Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - HISTORICAL ROOTS OF CRISES AND CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA

Professor Yusufu Turaki exhorts us : "We need to do self-appraisal:
what we have thought about ourselves and others as people, religious
and cultural groups".

The news reports we've all been reading about Boko Haram atrocities
confirms

"Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned"

Ungovernable anarchy.

Can we say of Nigerians that
"The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity" ?

If anything, the Boko Haram financed violence is surely based on
conviction
whilst Nigerian intellectuals and policy makers deliberating on the
matter have so far been impotent when it comes to translating their
deliberations into a winning strategy for saving Nigerian lives. If we
are to go by the concern expressed in the media about the senseless
violence, the media as the conscience of the nation is equally "full
of passionate intensity"

We lack a law and order society. Whatever became of the spirit of
WAI , the war against indiscipline ?

Sambo Dasuki is going for a ceasefire through dialogue and
negotiations and not for the annihilation of the unidentifiable.
Foreign counter-terrorist experts are there, so is the Nigerian
military, police and para-military (mobile police) and Boko Harami
religious leaders.

We are told that the economic conditions in the North should be
improved and the grievances of the Boko should be addressed. Is that
happening?


On Jul 15, 6:48 am, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <toyinvincentadep...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> An intriguing report.
>
> I wish it could be fully summarised, highlighting its central points, as a
> prelude to the main essay.
>
> toyin
>
> On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 12:01 AM, Cornelius Hamelberg <
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> corneliushamelb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > "We, the elected representatives of the people of Nigeria,
> > concentrated on proving that we were fully capable of managing our own
> > affairs both internally and as a nation. However, we were not to be
> > allowed the selfish luxury of focusing our interest on our own
> > homes." (Nigeria's first prime minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,
> > addressing the nation on 1st October 1960)
>
> > So much has happened since then and at this critical juncture of
> > national life in Nigeria, have read Professor Yusufu Turaki's essays
>
> >http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=Yusufu+Turaki+:HISTOR...
> > .,cf.osb&fp=19e37c0ddddf3693&biw=1024&bih=639
>
> > in tandem with Professor Toyin Falola's "Violence in Nigeria: The
> > Crisis of Religious Politics and Secular Ideologies" - as some
> > necessary background understanding.
>
> >http://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=Violence+ndingin+Nigeria:+The+...
>
> > Are these two Nigerians (Messrs Falola and Turaki) not to be included
> > in the investigative Commission that should be looking into the
> > problem and making their recommendations to the Federal government?
>
> > Re- "what we were before the arrival of Islam, the colonial masters
> > and Christian missions, and what we became during and after the
> > Islamic, colonial and Christian, and post-colonial eras. (We need to
> > do self-appraisal: what we have thought about ourselves and others as
> > people, religious and cultural groups)."
>
> > History professors in particular will research "the historical roots"
> > to every crisis in modern civilisation. It could be said that "before
> > the arrival of Islam, the colonial masters and Christian missions" the
> > vast entity now known as Nigeria, Africa's most populous country did
> > not exist as Africa's Sleeping  Giant. Some still see Nigeria as the
> > Lugardist experiment still in process ( as Nigeria evolves into real
> > nationhood) and pray that the country's amalgamation of states will
> > hold together, that things will not fall apart – and one says this,
> > mindful of Biafra's erstwhile leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu still
> > expressing some doubts from time to time after the Biafra adventure,
> > with the preamble "we must visit the very foundations of Nigeria"  -.
> > and that preamble always hinted at the possibility of the dissolution
> > of those foundations, since as Abraham Lincoln  also famously said,
> > ""A house divided against itself cannot stand." If that foreboding
> > should ever pass into reality, it's doubtful that a mere "two-state
> > solution" would do the healing miracle whether based on religion or
> > ethnicity. Nigeria is more complicated than that.
>
> > 2."It is not possible for us to solve contemporary religious and
> > communal clashes, riots, conflicts and violence in Nigeria without
> > correcting the inherited primordial, religious and cultural, and
> > colonial structures and negative values and redressing these
> > legacies..."
>
> > Since independence, Nigeria has been " at the crossroads" so many
> > times. It's not as if the contemporary problems can be reversed or
> > solved by merely grasping the evolution of the problem from its very
> > genesis, but the more light that can be thrown on where we are and how
> > we got there, the better and just now it would be good to hear more
> > critical voices from the North, about these crucial matters....
>
> > On Jul 14, 4:20 pm, ezeikechu...@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> > RrrRRRrrRRrrrRRrrRrRrrrRrRRrrRRrRTttttTtttTtTtTtTttttTtTtTTttTTTrrRrrrrrrrrRrrrRrRR
> > > Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.
>
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Toyin Falola <toyinfal...@austin.utexas.edu>
