In the name of God, what have I done to deserve being described so : "I only engage in honest conversations; and it is clear to me that from your conduct here and elsewhere that you are not interested in one."
In this discussion on this group, I have called you out to defend your views on Nigerian education and Biafra.
You wrote of Nigerian education and Biafra in the following words:
"Upon the death of Dim Ojukwu, many of us donned the flag of Biafra. One young Nigerian reached out to me on chat and asked what the flag was about. I told him. He asked me to tell him more about Biafra. I asked him how old he was. 35 years old. A man born in Nigeria in the 70's told me that very very little of Biafra was taught him in school. How can that be, I asked? Then he told me about the horrors of life as a "student" in the pretend classrooms of Nigeria from primary to tertiary. I have the entire transcript and one day when I have the time I shall fictionalize it and share with the world the war that our intellectuals have wreaked on our children."
In those words, you do the following
1. You describe the idea that "very little of Biafra" was taught to your 35 year old interlocutor, born in Nigeria in the 70s, as indication of what you describe as "the horrors of life as a "student" in the pretend classrooms of Nigeria from primary to tertiary".
You thereby imply that Nigerian education from the 70s, when your interlocutor was born, to the present, is best understood in terms of ""the horrors of life as a "student" in the pretend classrooms of Nigeria from primary to tertiary".
Have I misquoted you? No.
Everyone here can read and judge for themselves.
I am asking you to justify this assertion.
To justify this assertion, you need to demonstrate why you think the kind of education about Biafra you espouse should be a touchstone for assessing Nigerian education.
Does everyone of your age group share that opinion, making it unnecessary to defend and justify it?
Did you yourself not argue that history is perceived from various perspectives? Is it not vital that holders of these perspectives need to defend their views by presenting their rationale for holding those views?
It is salutary, that, for you, like many others " The passing of Dim Ojukwu was for me and many an opportunity to reflect on an era."
What are your reflections?
Various people have expressed theirs. Yakubu Gowon, the Nigerian Head of State during the war, whose differences with Ojukwu played a key role in the crises before and during the war has expressed his, motivated by Ojukwu's transition. Max Siollun, Nigerian history scholar, has done the same, which one can see if one Googles his name.
Over the years, Ojukwu reappraisals have been prominent on Nigerian centred online communities and in books on the war. The names of people like Ikenna Anokute on Nigerian and Igbo centred groups and Edruezzi on Nairaland are significant in this debate. Chief Ralph Uwechue, President of Ohanaeze, the Pan-Igbo organisation, a person who describes himself as at the centre of events in Biafra as events unfolded in those fateful days, not to talk of Philip Efiong, Alexander Madiebo, Ojukwu's fellow Biafran commanders, have all written books on the subject.
Joseph Achuzia, one of the most prominent figures in the Biafran military, who was part of events from the gestation to the dissolution of Biafra, has expressed his views on the meaning of Biafra, before and recently. Some other Igbos have expressed disagreement with Achuzia on the meaning of Biafra. Interestingly and ironically, Oguchi Nwocha's article critical of the perspective on Biafra of Achuzia, a war scarred veteran of that war, who was in Biafra from the beginning to the end with his Caucasian wife and their son, describing himself as using desperate methods to mobilize his men to fight in the face of apathy arising from the awareness of imminent collapse in the midst of horrific suffering, a stance contributing to his war time nickname as " Hannibal Air-Raid Achiuzia" described as serving seven years in prison at war's end for his role in the war, is titled "Educating Achuzie on the Biafran Dream."
Biafra means different things to different people, even among Igbos, who are the centre of its legacy.
What does it mean to you?
In the discussions on Biafra on Ederi, which you allude to, you lamented the failure of people to claim and own the Biafra story.
What is the character of your own ownership and claim on Biafra?
Is Biafra of such questionable value that you cannot stand up and present your views in this marketplace of opinions?
Dont you want to counter those, including Igbos in Biafra and Igbos after Biafra, who see Biafra as a misadventure and a power hungry venture driven largely by Ojukwu?
Dont you want to adress the opinion that the much quoted notion of anti-Igbo genocide before and during the war is a farce concoted by Biafran propaganda on the ashes, misery and mutilation of Biafrans and particularly Igbos, whom the Biafran leadership and Ojukwu, in particular, sacrificed to an unnecessary and unwinnable war, sustaining that war even when victory was clearly impossible, manufacturing the genocide fear to keep Biafrans in the war, eventually fleeing to safety in exile even though he had promised not to leave his people, leaving them at a desperate time, with no options, leaving Efiong to negotiate surrender without any initiative from Ojukwu, who was now incommunicado?
