Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: Wole Soyinka and the Rivers State Dinner Controversy: Soyinka and Amaechi's Response and Rejoinders to Those [Facebook Debates]

My view on this thread

Such a possible "political fund raising activity" represents one of
the peculiar contrivances or strategies applied by politicians to
"milk" the state and national coffers. I have argued—and still
argue—that this administration should call for a thorough auditing of
the accounts of the 36 states and the Federal Capital City Abuja. As I
posited in an earlier submission on this forum, the powerful "gang of
two" Generals Buhari and Idiagbon, stressed to my satisfaction in the
early 1980s the criticality of auditing state and national budgets.
Indeed, some of you would recall what Governor Ibori did to the
treasury of Delta State partially because there was lack of authentic
auditing of the state's budget.

It would behoove this administration to undertake this important step
within the context of the current superb policy of fighting corruption
in our polity. Put in another way, he could call upon or challenge the
country to fight two overlapping battles—"the War against Corruption
and the War against Indiscipline." In this way, it would be the
country and not the president, APC and PDP going after the "Ali Babas
and their forty thieves" for rubbing our future generations of their
patrimony.

I have deliberately revived the highly contested policy of "War
against Indiscipline" for a reason. Indeed, I have done so against the
backdrop of the discourses (on this forum and elsewhere) during the
Obasanjo regime when our Vice President alleged that he and his boss
shared amongst themselves the extra proceeds from crude oil when the
price spiked above the budgeted $100 or so a barrel mark. I would
argue that it was because of fiscal "indiscipline" and "corruption"
that our leaders who should have invested the extra cash in the
country's infrastructure did not.

