I agree both in principle and in fact for this need for people to resist attacking others on the basis of nothing other than opinion (I am not earmarking you here, Chidi). I can imagine far more litigious people than many on this list (or perhaps not) calling upon their or others' lawyers to have ceasing and desisting from often what amounts to calumny and/or seeking recompense for some of the attributions that have been made about people here and beyond. Some people on this list sometimes willfully, or by oversight, engage in so many ad hominems that are based upon attack rather than evidence, with burdens of proof that are often thin to circumstantial. I think that many, including Kennedy, have made charges that are, upon any legal or academic, or even good journalistic grounds, hardly accurate, and in some cases just not true.
If people have responded with name calling and claiming her this and he is that, it is a form of reciprocal bad social capital (if I may use such a turn of phrase I once used in an article I co-wrote), about the people who do the things they do, drawing upon the, often bad, networked information that they have, and which only compounds half truths and speculations that cannot be the basis of dialogue. People often argue cogently but without evidence. As I have said before, if this started as a quasi-academic forum, we cannot always be expected to provide chapter and verse, footnote and bibliography or the deliberation that we would when we teach or write; but we should also not start the name calling.
Some of us are dispostional about our political beliefs. However, we are pragmatic in our choices in the face those who are before us, even if we may not like either in our ideal worlds. It seems to me that with the Nigerian elections, for some people it is not a matter of seeing things a glass half or two thirds full or empty, but seeing dirty or translucent glass, one where it is sometimes difficult to see in beyond all the sediment that filters political opinion and interests (which, for some, clearly do have connections to material pay offs), and ones that can nether be be factual nor allow for clear lenses to see what others can see. In these pre-disposed and preconceived worlds about what to see and what to expect, what happened, and the evidence for what did take place, only reinforces the toxic politicized environments of these elections.
Putting aside even the ratcheting up that takes place in the Nigerian blogosphere and the "legitimate" media which one had assumed this forum was not meant to replicate; and even if we take with a pinch of pepper the colorful language that adds perhaps more heat to the soupy exchanges that sometimes go on, people have to step back and and think before an accusation is made against someone, and where the evidence is less than what you would ask your children to provide as to why they put their tooth under the pillow. I don't go on Nigerian blogs, and especially the "ethnic" ones, precisely for this reason. It's like being naked in the village square; where empathy let alone cautious deliberation are in play; where anyone with a voice, a stick and some dirt (the equivalence of a keyboard and the internet), irrespective of literacy in anything but accusation, can call you mad and your mother a whore, especially if you have a name tag around you that is not of the village. I can recall a recent post by Ayo (Obe), who made the point that if you disagree with your choice (or non-choice) about a political candidate, you are named-called out, and all manner of aspersions are cast upon you, someone them implicitly ethnic.
If I did to my colleagues what others have done on this list, it would be grounds for tenure revocation and/or a letter of admonition in my file. It is not a matter of casting the first or last stone; it is about not wanting someone to make a false claim about you that is unfalsifiable, so that you don't make a claim about someone else that is unfalsifiable.
Pablo
On 2015-03-05 8:50 AM, Chidi Anthony Opara wrote:
Moses, you, Kennedy and some of your friends did what you now condemn to me some time ago. I however agree with your current position. I am also going back to ROM.CAO.
--
On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 10:12 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:
"The simple answer is, Kennedy Emetulu's brother is = PDP which is= Jonathan who is= SURE-P which is= Kennedy Emetulu."
So this is the basis of the recycled and unproven allegation that Kennedy Emetulu is a paid SURE-P commentator? I know the exchanges in this forum can sometimes degenerate into cyber fisticuffs but I've never seen such a deliberate and unfounded character assassination of a fellow forum member. Is it okay now on this forum to recklessly throw out innuendoes and allegations that impugn the honor and character of another forum member? If Kennedy had not come out forcefully to debunk this extremely malicious and wild allegation, his honor and name would have been associated with a fake SURE-P patronage constructed solely on the basis of his blood relation to a PDP candidate.
Even without any proof being offered and in spite of Kennedy's denial, another forum member has gone ahead to repeat the allegation as though there was something to it, in a deliberate effort to keep the insinuation going and in order to discredit Kennedy. I don't agree with most of Kennedy's positions on the imminent election and he knows it since he and I have basically agreed to disagree on another forum, but why can't those who similarly disagree with him outline their objections and counter-arguments as Shola and a few others have done without trying to intimidate him with attacks on his integrity? When did guilt by association or kinship and a far-fetched logical fallacy of connections become the basis for attacking the character of an interlocutor? This is why a lot of people have chosen to remain in ROM (Read Only Mode) and contribute only sporadically.
It is not only Kennedy that has been a target of this strange tactic of character assassination. Both Ikhide and Toyin Adepoju have, at different times, had their integrity questioned and have been accused without a shred of evidence of being paid by Jonathan to attack Buhari's supporters or to sell their alleged paymaster--just because they are expressing contrarian, controversial views considered unpopular by their accusers.
People have been called "tribalists" and their positions ascribed to "tribal" political calculations as though the accusers can read minds and discern motives.
For goodness sake, why can't we disagree with people without questioning their motive or their honor, without suspecting that their views have been bought for money or other pecuniary patronage? If we all thought alike, would it not be boring? I've come to the conclusion that many of our people cannot deal with difference, especially when that difference is loud, robust, and brash.
I taya for my country and its people.
Anyway, back to ROM.--
On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 2:16 PM, 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
My Sister, What if Buhari loses the election come March 30 or April 1when the results must all have come in, who get to scratch the head?
I don't think anyone, not you and certainly not Kennedy, should come out on a limb on this issue. It is certain that the election will be very interesting. My own political adrenalin is already fired. But the most we can epistemically say is: at least someone will win (and even that isn't sacrosanct because anything--ANYTHING--can still happen).
So?
Adeshina Afolayan
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
Date:Tue, 3 Mar, 2015 at 3:23 am
Subject:USA Africa Dialogue Series - BUHARI'S CHATHAM HOUSE CHARADE: NOT A STATESMANLIKE PRESENTATION AND NOT A STATESMANLIKE EXIT!
Dear Kennedy,
Note how calmly I called you. You need to simmer. You are getting too hot headed that I begin to wonder if, what someone called your 'e-bullets' energy should not be aimed at Bokoharam. You have gone over the lid. My suggestion to the group is that we allow him to take a break from his 'psychobabble'. It is countdown to March 28. One last thing though, Kennedy tell Jonathan the story of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.... Beware of the month of march...
I am done with you. My next chit chat with you is March 28, when you will nervously scratch your head for want of what to say.
Ofure
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