Trending on WhatsApp Post in Nigeria

[Ashafa Abdullahi]

Professorial Lies 

By Adamu Tilde

There is a growing effort to deodorize the consistent, recurring and habitual attitude of Dr. Kperogi to peddle fake news and share concocted stories and lies. The truth is: Kperogi is a purveyor and enabler of fake news, no amount of revisionism and whitewashing can change this fact. A cursory look into his both Twitter and Facebook posts can attest to it. Herein are seven (by no means exhaustive) professorial lies: 

1. September 2016, Dr. Kperogi had it from an impeccable source that the Aso Villa Clinic 2017 budget was more than the combined budget of all the 16 Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria. When his attention was drawn to the factual error of his statement, it earned Garba Shehu the tag of an illiterate spokesman. The sad thing is Garba Shehu was Kperogi's teacher during his undergrad. Dr. Salisu Shehu, I vividly recalled, tried to make him see reason why it was inappropriate to talk that way to his teacher...well, he was also tagged a glorified quota-system professor.

2. Dr. Kperogi concocted a well-spiced lie that President Buhari spent 6million pounds to treat ear infection in London. It was a barefaced lie. Dr. Mustapha and Dr. Ibrahim Gumel tried in vain to make him recant his position or confirmed it (beyond reasonable doubt) as the case may be, he did neither of the two, despite Garba Shehu's clarification. 

3. Dr. Kperogi had it also from an authoritative sauce, sorry, source, that the botched Nigeria Air Logo was designed at the cost of 183 million Naira. He cited a none-existing firm in Bahrain as one of the 'Transaction Advisers' as his source. When his attention was drawn to the inaccuracy of the information, and the fact that the said firm was not even among the listed and certified 'Transaction Advisers', Dr. Kperogi adopted a deaf and dumb posture. He neither apologised nor recant his position, despite impeccable evidences brought to his attention. 

4. In his self-appointed position as the Chief Executive Officer of holding President Buhari's administration to its feet (a worthy course I must admit), he shared a Kannywood movie scene where one actor, wearing Nigeria's Army camouflage uniform, were shown crying over the death of his colleague, as Nigeria's Army fighting Boko Haram in the Northeast. Again, when he was accused of peddling false information, his defense was: he was busy and could not run a reverse search of the picture on Google. So much for due diligence by a journalism professor.

5. Few months after President Buhari was declared winner of the 2019 general elections, Dr. Kperogi wrote a WhatsApp message and sent it to himself. In the said message, he concocted a lie only a person of his moral and intellectual standing can believe. He said and I quote: a friend in the security sector expressed concern over your safety as a result of possibility of a plot by the Buhari regime/cabal to assassinate you in the state. Curiously enough, as a US citizen/resident, Dr. Kperogi didn’t report that threat to the FBI. 

6. At the heat of the 2019 elections, Dr. Kperogi yet again concocted another fat lie to heat the polity. He was so certain of his lie. He declared with all sense of certitude that President Buhari has FINALLY murdered Col. Sambo Dasuki. Again, when he was accused of sharing fake news he mentioned a Whatsapp audio as his source. 

7. In its investigative report, fact-checking social media influencers who shared fake news during Nigerian general elections, International Centre For Investigative Reporting, Dr. Kperogi's name appeared twice, sharing unverified, fake videos as an authoritative evidence of rigging by INEC during the 2019 elections. Against all overwhelming pieces of evidence, Dr. Kperogi instead of being remorseful and apologise for sharing fake videos, tagged the report as "....a tendentious, poorly written, inaccurate screed", having "crying factual poverty and malicious ignorance". Incredible! If Dr. Kperogi isn't a purveyor of fake news I don't know who is.

You see, you don't need to like Buhari for you to uphold facts. All you need is to be a decent human being who is principled and capable of carrying out due diligence before making pronouncements. And the fact that Dr. Kperogi is today being ridiculed, villified and laughed at has nothing to do with his unending but never rewarding tirades and tantrums against President Buhari but everything to do with his approach and mode of engagement. We expect some level of decorum, honesty and sincerity from a person of Dr. Kperogi's standing. This, I think, isn't too much to ask.

[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Edited

 

Need for Evidential Rigour and Specificity in Critique of Kperogi?

 

these are quite complex charges.

 

true, i dont like buhari. i am happy kperogi is unravelling how dangerous he is.

