Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Femi Kusa's, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes

To both Farooq and Emetulu, 

Not much of a debate really, brothers!

My conclusion is that, i believe, we have all expressed ourselves well on this matter. And the record is clear indeed.

Many thanks and regards,

Laolu

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 29, 2011, at 5:14 PM, Kennedy Emetulu <kemetulu@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

 

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Farooq,

 

Thank you for your response to Laolu. You've adequately expressed my view. All I can add is that freedom of expression isn't an absolute right, which is why we have laws of libel. While it is impossible to libel a dead person, it is irresponsible to say things you couldn't say to their face while alive at a time their body is yet to be put in the ground. Mr Kusa should know that if any of his subordinates at The Guardian were to do this to him at the time God calls him home, those who know him while alive will take such persons to task, irrespective of the validity of whatever claims such persons make. Decency has no disguise.

 

 

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From: Farooq A. Kperogi <farooqkperogi@gmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, 29 November 2011, 12:54
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Femi Kusa's, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes

Laolu,

Kennedy did not attack Kusa; I did. So you're barking up the wrong tree. But, most importantly, neither Kennedy nor I want to trammel Kusa's right to free expression. We are only saying that his piece is intolerably  indecent and beneath the dignity of a person of his accomplishments. And here is why:

1. The occasion of a person's death is hardly a fitting and proper moment to draw unflattering character sketches of the person as a cold, ruthless, "unfeeling," "scheming," [Kusa's words] epicurean, vainglorious, and soulless hedonist, not necessarily because of the person (after all the dead can't be injured in a material sense, a reason the courts have ruled that a dead person can't be libeled) but because the survivors of the departed who are at the early stages of the grieving process deserve some consideration. (As I said in my last post, murderous despots, etc don't deserve this consideration). If you've never lost someone very close to you, this probably won't make any sense to you. And I forgive you for that.

But showing sensitivity to the sensibilities of survivors of the dead is a basic virtue in journalistic writing. We like to say in Nigeria that it's "un-African" to speak ill of the dead. But there is nothing uniquely African about that precept. It's a universal human trait. It's one of the supreme ironies of our humanity that it is tragedies and traumas, more than successes and prosperity, that usually bring out the depth of the humanity in us. Perhaps it is because these tragedies remind us all of our own mortality, our own frailty, our own vulnerability. Well, Kusa is bucking this enduring human predisposition to show tenderness, however transitory, in other people's moments of distress.

2. As Kennedy has pointed out, which you seem to be persuaded by, why did Kusa wait till Ibru's death to write what he wrote about him? Like you, I have no facts to impeach the credibility of his character portrait of Ibru, but there is something eerily sinister about the choice of occasion to do this. It shows neither valor nor "principles," which Kusa is inviting us to believe he is an embodiment of.

3. But, for me, there was nothing that was, in fact, particularly revealing or informative in Kusa's piece. It is mostly more about Kusa than it is about Ibru's death and life. He merely highlighted the weaknesses of Ibru's life to validate himself. The summary of the piece is basically this: I was told Ibru died. Too bad. But he actually doesn't deserve to be mourned. He was a scheming, tightfisted, cold-blooded capitalist pig who was given to sybaritic lavishness and opportunism. I --and others-- actually made the Guardian for which he became famous. He wanted to use me to further his baleful boardroom politics, but the principled, upright and unblemished person that I am, I resisted--to his astonishment. I finally left his company because I couldn't stand his staggeringly pestiferous intrigues any longer and have never looked back. Well, I hope his wife somehow finds comfort and learns from her husband's failings.

This may seem like a grotesque caricature of what Kusa wrote, but read the piece again. Now, my concern isn't about the essay's facticity. It's about its timing, its rank insensitivity, its downright cowardice, its smug, perverse self-congratulation.

Farooq

Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Journalism & Citizen Media
Department of Communication
Kennesaw State University
1000 Chastain Road, MD 2207 

Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell:  (+1) 404-573-969:
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/farooqkperogi

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/farooqkperogi

"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will

On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 8:22 PM, Olaolu Akande <akandeoj@yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear Ken:

Going ahead to attack Mr. Femi Kusa for choosing to exercise his rights of free expression is unnecessary.

Instead, I propose 3 points:

1. Kusa's freedom of expression is to be validated.

In the US which you quoted, --and referenced that the same kind of board room games happen, -- such a disclosure is routine. So if we are basing our conclusions on US practice to rationalise the situation Kusa described, there you have it. 

We need this kind of disclosure to open up that our country, many of us have far deeper stakes as professionals than to be kept in the dark perpetually!

2. I have asked for corroboration of Kusa's reporting on this matter. ( I take it as a report he has chosen to make on this occasion)

By asking for corroboration, -I am not doubting or questioning Kusa's credibility. I trust he is not frivolous, but there is need to verify these claims.

3. And this is my question for Mr Kusa: if I could reach him, I will ask why release this now?

That question is not to diminish his rights to determine the timing of his disclosures. He is fully entitled to that.

Nonetheless, did he weigh the fact that the fairness quotient of this disclosure would have risen sharply if Mr. Alex Ibru were still alive?

Perhaps Ibru's response, were he alive would further enrich public knowledge and its attendant discourse.

From my initial explorations to dig into this matter, what has been suggested is the possibility of a reasonable fear of harm on Kusa's part, ie suggested by those who argue for the rightness of the timing.

