Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - This Penkelemesi: We Have No Dog in This Fight
BEN OSAWE
My dear Brother Ikhide,
Thanks so much for your reasoned and sound alternative of looking at the issues confronting us as our compatriots harass us for not committing suicide.On 26th April 2007 while on Board a British Airways Flight from Abuja to London, a member of the National Assembly was expressing his frustrations and disappointment with us as a people(Nigerians) for not taking to the streets and if possible dying in the process to the protest results of the elections released by INEC. Here was i with a so called leader of the Nigerian people who was going to join his family in America(His family had been living there since he became a member of the National assembly), telling us why we must nessarily die as a way of protesting the theft of a so called mandate stolen a few days earlier by a fraction of the rampaging elite of which he is a part. As if this assault is not enough, in the last few days i have consistently been harassed by mails from many Nigerians who believe the solution to the crisis we have at hand is that Nigerians should die fighting to reclaim a so called mandate for Atiku, Buhari and their company. I am excited that this assault on our collective sensibilities has been effectively dismantled by your write up.Nigerians are no fools you know!Before we are asked to die, it is pertinent to put some issues in perspective.The central issue here is not nessarily that we are a docile people, we simply have not had, neither have we seen they leaders that we would die for.In order words, is it modern day democrats like the Buharis and their ilks who 'hibernate or indeed go on leave' after every election and resurface after four years to contest elections that are worth dying for or the Atikus and their company who having lost out in the grim struggle for power, lost out in the brazen struggle to gain access and control oil revenues in the context of weak democratic institutions, lost out in elite games and obssessions which is all aimed at building empires for themselves by pocketing Nigeria's vast National assets in the name of reforms, that are worth dying for? Lets move beyond this to issues of strategic leadership. I was one of the priviledged Nigerians who had electricity from Power Holding Company Plc and so watched the Presidential debates, i must say without mincing words that apart from Professor Pat Utomi who showed some promise,there were no alternative and coherent frameworks put forward by the candidates for dealing with the crisis within the Nigerian Federation as a complex adaptive system.What we heard were stale assumptions and promises by candidates to undertake isolated investments in some social service categories, this to my mind reflected the candidates' lack of understanding of the issues at stake.Are these then the kinds of leaders we should die for?Professor Pat Utomi should not join this leprous company(remember uncle Bola Ige?) of repented democrats and so called defenders of democracy. He has not emerged as president in 2007, this does not mean he will not emerge in 2011, he has attained some level of visibility which cannot be denied(even my 5 year old son recognizes him in a poster), he should keep building on his network across the country,providing alternative approaches to policies and issues and enaging various groups to create alternative platforms as we approach 2011.
It is worrisome that several decades after Chinua Achebe wrote the book'The Trouble with Nigeria', the quality of debate on the Nigerian condition has not moved beyond discussions centred around the crisis of leadership.
We the Nigerian People can simply not die the death of fools as some of our compatriots have argued, we want to stay alive and see the democratic system evolve to a point when the system throws up a category of leaders that are worth dying for, at that moment we would dare to die! God bless our Country Nigeria!
Ben Osawe
From: Ikhide <xok...@yahoo.com>
To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 2:22:56 AM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - This Penkelemesi: We Have No Dog in This Fight
We have another penkelemesi on our hands! We have been here before. The year was 1993. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, that godfather of all thieves had fouled the air one last time and once the effluvium cleared, a monster named Sani Abacha was born. We had to fight back. Our people were told to hold their noses and "collaborate" with scumbags, ex rapists of the Nigerian treasury, "repented" thugs who had created an organization named NADECO. Our people were assured that if they flirted with these jerks, all would be well, they would receive their "freedom" from their apprenticeship in Maximum Leader Sani Abacha's hell. And the people believed the used-car salesmen of the pro-democracy movement. I am sure the gentle reader knows the roll call of the NADECO chieftains. Well, a coalition of the willing and the unwilling formed the pro-democracy movement. And to counter the
movement, unrepentant jerks like Tom Ikimi and Mr. Fix It Anenih raced around the world, Abacha's messengers of darkness, assuring the world that Nigerian pro-democracy activists in Europe and North America were ne'er do well dishwashers and penniless academicians who had nothing better to do than to harass poor Abacha. Abacha eventually died of causes totally unrelated to the agitation of dishwashers and cab-drivers. And who do you think have been the beneficiaries of the pro-democracy struggle? The chief beneficiaries have been unrepentant jerks like Tony Anenih and Tom Ikimi!
We all know what the pro-democracy struggle gave us: Eight years of the most buffoonish rule in the history of Africa since Idi Amin, only not nearly as deadly. In the eight years of that shame, we did not hear from the pro-democracy movement. They were too busy strutting all over the land, wining and dining with the devils of Aso Rock and jerks like Tom Ikimi and Tony
Anenih. So now, after some of these people have lost a fight, they want the long-suffering masses to dust off their old placards and fight for the dreams of people like Tom Ikimi and Abubakar Atiku! Mba O! Not me! And not anybody if I can help it! It is outrageous that good people would align with odious characters like Abubakar Atiku and Tom Ikimi for what I don't know. Mark my words, nothing good will come out of such an association. There is something called credibility and this new struggle for what I don't know lacks credibility, period. As long as the aggrieved are the Atikus of the world, nobody worth his or her salt should be aligned with the "struggle." Unlike June 12th, this struggle is all about the agenda of a handful of big men and apparently the "masses" agree with me. They are not interested in the histrionics of "pro-democracy version two." And so they have decided to take a siddon look approach to this penkelemesi du jour. A people can only take so much.
Some people may be distraught that "the masses" may be sitting on the fence, instead of burning the place down. I think it is an effective strategy. Remember Kongi once said that even the act of sitting on a fence is akin to taking a position. I say let our people sit on the fence until they recognize the dispensation that will save them.
It is pretty sad. Just look around you; Chief Anthony Enahoro, poor man, is hobbling around with his walking stick, copies of parliamentary rules in hand, yelling reform! Professor Wole Soyinka, Kongi, is writing furiously, brooding, and refusing to be consoled. Mr. Atiku is "abroad" nursing his imaginary knee problem and threatening to return someday to reclaim his mandate. The only dim hope among them, Professor Utomi, ever the Internet warrior is busy writing long essays on NigeriaVillageSquare.com. Somebody should stop these people!
So thanks to Kongi, we are now enduring lectures, put downs and other indignities from the EU, western scholars and Nobel Prize deities. These are intimidating times to be a Nigerian. It is good that Professor Soyinka is able to tap into his vast connections in the West's intellectual community to try to ramp up the agitation for what, I don't quite remember All these scholars and Nobel Prize laureates wailing Mbakwe about an election so far away from their hallowed halls of erudition - they are at the very least guilty of wailing way louder than the bereaved. I would also add that we have to be careful about encouraging these groups to send us patronizing, condescending memos with their electronic signatures affixed by a powerful aide-de-camp (I know how these things work!). But we must be careful. Who decides what is acceptable to the West? The West? Did these scholars and Nobel deities wag their unctuous fingers at President Bush for supporting the Musharrafs of the world? Pakistan is not a democracy the last time I read about that country. In fact, Pervez Musharraf blatantly quashed a democracy and has been a strong ally of a democratic America ever since. My point is this: Would we have gotten all these hastily written letters if Professor Soyinka's man had won the rigging? I think the opposition should calm down, take a deep breath and reassess its strategy just as Mr. Bush is reassessing his strategy on the Iraq debacle. The first question the opposition should ask is this: Why is the "electorate" largely indifferent to the opposition's insistence that they should be outraged? We all know the answer. The poor masses no longer believe any of us: 'They are all one and the same bad kobo!" they wail. They await another coming. Until then, they will sit on the fence and watch the ugly dance of hopefully the last Big Men of Africa.
