RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's Caution: Lives Matter

I welcome back the fish to swim in the water he hated so much and his sarcastic correction that it is Africa that contains 52 Sovereign States, though not United States. The number of States in the United States, however, is not important to the subject under discussion. What is essential is the number of States that that have legalised same-sex-marriage as fundamental human rights.
 
The President of United States, Barrack Obama, has in utterance and action approved same-sex-marriage. On May 12, 2012, many Western media had the following headline: SAME SEX MARRIAGE GETS OBAMA'S NOD. The text that followed quoted Obama as having said, "What I have come to realise is that for loving, same-sex couples, the denial of marriage equality means that, in their eyes (same sex) and the eyes of their children, they are still considered less than full citizens." When President Goodluck Jonathan, on Monday, 13 January 2014 signed into law Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill, the US Secretary of State in Obama's government, John Kerry, said that no one should face violence or discrimination for who they are or who they love. The Nigerian Vanguard online of 21st January 2014, had this headline, Gay-Marriage Law: US threatens to Sanction Nigeria. It stated further, "United States of America's Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. James Entwistle has threatened that the United States will scale down its support for HIV/AIDS and anti-malaria programmes in response to the Federal Government's position on the gay rights issue."
www.vanguardngr.com/2014/01/gay-marriage-law-us-threatens-sanction-nigeria/  It was on these statements and actions that I based my assertion that the US President, Barrack Obama approved same-sex-marriage. Correct me if I am wrong.
S. Kadiri
 

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Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2015 11:25:07 -0600
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's Caution: Lives Matter
From: jmbaku@weber.edu
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

The USA has 52 states! The President has approved same-sex marriage! Wonders shall never end! Is this the United States of Africa? Surely, this cannot be the United States of America.

On Tue, Oct 27, 2015 at 10:52 AM, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:

I agree with the moderator that the 1999 constitution, as amended, should not be treated as sacrosanct. Nigeria became a Federal Republic in 1963, but there existed House of Chiefs in each Regional Capital until the military coup of January 15, 1966. Even after the coup, the Kings (Emirs / Sultan, Oba and Eze) had the ears of the military leaders. After meeting the Emirs in the North in July 1966, the Military Head of State, Aguiyi Ironsi addressed a congregation of all Yoruba Oba, in Ibadan, on 27 July 1966, to explain the policy of his government to them. Beside Constitutional law there is also Conventional law and in certain circumstances the Conventional law may even supersede the Constitutional law. While we all agree that it is contradictory and unreasonable to have monarchs in a Federal Republic, the stark reality is that the Conventional law sanction their existence, which is why they are remunerated by the State and Local governments. In our desire for monarchs' free Republic of Nigeria, we should not act as if our dream is already a reality.
 
In the US, both the President and the Supreme Court have approved same-sex marriage but more than 40 out of 52 states comprising USA have refused to legalise same-sex and it cannot be enforced under fundamental human rights proclamation. In Nigeria, the rape law, section 357 (Nigerian Law Cap 38 is applicable only in the Southern part of Nigeria, whereas the Penal Code (Nigerian Laws Cap 89) is applicable in the North by adding defilement to rape crimes which it defines as having sex with a woman to whom one is not married. Bode has been very consistent and straight forward in his arguments but not his opponents who claimed that monarchy in Federal Republic of Nigeria is unconstitutional but are, at the same time, aiding and abating the establishment of  ethnic monarchs outside their recognised and traditional territories in Nigeria. That is nothing but sterile intellectual masturbation by perverted ethnic Mandarins.

S.Kadiri 

 

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From: toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Moderator's Caution: Lives Matter
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2015 13:09:01 +0000

Scholars:

As you make your arguments, be aware that statements that can generate violence and loss of lives are outside the bounds of scholarly engagements and individual rights. Indeed, such statements are irresponsible. Citizenship has its limits. Freedom has its limits. Rights are not limitless.

We cannot be in the comfort of our relocated spaces and not know that we have our brothers and sisters in  Enugu, Sokoto, Makurdi,  Ibadan and other places whose lives deserve to be protected.

Localism, irrespective of one's "federalist" position, remains powerful in Africa. You cannot wish away overnight, Zulu identity, even if we make arguments that it was a 19th century creation. Igbo, Yoruba etc. as presently constituted as political identities have not always been with us. But you can no longer wish them away overnight. I cannot go to Benue State and be disrespectful to the Idoma because of modernist arguments.

I cannot walk to Sokoto and say that the Sultan is not important, and his right to the Sokoto throne qualifies me to set up what the Sultan will regard as a threat to his throne. There is a history to his throne, and there may be a history to mine as well, but wisdom means that I must be careful as I may not even have the number to fight the Sultan.

I am not from Ile-Ife, but I cannot walk to Ife to ask them not to accord respect and dignity to their Ooni. Who am I? Citizenship in most African countries remain connected to places of birth, and I am sure that it will not always be so in the years ahead. You and I do not know when. 

Meanwhile, we must protect lives, and not be talking about death to people, in so casual a manner.

A mob can be generated within minutes in many places, and the police and army cannot do that much to protect lives, usually of the poor. 

Onigbogbo is my favorite joint in Nigeria. I was there last week. Here is the model that works, Muslims and Christians, poor and not so poor, Tiv, Igbo and Yoruba living their lives without many of the arguments we make here. My joint is actually in front of the palace of the Onigbongbo. Indeed, after the Friday mosque, some Muslims joined us to drink beer. The Onigbongbo people see lives differently from the way some of the scholars see things.

Exercise caution. 

Life is sacrosanct. One life should not be lost because of temporary political exigencies in a country that was cobbled together and where secular institutions remain either weak or not functioning well.

CAUTION

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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)
Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics &  John S. Hinckley Fellow
Department of Economics
Weber State University
1337 Edvalson Street, Dept. 3807
Ogden, UT 84408-3807, USA
(801) 626-7442 Phone
(801) 626-7423 Fax

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Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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