>
> > > Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> > > Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2012 09:49:24
> > > To: dialogue<USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>; ya<
> > yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com>
> > > Reply-To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> > > Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - HISTORICAL ROOTS OF CRISES AND
> > CONFLICTS
> > >  IN NIGERIA
>
> > > HISTORICAL ROOTS OF CRISES AND CONFLICTS IN NIGERIA
> > > WITH REFERENCE TO NORTHERN NIGERIA AND KADUNA STATE
>
> > > By
>
> > > Yusufu Turaki
> > > (Ph.D. in Social Ethics, Boston University, 1982)
> > > Professor of Theology and Social Ethics,
> > > Jos ECWA Theological Seminary (JETS)
>
> > > I.               INTRODUCTION
>
> > > The frequency of religious and communal clashes, riots, conflicts and
> > violence since 1980 to the present has reached endemic proportions. This is
> > a reflection of a national crisis, a nation at the brink of collapse, and a
> > nation in search of its own soul. Nigerians are deeply concerned and
> > worried about this and have begun to device ways and means of addressing
> > the problem.
> > > At the start, we need to make three fundamental assertions:
>
> > > 1.     It is not possible for us as Nigerians to have a proper grasp of
> > the nature of religious and communal clashes, riots, conflicts and violence
> > in Nigeria today, without understanding our primordial, religious, cultural
> > and colonial past, what we were before the arrival of Islam, the colonial
> > masters and Christian missions, and what we became during and after the
> > Islamic, colonial and Christian, and post-colonial eras. (We need to do
> > self-appraisal: what we have thought about ourselves and others as people,
> > religious and cultural groups).
>
> > > 2.     It is not possible for us to solve contemporary religious and
> > communal clashes, riots, conflicts and violence in Nigeria without
> > correcting the inherited primordial, religious and cultural, and colonial
> > structures and negative values and redressing these legacies, if
> > contemporary Nigeria is to be reoriented along the paths and principles of
> > justice, equality, freedom and equity in socio-political relationships of
> > all Nigerians in the distribution of national resources, rewards and
> > statuses for the benefit of all by the Governments. (We need to do
> > self-appraisal: what primordial values and structures of inequality and
> > injustice are we still holding on to the detriment of others and building a
> > united Nigeria where no one is oppressed?).
>
> > > 3.     It is not possible to achieve peace, unity and respect for human
> > dignity and worth of all Nigerians, if we have not personally and
> > collectively made a deliberate effort and commitment to these noble virtues
> > as the primary goal or end of our dialogue and relations among and between
> > people, and ethnic and religious groups. First, we must be committed
> > personally and collectively to peace, unity and human rights and secondly
> > see them as ultimate goals that must be attained before we can even start
> > to deliberate with each other. (We need to pledge commitment to doing the
> > above as both individuals and groups).
>
> > > Secondly, we need to state how Nigerians have chosen to address the
> > current Nigerian crises, conflicts and violence.
>
> > > 1.     We have heard some Nigerians who state that the current spade of
> > crises and conflicts are not religious but political, ethnic or economic.
> > This places them on the bench of those who are politically correct. They do
> > not want to offend some Nigerians with a religious talk. For this reason,
> > they ensure that religion is out of the question. It is a taboo to
> > insinuate that Nigeria's current problems are religious, or even to mention
> > that Boko Haram is a terrorist group or jihadist. But religion dominates
> > Nigeria's life.
>
> > > 2.     Some Nigerians believe that Nigeria's current crises, conflicts
> > and violence are politically, ethnically and economically induced and its
> > solution must be rooted in these same social factors. But the truth is, the
> > political culture of Nigeria is still primitive and undeveloped. Nigeria
> > seems not at the present to have any national political solution. No
> > political agenda for creating a New Nigeria. So they waste their time with
> > irrelevant political theories. Again, the economy of Nigeria is so
> > underdeveloped that Nigeria seems not to have any economic solution. No
> > economic agenda for creating a New Nigeria. The cry for jobs, ruined
> > education, unemployment, infrastructural decay and national unity cannot be
> > realized by any means so long as Nigerians are still being chained, psyched
> > and hypnotized by the evil and destructive forces of ethnocentrism and
> > primordialism. Similarly, hypocrisy, corruption and religious bigotry have
> > all conspired to rob Nigeria of any hope of being cured of its ethnic and
> > regional leprosy. Hence, no amount of political, economic, or educational
> > solution will re-create and re-make Nigeria, unless the dark and evil
> > forces of ethnocentrism and primordialism are severely dealt with and
> > routed.
>
> > > 3.     In short, the truth is, no one is effectively solving Nigeria's
> > problem and no solution in sight. After all, Nigerians themselves are
> > beginning to believe the prophets of doom, pundits of nihilism and witches
> > of fate. What a dark and gloomy moment for Nigeria!
> > > Thirdly, the terror of Boko Haram. Those who are not familiar with the
> > history of religions, especially Islam are
>
> ...
>
> read more »

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