Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Clarion Call

Opinion

This view approximates my contemplation on this matter. A collaborative effort
between the key players or stockholders is critical to the character of any
development that must be pursued. Such a collaborative approach should include
the elites (and intellectuals of all hues) in urban setting, too. My support for
collaboration flows from the fact that many urban dwellers or elites are very
active on and with activities in rural Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya or Africa. In those
days, it was common for many African elites to travel to the village every
weekend or at least once a month to see the family (including the extended
family, big mama, big papa, etc). In addition to taking foods and drinks (rice,
plantain, yam, fowl, and a good bottle of gin--my folks prefer London gin to the
local brew) to the village, we would listen to issues with a touch of education
(as to the goings around the village) before we would return to the city. Many
of us in the Diaspora are not strangers to my preceding caricature or anecdote.
In fact, this was my experience the last time I visited with my family in the
village from the US. I learned a lot from those old and young folks.
Consequently, both our village and city folks can work together to develop our
societies if our leaders are going to be bold enough, no kind enough, to provide
our polity with sufficient enablements--i.e. infrastructures for an impressive
development.

On the question of 5 star hotels in Ghana, I must say that I prefer low-cost
housing for the poor to this prestigious investment. My opinion is fundamentally
ideological and I had long conveyed it to Osagyefo A. B. Assensoh.

Ike Udogu

----- Original Message -----
From: John MBAKU <jmbaku@weber.edu>
Date: Thursday, January 10, 2013 11:07 am
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Clarion Call
To: pamogu@gmail.com, naijaintellects@googlegroups.com,
usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com, ienwana@yahoo.com,
NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com, naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com,
nigeria360@yahoogroups.com, NigerianID@yahoogroups.com,
NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com
Cc: godwinonu2003@yahoo.com