 

in order for these accusations agst kperogi not to become another  'he-said/they said', i get the impression a serious effort has to be made to provide one by one the evidence to back the accusations in the form of links to kperogi's claims and links to how they were comprehensively debunked.

 

as it is, most of the points being made in this survey are  things i for one  dont know about and really dont care about in the face of the broader picture demonstrated by the deadly agendas buhari represents and which kperogi is helping us unveil.

 

if an effort is made at a rigorous report of the kind i am suggesting then people who may or may not care for kperogi or buhari might be motivated to follow the links and make an effort to assess for themselves the validity of the critique being made.

 

Need to Examine Kperogi's Social Criticism Within its Historical Trajectory 

 

its also vital to note the complexity represented by kperogi's evolution as a social critic.

 

kperogi exonerated buhari from mischievous intent in connection with the notorious buhari 'dogs and baboons shall be covered in blood speech' made shortly before the 2015 elections.

 

kperogi, in my view, contorted semantics to argue,  even in the face of the massacre of innocents by buhari's supporters after his 2011 loss, that there was nothing wrong in a political candidate, buhari especially, declaring before  an election ,   'that if what happened in 2011[ in which he understandably lost since he had little presence in the south] happens again in 2015, the dog and the baboon shall be covered in blood'.

 

kperogi, in my understanding, also struggled for years agst the reality of the terrorist drive by miyetti allah, led by nigeria's most prominent fulani, working with fulani herdsmen militia and in alliance with policies and other enablements by nigeria's fulani led govt of buhari to carve territory for themselves particularly in the middle belt.

 

in the face of this systematic genocidal or near genocidal initiative in the middle belt, amidst nation wide brigandage,  kperogi, in my understanding, struggled with the fact of his indebtedness to what may be described as his fulani humanistic heritage as described by him on this group, until he had to publicly declare that miyetti allah is a terrorist group working with an army of fulani herdsmen terrorists-while noting that fulani herdsmen outside this deadly militarization are not terrorists.

 

so, while  we observe kperogi's anti-buhari stance of today we should examine it in relation to his trajectory as a social critic in relation to various phases in buhari's political career, from the heady pre-2015-2016 or thereabouts  days of hope in buhari by many intellectuals and the slow but definitive awakening to buhari's  non-nationalistic agendas,  such as  what kperogi described as his  northernisation appointment policy and capped by buhari's  mobilization of what i describe as right wing fulani nationalism.

 

What is the Ideological Profile of Kperogi Critic, Adamu Tilde?

 

as for adamu tilde, is he much more than a right wing fulani apologist, as demonstrated by his writing career?

 

the same man, if i recall correctly, who once urged on his blog that boko haram should  focus on the gej govt?

 

the same man from whom im yet to read any acknowledgement of the colonising initiatives of fulani herdsmen terrorists, particularly in the middle belt, or recognition of the damage being done to fulani identity in nigeria by the brazenness of the miyetti allah/buhari govt/ fulani militia alliance in which miyetti allah recurrently justified massacres of nigerians and walks free while non-violent IPOB is declared a terrorist organisation by the same Nigerian govt that miyetti allah is in effect an extension of?

 

Contextualizing the Development of Kperogi's Social Criticism in Relation to that of other Figures from Nigeria's North/Middle Belt Ethnic/ Muslim/Christian Convergences and Divides

 

kperogi's social criticism career is fruitfully studied in comparison with that of such another social critique and scholar as moses ochonu, another previously pro-govt-change-from-gej-govt and perhaps pro-buhari figure who  also had to recognize the terrorist identity of miyetti allah and the dangerousness of buhari, a progression made challenging by his ethnic and scholarly filiation with the ethnic demographics buhari apologetically dramatizes.

 

kperogi's social criticism trajectory may also be fruitfully studied in relation to that of scholar social critics like jibrin ibrahim, adamu tilde and current min of education adamu adamu, and perhaps islamic scholar, social critic and banker now emir of kano sanusi lamido sanusi, all, like kperogi and ochonu,  being figures of ethnic,professional and possibly educational filiation with nigeria's  north, from the middle belt to the muslim states, observing the permutations in these figures' politics, understanding social criticism as a form of politics.