Every now and then when I say something about Nigeria , someone says, well, Ikhide, do you have a solution? I always dismiss such inquiries for what they are - condescending, patronizing attempts to dismiss what others find uncomfortable. Is it really the case that the Nigerian situation is a result of a dearth of solutions? Anyone who believes that is in deep denial. There is an over-abundance of solutions to the Nigerian problem. Professor Aluko is absolutely right, what we are desperately short of is a "credible leadership corps." of men and women committed to doing the right thing for our troubled nation. There should be a moratorium on creating new Nigerian solutions; instead we should go hunting for men and women who will lead us out of the darkness. At some point someone has to step up to the plate and deliver. We await that someone. And I can tell you that the someone is not Obasanjo, not Atiku, not Buhari and definitely not the rag-tag soldiers of misfortune hurriedly gathering under the wretched toga of the second coming of the pro-democracy movement. Their credibility is zilch and the people's apathy to their insincere clarion call for justice is a parting gift for their complicity in this recent crime against the Nigerian people. I have said it a thousand times, we already have too many solutions; we are simply cursed with irresponsible leaders who refuse to accept responsibility for the mess that we find ourselves. Enough of solutions. It is time to do something for a change. Chinua Achebe is right; we are witnessing a failure of leadership. And I am not just referring to Obasanjo. Everybody should calm down, take a pause and plan for the real battle that is surely coming. That battle will clarify for us what should work for us. This democracy that we are fighting over is insane. It has poisoned our values and imprisoned our people in the mirage of its pyramid schemes. We must do something about this new scourge. It is way too expensive a model and I am just not talking about the money.
I am compelled to respond to my good friend Professor Mobolaji Aluko who uttered these sage words at another forum: '... with all due respect, we have never lacked "Think Tanks." What we lack is a CLC - Credible Leadership Corps.' That kind of thinking comforts me and gives me hope that someone is finally listening. Anyone who has not read Professor Chinua Achebe's little book that roars, The Trouble with Nigeria should run, not walk to a cyber-bookshop and get a copy. Professor Achebe is on the money; "the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership." No ifs, no ands and no buts about it, our "leaders" have failed us and they have failed us miserably. A thousand Nobel Laureates will not fix our problems. There is nothing to fix but us. Let me repeat myself: Folks like Obasanjo, Soyinka et al do not quite get it. They are all suffering from the African Big Man Syndrome - they fervently believe that they are bigger than Nigeria . And they ride Nigeria like overfed giants wearing an Okada motorcycle. Nigeria is proving to be bigger than any and every one of us. A return to home-grown strategic planning, visioning and implementation will cure us of that malaise. Now that is a solution for you.
Finally, I return to the words of the great Chinua Achebe in the little book The Trouble with Nigeria "As a class, you and I and our friends who comprise the elite are incredibly blind. We refuse to see what we do not want to see. That is why we have not brought about the changes which our society must undergo or be written off. We have no option really; if we do not move, we shall be moved. The masses whose name we take in vain are not amused; they do not enjoy their punishment and poverty." (p 25)
- Ikhide R. Ikheloa
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Assensoh, Akwasi B.
The immediate query, Brother Ben Osawe, is which or what fight are you referring to above?
Indeed, Brother Osawe 's detailed letter below did make an interesting reading, as he made several salient points, although he should understand that what is happening in Ghana's twin-sister nation (Nigeria) is not a problem for only Nigerians. If anything, Nigeria is our big nation that has been turned into what an East African diplomat once said of his country's colonial master and was, reportedly, declared persona non grata: a toothless bulldog! (with no insult intended, please). Therefore, what happens in Nigeria should concern all patriotic Africans!
Of course, the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was fond of saying that anyone, who was not willing to die for a cause was not fit to live. Yet, it is also a hsito-political truth that when one dies for a fruitless or hopeless cause, one's life is wasted. Therefore, it is important for all of us to be alive and, if possible, try to make our voices heard in the face of the "cartoon" politics we see in several places on our continent, in ordet to transform Conrad's "Heart of Drakness" into a place of light and progress!
The other day, I tried to re-read Professor Chinua Achebe's slim but prophetic book, which spelt out what was wrong with his native Nigeria: lack of leadership! I also re-read Oxford-based Anthony A. Akinola's 1996 slim but useful book, ROTATIONAL PRESIDENCY, which he dedicated to his family as well as "the multtude of Nigerians who must work towards the unity and greatness of our country."
In retrospect, I am praying that Nigerians will not go back to the pre-coup Nigeria and its "Operation Wetty" scenarios, if that happened to be what the USA-bound Nigerian Member of the National Assembly was asking for: to burn down properties and innocent men and women!
In fact, as I pray for the great nation called Nigeria, my hope is that those in power now (as well as in future) will see reason and allow transparent truth, honesty as well as the real will of the people to prevail! May long, long, long live Nigeria! A.B. Assensoh, Bloomington, Indiana.
________________________________
My dear Brother Ikhide,
Ben Osawe
- Ikhide R. Ikheloa
________________________________
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Tony Agbali
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Dr. Valentine Ojo
This sounds more like a patriotic "Swan Song", but it lacks any substance
or credibility.
Nigeria should not be meaningful only to or for those who can afford to
own GSM phones and only for those who can afford to invest in the
"Nigerian Stock Market". Nigeria should be meaningful to and for ALL of
us!
What percentage of Nigerians can afford to do either - buy GSM phones and
invest in stock markets?
How many Nigerians can afford to buy their own private generators, dig
their own bore holes, and even own cars? Sure, business is booming in
these areas as well!
But do these take care of Nigeria's perennial problems which have
unquestionably worsened in the last 8 years of PDP "democratic"
dispensation -
i) roads that are so port-holed the Nigerian landscape looks like a
Moonscape or roads in Iraq after roadside bombs have exploded repeatedly
on them; ii) the incessant menace of armed robbery at home and on the
road; iii) a police that is no better than the dreaded armed robbers; iv)
electricity and water are mere rumors for the majority; v) no fuel for the
average citizen in a nation that ranks among the biggest producer of crude
oil in the world; vi) utterly rundown public institutions (schools and
universities) while our newly minted "moneyed elite" are building
exclusive private schools and universities for themselves; vii) hospitals
that do not qualify as dispensaries while our political elite (including
those in prison for crimes) are routinely flown abroad to have sprains and
asthma and malaria fever treated...?
Sometime back in the late 70's or early 80's, Nigeria introduced the
concept of "ESSENCO" - "essential commodities" indicating the inability of
Nigeria to feed Nigerians. It has since remained that way - a way of life
- and it has even worsened - even food has since remained for the majority
of Nigerians, "essential commodities"!
We should all know by now that any nation that cannot feed its population
is not going anywhere soon. History has demonstrated that fact abundantly
- agriculture is the basis of societal development and the evolution of
human societies.
I submit that it is primarily this attitude - among those of us who ought
to know better - to continue to condone and accept, and even glorify in
that which should not be condoned, to accept the unacceptable, and to
glorify that of which we should rightly be ashamed - "The Nigerian
economic space, regardless of all problems is robust as many of the GSM
phone companies will be happy to tell their tale. The Nigerian Stock
Exchange market continues not only to enlarge but continues to be viable,
as many Nigerians continue to invest therein" - that makes it possible for
those who have hijacked Nigeria from the rest of us to continue with
business as usual, while the majority of Nigerians continue to moan and
groan and wallow in penury and in poverty, and to kill the will for any
serious motivation to change anything.