Ike Udogu


On 1/8/16, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
> a sidebar here:
> i have been to a good number of events sponsored or organized by toyin
> falola. they are a bit different from others i've attended--and that is
> a considerable number. he supports bringing young african scholars,
> giving them an opportunity by presenting their work, or by hearing other
> scholars, including both african and western. he doesn't splurge on high
> honoraria--as would be demanded by the likes of spike lee, say, or skip
> gates, or toni morrison, whom you mostly can't reach without going
> through their agents.
> he really makes the speakers participate in the agenda of fostering
> african scholarship in this way. it is another kind of commitment, and
> his exuberance and decency require us to be idealists.
> this is not about toyin, and his honors, multiple and deserved as they
> are. it is about a dinner. a simple dinner; an occasion to hear a
> speaker, to reflect on literary and political and philosophical values;
> to build an intellectual, and incidentally, a political constituency
> committed to making an african intellectual cohort come to life--one
> that is welcoming, not elitist and exclusive, much less dependent.
>
> political leadership and intellectual profundity/honesty tend to be at
> odds with each other. their goals, their attachments to power, and with
> power the perks, are and ought to be at odds. we need to be at a
> distance not only to criticize power, but more important, to understand
> it, freely, and equally important to be able to critique and criticize
> it freely.
> we need a free press; but they work ONLY on the surface of events.
> scholars, like those on this list, must understand the larger political
> and economic systems, and the ideologies that drive them
> that's why adesokan's book reiterates the term "neoliberal global order"
> instead of just "global order" because the two are linked, and to
> understand neoliberalism one needs more than sound bites from
> editorialists. one needs book-length studies by scholars.
>
> if that goes out the window, and the cry for technology drowns the
> intellectual voices, we will all build a society that is comfortable for
> those who know how to make profits, but not a better world.
>
> a brief note of thank you to toyin falola. not everyone knows this about
> his commitment, if they see only his personal accomplishments. he uses
> them for a purpose that is not the same as that of the politicians. the
> more it is known, perhaps the more it will offer the kind of inspiration
> for what we all should be striving to support.
> ken
> (thanks moses, as always!)
>
>
> On 1/8/16 12:01 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu wrote:
>> Oh Ken, your American innocence is a joy to behold. Aww, you think
>> dinner means dinner! I am sorry but I couldn't resist poking some fun
>> as I was laughing hard here. In Nigeria, as in most African countries,
>> a dinner is not just the food and drinks. A dinner is a euphemism for
>> much more; it is not to be taking literally, although they seemed to
>> have had roast beef as you said. So no need for all the arithmetic
>> breakdowns and dollar comparisons. The 80 Million Naira was not spent
>> on food and drinks alone. There must have been several contractors and
>> subcontractors associated with this "dinner"--some whose purposes may
>> have been to provide the "during" and "after" dinner entertainment,
>> among other accompaniments.
>>
>> On a serious note, without pronouncing one way or the other on the
>> merit or veracity of the allegation since details are just emerging,
>> this is clearly a political move designed to damage two APC/Buhari
>> sympathizers at once--Soyinka and Amaechi. But that does not mean that
>> it is not a legitimate allegation. As Governor of the oil rich Rivers
>> State, Amaechi was known for feting the literati and literary folks in
>> lavish parties and other expensive gestures of patronage (he was an
>> English major in college and perhaps likes to see himself as a patron
>> of the literary arts if not a literary mind). So let Kongi and Amaechi
>> defend themselves as I am sure they can.
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 8, 2016 at 10:16 AM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu
>> <mailto:harrow@msu.edu>> wrote:
>>
>> hard to fathom this story, for me, without looking up the exchange
>> rate for naira. i got $1=200 naira; one naira= half a cent.
>> so, one million naira = $5,000.
>> 80 million naira, $400,000 should feed trump for a week!
>> or lots of the rest of us for many years.
>> and you say, they only had roast beef sandwiches?
>>
>> to come to the more serious reflection, how many occasions do the
>> super rich spend a fortune on catered or restaurant meals.
>> literally a thousand or more dollars. maybe even $5000 for a
>> business meal, with expensive wines.
>> how many poor use food stamps?
>> that is the injustice that demands , at a minimum, the politics of
>> bernie sanders, and at the maximum a revolutionary change to the
>> neoliberal globalization that has spawned such inequality in the
>> recent decades?
>> ken
>>
>>
>> On 1/8/16 10:46 AM, Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:
>>>
>>> See posts and rich debates at respective links
>>>
>>> Might require a Facebook account, which is a must for following
>>> developments in contemporay Nigerian history
>>>
>>>
>>> 1. Chukwudi Iwuchukwu
>>>
>>> ·
>>>
>>> N82m Dinner: Prof Soyinka replies Wike, says he can't ask his
>>> hosts "how much they spend"
>>>
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1185652274796894&set=a.722503234445136.1073741825.100000563983468&type=3>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1185652274796894&set=a.722503234445136.1073741825.100000563983468&type=3>
>>>
>>> 2. Amaechi denies spending N82m on dinner for Soyinka, dares Wike
>>> to go to court
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/Premiumtimes/posts/959616887409259>
>>>
>>> 3. WHEN CORRUPTION FIGHTS BACK: Critical Questions for Embattled
>>> Professor Wole Soyinka
>>>
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=988522437876273&id=378378918890631>
>>>
>>> 4. 80th Birthday Dinner: Soyinka replies Rivers govt
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/vanguardngr/posts/1253201034704990>
>>>
>>> 5. Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has described as
>>> 'abominable distractions,' statement by the Rivers State
>>> Commissioner for Information, Dr Austin Tam-George, that the
>>> state would demand a refund from him (Soyinka) if it is confirmed
>>> that he collected cash from the N82 million allegedly spent by
>>> immediate-past Governor, Rotimi Amaechi on a dinner to honour him
>>>
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/informationnigeria/posts/10153568890739822>
>>>
>>> 6. " When I learnt of the scandalous accusation of a dinner worth
>>> N82 million Naira in my honour, I thought it was one of those
>>> accusations from politicians to lug me, into murky political
>>> waters. But having received an instrument from the Rivers state
>>> government to corroborate its stance. I'm even more saddened, and
>>> would like to posit, that I was only treated to a dinner, by the
>>> Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi administration. And I ingested
>>> only foods and drinks, and afterwards retired to the Rivers state
>>> government guest house, where I laid my head, and flew back to
>>> Lagos the next day. I wasn't vouchsafed with any pecuniary
>>> advancement or benefaction, that would worth that amount. I still
>>> would not want to probe into the catering and logistical
>>> implications of that dinner in my honour. However, my cogitation
>>> navigates, to what I will refer to as, corruption backed up by
>>> the absence of a public procurement act, by that government. It's
>>> either I was used as conduit to loot the treasury of Rivers state
>>> by that government or some contractors were not sincere. " ~~Prof
>>> Wole Soyink
>>>
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/christabel.amachree/posts/1048129758541004>a
>>>
>>> 7.Soyinka and the Pornography of Excess
>>>
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/groups/spacesforchange/permalink/1002394989842266/>.
>>>
>>> 8. Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka has described as
>>> 'abominable distractions,' statement by the Rivers State
>>> Commissioner for Information, Dr Austin Tam-George, that the
>>> state would demand refund from him (Soyinka) if he collected cash
>>> from the N82 million alleg
>>>
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/DailyIndependentNigeria/posts/1084350931616448>
>>>
>>> 9.News: N82million ill-fated Wole Soyinka Dinner : Nobel Laureate
>>> says it's not his business to know how much was expended by his
>>> friend
>>>
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=988609801200870&id=378378918890631>
>>>
>>> 10. Probe Me, Soyinka Dares EFCC
>>>
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/BlacknaijaOnline/photos/a.511663762223943.1073741828.504507682939551/1017497794973868/?type=3>
>>>
>>> 11. Former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi has denied
>>> allegations that he hosted Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka to an N82
>>> million dinner while in office.
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/pulsenigeria247/posts/986987091394719>
>>>
>>> 12. Soyinka responds to Rivers govt's call for his probe over
>>> "N82 million dinner
>>> <https://www.facebook.com/Premiumtimes/posts/959393767431571>"
>>>
>>> For more type 'Wole Soyinka' into facebook search
>>>
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>>
>> --
>> kenneth w. harrow
>> professor of english
>> michigan state university
>> department of english
>> 619 red cedar road
>> room C-614 wells hall
>> east lansing, mi 48824
>> ph.517 803 8839 <tel:517%20803%208839>
>> harrow@msu.edu <mailto:harrow@msu.edu>
>>
>> --
>> Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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>>
>> --
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>
> --
> kenneth w. harrow
> professor of english
> michigan state university
> department of english
> 619 red cedar road
> room C-614 wells hall
> east lansing, mi 48824
> ph. 517 803 8839
> harrow@msu.edu
>
> --
> Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
> To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
> To subscribe to this group, send an email to
> USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
> Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
> Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
> ---
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