The Professor Falola Interview Series
Sabella
In recent times, Professor Toyin Falola has been conducting a series of interviews with a group of prominent Africans – especially Nigerians. If I were one of his “friends” -- the way he defined it not too long ago -- I would suggest that he broaden his list of interviewees to include eleven other Africans, amongst them would be Babangida and Gowon.
Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida:
· How often do you think of Mamman Jiya Vatsa…any regrets…do you miss him?
· Dele Giwa was your friend – a friend who was assassinated when you were the head of state…what happened…why was no one ever brought to justice?
· MKO was your friend of many decades…what was it about his victory at the presidential polls you disagreed with?
Yakubu “Jack” Gowon:
· Did you ever have a private conversation with Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu before and after the 1967-1970 civil war…?
· Why have you not bequeathed Nigerians 2-3 volume autobiography – especially of events surrounding the civil war, the coup that ousted you, etc.
· “How did Nigeria end up here”?
Why not you…?
One could ask: “Sabella, why don’t you conduct your interviews?” My simple answer would be “Sabella is not TF…he is also not a historian…”
Sabella Abidde
Assensoh, Akwasi B.
Dear Brother Sabella:
As the British taught us in elementary schools in colonial West Africa, you have, indeed, "called a spade a [real] spade"! SIR Toyin is doing a great job with the interviews, but many more dignities as well as indigenous leaders and scholars outside one's comfort zone should be interviewed as well. Many of us second your timely suggestion without hesitation. Indeed, why not himself (SIR Toyin)? After his over 600-page tome on Nigeria, published recently by Cambridge University Press (with one man proverbially carrying Nigeria, in a map, on his shoulders), I wondered why not have SIR Toyin interviewed as well? He harbors a lot in that rich "Ibadan" brain to share with some of us, plebians!
In fact, when I met General (Dr.) Yakubu Gowon in person for the second time, on this occasion at University of Bradford in West Yorkshire, UK, I was deeply impressed with his gentle demeaner. He was there to consult with the then Director of the Peace Studies Program of the institution, who was helping with an aspect of his postgraduate studies' research or thesis at Warwick University, UK. Even there, as an inquisitive former active Journalist, I was tempted to try to find out: "Please, General, what actually happened to General Ironsi, and where can one find his remains?" I am told in mixed messages that his remains were exhumed from Western Nigeria and reburied in Igboland; is that true? I still wonder!! Also, I badly wanted to find out (from General Gowon) the real reason why the indomitable Professor Wole Soyinka was detained during the Nigeria-Biafra civil war? Again, I kept my tail in place!! After all, as a postdoctoral student in the Peace Studies Program, I did not know what Director O'Connor (a former Irish Catholic Priest and a former Ibadan don) would have said to me, if I became that probing of his eminent guest (the retired Nigerian General)!!
For example, is it not also true that it was because of the detention of Professor Soyinka by the Gowon military regime that, in an answer to a reporter in Europe (after his release from Nigerian prison) that the distinguished Professor, reportedly, said in a response: "What is a jewel to a pig?" One may like to ask General Gowon if he heard that interesting retort and, if so, what was his feeling? SIR Toyin, the interviews are remarkable, but please endeavor to widen the interviewees and the interviewers. As my legendary Baba Ijebu would have said: "If the interviews are like a delicious amala and okra soup, with fried dodo as the appetizer, then please spread it to more hungry African mouths."
A.B. Assensoh.
---------
Rev. A.B. Assensoh, LL.M., PH.D.,
Co-Book Reviews Editor
Professor Emeritus (Indiana University),
Courtesy Professor Emeritus (University of Oregon),
Department of History, McKenzie Hall (2nd Floor),
University of Oregon,
Eugene, OR 97403, U.S.A.
Telephone: (541) 953-7710
Fax: (541) 346-6576
Sent: Friday, August 6, 2021 12:05 AM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [External] USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Professor Falola Interview Series
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/d461697d-f977-46c4-a357-6dd9fe3a41e7n%40googlegroups.com.
Olayinka Oyegbile, PhD.
--
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/d461697d-f977-46c4-a357-6dd9fe3a41e7n%40googlegroups.com.
Mobile: 234-802-303-3511
Home: 234-8183600538
MAJOR AWARDS/FELLOWSHIPS
3) 2003 World Health Organisation (WHO) Fellowship in Public Health
Journalism, Geneva, Switzerland
Oluwatoyin Adepoju
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAFqc_VHanGYL2h%2BJdgt1BsaNRR1bofy6AQuAiGPk5D8k_Zu1sw%40mail.gmail.com.
Sabella Abidde
Good morning Prof. Assensoh:
Thanks for your response. When I began reading the interviews, I asked myself: “…what did he say to them to agree to the interviews…?” I asked primarily because of my own experience with a handful of the big-shots in Nigeria – many of whom do not mind the PR and the ego-rubbing stuff but never the serious and historical conversations.