We even now pride ourselves on 419 scams as an index of a "robust economy"!
Please!
Yes indeed, a handful of Nigerians can afford to own GSM phones (every
Tom, Dick and Harry now can afford to own cell phones in most nations of
the world!), and those who have helped steal the nation blind are
investing in the Nigerian Stock Market; trade in portable generators is
booming, so Nigeria is doing just fine?
This is where we Nigerians have actively and passively contributed towards
the failure of Nigeria as a nation - towards this "Penkelemesi" in which
we now find ourselves. Yes indeed, "Nigerians have shown acute resiliency
in addressing some [correction: not in "addressing some", but in
"passively tolerating most"] of their issues, in a manner that has
continued to sustain the Nigerian project" - the failed Nigerian project.
And precisely therein lies a major reason why things have never changed
for the better in Nigeria, and why Nigeria is rapidly becoming a failed
nation in every sense of the word!
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD
******************
> ---------------------------------
Stoeltje, Beverly
Nice note, A.B. For all the noise about this, it does seem to approaching the subterreanean underbelly of the Nigerian problems. It seems far too late for protests to have any effect. I don't know what will have an effect, but public outcry will not do it for sure. It seems that leadership is truly the proble, (as it is in most parts of the world, including here).
Beverly Stoeltje
Professor
Department of Anthropology
Indiana University
stoe...@indiana.edu
-----Original Message-----
From: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com on behalf of Assensoh, Akwasi B.
Sent: Sat 5/26/2007 3:21 PM
To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: This Penkelemesi: We Have No Dog in This Fight
The immediate query, Brother Ben Osawe, is which or what fight are you referring to above?
Indeed, Brother Osawe 's detailed letter below did make an interesting reading, as he made several salient points, although he should understand that what is happening in Ghana's twin-sister nation (Nigeria) is not a problem for only Nigerians. If anything, Nigeria is our big nation that has been turned into what an East African diplomat once said of his country's colonial master and was, reportedly, declared persona non grata: a toothless bulldog! (with no insult intended, please). Therefore, what happens in Nigeria should concern all patriotic Africans!
Of course, the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was fond of saying that anyone, who was not willing to die for a cause was not fit to live. Yet, it is also a hsito-political truth that when one dies for a fruitless or hopeless cause, one's life is wasted. Therefore, it is important for all of us to be alive and, if possible, try to make our voices heard in the face of the "cartoon" politics we see in several places on our continent, in ordet to transform Conrad's "Heart of Drakness" into a place of light and progress!
The other day, I tried to re-read Professor Chinua Achebe's slim but prophetic book, which spelt out what was wrong with his native Nigeria: lack of leadership! I also re-read Oxford-based Anthony A. Akinola's 1996 slim but useful book, ROTATIONAL PRESIDENCY, which he dedicated to his family as well as "the multtude of Nigerians who must work towards the unity and greatness of our country."
In retrospect, I am praying that Nigerians will not go back to the pre-coup Nigeria and its "Operation Wetty" scenarios, if that happened to be what the USA-bound Nigerian Member of the National Assembly was asking for: to burn down properties and innocent men and women!
In fact, as I pray for the great nation called Nigeria, my hope is that those in power now (as well as in future) will see reason and allow transparent truth, honesty as well as the real will of the people to prevail! May long, long, long live Nigeria! A.B. Assensoh, Bloomington, Indiana.
_____
From: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com on behalf of BEN OSAWE
Sent: Sat 5/26/2007 9:39 AM
To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: This Penkelemesi: We Have No Dog in This Fight
My dear Brother Ikhide,
Thanks so much for your reasoned and sound alternative of looking at the issues confronting us as our compatriots harass us for not committing suicide.On 26th April 2007 while on Board a British Airways Flight from Abuja to London, a member of the National Assembly was expressing his frustrations and disappointment with us as a people(Nigerians) for not taking to the streets and if possible dying in the process to the protest results of the elections released by INEC. Here was i with a so called leader of the Nigerian people who was going to join his family in America(His family had been living there since he became a member of the National assembly), telling us why we must nessarily die as a way of protesting the theft of a so called mandate stolen a few days earlier by a fraction of the rampaging elite of which he is a part. As if this assault is not enough, in the last few days i have consistently been harassed by mails from many Nigerians who believe the solution to the crisis we have at hand is that Nigerians should die fighting to reclaim a so called mandate for Atiku, Buhari and their company. I am excited that this assault on our collective sensibilities has been effectively dismantled by your write up.Nigerians are no fools you know!Before we are asked to die, it is pertinent to put some issues in perspective.The central issue here is not nessarily that we are a docile people, we simply have not had, neither have we seen they leaders that we would die for.In order words, is it modern day democrats like the Buharis and their ilks who 'hibernate or indeed go on leave' after every election and resurface after four years to contest elections that are worth dying for or the Atikus and their company who having lost out in the grim struggle for power, lost out in the brazen struggle to gain access and control oil revenues in the context of weak democratic institutions, lost out in elite games and obssessions which is all aimed at building empires for themselves by pocketing Nigeria's vast National assets in the name of reforms, that are worth dying for? Lets move beyond this to issues of strategic leadership. I was one of the priviledged Nigerians who had electricity from Power Holding Company Plc and so watched the Presidential debates, i must say without mincing words that apart from Professor Pat Utomi who showed some promise,there were no alternative and coherent frameworks put forward by the candidates for dealing with the crisis within the Nigerian Federation as a complex adaptive system.What we heard were stale assumptions and promises by candidates to undertake isolated investments in some social service categories, this to my mind reflected the candidates' lack of understanding of the issues at stake.Are these then the kinds of leaders we should die for?Professor Pat Utomi should not join this leprous company(remember uncle Bola Ige?) of repented democrats and so called defenders of democracy. He has not emerged as president in 2007, this does not mean he will not emerge in 2011, he has attained some level of visibility which cannot be denied(even my 5 year old son recognizes him in a poster), he should keep building on his network across the country,providing alternative approaches to policies and issues and enaging various groups to create alternative platforms as we approach 2011.
It is worrisome that several decades after Chinua Achebe wrote the book'The Trouble with Nigeria', the quality of debate on the Nigerian condition has not moved beyond discussions centred around the crisis of leadership.
We the Nigerian People can simply not die the death of fools as some of our compatriots have argued, we want to stay alive and see the democratic system evolve to a point when the system throws up a category of leaders that are worth dying for, at that moment we would dare to die! God bless our Country Nigeria!
Ben Osawe
----- Original Message ----
From: Ikhide <xok...@yahoo.com>
To: USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2007 2:22:56 AM
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - This Penkelemesi: We Have No Dog in This Fight
We have another penkelemesi on our hands! We have been here before. The year was 1993. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, that godfather of all thieves had fouled the air one last time and once the effluvium cleared, a monster named Sani Abacha was born. We had to fight back. Our people were told to hold their noses and "collaborate" with scumbags, ex rapists of the Nigerian treasury, "repented" thugs who had created an organization named NADECO. Our people were assured that if they flirted with these jerks, all would be well, they would receive their "freedom" from their apprenticeship in Maximum Leader Sani Abacha's hell. And the people believed the used-car salesmen of the pro-democracy movement. I am sure the gentle reader knows the roll call of the NADECO chieftains. Well, a coalition of the willing and the unwilling formed the pro-democracy movement. And to counter the movement, unrepentant jerks like Tom Ikimi and Mr. Fix It Anenih raced around the world, Abacha's messengers of darkness, assuring the world that Nigerian pro-democracy activists in Europe and North America were ne'er do well dishwashers and penniless academicians who had nothing better to do than to harass poor Abacha. Abacha eventually died of causes totally unrelated to the agitation of dishwashers and cab-drivers. And who do you think have been the beneficiaries of the pro-democracy struggle? The chief beneficiaries have been unrepentant jerks like Tony Anenih and Tom Ikimi!
