Bolaji Aluko raised some vital issues below in his "sermon on the mountain" and summation of the issues associated with this Zik's Memorial Restoration initiative. Allow me to highlight some of them:
1. "…I called for the same funds drive way back in 2006 - but there is a time for everything under the Sun, and Azuoma four years later served as the latest catalyst. …."
2. Right from the beginning, Azuoma and I have indicated that the Statue and the Mausoleum were our aims - with the provision of replacing the head if it was still missing, but more importantly LEVERAGING the money AND the effort with government and non-governmental stakeholders in Nigeria for maximum impact. So far, three newspapers have carried our efforts - and some people must be reading."
2. "We have collected $10,000 ($9,960 to be precise, roughly N1.5 million, with a pledge of $1,000 by a single individual a few hours ago) in ten days, and we should soon move towards a redemption mode in order to beat our self-imposed time deadlines (October 1, November 1, November 16), having beaten our self-imposed financial target of N1 million. "
3. "Oranika states "that the need for the second list became obvious because some of us did not want to contribute to the Aluko/Azuoma plan." Precisely what PLAN was there no desire to contribute to, and was there any attempt to modify the existing plan to suit those potential donors, if that was the case? Was the attempt to modify that plan REJECTED by anybody? And those who have now donated to the second list after donating to the first list: were they aware of this motive, and have they ABANDONED the Aluko/Azuoma plan - the one that exists - for the new one, or do they like both plans?"
4. ""I am the first to grant that there is no Nigerian of living memory who will elicit broad Nigerian support - particularly in this 50th Anniversary of our Independence - more than Zik, and that is what we are seeing in this outpouring of pledges. East, North or West, there are those who love him, even if not always passionately. Those who don't love him that much don't have a visceral dislike for him, even if we have occasionally criticized some of his individual deeds at critical points of Nigeria's history. On the other hand, there are those who love Awo PASSIONATELY - and can expend all their money in his memory - and those who hate him PASSIONATELY, and would not give a dime. With Ahmadu Bello, he did not even TRY to be loved South of the Niger, so he can be excused on the nationalist front. Tafewa Balewa, nice man that he was, was just seen as Ahmadu's voice. Zik clearly is different. On a national scale, even international scale, much honor is due him particularly in this our 50th Anniversary and going forward, and that is what this is all about, why it pains that his statue and mausoleum were neglected for a while and continue to be neglected, despite all the monies expended by various states and federal governments, and plans galore.""
From: NIDOA@yahoogroups.com [mailto:NIDOA@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mobolaji ALUKO
Sent: Monday, August 30, 2010 1:18 PM
To: NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com
Cc: NaijaPolitics e-Group; NigerianWorldForum; NIDOA
Subject: NIDOA | Re: [NaijaObserver] On this Matter of Raising Funds for the Zik Legacy Project {Re: [NaijaPolitics] ZIK PROJECT ALREADY RESONATING AT HOME
Dominic Ogbonna:
I hereby summarily re-dismiss Joe Attueyi's contempt for Diasporan community efforts, but not his project management tips - or those of Ola Kassim either. Some of them are pretty obvious.
Satisfied? Do you see the distinction with a difference?
There you have it.
Bolaji Aluko
PS: If Joe Attueyi is a member of the Diaspora, then why does he exhibit self-contempt? Inquiring minds want to know.
On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 12:55 PM, Dominic Ogbonna <summadom@gmail.com> wrote:
"When there was only one list, a few people did not make either a financial or literary contribution. Now there are two lists - and comments about Diasporans not being able to work together come in galore? I don't think that is fair, Yinka Odumakin. Forget about Joe Attueyi - he has utter contempt for the Diasporan community, and uses every opportunity to show it." -Bolaji Aluko
I am open to correction, but I have NOT heard Joe Attueyi say that the effort is dismissible merely because, it is a diaspora initiative.
