Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2015 08:15:21 -0400
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A republic of two thousand kings! My column on Thursday 29 th of October
From: ominira@gmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Bode, in a republic, there can be no kings, whether old or new. And about your feeling strange in Anambra. Well, I'm certain you'd not be more estranged than the Ijebu who until 1951, were regarded as "strangers" in Ibadan, and their section of Ibadan, around the Ijebu by-pass, regarded as something of the home of the "Ara-oke" by the Ibadan people. When in February 1951, the "Native Settlers Association" met to press for their rights against the Ibadan peoples pressure to maintain their "stranger status," guess who these "strangers" were in Ibadan? Oshilaja Oduoye, M.S. Sowole, Dr. Ikejiani, Alfred Des Dokubo, who was editor of the major newspaper in the city, the Southern Nigerian Defender, Abdderehahman Bida, and of course, Obafemi Awolowo, who was legal adviser of the "Native Settlers Association." In other words, the man who later became premier of the West was considered a "stranger" in that city. But they did not stand for it. These "strangers" met, created their own organization, and forced new considerations in defence of their rights. That is the legacy that we must defend in the creation of a modern nation.Obi Nwakanma
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2015 16:43:40 -0400
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A republic of two thousand kings! My column on Thursday 29 th of October
From: ominira@gmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com.....and Obi, good luck with the abolition of kingship in Nigeria. But do not abolish the old kingships alone, for equity sake, abolish the new ones too.On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 1:25 PM, Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com> wrote:Bode, I think you are deliberately twisting Ugo's point, and smashing the kernel of the argument. Ugo is not making a case fo segregation. In many of the world's leading metropolitan centers there are distinct neighborhoods that add colour and variety to city and communal life. There are the Jewish Communities, the Italian, little China towns, Spanish, Latin quarters, Greek, Irish, etc. These pockets of communities also have their own community leaders, and integrate in city life, in spite of these diverse and specific differences. What makes the difference is that they are all equally protected under the common law. No Frenchman for instance, goes to the Moroccans, the Senegalese, the Jews, the Spaniards, the Lithuanians, the ethnic Albanians, etc. in their various groups in Paris, to question the election of their community leaders, or what they choose to call these. Any of the members of these communities can contest municipal elections and are protected under the common law. The difference in the argument you make is that the proliferation of identity in settled places leads to segregation, and that we must not cross the lines of settled forms of traditional authority. What Ugo is arguing is quite simple, and that is the argument that those who have responded, including Bayo have made: every group living with the space called Nigeria has a right to its identity, and if they choose to maintain that identity within the idea of a diverse Nigeria, that is well and good, and if they choose to elect and name their community leaders, that is also quite well. No one should make them aliens, on the score of a difference that emphasizes the "settler/alien" paradigm that you are currently defending. No Nigerian citizen is alien. The only immigrant to Nigeria is a non-citizen of Nigeria, as defined by the constitution, who, until they choose to naturalize, should register as an alien/ visitor/guest. But not a bona fide Nigerian, anywhere in Nigeria!Nigeria is also a democratic republic. It should be made clear that the real contradiction is the continued, and illogical permission which the state grants individuals in this republic to continue to bear titles, and claim royalty. It contradicts and undermines Nigeria's claim as a federal, democratic republic and it upturns and damages the central principle of republicanism: the equality principle which is enshrined in the laws of the Republic. Above all, it creates two, contradictory dimensions of authority, that competes for loyalty, and therefore makes loyalty to the republic impossible. India, which had grander Maharajahs and other kings resolved that question, when by an act of parliament, it abolished the privy purse and the princely states (native or traditional kings) because a democracy and a republic cannot function pari-pasu with these entities. India was Lord Lugard's reference point in introducing "indirect rule" as part of the imperial mandate. It is, in the light of the possibility of greater African modern nationhood, an anachronism which the conscious intellectual must help to bury, not sustain. Neither Ugo nor I, is arguing for the maintenance of difference based on the proliferation of the monarchy, but the rights of individuals to establish community, and elect their leaders, through a democratic process, and in furtherance of whatever legal interest they pursue within the federation of Nigeria. It is to underscore that neither the Emir of Kano, nor the Obi of Onitsha carries legitimate weight to regulate that right. In my view actually, these titles are illegal given the clear and settled provisions of Nigeria's Federal, Republican constitution.Obi Nwakanma
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2015 11:58:56 -0400
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A republic of two thousand kings! My column on Thursday 29 th of October