We all know what the pro-democracy struggle gave us: Eight years of the most buffoonish rule in the history of Africa since Idi Amin, only not nearly as deadly. In the eight years of that shame, we did not hear from the pro-democracy movement. They were too busy strutting all over the land, wining and dining with the devils of Aso Rock and jerks like Tom Ikimi and Tony Anenih. So now, after some of these people have lost a fight, they want the long-suffering masses to dust off their old placards and fight for the dreams of people like Tom Ikimi and Abubakar Atiku! Mba O! Not me! And not anybody if I can help it! It is outrageous that good people would align with odious characters like Abubakar Atiku and Tom Ikimi for what I don't know. Mark my words, nothing good will come out of such an association. There is something called credibility and this new struggle for what I don't know lacks credibility, period. As long as the aggrieved are the Atikus of the world, nobody worth his or her salt should be aligned with the "struggle." Unlike June 12th, this struggle is all about the agenda of a handful of big men and apparently the "masses" agree with me. They are not interested in the histrionics of "pro-democracy version two." And so they have decided to take a siddon look approach to this penkelemesi du jour. A people can only take so much. Some people may be distraught that "the masses" may be sitting on the fence, instead of burning the place down. I think it is an effective strategy. Remember Kongi once said that even the act of sitting on a fence is akin to taking a position. I say let our people sit on the fence until they recognize the dispensation that will save them.
It is pretty sad. Just look around you; Chief Anthony Enahoro, poor man, is hobbling around with his walking stick, copies of parliamentary rules in hand, yelling reform! Professor Wole Soyinka, Kongi, is writing furiously, brooding, and refusing to be consoled. Mr. Atiku is "abroad" nursing his imaginary knee problem and threatening to return someday to reclaim his mandate. The only dim hope among them, Professor Utomi, ever the Internet warrior is busy writing long essays on NigeriaVillageSquare.com. Somebody should stop these people!
So thanks to Kongi, we are now enduring lectures, put downs and other indignities from the EU, western scholars and Nobel Prize deities. These are intimidating times to be a Nigerian. It is good that Professor Soyinka is able to tap into his vast connections in the West's intellectual community to try to ramp up the agitation for what, I don't quite remember All these scholars and Nobel Prize laureates wailing Mbakwe about an election so far away from their hallowed halls of erudition - they are at the very least guilty of wailing way louder than the bereaved. I would also add that we have to be careful about encouraging these groups to send us patronizing, condescending memos with their electronic signatures affixed by a powerful aide-de-camp (I know how these things work!). But we must be careful. Who decides what is acceptable to the West? The West? Did these scholars and Nobel deities wag their unctuous fingers at President Bush for supporting the Musharrafs of the world? Pakistan is not a democracy the last time I read about that country. In fact, Pervez Musharraf blatantly quashed a democracy and has been a strong ally of a democratic America ever since. My point is this: Would we have gotten all these hastily written letters if Professor Soyinka's man had won the rigging? I think the opposition should calm down, take a deep breath and reassess its strategy just as Mr. Bush is reassessing his strategy on the Iraq debacle. The first question the opposition should ask is this: Why is the "electorate" largely indifferent to the opposition's insistence that they should be outraged? We all know the answer. The poor masses no longer believe any of us: 'They are all one and the same bad kobo!" they wail. They await another coming. Until then, they will sit on the fence and watch the ugly dance of hopefully the last Big Men of Africa.
Every now and then when I say something about Nigeria , someone says, well, Ikhide, do you have a solution? I always dismiss such inquiries for what they are - condescending, patronizing attempts to dismiss what others find uncomfortable. Is it really the case that the Nigerian situation is a result of a dearth of solutions? Anyone who believes that is in deep denial. There is an over-abundance of solutions to the Nigerian problem. Professor Aluko is absolutely right, what we are desperately short of is a "credible leadership corps." of men and women committed to doing the right thing for our troubled nation. There should be a moratorium on creating new Nigerian solutions; instead we should go hunting for men and women who will lead us out of the darkness. At some point someone has to step up to the plate and deliver. We await that someone. And I can tell you that the someone is not Obasanjo, not Atiku, not Buhari and definitely not the rag-tag soldiers of misfortune hurriedly gathering under the wretched toga of the second coming of the pro-democracy movement. Their credibility is zilch and the people's apathy to their insincere clarion call for justice is a parting gift for their complicity in this recent crime against the Nigerian people. I have said it a thousand times, we already have too many solutions; we are simply cursed with irresponsible leaders who refuse to accept responsibility for the mess that we find ourselves. Enough of solutions. It is time to do something for a change. Chinua Achebe is right; we are witnessing a failure of leadership. And I am not just referring to Obasanjo. Everybody should calm down, take a pause and plan for the real battle that is surely coming. That battle will clarify for us what should work for us. This democracy that we are fighting over is insane. It has poisoned our values and imprisoned our people in the mirage of its pyramid schemes. We must do something about this new scourge. It is way too expensive a model and I am just not talking about the money.
I am compelled to respond to my good friend Professor Mobolaji Aluko who uttered these sage words at another forum: '... with all due respect, we have never lacked "Think Tanks." What we lack is a CLC - Credible Leadership Corps.' That kind of thinking comforts me and gives me hope that someone is finally listening. Anyone who has not read Professor Chinua Achebe's little book that roars, The Trouble with Nigeria should run, not walk to a cyber-bookshop and get a copy. Professor Achebe is on the money; "the trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership." No ifs, no ands and no buts about it, our "leaders" have failed us and they have failed us miserably. A thousand Nobel Laureates will not fix our problems. There is nothing to fix but us. Let me repeat myself: Folks like Obasanjo, Soyinka et al do not quite get it. They are all suffering from the African Big Man Syndrome - they fervently believe that they are bigger than Nigeria . And they ride Nigeria like overfed giants wearing an Okada motorcycle. Nigeria is proving to be bigger than any and every one of us. A return to home-grown strategic planning, visioning and implementation will cure us of that malaise. Now that is a solution for you.
Finally, I return to the words of the great Chinua Achebe in the little book The Trouble with Nigeria "As a class, you and I and our friends who comprise the elite are incredibly blind. We refuse to see what we do not want to see. That is why we have not brought about the changes which our society must undergo or be written off. We have no option really; if we do not move, we shall be moved. The masses whose name we take in vain are not amused; they do not enjoy their punishment and poverty." (p 25)
- Ikhide R. Ikheloa
_____
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Tony Agbali
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Assensoh, Akwasi B.
IN PRAISE OF RECENT MAJESTIC AND PATRIOTIC ASSERTIONS ON NIGERIA, AFRICA GREAT NATION NOW IN SHOCK AND CONVULSIONS!
Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Brother Valentine Ojo & Professor Stoeltje:
Thank you very much for your postings on this useful and great listserv! Thank you also Toyin (Professor Falola) for giving us a democratic medium through which we can air our views in any shade or fashion without being arrested and hauled to detention camps to be tortured! Even, ordained priests are able to air their negative views on their own churhes without being reported to be ex-communicated! Wow, what freedom we enjoy outside Mother Africa!