But here is the big catch: Not many projects succeed well enough in the long run In addition to his, in my opinion, well-justified cynicism about the Nigerian Diasporan community, Joe Attueyi is also a seasoned project manager and a business man. He knows a thing or two about how successful projects are managed, so it is in my opinion reckless to dismiss his concerns so cavalierly. Good intentions are OK, but they only take you so far. It would be prudent, I think, to pay serious attention to some of the concerns that have been raised, otherwise this effort will end being no better than the previous efforts to build a Zik Mausoleum.
By the way, no matter how you cut it, Joe Attueyi himself is ALSO a member of the Nigerian diaspora. It is not clear to me that his own family resides in Nigeria, and as far as I can tell, he himself spends about as much time in London as he does in Nigeria.
Dominic
On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 12:33 PM, Mobolaji ALUKO <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
Omubo Jack:
Thanks for yours below.
We have collected $10,000 ($9,960 to be precise, roughly N1.5 million, with a pledge of $1,000 by a single individual a few hours ago) in ten days, and we should soon move towards a redemption mode in order to beat our self-imposed time deadlines (October 1, Novemeber 1, Novemeber 16), having beaten our self-imposed financial target of N1 million.
Now, I do not know how the price tag of our target suddenly rose to N121 million as you stated below - Ola Kassim and co. have been bandying around N25, 30, 40 million - but arithmetic tells me that, if that is the aim, then N121 million can be collected in 2.2 years.
That is - if that is the aim, which might enable us to build three or four new monuments to Zik, or three or four monuments to Zik and his pro-Independence peers. In any case, what is 2.2 years in the life of a nation, and we won't have to wait until the end of that time to make any impact whatsoever.
The funny thing is that while one set of people accuse us of having no aim - saying ours is another cynical example of Diasporan aimless-ness - another set is setting us up with such a high set of financial objectives. Is that ostensibly to ensure some failure?
Ola Kassim has even stated that the money is not coming in fast enough - compared to WHAT? I have been on the Net for 17 years, and raised funds many times too (including for a Nigerian Katrina victim and more recently for Haiti) and at no time have I obtained pledges THIS FAST. You will recall that the Haiti fundraising effort also had its detractors - and had a parallel effort started almost for similar reasons. So what is new?
Ola Kassim sets a target of N25 million for our effort, and he has contributed to both lists, with promise of more pledges coming from him. Great, but he is a medical doctor, and his community is the highest net worth set of Nigerians in the Diaspora. Instead of setting high goals, and constantly laying out well-known plans of actions, he should mobilize his community to contribute to the cause if he feels led. We thank him for donating to the two lists - see below re Oranika's reason for forming the second list - but I have written to him privately of an effort by another individual to mobilize his own artiste community, and have spoken privately to Ola too of my concerns of his lofty objectives.
When there was only one list, a few people did not make either a financial or literary contribution. Now there are two lists - and comments about Diasporans not being able to work together come in galore? I don't think that is fair, Yinka Odumakin. Forget about Joe Attueyi - he has utter contempt for the Diasporan community, and uses every opportunity to show it.
Oranika states "that the need for the second list became obvious because some of us did not want to contribute to the Aluko/Azuoma plan." Precisely what PLAN was there no desire to contribute to, and was there any attempt to modify the existing plan to suit those potential donors, if that was the case? Was the attempt to modify that plan REJECTED by anybody?
And those who have now donated to the second list after donating to the first list: were they aware of this motive, and have they ABANDONED the Aluko/Azuoma plan - the one that exists - for the new one, or do they like both plans?
Oranika outlines some superficial differences between the plans of the two lists - and it is quite remarkable in his wrong-ness. Right from the beginning, Azuoma and I have indicated that the Statue and the Mausoleum were our aims - with the provision of replacing the head if it was still missing, but more importantly LEVERAGING the money AND the effort with govenment and non-governmental stakeholders in Nigeria for maximum impact. So far, three newspapers have carried our efforts - and some people must be reading. An imposed deadline for collections does not mean that it was a short-range plan. List #2 aims to start collecting their pledges in January/February 2011 (4-5 months from now) and wrap up in April 2011. No collection will be made if all of these work has been done by then, I guess?
Just asking...
