Hi Ayo,
I hear you, I was in and out of Nigeria during Orji Kalu's time as governor, and like you, also heard many stories. Some of the stories was about how he built a soccer team that won the African Club Champions cup for the first time for Nigeria, as well as taking lieutenants to Okija, there was the editorial of 100 roads in 100 days (we turned it into a song that runs along the line of 100 days in 100 roads), etc, but those are of little consequence
My question spoke of a backdrop that includes an Obafemi Awolowo that some, if not many believe had committed treason, and other sundry crimes against humanity, Murtala Mohammed that committed various unspeakable acts of barbarity before the war (the July coup and pogroms) as well as during the war (Asaba, Onitsha, etc), not forgetting the issue of the missing N9m in 1974/5 that many believe he stole though his admirers argue it was to finance the July 1975 coup. We also have a Buhari who served under Mohammed's division that committed mass murder at Asaba and other sundry crimes against humanity (see Fredrick Forsyth's The Biafra Story), and Olusegun Obasanjo who you probably know more about that I may ever do along with his crimes against the state.
In Achebe's essays (My Father and Me compiled by Larry King readily comes to mind), he spoke of incremental gains, a lesson we should take seriously. Why would an avowed democrat think of seeing a citizens presidential bid as a joke, or contemplate disqualifying anyone from running? You must agree with me that such thoughts are the product of long years of military dictatorship that prods us into thinking that we are in a better position to make decisions for the masses.
I may not vote for Orji Uzor Kalu, and you certainly would not going by your writing, but to ridicule a citizen's right to run for any position in a country that has been ruled by an Obasanjo, Mohammed, Buhari, Gowon, IBB, Abacha, etc may actually be representative of a bigger malaise that has been woven into our national fabric which has become acceptable even by men and women of reason, and that is bad for our democracy.
Why must the East present her best for Nigeria when the rest of the regions have always thrust forward thugs in return? What is the honest basis of scholarly comparison between Nnamdi Azikiwe on one hand, and a Bello on the other? Is there a scale for an Easterner coming to the center and another for the rest of the country; Gowon/ Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu? What does one make of cliches like - oh, you are Delta Igbo, not typical Igbo, or, oh, you are different, you know, you are not like the rest of them? Those are questions as well as thoughts.
The road to hell is littered by honest pursuits, ours is yet a fragile experiment, we must be vigilant, and in return to your kind gesture - there's a Jewish story of how a son that sends the father to the farm is blessed, whereas the one that sets a feast before his is cursed.
Cheers,...Okwy
------------------------------------------
We face forward,...we face neither East or West: we face forward.......Kwame Nkrumah
We face forward,...we face neither East or West: we face forward.......Kwame Nkrumah
From: Ayo Obe <ayo.m.o.obe@gmail.com>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 9 October 2012, 14:56
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: ATTACK ON AWO: Achebe is frustrated •Olaniwun Ajayi, Olunloyo, Babatope, PDP, Itsekiri leader, others slam him
Principally, his stewardship of Abia State. Of course, I don't live in Abia State, but I was in Kenya when people were telling me good things they had heard about Lagos State. What we heard about Orji Kalu, well, what can one say? As the old joke about Jewish mothers goes: "Oedipus Schmedipus - what does it matter as long as he loved his mother?"
Ayo
I invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijama
--Ayo,Difficult to make much sense or believed in this season of anomie, then, I can only try and hope we have a civil and revealing conversation.What exactly makes Orji Uzor Kalu's presidential ambition a bad joke?I ask at the backdrop of a country that celebrates Obafemi Awolowo's quest for same job, Murtala Mohammed, Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu's Buhari all successfully holding down the job and their open quests for it at a point or the other in our history not described in similar vein?What makes the listed any more qualified to aspire to the job than Orji Uzor Kalu? Exam style bullet points with further explanation would be appreciated if you care for my choice.By the way, I am not a fan of any of them, never been involved in partisan politics, and if anything, opposed to Kalu's PDP (is he still a member)?Cheers,...Okwy------------------------------------------
We face forward,...we face neither East or West: we face forward.......Kwame Nkrumah
From: Ayo Obe <ayo.m.o.obe@gmail.com>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, 7 October 2012, 19:01
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: ATTACK ON AWO: Achebe is frustrated •Olaniwun Ajayi, Olunloyo, Babatope, PDP, Itsekiri leader, others slam him
--It is one thing to reject the nationalist credentials of Awolowo. It would be quite another thing to lay the blame for the civil war and its conduct on Awolowo. As one who held office in Biafra, one would expect Achebe to cling to the genocide issue, and from his perspective, it played well to the world outside to conflate the killings of 1966 with the objectives of an actual war, particularly when the original Eastern Region had shrunk to a central Igbo core. We should remember that the idea of preserving civilian life is a relatively new one in the history of war.I don't think it was helpful to the cause of Nigerian unity for Achebe to have written this book, but is Nigerian unity Achebe's job? Have we any basis for assuming that that was why he wrote it? I understand perfectly that he must have had to write it, but this is a book that must have been over 40 years in the making. For all I know, Achebe may have released his memoir because he does not support Nigerian unity and would prefer to assist it into its grave. I honestly don't know.