Indeed, the patriotic and majestic statements (from the postings of V-P Abubakar, Dr. Ojo and Professor Stoeltje) of the last 24 hours have, again, made me feel proud to be an African and also of the diasporic Africanist scene! Why? For many reasons, but please permit me to use a personal explanation to explain a point here: for example, when I was informed early in the 1980s (fresh from completing graduate school) that my father had died in his old age back in Africa, I meditated and prayed that his soul would be in God's (or Allah's) Heaven. However, I did not have a single tear in my nimble African eyes because I felt that -- dying in his 70s, with 48 sons and daughters to his credit from his six wives -- my late father had lived to the fullest of life in African parlance and -- as the noble Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of blessed memory once said -- my late father had lived on borrowed time in Africa, where life expectancies are known to be very short!
Yet, as I read Reverend (or Osofo) Tony Agbali's sad and very shocking response to my harmless but blunt posting on our beloved Nigeria (the great nation that is still in shock or convulsions from the calculated actions of some of her own unpatriotic sons and daughters through election rigging), I had some tears in my eyes for several hours until, again, I read the patriotic as well as majestic words of Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Brother Valentine Ojo and Professor Stoeltje (Nana Beverly of Indiana University).
For Tony Agbali (the ordained priest in active political garb), it was a crime for me to invoke, out of innocence, the metaphoric "toothless bulldog" analogy in writing about Nigeria, a country all of us respect and love. The Reverend gentleman wanted me to mention the name of the East African diplomat, who described the U.K. in those terms at a time (today) that one can easily be sued for simply attaching names to what others perceive to be a negativity. I can explain this for the sake of Reverend Agbali: the East African diplomat was asked, upon his arrival in the U.K., of his opinion on Her Majesty's government in the face of Ian Smith's UDI defiance (in Zimbabwe)? Not thinking very deeply that he was the "guest" of Her Majesty's government, the diplomat blurted out that Her Majesty's government (or the U.K.) was "wagging its tail like a toothless bulldog in the face of Ian Smith's UDI..." He was pormptly asked to leave the U.K., as he was declared a personal non grata. Therefore, Tony the Priest, it is not "a faceless East African diplomat", per se!
Of course, a metaphor aside and an illustration aside, I would never (out of disrespect) describe the great nation of Nigeria as a "toothless bulldog". Why? For many reasons and, also, because the very month that the "Biafran" secession was declared, I almost lost my life on the then Mid-West end of the Niger Bridge (coming from the then Eastern Region of Nigeria as a Journalist). That, indeed, was when some Hausa soldiers (of Tiv ethnic extraction), thought that I was an Igbo, attacked me and one of them used his bayonet to pierce on my side (Tony, who was pierced on his side with a spear, in the Bible?). The then Major-General Hassan Katsina, on behakf of the Gowon regime, apologized to the Ghana High Commissioner in Lagos for "the unfortunate incident..."! Some friends have urged me to write about these sad events, but I have kept quiet about them for obvious reasons and, also, because of the like of Reverend Tony Agbali, who would jump at every "mis-opportunity" to send erratic rejoinders saying that I (no matter my good intentions) deliberately wanted to write to tarnish the image of Nigeria that he and a few others think to belong to them alone!
Of course, actions of some of Nigeria's leaders and also some ordinary citizens today (including the unfortunate "419" spectacles) are reducing the great West African nation of Nigeria to what many would see as a "toothless bulldog" situation, regardless of what the Reverend Tony Agbali wants us to believe, including giving respectability to "419" and other scams (we agree that some of these scams take place in several places in Africa)! Please, let me narrate a sad episode for the Reverend Agbali: Back in Louisiana, I co-chaired a search committee to select a qualified economist to chair an economics department and also to teach economics. The best candidate we interviewed was a young Nigerian, with a doctoral (Ph.D.) degree in economics from M.I.T. The comittee's co-chair and I reported to the provost and vice-president of the university that we had found the best guy for the position. The provost looked at the name and asked us: "Where is this guy from?" "He is a Nigerian by birth, but he has been a naturalized American citizen for almost two decades..." "Young men, look, we don't need a Nigerian to come here and teach our students economics. If his native country knows anything about ecoomics, the country won't be in the chaos, mismanagement and corruption we always read about. The search will be re-opened next semester..." The position was not filled at a university, where there was not to be discrimination. Yet, several leaders on campus sided with the provost mainly because the candidate involved was a Nigerian! I was in tears about that backward decision on the part of my former provost!
Anyway, I am very proud of the fact that Nigeria's outgoing Vice-President Atiku Abubakar did not incite anybody against the upcoming "hang-over" (or "hand-over"?) on May 29th. in Nigeria! That is part of the many reasons that I am very proud of him; I am also poud of Dr. Valentine Ojo for calling a spade a spade, by telling the Reverend Tony Agbali about his "patriotic Swan Song"! Professor Stoeltje's e-mail message was brief but both helpful and straight-forward about what she boldly described as Nigeria "approaching the subterranean underbelly..." Thank God or Allah that we still have very bold and honest Africans and Africanists around!
Above all, I urge Reverend Tony Agbali -- as a man wearing a piece of St. Peter's cloth (if he is really ordained) -- to realize that a metaphoric statement does not break any bone(s), and that whether he likes it or not, there are many persons out there (outisde Nigeria), who see our great nation (Nigeria) in sad and other unpleasant terms, although I totally agree that it is wrong to fault an entire nation, as others do! The sad fact, however, is that if whatever sins that people see of Nigeria are said to be perpetrated or led, in many ways, by some of the country's elected powerful leaders, then what should outsiders see of the entire nation? Of course, I pray that Nigeria will survive all of today's problems for a better tomorrow! Hopefully, when Reverend Tony Agbali goes on his knees to pray for some priests molesting childrenn (including altar boys), she should also pray that way for our beloved Nigeria! Thank you, Dr. Valentine Ojo and other reasonable defenders of the innocent and, in Fanon's progressive words, some of our earth's wretched!
A.B. Assensoh, Indiana University-Bloomington, USA.
________________________________
Tony Agbali
=== message truncated ===
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Elias Bongmba
debate highlight what one could argue we should always do in our focus
on Africa: present an unabashed critique of our failures that have
rendered African states including the power house like Nigeria, weak,
ineffective, and meaningless to many of their citizens, and a love and
patriotic spirit that should motivate us to work for change.
Tony Agbali rightly invites us to rethink some of our misconceptions of
the priesthood, religious leaders, and the role they have or could play
in transformation. I might also add that some of the misconceptions may
be related to a profound misunderstanding and sometimes outright
arrogant dismissal of theological scholarship in Africanist scholarly
circles even by scholars who have spent their life time studying the
religious phenomena in Africa. I think interdisciplinary scholarship in
all fields and professional endeavors has the potential of helping us
chart new pathways for recovering the human in Africa. Such a recovery
will require a critical and honest discourse about our vision of and
responsibilities of the state; but it will also require an abiding love
for Africa and her people.
Elias Bongmba
Tony Agbali said the following on 5/29/2007 3:50 AM:
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Choose the right car based on your needs. Check out Yahoo! Autos new
> Car Finder tool.
Mobolaji ALUKO
IN PRAISE OF RECENT MAJESTIC AND PATRIOTIC ASSERTIONS ON NIGERIA, AFRICA AGREAT NATION NOW IN SHOCK AND CONVULSIONS!
Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Brother Valentine Ojo & Professor Stoeltje:
Thank you very much for your postings on this useful and great listserv! Thank you also Toyin (Professor Falola) for giving us a democratic medium through which we can air our views in any shade or fashion without being arrested and hauled to detention camps to be tortured! Even, ordained priests are able to air their negative views on their own churhes without being reported to be ex-communicated! Wow, what freedom we enjoy outside Mother Africa!
Indeed, the patriotic and majestic statements (from the postings of V-P Abubakar, Dr. Ojo and Professor Stoeltje) of the last 24 hours have, again, made me feel proud to be an African and also of the diasporic Africanist scene! Why? For many reasons, but please permit me to use a personal explanation to explain a point here: for example, when I was informed early in the 1980s (fresh from completing graduate school) that my father had died in his old age back in Africa, I meditated and prayed that his soul would be in God's (or Allah's) Heaven. However, I did not have a single tear in my nimble African eyes because I felt that -- dying in his 70s, with 48 sons and daughters to his credit from his six wives -- my late father had lived to the fullest of life in African parlance and -- as the noble Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe of blessed memory once said -- my late father had lived on borrowed time in Africa, where life expectancies are known to be very short!
Yet, as I read Reverend (or Osofo) Tony Agbali's sad and very shocking response to my harmless but blunt posting on our beloved Nigeria (the great nation that is still in shock or convulsions from the calculated actions of some of her own unpatriotic sons and daughters through election rigging), I had some tears in my eyes for several hours until, again, I read the patriotic as well as majestic words of Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, Brother Valentine Ojo and Professor Stoeltje (Nana Beverly of Indiana University).
For Tony Agbali (the ordained priest in active political garb), it was a crime for me to invoke, out of innocence, the metaphoric "toothless bulldog" analogy in writing about Nigeria, a country all of us respect and love. The Reverend gentleman wanted me to mention the name of the East African diplomat, who described the U.K. in those terms at a time (today) that one can easily be sued for simply attaching names to what others perceive to be a negativity. I can explain this for the sake of Reverend Agbali: the East African diplomat was asked, upon his arrival in the U.K., of his opinion on Her Majesty's government in the face of Ian Smith's UDI defiance (in Zimbabwe)? Not thinking very deeply that he was the "guest" of Her Majesty's government, the diplomat blurted out that Her Majesty's government (or the U.K.) was "wagging its tail like a toothless bulldog in the face of Ian Smith's UDI..." He was pormptly asked to leave the U.K., as he was declared a personal non grata. Therefore, Tony the Priest, it is not "a faceless East African diplomat", per se!
Of course, a metaphor aside and an illustration aside, I would never (out of disrespect) describe the great nation of Nigeria as a "toothless bulldog". Why? For many reasons and, also, because the very month that the "Biafran" secession was declared, I almost lost my life on the then Mid-West end of the Niger Bridge (coming from the then Eastern Region of Nigeria as a Journalist). That, indeed, was when some Hausa soldiers (of Tiv ethnic extraction), thought that I was an Igbo, attacked me and one of them used his bayonet to pierce on my side (Tony, who was pierced on his side with a spear, in the Bible?). The then Major-General Hassan Katsina, on behakf of the Gowon regime, apologized to the Ghana High Commissioner in Lagos for "the unfortunate incident..."! Some friends have urged me to write about these sad events, but I have kept quiet about them for obvious reasons and, also, because of the like of Reverend Tony Agbali, who would jump at every "mis-opportunity" to send erratic rejoinders saying that I (no matter my good intentions) deliberately wanted to write to tarnish the image of Nigeria that he and a few others think to belong to them alone!
Of course, actions of some of Nigeria's leaders and also some ordinary citizens today (including the unfortunate "419" spectacles) are reducing the great West African nation of Nigeria to what many would see as a "toothless bulldog" situation, regardless of what the Reverend Tony Agbali wants us to believe, including giving respectability to "419" and other scams (we agree that some of these scams take place in several places in Africa)! Please, let me narrate a sad episode for the Reverend Agbali: Back in Louisiana, I co-chaired a search committee to select a qualified economist to chair an economics department and also to teach economics. The best candidate we interviewed was a young Nigerian, with a doctoral ( Ph.D.) degree in economics from M.I.T. The comittee's co-chair and I reported to the provost and vice-president of the university that we had found the best guy for the position. The provost looked at the name and asked us: "Where is this guy from?" "He is a Nigerian by birth, but he has been a naturalized American citizen for almost two decades..." "Young men, look, we don't need a Nigerian to come here and teach our students economics. If his native country knows anything about ecoomics, the country won't be in the chaos, mismanagement and corruption we always read about. The search will be re-opened next semester..." The position was not filled at a university, where there was not to be discrimination. Yet, several leaders on campus sided with the provost mainly because the candidate involved was a Nigerian! I was in tears about that backward decision on the part of my former provost!
Dr. Valentine Ojo
After reading your most recent "Sermon on the Mount" (your most recent
posting to this forum which I will maybe address at another time, another
place), I decided to revisit this your response to my initial reaction to
this "Penkelemsi*" in which Nigeria finds itself. (*For the Non-Nigerians
(and even many Nigerians) who may not know the meaning of "penkelemesi"
and its genesis, it was an expression coined by a post-independence
Nigerian politician, and a Yorubarization of the expression, "peculiar
mess".)
This time round though, I will take you up on the statement, "Nigerian
problems are great but there are surmountable with goodwill."
Really?
1. Where are the signs of this "goodwill"? From what quarter is the
"goodwill" exactly emanating? I look far and wide, and I see none on the
horizon.
2. "...a friend of mine recently visiting told me, the transformations
that has taken place in Cross Rivers, with Governor Duke's determined
efforts to ensure a viable state."
This is much too vague. Can we please have SPECIFICS! This what your
Governor Duke did SPECIFICALLY that has impacted the lives of average
Nigerians in his state POSITIVELY. And one governor out of 36 is a very
poor track record - nothing to be proud of, when you look at the line-up
of rogue governors now fleeing Nigeria. The wife of a former colleague
from If who recently visited Nigeria to transact some official business
returned with stories of "horror" for my wife - even about our dear Lagos:
port-holes as huge as moon craters, nuisance of armed robbery, traffic
jams that do not move for hours...you name it!
Are your friend and the wife of my friend talking about the same Nigeria?
3. "I am patriotic to Nigeria come rain, come sunshine, but a patriotism
that is directed toward positive change, one that recognizes achievements
even in the messy state of affairs...", you wrote.
And who is not? But Fr. Agbali, where are the "achievements even in the
messy state of affairs" of the past 8 years that one may justifiably
"recognize"? Again, I look around, and I am able to see nothing worthy of
recognition - unless you wish to recognize governors and state officials
that have stole their nation - Nigeria - blind, depositing the loot in
foreign countries..
4. "I detest the acute categorization that Nigeria is a toothless bull,
when on the continent, many of our men and women have died to ensure peace
in other countries..."
I invariably hear this! And my question: what exactly has the average
Nigerian gained from this "many of our men and women have died to ensure
peace in other countries?"
You cannot ensure "peace from armed robbers" and from our "kill-and-go
police at their illegal checkpoints", you are attempting to console me and
other Nigerians, with, "but look, many of our men and women have died to
ensure peace in other countries?"
It is a fool who cannot maintain "peace" in his own house, has nothing to
gain from where he is acclaiming that he is "keeping the peace" except
derision, but goes around nonetheless beating his chest that he is an
"international peace keeper" for other nations.