The views on the genocide claim as a hoax, a cock and bull and April Fool's tale, to quote his own words, were expressed in a broadcast to fellow Biafrans in the thick of the war by the illustrious Nigerian and Igbo statesman and former Biafran, Nnamdi Azikiwe himself.
The views on Biafra fall thick and painful. No one can claim that they have a monopoly of understanding on the subject or that their views must be shared by everyone.
It is a sad day when a supposed Biafra and Ojukwu enthusiast like yourself cannot defend his opinions.
If you cannot defend your views, should you be expressing them in public?
2. Now, on Nigerian education, you have mentioned
""the horrors of life as a "student" in the pretend classrooms of Nigeria from primary to tertiary".
Your only defense of that is "And why would I need to convince you that our Nigerian education is in a dysmal state? Do you not read? Did you not read of the Minister for Education lamenting that as much as 70 percent of students failed a certain qualifying exam? Those who disparage and ruin our educational system everyday you know and I am not going to play that game with you."
Your later characterisation of education in Nigeria as being in a "dismal state" is not equivalent to your earlier characterisation of education in Nigeria in terms of ""the horrors of life as a "student" in the pretend classrooms of Nigeria from primary to tertiary".
Have I misquoted you? No.
Everyone here can read and judge for themselves.
"the horrors of life as a "student" in the pretend classrooms of Nigeria from primary to tertiary" : These lines indicate unequivocally a sweeping dismissal of the Nigerian educational system as abysmal at best at all levels. You made that deduction in relation to the educational life span of a 35 year old person born in the 70s, implying that you extend that assessment to Nigerian educational system from the 70s to the present.
Do the comments from the Minister of Education translate into sufficient evidence to describe Nigerian education, from primary to tertiary, and, even more, from the 70s to the present, in the following terms as you do?: ""the horrors of life as a "student" in the pretend classrooms of Nigeria from primary to tertiary".
You are yet to defend your opinions.
If you cannot defend your opinions on Nigerian education, please stop spouting them.
It is a danger to the self image of a nation and to its external image, for people, particularly its own citizens, to peddle negative views about that country which those critics cannot substantiate.
3. Thirdly, you state on Nigerian resources and Nigerian intellectuals:
"Nigeria could use any and everything, any and everyone, there is so much hunger in that land for resources. I was there in September and I can attest to how much there is to do in Nigeria. The resources are simply not there; much of it looted openly by thieving intellectuals and politicians."
You state that "The resources are simply not there". "Simply not there ", means the resources do not exist. Can you realistically find any other meaning for "simply not there"?
The question is
Why do you state that they are "not there"? Why do you state that they dont exist? What do you understand by the term "resources"?
Your state that the resources are "simply not there" beceause they have been stolen. That implies that they were once there but are "simply not there" anymore beceause " thieving intellectuals and politicians" have drained them.
Have I misquoted you? No.
Everyone here can read and judge for themselves.
You go on, in your last post, to disavow your own earlier words" :
"I never said that Nigeria has no resources. Read the sentence to the end. I said they are being systematically looted by intellectuals and politicians. I also said that when you compute what is being stolen, the cost/per student might rival that of what obtains in the West. Is that how you would describe a resource-poor nation? "
Are you not contradicting yourself? How logical is it to argue, in one breadth, that the "there is so much hunger in that land for resources. I was there in September and I can attest to how much there is to do in Nigeria. The resources are simply not there..." and argue, in another breadth that they are actually there but are being stolen?
Are you willing to admit to a logical error in your earlier formulation?
Are you willing to agree that you meant to state that the resources are there but are being stolen?
You also to state who these thieving intellectuals are and justify your opinion.
If you cannot defend your views on the Nigerian populace or any group among its members, please stop spouting them. Negative views about a nation that have inadequate bases or no basis in logic or fact, particularly when expressed by its citizens, are a danger to the self image and external image of a nation.
4. Now, on our discussions on Biafra and Ojukwu on the Nigerian centred literary group Ederi, to which you allude.
Dont worry, I am devoting an entire book to the ideological and historical implications of those discussions so the world can judge for itself. I demonstrate how that discussion is symptomatic of a school of attitudes to contemporary Nigeria and Nigerian history. I should be able to post a chapter in the book this week. There I quote in full your own words and the words of those others who responded to my request for Olu Oguibe to expound on his valorisation of Biafra and Odumegwu Ojukwu.
I demonstrate in that book that a significant degree of pro-Biafra valorisation is based more on myth than history.
This group is not Ederi.