At this stage, I'm more interested in what Achebe meant by the assertion that Nigeria is in its current condition because Igbos have not been reintegrated into Nigeria, or forgiven for the war. Even more important, what reintegration or restitution would look like, or consist of. An extra state? The Presidency?Somehow, in 1999, there was enough support for the idea that the Yoruba should have the presidency in the wake of the June 12th election, that the two contenders were both Yoruba. Because of the 50+ party structure we now have, that kind of consensus might be difficult to achieve in 2014/5 in any event: but the results of that 1999 experiment might give us all pause for thought, particularly if the candidate's only credential was his or her Igbo identity, rather than their having emerged as a natural contender. A natural, serious contender, not the Orji Kalu type that seems a bad joke to many people within, as well as outside Igboland.But anyway - given that we cannot unmake history, even if we are all having a pretty good stab at rewriting it - what would answer this question?
AyoI invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijama""I find the foremost novelist lambasting of our iconic politician and impeccable leader, Chief Awolowo utterly strange. But why should we really be surprised? Even in death, Awo, our Awo, is still the issue. This being said, we must dismiss the illustrious novelist who must sell his autobiography!"
I think Achebe must be appreciated simply because of fawning adulation like this; and stupid ascription of Nobel Prize frustration alleged by Olunloyo. Achebe is frustrated? Ah! Impeccable leader! Oh Lord! Surely, this person does not understand the meaning and implication of impeccability.
We can't all see Awolowo the same way, and no leader is impeccable. I thought these supposed 'children' and 'followers' of Awolowo will understand this point and write a counter account of the Biafra war. The war is a historical fact and history generates series of accounts. Achebe has been consistent in his rejection of the nationalist credentials of Awolowo, as Prof. Aluko pointed out. He definitely knows what he is saying. Historical discourses are made of intellectual and interpretive stuff like that rather than bland and politically correct statements like the ones below.
More than this, it takes a strenght of conviction to write against the current and state the facts as one interprets it. A true follower, as far as I'm concerned, would not raphsodically vilify others for antagonising his supposed mentor. More, a true follower will be perceptive enough to equally see the faults and shortcomings. These ones parading themselves as followers of Awolowo don't qualify as such.