 

thanks

 

oluwatoyin vincent adepoju

 

On Fri, 27 Dec 2019 at 14:37, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin....@gmail.com> wrote:

Need for Evidential Rigour and Specificity in Critique of Kperoqi?

these are quite complex charges.

true, i dont like buhari. i am happy kperoqi is unravelling how dangerous he is.

in order for these accusations agst kperoqi not to become another  'he-said/they said', i get the impression a serious effort has to be made to provide one by one the evidence to back the accusations in the form of links to kperoqi's claims and links to how they were comprehensively debunked.

as it is, most of the points being made in this survey are  things i for one  dont know about and really dont care about in the face of the broader picture demonstrated by the deadly agendas buhari represents and which kperoqi is helping us unveil.

if an effort is made at a rigorous report of the kind i am suggesting then people who may or may not care for kperoqi or buhari might be motivated to follow the links and make an effort to assess for themselves the validity of the critique being made.

Need to Examine Kperoqi's Social Criticism Within its Historical Trajectory 

its also vital to note the complexity represented by kperoqi's evolution as a social critic.

kperogi exonerated buhari from mischievous intent in connection with the notorious buhari 'dogs and baboons shall be covered in blood speech' made shortly before the 2015 elections.

kperogi, in my view, contorted semantics to argue,  even in the face of the massacre of innocents by buhari's supporters after his 2011 loss, that there was nothing wrong in a political candidate, buhari especially, declaring before  an election ,   'that if what happened in 2011[ in which he understandably lost since he had little presence in the south] happens again in 2015, the dog and the baboon shall be covered in blood'.

kperoqi, in my understanding, also struggled for years agst the reality of the terrorist drive by miyetti allah, led by nigeria's most prominent fulani, working with fulani herdsmen militia and in alliance with policies and other enablements by nigeria's fulani led govt of buhari to carve territory for themselves particularly in the middle belt.

in the face of this systematic genocidal or near genocidal initiative in the middle belt, amidst nation wide brigandage,  kperoqi, in my understanding, struggled with the fact of his indebtedness to what may be described as his fulani humanistic heritage as described by him on this group, until he had to publicly declare that miyetti allah is a terrorist group working with an army of fulani herdsmen terrorists-while noting that fulani herdsmen outside this deadly militarization are not terrorists.

so, while  we observe kperoqi's anti-buhari stance of today we should examine it in relation to his trajectory as a social critic in relation to various phases in buhari's political career, from the heady pre-2015-2016 or thereabouts  days of hope in buhari by many intellectuals and the slow but definitive awakening to buhari's  non-nationalistic agendas,  such as  what kperoqi described as his  northernisation appointment policy and capped by buhari's  mobilization of what i describe as right wing fulani nationalism.

What is the Ideological Profile of Kperoqi Critic, Adamu Tilde?

as for adamu tilde, is he much more than a right wing fulani apologist, as demonstrated by his writing career?

the same man, if i recall correctly, who once urged on his blog that boko haram should  focus on the gej govt?

the same man from whom im yet to read any acknowledgement of the colonising initiatives of fulani herdsmen terrorists, particularly in the middle belt, or recognition of the damage being done to fulani identity in nigeria by the brazenness of the miyetti allah/buhari govt/ fulani militia alliance in which miyetti allah recurrently justified massacres of nigerians and walks free while non-violent IPOB is declared a terrorist organisation by the same Nigerian govt that miyetti allah is in effect an extension of?

Contextualizing the Development of Kperoqi's Social Criticism in Relation to that of other Figures from Nigeria's North/Middle Belt Ethnic/ Muslim/Christian Convergences and Divides

kperoqi's social criticism career is fruitfully studied in comparison with that of such another social critique and scholar as moses ochonu, another previously pro-govt-change-from-gej-govt and perhaps pro-buhari figure who  also had to recognize the terrorist identity of miyetti allah and the dangerousness of buhari, a progression made challenging by his ethnic and scholarly filiation with the ethnic demographics buhari apologetically dramatizes.

kperoqi's social criticism trajectory may also be fruitfully studied in relation to that of scholar social critics like jibrin ibrahim, adamu tilde and current min of education adamu adamu, and perhaps islamic scholar, social critic and banker now emir of kano sanusi lamido sanusi, all, like kperoqi and ochonu,  being figures of ethnic,professional and possibly educational filiation with nigeria's  north, from the middle belt to the muslim states, observing the permutations in these figures' politics, understanding social criticism as a form of politics.

thanks

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/CAGzQHar6FAjJ93U%3D5nRPNZDkiAmacY6SpjDXyfnZBrZPbRMHnA%40mail.gmail.com.