Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: A Nigerian Spring — Long Overdue

Thanks, Kwabena.


My problem is with the sense of shame in being Nigerian.

Is there nothing poistive about the country these shamed people can call on?

Is there no way Nigeria is better than some of these so called
advanced countries?

Having spent 10 years in England after spending my childhood and young
adulthood in Nigeria, I can see clearly ways in which Nigeria is
better than England.

I also see that my efforts at contributing to England are rooted in
what I gained from Nigeria.

I will go out of my way soon to highight this.

We need to put things in perspective.

I am increasingly pleased I chose not to study in the West after my BA
but to study the native knowledge of my environment in Nigeria,
knowledge not in any book, written nowhere.

That decision is at the root of all my efforts in the West.

thanks
toyin



On 2/3/13, Nkolika Ebele <nkolikae@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Kwabena,
> Good recognition, but do not blame us for being open with the way things are
> in Nigeria. Many Nigerians  have relocated to Ghana to find sanity. You may
> not believe it,  Nigerians  presently form half of the population of
> students in  Ghanaian Universities. Nigerians presently go to Ghana for
> summer holidays. Ghanaian textiles are highly priced in Nigeria. Reference
> is made all the time by Nigerians about the stability of power supply
> in Ghana. We have no doubt the Ghana has overtaken Nigeria in many fronts.
> We do not criticize Nigeria because we love our country less, it is because
> of love of country that we feel pained to point out the ills. There is an
> Igbo proverb, that states that if you do not indicate the exact spot of your
> injury, you will receive treatment on the wrong spot. So we need to state
> how badly thing have become in Nigeria so we do not live in the delusion
> that we are doing well. Before the  Xmas holidays, ASUU Unizik held an
> interactive forum with the Security Chieftains in Anambra state -Police
> ,SSS etc to discuss the menace of kidnapping and find solutions. What the
> Police representatives advised  is that we go low profile, if you have a
> jeep park it and find a low profile vehicle, no flamboyant dressing,etc. I
> kept wondering how that can be a solution. So u can see that we are in a
> mess. We cannot pretend to be okay when we are not,otherwise we become like
> the King who went on a parade naked but pretended that he was in the best
> dress. I live here, and have no intention of running away to any where but I
> must confess, that  life here is mini hell. For one good week, there has
> been no electricity, and this happens often, even when you see it at all, it
> comes on alternate days, (called low shedding) The day you hope to get , it
> is given to you for about 5hrs till the next alternate day and so on. We
> live virtually on generator generated electricity. Even our
> University runs on Generator, every dept, and faculty owns a gen
> set.Workers come to work in the morning and stay idle till the genset comes
> on, because that is when the computers can be turned on(Except those that do
> not need it to start working). Which Country in the world runs like this?
> Nkolika
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Kwabena Akurang-Parry <kaparry@hotmail.com>
> To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com"
> <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Sent: Sunday, February 3, 2013 1:46 AM
> Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: A Nigerian Spring — Long
> Overdue
>
>
>
> In my opinion, ProfessorMay Akabogu-Collins missed an auspicious teaching
> moment that would have allowed him/her to educate his/her students. We
> should never be ashamed of our African countries to the extent of excluding
> ourselves as citizens of African states, or denying our citizeship! I always
> tell people that I come from the best country in the world: Ghana. On
> occasion, this statement had surprised and even ferry uneasiness to my
> audience, including students.
>
> I am frightened by the way Nigerians write about Nigeria as if it is the
> only hell-hole on earth. Give it up: 419 in the Internet Age and we
> Nigerianize it! Go to Ghana and see. We call it sakawa, that is, we silently
> call it sakawa. Read about similar if not the same phenomenon in Russia,
> India, USA, China, etc. It is called scam, rip-off, swindle, con, racket,
> fraud, etc. When it happens in France, America, Russia, etc., it is
> sanitized. Only some individuals do it in France, America, etc. In Nigeria,
> it is an epidemic: all Nigerians are involved is what the media and even
> Nigerian scholars, such as ProfessorAkabogu-Collins, who should distill such
> hegemonic thrash, tell the world.
>
> As noted, Professor Akabogu-Collins missed a teaching moment. S/he could
> have put the state of Nigeria into historical perspectives, for example,
> that Nigeria was barely fifty years old suffering from the cumulative
> depredations of slavery, colonialism, neocolonialism, unidirectional
> globalization, globalized vampire capitalism, and that with time Nigeria
> would come into her own. Furthermore, in spite of all the problems that
> Nigeria is facing today, she has produced exceptional men and women who have
> continued to make stellar contributions to the world.
>
> Thanks to my Ghanaian gods: Papa Valentine Ojo is no longer here to
> terrorize me for daring to comment on Nigerian issues; and Papa Quansy
> Salako is not here to question my perspectives on colonialism and its
> lingering effects.
>
> Kwabena
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: aassenso@indiana.edu
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> CC: nana_garba@yahoo.com; dejigiri@yahoo.com; uosili@iupui.edu;
> ovaughan@bowdoin.edu; anthonyakinola@yahoo.co.uk; nnaemeka@iupui.edu;
> osafoaku@indiana.edu
> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: A Nigerian Spring — Long Overdue
> Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2013 13:38:25 +0000