Adeshina AfolayanSent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTNFrom: Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com>Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 01:34:28 +0100To: USAAfrica Dialogue<USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>; NaijaPolitics e-Group<NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>; nigerianid@yahoogroups.com<nigerianID@yahoogroups.com>; naijaintellects<naijaintellects@googlegroups.com>; OmoOdua<OmoOdua@yahoogroups.com>; Ra'ayi<Raayiriga@yahoogroups.com>; ekiti ekitigroups<ekitipanupo@yahoogroups.com>ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.comSubject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: ATTACK ON AWO: Achebe is frustrated •Olaniwun Ajayi, Olunloyo, Babatope, PDP, Itsekiri leader, others slam himDear All:As far as I am concerned, Prof. Chinua Achebe has a right to his own opinions, just as others have rights to theirs. In any case, many of his opinions, particularly on Awo and Zik (both of whose selflessness he questioned), have been previously expressed in his treatise "The Trouble with Nigeria" many years ago (1983), as noted below by Chief Ebenezer Babatope. For example, the apparent underlying rationale - per Prof. Achebe - for the treatment of the Igbo in Nigeria will be found in this quotation:QUOTEThe origin of the national resentment of the Igbo is as old as Nigeria and quite as complicated. But it can be summarized thus: The Igbo culture being receptive to change, individualistic and highly competitive, gave the Igbo man an unquestioned advantage over his compatriots in securing credentials for advancement in Nigerian colonial society. Unlike the Hausa/Fulani he was unhindered by a wary religion and unlike the Yoruba unhampered by traditional hierarchies. This kind of creature, fearing nor God nor man, was custom-made to grasp the opportunities, such as they were, of the white man's dispensation. And the Igbo did so with both hands. Although the Yoruba had a huge historical and geographical head-start the Igbo wiped out their handicap in one fantastic burst of energy in the twenty years between 1930 and 1950UNQUOTEWhen we all get to read the book "There was another country" - not just excerpts - then the facts therein that need to be contended upon should be contended upon vigorously. Until then, we should hold our horses: too much frenzy is not worth it, even if the Prof. knew to expect such from Awo's community of prideful association with respect to his latest writing.And there you have it.Bolaji Aluko--ATTACK ON AWO: Achebe is frustrated •Olaniwun Ajayi, Olunloyo, Babatope, PDP, Itsekiri leader, others slam him
Written by Jacob Segun-Olatunji, Dapo Falade, Wale Ajayi and Soji AjibolaSaturday, 06 October 2012SOME attributed his outburt to his physical and intellectual frustration, others described it as sheer bitterness, yet others simply said he should be pitied for his undisguised hatred for the Yoruba race and its leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.The above is the summation of reactions of Nigerians across social and political divides to the latest attacks on the person of the sage, Chief Awolowo and the Yoruba nation by Professor Chinua Achebe, in a recently published memoir.Opinion and political leaders, who reacted on Friday to Achebe's charge of genocide against Chief Awolowo, easily pointed at the failed efforts of Achebe to clinch the Nobel Prize in Literature over the years as well as the enduring intellectual leadership of the Nigerian nation by the Yoruba.Achebe had in his civil war memoirs just made public entitled, There was a Country, blamed the casualties recorded during the three-year civil war to "the blatant callous and unnecessary policies enacted by the leaders of the Federal Government of Nigeria."Sir Olaniwun Ajayi
A visibly enraged chieftain of the pan-Yoruba organisation, Afenifere, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi said it was a pity that a renowned writer like Professor Achebe could fall into what he called a great error."It is a great error, he never said anything about what Awolowo did to prevent the civil war," he declared.Sir Ajayi said as part of efforts of Chief Awolowo to prevent the war, he led a delegation from the South-West to prevail on Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, but only for the late warlord to renege on his promise to Awolowo to avert the war.He maintained that even when the Igbo ran away during the war, leaving their properties in the South-West and old Rivers state, those left in Rivers were treated as abandoned properties while Chief Awolowo made arrangements with estate managers, who managed the properties left for the fleeing Ndigbo.Besides, he said the arrangement ensured that the owners of such properties were paid rent when they returned and the properties equally handed over to them after the war, unlike those left in Rivers state which he said were treated as abandoned properties, even till date.He maintained that after the war, the Igbo were fully reintegrated in the South-West and enjoyed fair treatment up till today.He said it was a matter for regret that Achebe was silent on such gestures, describing his outburst as most unfortunate, outrageous and very bad."In his reaction, a former governor of old Oyo State, Dr Omololu Olunloyo, said that it was unfortunate that people would still be dwelling on an event that occurred over 40 years ago.Speaking with Saturday Tribune, Olunloyo said he suspected that Professor Achebe had a personal hatred for the sage,because of the nomination of Professor Wole Soyinka, a Yoruba man for Nobel award and his eventual emergence as the first African Nobel Laureate."The way the country is going, everybody cannot be happy but Achebe is bitter. He is not pleased that he didn't receive the Nobel prize. Though a brilliant man, a good essayist and a man of culture, Achebe cannot be in the same fold with Soyinka."While Achebe writes