From: ominira@gmail.com
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.comprecisely my point. you endorse perpetual segregation. this segregation is accepted nationwide as the norm as you just did in your response. if all the ethnicities do is reproduce their homeland and the structures of their traditional authority all over the federation, there cannot emerge a modern and united nation. that does not mean we can stop the formation of such structures. we can however debate their relevance in the light of recent conflicts. this is all Professor Osuntokun's essay does in my view. by the way, i know this issue quite well, my in-law was one such leader in Zaria before his death, that position he held simply underscored their recognition of being strangers in the north. they were not ready to assert Nigerian citizenship for their protection that was why they formed a community and bounded together. i do not think that their status as citizens was diminished by the realization that they were in a federal republic with diverse people and laws that they must respect. if that was necessary in the 1960s to have these parallel structures of authority for their protection, I wonder when the national government would be strong enough to give confidence to all Nigerians that they do not need tribal associations and kingships for protection.On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 11:13 AM, Ugo Nwokeji <ugo@berkeley.edu> wrote:Bode,
In case you didn't know, Hausa migrants in other regions of Nigeria, certainly in Igboland, normally have headman, who lead in settling disputes amongst them, galvanize their community to support other community members in difficult times, and liase between the Hausa communities and host societies. I don't care what they call them (though I believe that in large urban centers they are called "Sarkin Hausa", which translates as "Hausa King", and Ndi-Igbo themselves call them "Eze Hausa") , but it is a fantastic arrangement, which shouldn't ruffle feathers. Really, why should bother anybody. I will feel obliged to defend the right of the Hausa communities to have leaders if anybody should try to take it away from them. Why does this so-called Eze Igbo matter rile some people so much in Yorba and? It doesn't bother people in any other part of Nigeria. That's the question we should be asking.
Ugo
On Oct 24, 2015 4:03 AM, "Bode" <ominira@gmail.com> wrote:Ugo: You are defending the self --segregation of certain group I dare not name and the simultaneous invention of parallel traditional authorities as a right of citizenship in a modern nation sate and you see no contradiction in your thinking, that makes you a separatist and a tribalist in thought and soul. We can disagree on what federalism and citizenship means without throwing up labels but you can't help it because you are paranoid. You should take my suggestion seriously and see a psychiatrist for your needs.On Sat, Oct 24, 2015 at 12:45 AM, Ugo Nwokeji <ugo@berkeley.edu> wrote:Bode,
You don't you pull tribalism from the hat. You are the tribalist par excellence. The fact that I am defending citizenship rights does not in any way amount to "separatist" and "tribal" agenda, but the opposite of that. Only in your warped mind would that kind of logic make sense. The same you, who somehow associated my pro-citizenship rights in a FEDERAL state (the same that obtains in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Austria and Germany) with a unitary arrangement a few short months ago, would now accuse me of advancing a "separatist" position. How do you do that? Do you even think, Bode? You are just blinded by prejudice to bring separatism into it, perhaps hoping it would somehow stick once you throw at certain kinds of people. It just doesn't work that way.
It is rather your xenophobic opposition to citizenship rights of your compatriots that is both tribalist and separatist, my friend. You can put a lipstick on a pig, it is still a pig. Only you can purge yourself of your xenophobia, tribalism and separatist sentiment that lie behind your arguments and illogicalities, such as I have highlighted above.
Remember what I wrote some months ago when you were making your xenophobic argument: "We don't have tribes, but we have tribalism, in the sense that we have people with a tribal mentality"?
Ugo
On Oct 23, 2015 2:08 PM, "Bode" <ominira@gmail.com> wrote:You are a fascist, Ugo, and there is nothing to gain from an exchange with you. You are using a modern concept of citizen to promote a separatist tribal agenda. So, for you citizenship means Yorubas can self-segregate everywhere and install kings for themselves in every community they reside in Nigeria or even in London and New York, they can install Obas everywhere as a right of (global) citizenship. You do not see that self-segregation and reversion to monarchy is the real problem here because you are blinded by ethnic loyalty. The nation state that confers the right of citizen requires integration not self-segregation and civic participation not reinvention of non-existent and archaic kingship. Kingship if you must be told derives from the lineage system, it is a close knit system of kit and kin. for those who never had kings to expend their rights of citizenship in installing kings everywhere does not simply undermine the nation state, whose rights they claim to embody but also shows a level of degeneration and lack of understanding of the institution of kingship, that only you can fail to see.On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 2:37 PM, Ugo Nwokeji <ugo@berkeley.edu> wrote:Bode,
If you detest being labeled as xenophobic, stop advancing xenophobic positions. It is as simple as that.