It is unlikely that anyone here will describe me as demonstrating shameful and monumental ignorance as Olu Oguibe did in Ederi, on my asking him to elaborate on and justify his valorisation of Biafra and Ojukwu. No one is likely to do, as Oguibe did, to condemn anyone who does not agree with him that Ojukwu did the best for his people and was an unequivocally heroic figure and that anyone who does not share that view is not worthy of respect and of the sacrifice to move Nigeria forward.
Even if anyone argues, as you did on Ederi, that all answers to questions on Biafra and Ojukwu are best sought through self analysis, by looking within oneself, thereby arguing for the significance of internal meditation over dialogue and historical study in exploring issues on Biafra, you are not likely to get much support on this group for such a strange understanding of how to understand history .
Even if anyone here makes such assertions, as Oguibe makes and supported by you, they are unlikely to be supported by the moderator of the group, as Oguibe was by two of the moderators of Ederi, Obiwu and Obododimma.
The moderator of this group, unlike Obiwu, one of the moderators on Ederi, is not likely to argue that my asking Oguibe to clarify and elaborate on his position on Biafra and Ojukwu is a tongue in cheek request, irritating beceause the person asking the question should know better.
The moderator of this group, is not likely, like was done by Obododimma, another moderator on Ederi, to respond to the issues sorrounding questions on the universal validity of Oguibe's valorisation of Biafra and Ojukwu to craft a narrative of relationships between Biafra and Nigeria in which the two nations, the former a mental construct, the latter an actual geo-political entity, are still at war and conflate Biafra critics or questioners into a homogenous mass as enemies of Biafra, describing Oguibe's call to fly the Biafran flag as a strategy in that war, using arguments operating purely on fallacious logic, as demonstrated by Obododimma's blog post "A Risen Sun that Shines Forever".
Since this culture of reinforcing an uncritical pro-Biafra dogma on Ederi is not likely to emerge on this group, I am not likely to suspect that the moderator of this group is trying to block my views critical of this dogma from being posted as I suspected on Ederi.
The moderator of this group is not likely to unsubscribe me as was done on Ederi even after I had posted the first two parts of my essay criticising that pro-Biafra dogma that dominates that group, while I had promised the group I was working on posting the third part.
The moderator of this group is not likely to make sure that none of the moderators or other members of the group I reached out to on why I was unsubscribed ignored me, arguing, as Obododiimma does in his blog post " This Netizen is a Virus.", that my arguments should not be responded to by members of Ederi beceause I am a dangerous virus.
Ikhide, I respect your cognitive efforts generally, but you need to be more careful about delimiting your areas of genuine knowledge as different from what might be the fashionable exercise, even among Nigerians, of sweeping denigrations of Nigeria based on poor logic and meagre information.
thanks
toyin
On 1 January 2012 03:50, Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:
Toyin,
I am happy to have a conversation with you, as long as you do not parse my words and strip them of context. I am baffled; read my post, I never said that Nigeria has no resources. Read the sentence to the end. I said they are being systematically looted by intellectuals and politicians. I also said that when you compute what is being stolen, the cost/per student might rival that of what obtains in the West. Is that how you would describe a resource-poor nation?
And why would I need to convince you that our Nigerian education is in a dysmal state? Do you not read? Did you not read of the Minister for Education lamenting that as much as 70 percent of students failed a certain qualifying exam? Those who disparage and ruin our educational system everyday you know and I am not going to play that game with you.
On the matter of Biafra you are on your own. I am not that much older than you, so if Biafra means little to you, I should not waste my time with you. To divorce Biafra from the civil war of our country for someone your age is to be honest, disingenous. I only engage in honest conversations; and it is clear to me that from your conduct here and elsewhere that you are not interested in one. You have called me and certain others Biafra fanatics. I remain appalled by your conduct in that one forum and my estimation of you will always be measured by that, I am sorry. The passing of Dim Ojukwu was for me and many an opportunity to reflect on an era. You would not listen; it was not just about an individual alone. It was about us. That you did not, would not see that, I thought was interesting.