only prose which can be extremely prosaic, Soyinka is into prose, poetry and drama. The richness and versatility of Soyinka's works cannot be compared with that of Achebe."It is unfortunate that Professor Achebe could label Chief Awolowo as a tribalist. Both Awo and Zik were members of the Nigerian Youth Movement."He cannot begin now to blame Awolowo for the war. Awolowo did not start the war; rather, he pleaded against it. The only thing that he said then was that if, by any error, the Igbo were allowed to leave the federation, Yoruba would also leave."The civil war was started by the Igbo. The Igbo, in the course of the war, killed many Yoruba and Hausa/Fulani leaders, including Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Chief Ladoke Akintola, Festus Okotie-Eboh and many officers, including Ademulegun, Maimalari, leaving out their own, like Micheal Okpara."Even while they were in government, (Ironsi's government), the Igbo spared no thought of freeing Awolowo who was then in prison. So, why should the man be now labeled a tribalist?", he said.Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
Also reacting, the publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), South-West, Honourable Kayode Babade, described as unfortunate the statement credited to Achebe on Awolowo.Babade, speaking on telephone with Saturday Tribune said: "Though I am yet to get a copy of the book but anybody who says anything negative or cast aspersions on the integrity of our revered sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, is an enemy of the Yoruba race. If the statement credited to Achebe is true, then he has just declared himself as an enemy of the race.Babatope
A former Transport and Aviation Minister, Chief Ebenezer Babatope condemned Achebe over the publication of total falsehood and disturtion of facts against Chief Awolowo, describing him as a ''pathological liar."In a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja entitled, Chinua Achebe and his outbursts on late papa Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Babatope, who was the National Director of Organisation of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) of Papa Awolowo, lamented that it was disheartening and amazing for Achebe to have claimed in his book that the sage was involved in the murder of many Igbo during the Biafran war.Chief Babatope, who expressed dismay that many Nigerian newspapers in the last 24 hours had published excepts from the new book disclosed that Achebe made a similar false publication against Papa Awolowo 30 years ago in his book titled,The trouble with Nigeria.According to him, "while Achebe is free to write on any topic that suits his fancy, he has no right whatsoever to irresponsibly murder history by his recklessly attacking a great leader like Papa Awolowo."While urging all well-meaning people to disregard the latest false publication in all its ramifications, he assured that ''Nigerians should expect detailed, honest, factual and objective replies to Achebe's nonsence after we have copies of the book in our hands.'Speaking in the same vein, the secretary General of Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), Chief Idowu Sofola (SAN) said he would required further clarification on the statement of Achebe because he was not aware of any policy of Chief Awolowo that led to the killing of the Igbo.On his part, the president and founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr. Fredrick Fasehun said Achebe's outburst was borne of the fact that "he did not know the personality of Chief Obafemi Awolowo."According to Fasehun, Achebe only saw the sage from a distance without appreciating his principle, ideas and other outstanding ideals the elder states man stood for.Odumakin
Also reacting, Mr Yinka Odumakin, said, "It is unfortunate that a great man of letters of Achebe's status has descended to the arena of Biafran propagandists who are always ready to sacrifice the truth to achieve emotional blackmail."He has betrayed his intellectual calling by joining in the circulation of low quality rumours against Awo. I had looked forward to read the book, but now I doubt if I would pick up a copy even if dropped at my gate."Chief Ayo Fasanmi
Another senior citizen, Chief Ayo Fasanmi described as unfortunate, the comment of Achebe on Chief Awolowo.Fasanmi said it was unfortunate that such a statement came from an octogenarian that ought to appreciate the enviable role Chief Awolowo played to guarantee national unity."It is sad that a highly revered novelist could descend to this level, especially now that the nation is trying to lay a foundation for the unity. It is an abomination. Nigeria would have been run aground, if not for the efforts of Chief Awolowo. Achebe has demonstrated his level of understanding of Nigeria politics. What Awolowo did was to save the country from the impending doom. He worked,fought and died for the unity of Nigeria.Prof. Tony Afejukwu, an Itsekiri leader
"I find the foremost novelist lambasting of our iconic politician and impeccable leader, Chief Awolowo utterly strange. But why should we really be surprised? Even in death, Awo, our Awo, is still the issue. This being said, we must dismiss the illustrious novelist who must sell his autobiography! He needs to attack Awo for the book to make appreciable sale, an inroad in western Nigeria of solidly educated and civilized denizens. But his tactic will backfire if truly that was an intention of Achebe, our respected, Achebe, who with this unforgettable grudge of decades will lose a huge chunk of respect of, and from discerning minds."Now we must ask: Did he expect Awo to device a strategy for Biafra to defeat Nigeria? In any case, Achebe ought to promote peace, understanding reconciliation and love as a foremost novelist of Nigeria, Afric and theworld. he ought to be exemplary," he said_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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