Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Okey Ndibe: A case for abolishing democracy in Nigeria

Interesting. I do not understand why in the 21st century, in today's America, in the age of the Internet someone will be proud to announce that they are in environments where someone would ask if there are "roads" in Nigeria. I mean, what else did they ask you? Did they also wonder if we are really monkeys swinging from tree to tree? If I was in such a situation, I would berate myself endlessly for the quality of my condition. And in any case, it just reeks of patronizing condescension to introduce such silliness into a debate by your peers. These are difficult times for Nigeria and people should certainly debate our options but one just shakes the head at some of the things people utter around here. This is not 1967, these anecdotes are becoming unfortunate stereotypes of America and of Africa. We should  be productive.

 

And the rudeness around here sometimes. Someone writes a well-considered piece and graduate students start braying, "this is shallow, it lacks rigor, write it like this!" I mean, when did the tail start wagging the damn dog? If you need to write a term paper about Nigeria, go and write it your damn self. Sometimes I just think that the Internet is a leveler in many perverse ways. Must you respond to everything someone says? Don't you have a class to go to? Nonsense.

 

By the way, Okey, my apologies for mangling your name in the header, I shall pay whatever retributions you deem appropriate. I must say that it is kind of you, but wholly unnecessary for you to expand further on your thesis. We are not children and we can see where we are headed. Those who do not see this are entitled to their own blindness, we are just not buying it. It just seems to me self-indulgent and silly to be engaging in unctuous academic exercises here under the sad conditions that Nigeria finds herself. Not to talk of the hypocrisy. Our children do not go to these pretend schools that daily mangle the sentences and lives of youngsters from cradle to grave, our children do not read the awful books that are "published" in Nigeria as "literature" and "textbooks", we certainly take extraordinary precautions to hurry back here if heaven forbid, during a visit home, we develop a skin rash. Hell, one of "those doctors" might touch us. *shudder.*

I have high hopes for Black Africa. But the relief will come from Darwinism and/or external sources. Nigeria's intellectual and political elite are currently feasting on the carcasses of the living poor. Eventually, we will eat all the poor, leaving us behind to enjoy a new Nigeria. And then maybe there'll be peace in the land. Until then, we will continue to mumble under our breath and write pretty scholarship that no one bothers to read. Nonsense.

 

- Ikhide

 

Stalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/

Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide

Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide

From: Ayo Obe <ayo.m.o.obe@gmail.com>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 2, 2012 1:09 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Okay Ndibe: A case for abolishing democracy in Nigeria

No, Toyin, his own was to walk on water (as we will have to do if we make the mistake of relying on Apple's new maps to get from my garden to Victoria Island).

Prof did not want to be called a liar then.  We shall draw the veil of courtesy over what might be said on this forum now!  I expect Prof left it to the student to work out how the pilots and cabin staff made it to their hotels (being unaccustomed, as they must have been, to tree swinging).  And indeed, to work out why anybody would have been bothering to land a plane in such a place.

Meanwhile, I was congratulating us at the CLEEN Foundation because the road which passes in front of the CLEEN head office at Ojudu on the outskirts of Lagos, which was so much of a ' shake, rattle 'n' roll' experience that it took at least 5 good minutes to reach the front gate, has now been tarred. So smooth is the ride now, that we almost drove past the CLEEN office because we got there so quickly!  There's no point complaining that we shouldn't be grateful for this expanding evidence of government doing something of what it is supposed to do for the people.  I was grateful when they tarred the road outside my mother's house just a few days to her 80th birthday and we were able to celebrate with a garden party in peace, instead of being blanketed in a thick layer of car-churned dust.

Driving around Lagos this weekend, I stopped at working traffic lights at sime junctions, was directed by traffic police and traffic wardens at others, extracted money from an ATM, made purchases at a supermarket, sent a gentle SMS inquiry, followed by a stern demand - again by SMS, about (what eventually ended up as) the three hours we spent without electricity last night.  I drove to and from a friend's 'open house' party, to church, to a service of songs ...

In all this ordinary commerce of the weekend, perhaps only the power cut and how it was dealt with might raise eyebrows in the US.  It isn't great stuff, life should undoubtedly be better for more people.  But it's not nothing either.

Ayo

I invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijama

On 2 Dec 2012, at 13:00, OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tvade3@gmail.com> wrote:

Jesus Christ!:

  " "Since Nigeria has no roads how did you make it
to the airport, Professor," asked a student who had attended the local
event discussed earlier. "  Did you swing from tree to tree like a monkey,
 to get to your destination?"

"Yes." I replied.

I did not want to be called a liar. "

On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 11:29 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:

"Since Nigeria has no roads how did you make it
to the airport, Professor," asked a student who had attended the local
event discussed earlier. "  Did you swing from tree to tree like a monkey,
 to get to your destination?"

"Yes." I replied.

I did not want to be called a liar.

--
Compcros

Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems

"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"

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