I still do admire you and wish you and yours all the best in the new year. This is my last word to you on these subjects. I only ask you to refrain from distorting my words. I am very careful with my words. Even when I am joking, I am serious.Date: Sun, 1 Jan 2012 00:58:31 +0000ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.comSubject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Economist: The disposable academic Why doing a PhD is often a waste of timeIkhide,on the issue of no resources in nigeria i think that is not correct.the experience of people i know there and my personal experience convince me there are resources for those who are ready to mine them.my exposure on this is limited, being based purely on personal experience and general observation but i have faith in that nation based on my experiences and observations,both pleasant and painful.the real hunger might be for leadership. leadership to harness resources.i am keen on knowing what you mean by resources and why you think they are not there.
i am puzzled about this-' our intellectuals are collaborating with the politicians to ruin other people's children.' 'The resources are simply not there; much of it looted openly by thieving intellectuals...'who are these intellectuals? are you referring to ASUU members? if so, in why can they be described as looters and collaborators with politicians?I am yet to respond fully to you on your sweeping disparagement of Nigerian education beceause I am still editing my response.meanwhile, can you also do the following, please?explain why you think Nigerian education as a whole is in such a dismal state.how did you arrive at this conclusion and from what time did this dismal development set in, in your opinion?on the Biafra issue, can you please explain why you think a detailed knowledge of biafra and ojukwu are relevant as a trouchstone for nigerian education?what you wrote earlier was not about the civil war as a whole. your focus was on biafra and odumegwu ojukwu which you said this chap knew little about.if biafra is seen as being about more than secession , it would be useful to explain why you think it was more than that.thankstoyin--On 31 December 2011 20:25, Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:Toyin,The idea that PhDs invest in self employment is a good one, I imagine. Nigeria could use any and everything, any and everyone, there is so much hunger in that land for resources. I was there in September and I can attest to how much there is to do in Nigeria. The resources are simply not there; much of it looted openly by thieving intellectuals and politicians. You and I know that there is nothing new that I am going to say in terms of ideas that folks on this forum and elsewhere have not said in the past. Why just recently, Etannibi Alemika wrote a thoughtful piece on the same issue. If people are not responding it is not that they don't care, they are tired of saying the same thing over and over again with nothing happening.
We need to stop talking and start shaming people into being accountable. I seriously doubt that there is any Nigerian intellectual on this forum that will not privately say, what is happening to our children and youth in our classrooms is disgraceful. There are many Nigerian PhDs abroad toiling at jobs beneath the expense and trouble of their earned degrees. We could use them back home. I love your idea, but Toyin, our people do not care. They do not care that generations of children are being abused in classrooms - because their own kids are safe elsewhere. These thugs are of my generation, those of us who were educated at great cost by the military. You know me, I am not going to make patronizing noises about the situation. That would be dishonest, I will say what I am seeing, which is that our intellectuals are collaborating with the politicians to ruin other people's children.And of course this is not just my passion, this is my life and my career. I have been in K-14 education all my professional life - three decades with all but three of those served here in the US and being part of a leadership team running the 16th largest public K-12 school system in the US and the best of course, if I may say so ;-) So it pains me because I care and because I know what I am talking about. You can talk all you want, our people do not listen. You may think I exaggerate when I say this, but if you calculate per student how much is being stolen daily, the figure would rival the cost/pupil of educating a child anywhere in the West. And yet our primary schools look like where lizards are being abused. Under those circumstances I should be forgiven for sneering at anyone calling that situation an education. It is criminal and we should all be ashamed of the situation.And by the way, I do not understand how you can tolerate a situation where a 35-year old Nigerian educated up to the tertiary level knows little or nothing about Biafra and the Nigerian civil war. And the notion that Biafra was all about mere secession just seems to me a simplistic reading of the Nigerian situation. But it is your opinion, not mine. Be well,- Ikhide
From: toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 12:54 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Economist: The disposable academic Why doing a PhD is often a waste of time
Ikhide,It would be interesting to read from you your views on the significance of PhDs to the Nigerian academic system, since that system attracts a significant degree of your passion.
The essay in the Economist is interesting and sums up longstanding issues in the PhD universe of parts of Europe and North America.One approach that PhDs could use is the idea of building a base for self employment during their PhDs which they can use after the degree is completed.thankstoyin--On 31 December 2011 16:49, Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:
--"Whining PhD students are nothing new, but there seem to be genuine problems with the system that produces research doctorates (the practical "professional doctorates" in fields such as law, business and medicine have a more obvious value). There is an oversupply of PhDs. Although a doctorate is designed as training for a job in academia, the number of PhD positions is unrelated to the number of job openings. Meanwhile, business leaders complain about shortages of high-level skills, suggesting PhDs are not teaching the right things. The fiercest critics compare research doctorates to Ponzi or pyramid schemes."I disagree with the Economist. I do believe that beleaguered nations like Nigeria could use all the PhDs it can train and productively use. America is a different ball game. Depending on what your life's passions are, a PhD may be a thorough waste of time in America; I wouldn't recommend it. But it is a thought-provoking read. Read on.- Ikhide- Ikhide
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