Ogbunwezeh spoke honestly for himself and a few others: "There are a considerable number of people who would not donate to what Bolaji started as a jest to rub it in on the Igbo faces based on Bolaji's unvarnished igbophobia." Fair enough - I am amused that he calls me familiarly as "Bolaji" - no last name! With friends like Franklyne, who needs enemies? In any case, paranoia is a word in the dictionary, and must be applied to some people......and Ogbunwezeh in this case is their sergeant-major of the Paranoid-Schizophrenia PS1 brigade. A man who from his German perch knows that I joined in/began the drive "as a jest to rub it on the Igbo faces" must have an advanced case of PS. He forgets that I called for the same funds drive way back in 2006 - but there is a time for everything under the Sun, and Azuoma four years later served as the latest catalyst.
Ogonna Anyaogolu calls me an "intellectual pimp" - ostensibly for working with a woman Azuoma Anugom. That outburst is the outgrowth of an ill-bred young man damaged psychologically by unvarnished lies fed to him by what some of us have called his "evil uncles" - and they know themselves.
Moving on....
I am the first to grant that there is no Nigerian of living memory who will elicit broad Nigerian support - particularly in this 50th Anniversary of our Independence - more than Zik, and that is what we are seeing in this outpouring of pledges. East, North or West, there are those who love him, even if not always passionately. Those who don't love him that much don't have a visceral dislike for him, even if we have occasionally criticized some of his individual deeds at critical points of Nigeria's history. On the other hand, there are those who love Awo PASSIONATELY - and can expend all their money in his memory - and those who hate him PASSIONATELY, and would not give a dime. With Ahmadu Bello, he did not even TRY to be loved South of the Niger, so he can be excused on the nationalist front. Tafewa Balewa, nice man that he was, was just seen as Ahmadu's voice.
Zik clearly is different. On a national scale, even international scale, much honor is due him particularly in this our 50th Anniversary and going forward, and that is what this is all about, why it pains that his statue and mausoleum were neglected for a while and continue to be neglected, despite all the monies expended by various states and federal governments, and plans galore.
Out of the 84 pledgers so far who have donated $9,960 so far ($40 short of $10,000), roughly 32 are of Igbo extraction by their names. That is 38% - or roughly double the percentage of Igbo population in Nigeria. That is great. Whether they are part of the connected or disconnected Igbo elite who - like Godson Offoaro (stated) or Franklyne Ogbunwezeh - think of me as having "unvarnished Igbophobia" is for the duo and their ilk to discern.
I shall rest my case there as I focus like a laser beam on raising the roof on the pledges and their redemption, and joining like-minded others to leverage whatever we collect to ensure a surer foundation in memory for Zik's legacy, and hopefully for his peers too.
Please make your pledges to whoever your conscience dictates, but please redeem them in time, hopefully before October 1! :-)
And there you have it.
Just some thoughts, not a sermon.
Bolaji Aluko
------------------------------------------------
--- Omubo Jack wrote:
It is a very patriotic and commendable gesture, that concerned citizens are coming together to restore the image of this great leader. The concern I have is whether the government has paid money to contractors many times over, and yet the project remains uncompleted, like many other projects in the country. We will serve our nation better if we insist on prudence and good governance in our national polity. We should be able to go after the contractors, if they have taken money on the mausoleum, and abandoned it, or to make the government to fulfill it's promise and complete this national edifice. It is becoming increasingly insane to allowing this gross wastage of resources to continue, while we act indifferently. How long will it take us to gather 121 million naira from Internet pledges?
Dr. O. B. Jack
Sent from my iPad
-------------------------------------
On Aug 30, 2010, at 6:37 AM, "Okenwa R. Nwosu, M.D." <okenwanwosu@...> wrote:
<image001.png>
Decapitated Zik statue in 2006
<image002.png>
Abandoned Zik Mausoleum in Onitsha today
The abandoned Zik mausoleum
By Sun News Publishing
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Error! Filename not specified.
The recent media report that some concerned Nigerians and Ghanaians in the United States (U.S.) are raising funds through the Internet for the completion of the abandoned mausoleum of the late foremost nationalist and elder statesman, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, in Onitsha, Anambra State, shows that the nation, which Zik and his fellow compatriots salvaged from colonial bondage, has easily forgotten the legend.