5. All the examples you gave: "President Obasanjo was honored in Liberia
and Sierra Leone for the role of Nigeria in bringing peace to the crises
there. When these countries were crawling in abysmal dejection and
rejection Nigerian troops struck out their necks to bring peace to these
countries and the region. Even in Somali and Sudan, Nigerian troops went
there. In the past we were in Congo, we came to the aid of Tanzania
(Tanganyika then) when its military mutinied and formed their national
army. Our Nigerian Defence Academy continues to train the armed forces of
other African nations, while our oil money was directed toward the
maintenance of different peace operations, at the cost of innumerable
lives.." merely qualifies Nigeria indeed not only as a "toothless
bulldog", but as a nation without purpose or direction - a joke of a
country!
In "Blackhawk Down", even the great United States recognized that you do
not "play peace-keeper" where you have nothing to gain - only fools do
that, especially when your own house is on fire, attempting to douse other
people's fires for them.
Nigeria cannot resolve the issue at the Niger Delta that's gradually
becoming a civil war, but we are sending "peace keepers" to Somalia (to
fight a proxy war for America!) What arrant idiocy!
5. "...there are many who own GSMs and still invests." How many, from a
population of 130 million? And how many among those who own GSM's even
have enough credit minutes to keep these phones running? How many
Nigerians are participating actively in the stock market?
Fr. Agbali, just saying "there are many who own GSMs and still invests"
won't cut it. We want STATISTICS please - and not Ikoyi area anecdotes.
6. "First Bank of Nigeria is doing so, Oceania bank did so recently, and
the stock exchange market, a fact that President Obasanjo alluded to in
his interview is doing really well."
How many Nigerians actually us banks? And now, Father, please tell me this
is meant as a joke: "the stock exchange market, a fact that President
Obasanjo alluded to in his interview is doing really well."
What else do you expect Obasanjo to say then? What are Bush and Cheney
still saying right this minute about the war in Iraq? The US is
winning...just be patient!
Please, Fr. Agbali! What else do you expect Obasanjo to say, but that the
Nigerian economy is doing just great - when you and I and every Iyabo
Kehinde and Ngozi Okoro in the streets of Nigeria knows better?
7. "...we all, whether living in Nigeria or elsewhere, must realize the
discrete arena where successes are being recorded without becoming
sycophants of those in power."
And Fr. Agbali, where exactly are these "discrete arena where successes
are being recorded without becoming sycophants of those in power?"
Please name two or three: maybe the recent increase in VAT and the price
of fuel at the gas pumps, Obasanjo's and PDP's parting gifts to the
suffering masses of Nigerians?
8. You wrote further that "even if I would criticize the PDP and President
Obasanjo for stealing in broad daylight the people's electoral mandates, I
would still recognize and applause the domains where his government has
done exceedingly well."
And where please? In which "domains [has] his government...done exceedingly
well?"
Provision of electricity, water, food, or even ordinary security at home
and on the roads? Schools? Hospitals? Affordable food stuff?
You concluded thus:
"I can name and count many such Nigerians, including some academics who
claimed to be Marxists and pro-masses in 1980s. I continue to laugh at one
who was at the University of Jos, and whose office room adorned large
portaits of Mao, Lenin, Marx, Che Guevarra, and who was highly critical of
the government, and was appointed a state commissioner, and made use of
that opportunity to build himself a sprawling mansion in the choicest area
of Jos- Rayfield. There are many other similar examples."
Yes, Fr. Agbali, I too know hundreds of such Nigerians. And that is why
Nigeria has not been able to produce to date, any credible leaders since
maybe the days of Obafemi Awolowo and those who worked with him.
And that is why I find this your statement rather curious:
"To be critical is excellent, but to be unreasonably critical of even
minimal successes, makes such criticisms pathological, in my opinion."
And how about to shower praises where you need a high-powered microscope
to see what "achievement" is being praised? Doesn't that sound very much
like "sycophancy" of the pathological order?
This is why I will still conclude with my earlier observations - until you
can show me otherwise:
"I submit that it is primarily this attitude - among those of us who ought
to know better - to continue to condone and accept, and even glorify in,
that which should not be condoned, to accept the unacceptable, and to
glorify that of which we should rightly be ashamed - "The Nigerian
economic space, regardless of all problems is robust as many of the GSM
phone companies will be happy to tell their tale. The Nigerian Stock
Exchange market continues not only to enlarge but continues to be viable,
as many Nigerians continue to invest therein" - that makes it possible for
those who have hijacked Nigeria from the rest of us to continue with
business as usual, while the majority of Nigerians continue to moan and
groan and wallow in penury and in poverty, and to kill the will for any
serious motivation to change anything."
No, Fr,. Agbali, as long as Nigerians are HAPPY and CONTENT to point out
little or no achievement as signs of achievement, those who have
maneuvered themselves into positions of leadership in Nigeria will never
have any motivation to deliver - a people get the kind of leaders they
deserve.
We Nigerians demand little or nothing from our so-called leaders, and
that's why we get virtually nothing in return from them.
And I am frequently shocked and appalled at people like you - whose
honesty of purpose may not be in doubt - at least for now - when you
continue to play interference and PR offficers for our non-performing
"dealers" who call themselves "leaders".
People like you merely encourage them to stay the course.
And that's indeed truly sad! The Yoruba have a saying that's very apt here:
"E je ki a da enu po s'ibikan fi ba ole s'oro."
Translated: "Let us all join together and use one voice to talk to the
thief". Providing him or her with "excuses" will merely make matters
worse, and will never encourage him or her to change!
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
> ---------------------------------
Dr. Valentine Ojo
There is something not quite in sync here. It is fine and good to have
nice sounding acronyms - CALC, CHDA, EPPC, etc. - it all sounds very
"academic", very "intellectual", very "impressive"!
But that's about it!
What exactly do these fine acronyms mean? What do they really stand for?
What are their specific contents - spelt out so the ordinary man and woman
in the street can understand what it is we are talking about?
Prof. Aluko went on further to state:
"The next question would be: how do we create all three?"
He however quickly went on to add: "But we have to agree first on all three!"
And that's precisely the rub! Are we at all agreed that this is what we
really want? And what exactly is that?
First Step:
In my own thinking, a PEOPLE MUST first have a set of GOALS, IDEALS
(material or abstract), VALUES, that link them together.
For example (randomly):
We want water
We want food
We want schools for our children, free or at least affordable
We want "religious freedom"
We want health services
We want to be able to sit in front of house in the evenings unmolested by
armed robbers...same with traveling on our roads
Just a few examples of what most people usually want will suffice....
Second Step:
Then either some people then step forward and say:
"Hey, check me out. I have the credentials of someone who can lead you to
these goodies. Make me your leader, and I will deliver!"
Or such people force and impose themselves on the people as "leaders", the
method favored by the military.
Or the "leaders" are s/elected by some method or another. That is the
people identify those with the qualities of being able to deliver what
they want, and make/elect them leaders.
However, an indispensable prerequisite for the crystallization of a
potential pool of leaders - a CALC - is that the society they wish to lead
must have a common set of goals or values for which the members are more
than willing to lay down their lives.
Take the American experiment. Rightly or wrongly, the Americans believe in
something they call "FREEDOM" - freedom of worship, freedom of thought,
freedom of association. Today one of the myths still firing the support
for the war in Afghanistan and in Iraq is that "our men and women are
fighting to defend our freedom" - rightly or wrongly.
As long as African/Nigerian people have no set of values which they want
their "leaders" to fight for, defend, and provide, such a people will
never develop any CALC - any Credible African Leadership Corps.
