b3a07bb2f478%40googlegroups.com.
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/6eb81829-9240-4566-96b4-b3a07bb2f478%40googlegroups.com.
OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
Sent: 04 June 2019 18:50
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Cc: bgw...@gmail.com; Pita Agbese
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Pita Agbese's response.
This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/007d01d519a9%24b1b2cc30%2415186490%24%40gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
OLAYINKA AGBETUYI
Sent: 05 June 2019 17:58
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Pita Agbese's response.
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/37230340.453987.1559757539231%40mail.yahoo.com.
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/AM0PR04MB42750F764FD1248E6E0A5848A6160%40AM0PR04MB4275.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
Farooq A. Kperogi
Even you, Adeshina Afolayan, need to be told why the “group” is fraudulent in spite of all I’ve written about it? Na wa o. Since you want me to spell it out for you, let me oblige you.
1. Nigerian newspapers have called the “group” an “umbrella association of Nigerian scholars in the diaspora.” This characterization is based on a press release written by Bitrus Gwamna (and Pita Agbese). Curiously, all the stories have the exact same verbiage, which indicates that it was Gwamna (and Agbese) who intentionally called their “association” the "umbrella association of Nigerian scholars in the diaspora" (See the story in the Nation: https://thenationonlineng.net/emefiele-scholars-hail-buhari-task-fg-against-replacing-security-chiefs/ ; see it in the Nigerian Tribune: https://tribuneonlineng.com/213118/ ; see it in the Daily Independent: https://www.independent.ng/emefiele-scholars-commend-buhari-caution-against-replacing-security-chiefs/ ; see it in the Vanguard: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/05/emefiele-scholars-hail-buhari-task-fg-against-replacing-security-chiefs/ ).These are different newspapers, but the phraseology of the story shares uncanny mathematical similitude. That clearly shows that it was Gwamna (and Agbese) who willfully characterized themselves as "the umbrella association of Nigerian scholars in the diaspora." It's impossible for every single newspaper to publish the same wording the same day. That only happens when newspapers simply publish a press release as is.
Gwamna and Agbese wrote their press release like a news story and gave it to newspapers. The first paragraphs read like a reporter's authorial intervention of a press release, but it's actually not. It was set up that way to deceive the reader. Either out of laziness or because they were paid, all the newspapers published the press release verbatim. If you don't think that is fraudulent, you must have a really weak moral core. Plus, in his pitifully rambling response to me, Agbese said it was the newspapers that chose to call the “Association of Nigerian Scholars in the Diaspora” an “umbrella association,” not them. That was an embarrassingly intentional lie, and that’s fraudulent.
2. Agbese tried to be smart by half by claiming that his “association” is modeled after a previous 8-member association founded by Julius Ihonvbere of which he was a member. He implied that although the association had a broad name, its membership wasn't broad. But the contrast of context he attempted to draw was imperfect. First, the "Association of Nigerian Scholars in the Diaspora" is a two-member "association." Anyone with even an elementary grasp of English grammar would know that two people can't, properly, be called an association. At best, they are a dyad. I also doubt that the Ihonvbere association called itself an “umbrella association” of any set of people. If it did even when only eight people constituted it, then it was fraudulent, too. The decision to call an association an "umbrella association" is a strategic rhetorical move calculated to confer unearned social and political capital to it from unsuspecting people.
3. The Agbese-Gwmana dyad claimed in its latest press release that "The Association of Nigerian Scholars as a prelude delegated its committee on Economic Development that consists scholars versed in Economic Development to assess the tenure of Godwin Emefeile as the CBN governor in Nigeria and discovered that the Nigeria economy indeed gained substantial traction in the last four years and also commended the dexterity with which the governor of the CBN handled our economic crisis.” That's straight-up fraudulent. As I've pointed out repeatedly, Gwamna and Agbese, the only members of the "association," are professors of communication and political science and can't conceivably constitute a "committee on Economic Development," much less assess the economy of any country with any expertise, both because you can't have a committee out of a dyad and because a professor of communication and a professor of political science don't qualify to be called "scholars versed in economic development." Of course, the fact that Nigeria became the world’s headquarters of extreme poverty and recorded the slowest growth in recent memory during the tenure of the same CBN governor undercuts their claim and aggrandizes their duplicity.
4. Although Gwamna and Agbese live in Iowa, they sent out a press release in March 2019 where they claimed that they'd held a meeting in London. They DID NOT! I've confirmed this from sources. That's fraudulent. The lie was intentional: they wanted to give unsuspecting Nigerian readers a false impression of wide diasporan geographic spread of their dyadic pro-regime conspiracy. I study the rhetorical strategies of scammers. I know fraud when I see it. I have written more than 70 percent of a book manuscript on the persuasive techniques of scammers.
I can give you more reasons why the "Association of Nigerian Scholars in Diaspora" is fraudulent, but I have better use for my time than persuading a grown man with a PhD in philosophy what constitutes fraud.
Farooq
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/37230340.453987.1559757539231%40mail.yahoo.com.