It is, indeed, shameful and embarrassing that 14 years after the demise of the nation’s first president, first indigenous Governor-General and first President of the Senate, the final resting place which the Federal Government was building to immortalize him, is yet to be completed.
It will be recalled that the astute politician, who bestrode the Nigerian political landscape like a colossus, died in 1996, while construction work on his mausoleum was commenced in 1997 by the regime of late Gen. Sani Abacha.
Initially, the contract for the project was awarded to an indigenous contractor, Lemmy Akakem Nigeria Limited. But work on the site was later abandoned for lack of funds. But in 2007, the administration of the late president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, re-awarded the contract to a new contractor, Beton Bau Nigeria Limited, a civil engineering firm at the cost of N121 million.
Up till now, Zik’s final resting place at his Inosi-Onira Residence, which ought to have been a tourist site and attraction, remains derelict, a sad reminder that the labour of our heroes past might, indeed, have been in vain. Zik’s case is a classical illustration of how not to treat and immortalize a foremost nationalist and one of the founding fathers of the nation.
The treatment meted to the memory of Zik, has shown that subsequent Nigerian leaders do not appreciate the sacrifice and contribution of our past heroes. It shows that we, as a nation, have short memories, and that history and historical sites and monuments mean little or nothing to us. It is unfortunate that we tend to forget in a hurry the achievements of our past national icons. We seem not to remember them any more.
How can the Federal Government explain its seeming apathy and inability to complete the mausoleum of the late Pan-Africanist, and staunch believer in a united Nigeria and a highly detribalized Nigerian, who sacrificed his entire life for the nation?
Is the government tacitly saying that patriotism and dedicating one’s life to a national cause is outmoded and does not pay any longer? Why is the government unduly silent about Zik’s mausoleum? Surely, paucity of funds cannot be cited as one of the reasons for abandoning the project?
It is a pity that former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who promised to complete the mausoleum if elected president in 1999 could not fulfill his promise in the eight years he ruled the country. No doubt, there are attempts in certain quarters to blot out the numerous contributions of Zik to Nigeria’s political development by some revisionists and tribal irredentists. But the truth of the matter remains that Zik’s contribution to political development in Nigeria and Africa is indelible and can never be erased.
Zik ranked among the world’s greats. His peers include Mahatma Ghandi, Mao Tse Tung, Franklin Roosevelt, Lenin, Fidel Castro, Churchill and Will Brandt. Back home in Africa, his contemporaries include Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Jomo Kenyetta, Sekou Toure and Nelson Mandela.
We, therefore, call on the Federal Government to save itself this embarrassment by completing the mausoleum without further delay. America would not treat Lincoln or Jefferson like this. That the government should allow Nigerians and foreigners living in the U.S. to search for funds via the Internet for a project it begun years ago is unfortunate and demeaning. It does not require this group to remind us of our responsibility. It is incontestable that Zik had a place in Nigeria, Africa and World History.
Let the government act expeditiously and complete the work it started in 1997 so that the nation’s foremost leader and one of the architects of Nigerian freedom and independence would rest in peace in a befitting mausoleum. That Zik has not been allowed to have a befitting place of rest many years after his death speaks volumes of the attitude of our political elite.
It is time our leaders lived up to the words of our national anthem - “the labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain. The best way to ensure that Zik’s labour was not in vain is to complete his mausoleum and make it a tourist site. Let the contract be re-awarded to a competent firm that would do a befitting job. Let government use the project to demonstrate how Africans honour their dead legends.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
__._,_.___
See event pictures and info of the NIDO Canada World Conference, Ottawa 2010 at http://www.AfriCanVIP.com or http://www.NIDOCanada.org
SEE YOU IN TORONTO IN 2011
Nigerians In Diaspora Organization. Our mission is to promote the spirit of patriotism, networking, and cooperation among Nigerians in Diaspora....
Support the PUSH TO VOTE IN NIGERIA at http://www.ProudNigerians.Org
Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use
.
__,_._,___
No comments:
Post a Comment