Ugo
From my mobile phone
On Oct 23, 2015 11:12 AM, "Bode" <ominira@gmail.com> wrote:Ugo,You are poisoning the wells again. It is a chronically anti-intellectual, and fascist tendency that you exhibit.BodeOn Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 12:16 PM, Ugo Nwokeji <ugo@berkeley.edu> wrote:Well-said, Obi and Bayou,
I have said it seems many times before, the problem in Nigeria is that many, including some of the most educated Nigerians, cannot grasp the meaning of national state, let alone being a citizen in it. Otherwise, how can somebody refer to, or reduce, their fellow citizens as foreigners or visitors? It is ridiculous that this is the kind of debate we are having in the 21st century. Referring to, reducing or treating fellow citizens as foreigners in order to deny them citizenship rights under any guise is xenophobic. It has no other name. Period.
Ugo
On Oct 23, 2015 8:50 AM, "Bayo Amos" <aaeoee@gmail.com> wrote:"Bode, I think you miss the point: I do not defend the institution, but the rights of the individual to the freedom of self expression guaranteed by citizenship, and covered under Nigeria's charter of human rights. I have very little interests in these titles. But I think that a Yoruba man who wishes to be known as "Oba Awon Yoruba" or "Olu Yoruba in Zaria" has the right and in fact the obligation to defend that right. Under constitutional rule, and under the principle that covers his citizenship, the Emir of Zaria is just another citizen in Zaria, equal in status to a Yoruba in Zaria, who may be a tailor, vulcanizer or Professor. Nigeria is not a monarchy, and Zaria is in fact, part of the Nigerian federation. The Yoruba man, who is a citizen of Nigeria is no "visitor" to Zaria but a citizen of Nigeria resident in Zaria. So, if this Yoruba man wants to be "Agalaba-ji-Igwe in Zaria," for as long as he does not claim to establish extraordinary military and political control that questions the sovereign - in this case the constitution - he has the rights. It is that right we must defend, not the rights to subdue him."---ObiI am Bayo Amos and I approve this message.We should stop inventing crimes where none exists. I have examined this Eze Ndigbo thing but I am yet to really see where he erred. I know Mojere Market and the market in question, a section of Ilesa Garage, is dominated (at least 70%) by Igbo. Why can't Igbo determine what's obtainable in a market dominated by them? If there is any dispute, why must it necessarily be taken to Deji's palace? What happens to our courts? And where is it written that if a citizen is summoned by Deji, he or she must appear before him?If we care so much about Deji's powers, we should strive to put such in our laws, not this nebulous method of appealing to custom or tradition that are not really enforceable in our courts, at least in this case. In our individual minds, we might think Deji is bigger than Mr Gregory, but in the eye of Nigerian laws, there is no distinction.On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 9:27 AM, Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com> wrote:Bode, I think you miss the point: I do not defend the institution, but the rights of the individual to the freedom of self expression guaranteed by citizenship, and covered under Nigeria's charter of human rights. I have very little interests in these titles. But I think that a Yoruba man who wishes to be known as "Oba Awon Yoruba" or "Olu Yoruba in Zaria" has the right and in fact the obligation to defend that right. Under constitutional rule, and under the principle that covers his citizenship, the Emir of Zaria is just another citizen in Zaria, equal in status to a Yoruba in Zaria, who may be a tailor, vulcanizer or Professor. Nigeria is not a monarchy, and Zaria is in fact, part of the Nigerian federation. The Yoruba man, who is a citizen of Nigeria is no "visitor" to Zaria but a citizen of Nigeria resident in Zaria. So, if this Yoruba man wants to be "Agalaba-ji-Igwe in Zaria," for as long as he does not claim to establish extraordinary military and political control that questions the sovereign - in this case the constitution - he has the rights. It is that right we must defend, not the rights to subdue him.
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