> Prof:
>
> Greetings. Trained experts, who have the capacity to investigate,
> have their place, but it should not be to determine development
> priorities. That job belongs to those individuals and communities
> whose lives would be affected directly by the policies or programs
> that are eventually adopted. After all, it is these diverse peoples
> who have the time-and-place information that the trained analyst
> needs in order to come up with effective and relevant development
> programs. While a rural inhabitant may not know how to run a
> regression equation or do calculus, he or she can adequately
> articulate what ails him or her and hence, provide the critical
> information that is needed for the expert to prioritize the
> development agenda. Without such participation, the expert, who is
> likely to be based in the urban center, will come up with
> development programs that are not particularly relevant to the
> lives of the poor. Such a top-down, elite-driven approach to
> development, one that usually pushes aside the contributions of the
> poor, has never worked in any country or community. Consider the
> IMF and World Bank SAPs--while there are many reasons for why they
> failed, one of the most important is that they were top-down, elite-
> driven, and non-participatory.
>
> Stay well. John
>
> JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
> J.D. (Law), Ph.D. (Economics)
> Graduate Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
> Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
> Attorney & Counselor at Law (Licensed in Utah)
> Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & Willard L.
> Eccles Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow
> Department of Economics
> Weber State University
> 3807 University Circle
> Ogden, UT 84408-3807, USA
> (801) 626-7442 Phone
> (801) 626-7423 Fax
> >>> "Ifedioramma E. Nwana" 01/10/13 5:09 AM >>>
> Dear All,
> I agree that the issue of selecting some people to handle a
> situation such as the situation of Nigeria creates the problem of
> exclusion. However how else does one overcome the problem of
> establishing proper and socially significant topics and priorities?
> It is a difficulty encountered in many social research endeavours
> that bringing in what has been called the real experts {-the masses-
> -the poor, the historically marginalized and deprived (women, those
> residing on the urban periphery), rural inhabitants, and the
> various ethnic and religious minorities} creates a maze of
> untutored preferences, which distort the proper competitive order
> that should ease the analytical task. Yes, the masses should be
> involved but it is those who have been trained and have the
> capacity to investigate, analyse and deduce who have the challenge
> to do the task.
> [Dear oa, kindly use larger fonts, some of us are getting
> old and have difficulties reading your postings.]
>
> Ifedioramma Eugene Nwana
> Professor of Agriculture & Economic Entomology
>
>
>
>
>
> From: "Anunoby, Ogugua"
> To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" ; "pamogu@gmail.com" ;
> "naijaintellects@googlegroups.com" ;
> "NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com" ; "naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com" ;
> "nigeria360@yahoogroups.com" ; "NigerianID@yahoogroups.com" ;
> "NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com"
> Cc: "godwinonu2003@yahoo.com"
> Sent: Wednesday, 9 January 2013, 20:19
> Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Clarion Call
>
>
> <!--#yiv711174332 P {MARGIN-TOP:0px;MARGIN-BOTTOM:0px;}-->Exclusion
> is never a good idea in the effort to advance the public good. If
> it is political and economic development, ignorance is not bliss.
> Develeopment does not happen simply because those seeking to
> develop have good intensions. Development is serious business.
> There is always the technical knowledge dimension of development.
> It has to be conceptualized, planned, financed, and managed. A
> model has to be in place which model informs actions and
> activities.
> A better idea in my opinion, would be to have representives of all
> stakeholder groups participate in the search for and
> operationalization of solutions to development problems. This
> arrangement is more likely to agree, enshrine and ensure checks and
> balances which in constitutional arrangements, drive responsibility
> and accountabilty- two deficit commodities in Nigeria.
> The tyrany of the elite is unacceptable. So should be the tyrany of
> the masses. Composite materials (metals for example) tend to be
> stronger and better bound than elements.
>
> oa
>
>
> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of John MBAKU
> [jmbaku@weber.edu]Sent: Tuesday, January 08, 2013 10:05 AM
> To: pamogu@gmail.com; naijaintellects@googlegroups.com;
> usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com; NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com;
> naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com; nigeria360@yahoogroups.com;
> NigerianID@yahoogroups.com; NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com
> Cc: godwinonu2003@yahoo.com
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Clarion Call
>
>
>
> Please do not bring Nigeria's political scientists and other
> intellectuals together in an effort to find solutions to the
> country's multifarious development problems. If you really want to
> attack these problems and do so effectively and fully, bring
> together the real experts, the masses--the poor, the historically
> marginalized and deprived (women, those residing on the urban
> periphery), rural inhabitants, and the various ethnic and religious
> minorities). Real development is bottom-up, participatory, and
> inclusive and not top-down.
>
> Stay well. John
>
>
> JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
> J.D. (Law), Ph.D. (Economics)
> Graduate Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
> Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
> Attorney & Counselor at Law (Licensed in Utah)
> Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & Willard L.
> Eccles Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow
> Department of Economics
> Weber State University
> 3807 University Circle
> Ogden, UT 84408-3807, USA
> (801) 626-7442 Phone
> (801) 626-7423 Fax
>
> >>> Peter Amobi 01/08/13 7:17 AM >>>
> Sometimes, I wonder if the problem with Nigeria has gone beyond all
> political theories and philosophies. Or are Political Scientist across
> the country in slumber? Can't we make instructive inputs in this mess?
> Somebody is already laughing at me. How many Political Scientist have
> ever served as even governor of a state in Nigeria? If there are what
> is/was their performance? I am convinced that we can form a forum that
> could bring the best of brains together (think-thank) for
> positive/sustainable development in our country even without holding
> leadership positions. I thus, call on all Political Scientists across
> Nigeria to come under a particular umbrella and search for dependable
> solutions to the problems with Nigeria. NPSA may not have served us
> very well in this direction.
>
> --
> Amobi P. Chiamogu
> Special Assistant to the Rector and Lecturer, Department of Public
> Administration
> Federal Polytechnic, Oko
> Anambra State - Nigeria
> +2348034306261, +2348123232658
> pchiamogu@yahoo.com, panomanikz@yahoo.com
>
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