The other argument is that the focus the matter is enjoying now could not have come at a better time, increasing the impact of Kusa's response to what is clearly years of bottled-up repulsion and annoyance.

But which of these did Kusa consider?

I hope Kusa will be forthcoming and even more importantly, I also hope that more disclosures will come forth from other people involved, including those who can speak of Ibru's side of the coin. This is so because lIke The Guardian's beautiful motto: "Conscience is an open wound, only truth can heal it." 

We need the truth and the whole truth!

Regards,

 Akande

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

From: Kennedy Emetulu <kemetulu@yahoo.co.uk>

Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:15:40 +0000 (GMT)

To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>; Oluwatoyin Ade-Odutola<kole2@yahoo.com>

ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Femi Kusa's, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes

 

 

 

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Mr Adepoju,

 

The issue is not the literary scene in Lagos or who let it go to pot. Or what role The Guardian used to play when Macebuh was in charge. Ibru was a businessman who set up a newspaper and who picked disgruntled elements of the old Daily Times to start off. There were mutual benefits for both sides and we saw that result in the quality of the paper in the early days. For whatever reason the quality of the paper fell or its fortune dwindled, it is not for us to pass judgment, because we were not part of the decision-making machinery at the papers. For instance, I worked there as a Special Correspondent between 1996 and 1997 and stories from the top constantly wafted into the newsroom, but it all depended on who was telling the story and which side of the dispute they were. But from my own reading, it was no worse than what happens in boardrooms across the world.

 

But, as I've tried to explain, this is not and shouldn't be the issue now. Whatever happened in the boardroom, Femi Kusa had kept a lid on it up till now. For thirteen years he or any other person did not mention it in public space. He did not need anyone to tell him that this is the wrong time to say these things, because of the unfairness of the situation. Attacking a man that cannot defend himself because he's dead is cowardly. Doing so at the very time the man died, after having over a decade to do so while he was alive, shows a lack of consideration for the dead man and his family and others whom he has mentioned, but who also are dead.

 

 

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From: toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com>
To: Oluwatoyin Ade-Odutola <kole2@yahoo.com>
Cc: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, 28 November 2011, 19:35
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Femi Kusa's, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes

God bless you, my namesake, Oluwatoyin.
I get the impression you might even be better informed than myself on the historical incidents I addressed since I gather you were in the thick of the literary scene in Lagos in those days, where all the action was, while I subsisted on rumours in more or less remote Benin.

thanks
the other oluwatoyin
apart from the great Toyin at the University of Texas

On 28 November 2011 14:30, Oluwatoyin Ade-Odutola <kole2@yahoo.com> wrote:

Toyin Adepoju (you are too much!!),
 I doubt if you are an ordinary man-scholar. You have such a clear mind and clear head that everyone should envy. I still suspect that a highly esteemed professor Farooq A. Kperogi wrote what I just read. Wow!!
Toyin please keep up with your ability to think clearly. I endorse the piece by Femi Kusa!
Ibru has become larger in death. He was a human being with faults and he got upset like my landlord does when I miss my rent by a few hours.
Dr. Farooq A. Kperogi please chill and relax...read the piece again and your own reaction. I will send you Sina Peters to sing that song for you
Have a productive week ahead
Kole

From: toyin adepoju <>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 7:22 AM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Femi Kusa's, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes an unflattering exposé on Late Alex Ibru

I identify with you in the loss of your wife, Farooq.

Could you please give any directions on learning obituary writing?  I've done some writing of that but did not know it was considered a genre of its own that could be systematically studied.

I dont see this essay on Ibru as negative.

It tries, instead to give us an image of Ibru in his various manifestations, as businessman and politician.

Allow me to embarrass you and others by stating that I would also have liked to read about what transpired between Ibru and the man who might be the leading light of the Guardian at its founding, Stanley Macebuh, a dispute rumoured to be over a woman that seems to have led to Macebuh's leaving the Guardian and taking with him the magical photography of Sunmi Smart-Cole, if I have the name right, as well, in my view, the culture of the Guardian as an intellectual lighthouse. which was for a time, at the centre of Nigerian intellectual life in the humanities as evident in the Guardian Literary Series, where some of the best essays of  leading Nigerian literary critics, such as Abiola Irele and  Biodun Jeyifo were published, not to mention some of the most comprehensive explorations of various facets of Nigerian literature, essays written by scholars in Nigeria before a number of them fled abroad. The series was published as a set of two books edited by Macebuh. As far as I know, after Macebuh, the Guardian tried to continue that series, but it did not seem particularly successful and no more books came out of it. To my mind, from that point, the Guardian became more or less an ordinary newspaper of less than sterling quality. It was through the Guardian, for example, that Philip Emeagwali laid the  decisive foundations of his massive global fraud of self misrepresentation, through a glowing interview with Reuben Abati, later to became chairman of the Guardian editorial board, an interview full of bare faced lies of achievements of global stature, lies which a journalist  ought to have been able to uncover  through some diligent and even basic research, before going to press.

I hope the Guardian will one day apologize for unwittingly  aiding this fraud.

I don't believe that death is a time to speak only positive things of the departed. What human is only positive? Let us leave the exclusive rights for encomiums to the graveside. Those who have opinions, emotions etc unlocked by the death of the departed person should please air them. That is part of the departed person's legacy. Those who read that can then piece together the bits and come to their own conclusions.

Evidence of small mindedness on my part, the vicissitudes of the Guardian after Macebuh and the fact that

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