There's no need to apologise; and yes, it does matter, Okwy. We need more of this sane, deliberative reading of Nigeria's history, and the interrelationship between its peoples, rather than the mindless, incendiary blogging, and the equally incendiary, but politically mindful and manipulatively destructive comments by the likes of Femi Fani-Kayode. The more that there are those that know the important minutiae and nuance of history, the more it will give the lie to the spurious bombast of the likes of Fani-Kayode. It will not silence the mindless and the pathological political tribalists, but it will at least widen the lens of the debates for those of good intent. BTW, as John has asked about citizenship, nation and Nigeria, why aren't the constitutional lawyers not wading in on this?
Pablo
On 2013-08-14 5:49 AM, Okwy Okeke wrote:
Pablo
On 2013-08-14 5:49 AM, Okwy Okeke wrote:
--Cornelius,
Not that it matters, but for the records, that comment was made at Ikoyi Club 1938, or Ikoyi Club for short.
It has been mis-quoted, wrongly ascribed, and put forward as proof for everything, so expect it to be put forward by others not just in beer parlors but in this group. If then chairman of Guardian Newspapers' Editorial Board could claim as recently as 2001 that Rex Lawson was Igbo (he is Ijaw) and that his song "Ewu N'ebe Akwa" that was released in 1964 mocked the killing of Ahmadu Bello in Jan 1966 and has not retracted same to date as justification for mass killing, what do you expect of his present day tawdry imitators?
Charles Dadi Onyeama was Nigeria's first judge at the International Court of Justice, and son of Eze Onyeama (Enugu coal mines are named after the later). Ascribing that story to Nnamdi Azikiwe is pathetic given the tense relationship between him and Eze Onyeama. The story, apocryphal I may add, goes that Nnamdi Azikiwe was in Charles Dadi Onyeama's court in show of support for a friend, not being one to miss an opportunity to get one up the other, Justice Onyeama looked at him and asked whether he had seen him before on the premise he looked like someone he had jailed in the past, to which Zik replied in the affirmative, tongue-in-cheek though, and to help joggle the former's memory put the date on the day the Justice's father committed suicide, I digress.
This show of shame, this ethnic baiting that dominates Nigeria's blogosphere and press does not mirror what I see and experience everyday in Nigeria. The elites are driving the country to the precipice yet again for selfish gains.
Okwy Okeke------------------------------------------
We face forward,...we face neither East or West: we face forward.......Kwame Nkrumah
From: Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, 14 August 2013, 3:17
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - My apologies please.
--There's the saying, "Let the fool speak and the wise give no answer" and I suppose that's why some of the wise mwalimu in this series did not even deign to challenge "the domination of Nigeria and Africa by the Igbo is only a matter of time'' being wrongly attributed to ZIK who was most probably incapable of making such a prophecy / prediction. Such wishful thinking/ "unsavoury comments" were allegedly made as early as 1945, by one Mr. Charles Dadi Onyeama, a member of the Central Legislative Council representing Enugu in his address to the Igbo State Union. He must have been in a hopeful, exhalative mood, nothing dangerous. Looking slightly further ahead in time he could have added "and give us a little extra time and we will rule the world!" - although I don't think that if he had said that it would have worried the Americans, the Russians, the Chinese or the Indians one iota – the wise men among them would check his prophecy against their own and then it could be a matter of " let the fool speak and the wise give no answer", all over again. Charles Dadi Onyeama was only giving a pep talk to his brethren in the Igbo State Union. We shouldn't read more into it than that. If he stood up at the podium of the UN General Assembly and said that, " It's only a matter of time before the Igbos rule Nigeria , Africa and the world" he would probably get a round of applause, if not a standing ovation....The lyrics of this song apply to all of us. If we would all love our neighbours as ourselves, we would be living in the ideal world.Over here we're getting ready to welcome Brother Obama!
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