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent: Saturday, 2 February 2013, 7:27
> Subject: A Nigerian Spring — Long Overdue
>
>
> February 1, 2013
> A Nigerian Spring — Long Overdue
> By MAY AKABOGU-COLLINS,  Paris
>
>
> I was a visiting professor in Paris last fall, and it was the first day of
> class. I was making copies for my 10:30 a.m. class at the faculty lounge,
> where two female professors were kibitzing by the coffee machine.
>
> "Oh, yeah," one said. "Soon as I learned he's Nigerian, I discounted
> everything he'd said as fraud."
>
> "Smart move," agreed the other, nodding, "nothing good's ever come out of
> that country. ..."
>
> I cringed, held my breath and skedaddled on to my classroom, where my
> students wanted to know my nationality. I'm American. "Bot Professa," an
> African student's hand flew up, "ware you from originally? I hear the voice
> of Africa."
>
> I inhaled deeply, chuckled but ignored that question.
>
> When I left Nigeria for the United States in 1980, the plan was to earn an
> M.B.A., a doctorate in economics, and then return. It was my moral
> obligation to help develop my country, whose oil wealth financed my
> education. An M.B.A., a Ph.D. and 32 years later, I'm still here, abroad. In
> 1992, when I applied for a position at my alma mater, the University of
> Ibadan, the dean replied, "Why on earth would you want to return when
> everybody's trying to escape?" No one's been paid for over three months, he
> explained, and universities are on strike half the time.
>
> Twenty years later, Nigeria can still bring the crazy.
>
> In 1980, the naira had a very favorable exchange rate against the dollar. En
> route to the United States, I stopped over in London. All along King's Road,
> the shopkeepers beckoned: "Nigerian? Welcome. Come inside." I was proud to
> be from Nigeria and was offended when the country was confused with Niger.
> But, today, if I can pass for someone from Niger — sadly, I would be glad.
>
>
> Is there a person on the planet who remains unfamiliar with the Nigerian
> e-mail scam? As a Nigerian living abroad, I've become embarrassed — indeed
> scared — after learning that in February 2003 a Czech victim of an Internet
> fraud murdered an innocent Nigerian in Prague.
>
> That isn't the scariest narrative — not by a long shot. In recent years,
> Nigerians abroad have been warned: "Don't come home. Just send money." But
> if one must, say, attend a wedding, a funeral or take a chieftaincy title,
> it is necessary to hire prearranged police protection from the moment you
> land at the airport until the moment you depart.
>
> Last summer, my ailing 87-year-old mother, worried that her days are
> numbered, called a family reunion for Christmas. My three U.S.-based
> siblings and I made plans to return home with all our kids. At the last
> minute, my brother sent an e-mail canceling the reunion. "What?" my daughter
> said, her glass of iced tea slipping out of her hands and shattering on the
> tile floor. Uncle Tony can't guarantee our safety in Nigeria, I explained.
>
>
> "What about hired armed security like the last time?" she inquired. I showed
> her the link to the news report my brother had sent headlined, "Gunmen Kill
> U.S. Returnee in Enugu," his hometown in Nigeria.
>
> Ogbo Edoga had returned from the United States to attend the meeting of an
> organization of Nigerian professionals in the United States to raise funds
> for an ultramodern medical diagnostic center in his ancestral village. On
> his way, he was robbed and shot and killed with an AK-47. He had hired
> police protection, as had many Nigerians who visited our motherland only to
> be robbed and murdered. The lucky ones got kidnapped and released after
> their families paid a huge ransom. And now, Mom's joined the choir: "Don't
> come home."
>
> Here's what is shameful: This is the Nigeria that has been one of the
> world's top 10 oil exporters for decades; the presumed "Giant of Africa"
> when I was leaving in 1980. But three decades later, despite a half-century
> of billions of petrodollar inflow, in March 2011, at a World Bank-O.E.C.D.
> conference in Paris, I found myself sliding down my chair to hide my face
> behind my laptop as a fellow economist explained why Nigeria was excluded in
> a comparative study thusly: Since Nigeria (with South Africa) dominates the
> Sub-Saharan African economy and since Nigeria does so poorly at wealth
> creation, if included, it would render Sub-Saharan Africa's genuine savings
> dwarfish vis-à-vis East Asia and Latin America.
>
> Here's the thing: One doesn't need a Ph.D. in economics to understand the
> correlation between poverty and today's high crime rate in Nigeria. When
> corrupt politicians persistently embezzle public funds rather than produce
> proper policies, the result is a stagnant economy and its attendant human
> misery — high unemployment and massive poverty. Marginalized youths resort
> to Internet scams, kidnapping, or join Boko Haram. When the police go unpaid
> for months, the citizens become the logical prey.
>
> That's where Nigeria is today. It will not change until we, the people, join
> in a mass outrage against corruption, demand transparent accounting of our
> oil revenues and economic justice. Only then will an honest leadership
> emerge to invest a fair share of the oil revenues in capital in such a way
> as to permanently raise the consumption level of the masses. Otherwise we
> Nigerian expatriates — the most educated immigrant group in the United
> States — will remain in exile, and Nigeria will remain a breeding ground for
> terrorism.
>
> Is there an Honest Ernest among Nigerians who is able to galvanize us? Can
> something that good come out of Nigeria? That's a palm reader's guess.
>
> May Akabogu-Collins is a visiting professor of economics at the American
> Business School in Paris.
>
>
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Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"

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