I had even proposed the idea of a memoir, and in five such cases, I agreed to help with the writing. Their responses were similar: “…this is not the right time. Nigeria is too dangerous a country to write about what I know…” Sadly, none of the memoirs materialized because two died of natural cause; one died under mysterious circumstances, and two others are still waiting for “the right time” even though they are at the sunset of their lives.
Except perhaps for leaders like Awolowo and Azikiwe who were prolific writers, the majority – military or civilians – did not bequeath anything to the generation after them or for posterity. I am not a historian, but I suspect that the materials available to them in terms of the History of Nigeria, for example, are sparse. Many, I also suspect, rely on archival materials owned by others within and outside of the country.
Now, it is quite possible that men like Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu spoke to or made recordings before his death which are kept private – just as men like Yakubu Gowon may have done some recordings or writings to be released after his death. I don’t know and have no way of knowing. But really, we lose a lot when our leaders don’t do their autobiographies or allow others to do their biographies. It is a national tragedy.
So, I consider Professor Falola Interview Series timely, necessary, and invaluable and would be of great importance to the next cadre of historians -- even if I think some of those he has interviewed are “political” and not worthy of the space.
Other than the “man from Ibadan,” there is you. I or anyone else would need weeks and weeks and weeks just to go through the Introductory section of the private and public history you have accumulated. In any case, interviewing Professor Toyin Omoyeni Falola shouldn’t be a difficult task. I suggest we leave that to the Vanderbilt University-based Professor Moses Ebe Ochonu and Professor Farooq Adamu Kperogi of Kennesaw State University. They know him, he knows them.
I like and respect Gowon as much as I like and respect Awolowo. Should Gowon ever want to talk, I am willing to take 1-2 years off to gather the materials needed (from him and his closest associates and family members) for his biography.
But Prof, why amala and okra soup? When I am with my in-laws in Ogbomosho, Ibadan, or Osogbo, we pair amala with gbegiri and ewedu…. with assorted meats. During my many visits to Ile Ife, the pairing was about the same. I like okra, but…
Again, thanks for your response.
Sincerely and with best regards,
Sabella
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGBtzfNrF6Oxm2zWpFeOe9Guu5hukajifkNPu4df%3DPcv38m8eQ%40mail.gmail.com.
Assensoh, Akwasi B.
Good Morning Brother Sabella:
Thank you very much for your detailed and very fascinating rejoinder below, which I enjoyed perusing. In fact, my legendary Baba Ijebu would have said: "Reading your piece gave me nationalistic agility
and fervor!" And, truly, it did.
Most certainly, I too agree with you in totality that the FALOLA INTERVIEWS are both timely and of historical importance. Of course, it is mostly due to the important fact that many of our political leaders and their spouses (or families) detest sitting down to commit their ideas to paper. That is why, as a historian, I have suggested to many of them that I have encountered that they can tape their ideas and, later, have them transcribed to constitute part of their memoirs or Autobiographies. After getting published memoirs out of them, the many Ogas and Chieftains can donate the archived raw materials (including valuable tapes) to various educational institutions, which may turn around to honor them with honorary degrees and other accolades..
Recently, for example, I listened to some of the very illuminating FALOLA INTERVIEWS, including those of the First Lady of Ekiti and, before that, the one with Chief Awolowo's daughter (the former Nigeria Ambassador to The Netherlands). Very splendidly valuable, as the Interviewers -- including our own Professors Peyi Soyinka-Airewele of Ithaca College; David Owusu-Ansah of James Madison University; and Nana Akua Anyidoho of University of Ghana-- were often very dynamic and knowledgeable.
Knowing SIR Toyin and his hard work, I sincerely believe that he will endeavor to create future viable publications out of the FALOLA INTERVIEWS. So, we need not worry; however, it is very important for Africa -- maybe through the African Union or AU -- to establish a continental Think Thank like Stanford University's prestigious Hoover Institution (of course, not as conservative) for "worn out" and "retiring" African political leaders to become its Distinguished Fellows, with fixed honorariums, to produce their memoirs for posterity. In that way, there will also not be any more Presidents-for-Life!!
Seriously, I urge SIR Toyin and our other intellectual giants to continue to do what they do best. However, they should, as well, go the extra mile to help "push" the AU, the UN's ECA, and other similar entities to team up to establish Africa's own giant Think Tank -- i.e. The African Institution -- just as I have mentioned earlier. Otherwise, the alternative will continue for Africa to have several more Presidents-for-Life, who wait to die and get very expensive funerals and public orations.
A.B. Assensoh.
Sent: Friday, August 6, 2021 11:15 PM