To borrow an example from Rev. Fr. Tony Agbali: is that what then the
people of Nigeria want, leaders that will send Nigerian soldiers and
police officers for "peace keeping" missions in the Congo, Liberia, Sierra
Leone, Somalia, to die - when the same leaders cannot provide basic
infrastructures at home, or defend the citizenry from armed robbers?
Again, a people must first have a common set of goals, and then look
around for leaders to help them achieve these goals.
It never works the other way round - where the leaders come to "force"
their own "goals" (usually their own private agendas) on the people,
forcing them to identify with these goals as "common goals" for the
community.
That's the recipe for unmitigated failure, what we are today witnessing in
most African nations, with Nigeria in the lead.
Dr. Valentine Ojo
Tall Timbers, MD
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Mobolaji ALUKO
Have a pleasant day.
Bolaji Aluko
Tunde Sodade
"Enlightened, Participatory and Principled Citizenry
(EPPC), fully aware of the centrality of its
citizenship, unbending
about its right and responsibility to participate in
its governance, and unwilling to trade its citizenship
rights away for temporary and fleeting
circumstances"
appears to be what must be pursued most urgently.
Getting the essence of citizenship rights and
obligations to the common, disenfranchised, tired ,
impoverished and uneducated man in Africa and allowing
the consequences of popular awareness to take its
course, will impact our destiny as a continent more
positively and more rapidly.
This is a difficult task that requires the combined
effort of the inspired and priviledged few.
Clearly,a lot of mileage will be earned if a sustained
translation of the debates and esoterism in these
discussion groups to even half of the 90+ percent of
Africans who have a simpler means of awareness,
communication and comprehension can be
implemented.These are the people on the ground and
they typically are in the calculations of rogue
leadership first.
There are enough organisations, committees and
sub-committees around that are rendered ineffective
because they lack the important attribute of "people
power".Similarly, rogue leaders seem to understand
that many opinion leaders and public commentators do
not have the traction to move the masses especially
since many of them are in exile and their opinions and
commentaries do not filter past internet communities
and seldom read newspapers.
A strategy that focuses on enlightening the masses
will probably yield faster and more abundant
dividends.
The changes we all crave for will come through no
other means than popular demand.
Tunde
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Dr. Valentine Ojo
I never realized that addressing me directly "is always a dangerous
enterprise" - that's news to me.
One major problem has always been getting Nigerians to bury their petty
differences, come together for a common goal, and form a common pool of
EPPC - an "Enlightened, Participatory and Principled Citizenry" which may
eventually throw up a CALC - a "Credible African Leadership Corps."
However, what are the chances of coming to agreement on anything, when we
cannot even get over our petty squabbles (even at this virtual level, and
already a couple of years back), and let bygones be bygones?
Nonetheless, you made your points succinctly, Prof. Bolaji Aluko, and they
are noted.
Let the debate continue - "Omode gbon, agba gbon, ni won fi da Ile Ife".
Translated: "The Young have some wisdom, the Elderly too have some wisdom,
that was how Ile Ife was founded."
No one is the sole repository of wisdom or knowledge.
Assensoh, Akwasi B.
Thank you, Tony (Rev. Agbali) for your detailed posting below! Since this forum is not created for acrimonies and disagreements, I merely wish to explain to you in particular and other brothers and sisters in general that if my own father (who was a "distnguished polygynist" with six wives) had approved, I would have become an ordained Catholic priest today! My stay with the Dominican Fathers (or priests) at Yaba, near Lagos (Nigeria), was toward that end. Therefore, I have nothing against ordained Catholic priests, including yourself. That aside, it may also surprise you to know that, apart from being a college professor, I am also an ordained person (like you), of course not in the Catholic denomination! Subsequently, I have even served, for not less than a year, as a pastor of a bona fide Christian church in Indiana, USA. Also, since I did an spect of my New York University (NYU) doctoral dissertation on Ghana's late President Kwame Nkrumah and African leadership, I was very much aware of the Catholic Church's influences on the future Osagyefo of Ghana. We should also agree that when the future President Nkrumah left the then Gold Coast in 1935 for the USA, part of the reason was to escape from the wrath of the same church, in whose missionary schools he was teaching! Does that sound familiar, Rev. Tony?
Most certainly, as an idividual, you did surprise me ( also, as a Catholic priest) with the way that you very easily dignified "419" and threw out so much venom in your postings against your fellow human beings, although we are told biblically to love our neighbors as ourselves or, alternatively, to do unto others as we want them to do unto us!
Indeed, as a historian, I thank you very much for your explanation of the Tivs and Hausas, who are our own brothers, all the same. I had always felt that, given the small tribal marks on the sides of the lips of those soldiers (who hurt me), they were Tiv and Hausa soldiers. However, it is good to know the distinction so that in my upcoming memoirs, I can make a revision where theincident is discussed.
Above all, I still want to add that leaders of our various countries on the continent should be very careful with how they run our varied countries and also present things to the world at large, as they sometimes make progressive countries with decent citizens (including Nigeria that you and I love dearly) look like crooked entities and, in the end, these countries also tend to look like (there we go again!) real "toothless bulldogs" or "big-for-nothing entities, whether we like to hear it or no!
Sadly, given what has been going on recently in our great nation of Nigeria, coupled with the leadership crisis that Professor Achebe admirably and prophetically underscored in his tiny but powerful book (about leadership), many people (including cartoonists), in fact, had a field day when it looked as if the next pope (after Pope John-Paul) was to come from Nigeria (i.e. Cardinal Arinze).
I remember an unfortunate encounter with a non-African that I called a "friend", the encounter which later prompted me to do one of my monthly columns for a local newspaper (in Indiana) on the issue of the next pope, possibly, coming from Africa's great nation (Nigeria). This "friend" of mine (an economist by training) asked me, at a sportng event, if it were true that Cardinal Arinze was from Nigeria or from Benin Republic? I confirmed that he was from Nigeria, and added that he would be a great pope for the Catholic Church.
"The Vatican will then become a real center of intrigues, maybe a place for massive deals and corruption as well...," he said something to that effect, indeed to my disgust! Well, Rev. Tony, the sad assertion by this "friend" (and others later) was because of the sad picture that has been painted by unfortunate events that non-Africans read about our great nation (Nigeria). Unfortunately, it was similar to when some anti-Rev. Jesse Jackson elements started saying, during his earlier presidential campaigns, that if Mr. Jackson ever became an elected American President, one of his first actions or acts in office would be to order or decree for the White House (known to be white) to be painded black! There was a cartoon to that effect! Of course, I neither believed that (1) the Vatican would have been any worse today, if Cardinal Arinze, a very decent Christian leader, had been elected the Catholic pope, nor (2) that Rev. Jesse Jackson would have defaced the white painting of the White House to get it re-painted black! Well, we should not forget also a fact that perceptions abound, whether one is an activist priest, minister or scholar! Peace!!
A.B. Assensoh.
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Tony Agbali
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Ayoola Tokunbo
intellectual who has remained on the side of our people all these years, but
it will appear on occassions that he does succumb to some partisanship,
which i think he does not set out deliberately to embroil himself in.
It is true that we must hold Obasanjo personally accountable for all the
atrocities committed between 1999 - 2007, but we must not forget the
structural aspect of Nigerian miasma. The fundamental problem of Nigeria is
systemic. The question we should be asking ourselves is why do we keep on
producing the Obasanjos, Shagaris, Babangidas, Abachas etc? Why do we
continous throw up leaders that are thoroughly worse and useless than their
predecessors - no matter how worse the latter were.
Thus, we should transcend this fixation with personalities, and address our
minds to the core of Nigerian political economy.
Tokunbo Ayoola
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