Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Naming a Dog and Buhari’s Emerging Democratic Tyranny

Obi Nwakanma:

S(h)ebi to you Chief Obafemi Awolowo was "reactionary and fascist?"  Then I am in good company, and being so tattoed by YOU, a vulgar Igbo supermenschen commentator of Goebellsian propensity - I wear it as a badge of honor.

Read you fart: "We, the Igbo belong to that country, and give no fiddler's fart for that medieval aberration". What does being Igbo have to do with this - simply because the name of the fellow charged is Chinakwe, an Igbo fellow who might have resided in Ketere Area, Sango Ota all of his life, and is Igbo in name only?   The guy's name could have been Mobolaji or Hassan, and I would have maintained EXACTLY the same position as I have - although I am NOT going to tear my hair trying to convince any one of you paranoid and psychotic souls that not everyone is after your blood.

Here you are:  you have read different people of different ethnic groups DEFEND Chinakwe's right to name his dog Buhari.  I HAVE written to defend his right to name his dog Buhari, or even Mobolaji.  What I have also written is that he stands to be charged for breaching the peace IF he names the dog Buhari, pastes the name Buhari on both sides of the dog's body, and then PARADES the dog in a provocative manner in a neighborhood in which there is a prominent person called Buhari, and where he has already bad blood with community members for whatever other reason.  In short, he is a neighborhood trouble-maker, and he already had it coming.  But let ONE person - who is not Igbo - point that out, and it does not matter whether HUNDREDS of non-Igbo maintain their stand about Chinakwe's right even to that - let one person oppose Chinakwe, and silly supermenschen persons like yourself will start farting about "We, the Igbo belong to that country, and give no fiddler's fart for that medieval aberration " - the traditional blackmail that will NEVER work in Nigeria.

Poppy-cock and nonsenses!

The fact of the matter is that people like you make enemies of friends and friends of enemies, and then you wonder why you feel surrounded by so many enemies.  Somebody may indeed be after you, but it is not I.

You must understand once and for all, that despite my so-called "Western" upbringing and long years living and working in the West, I am NOT a wild-eyed "Western Democracy" advocate.  I choose what I conserve about my African traditions (particularly of the Yoruba stripe), what I am liberal about in my Western imbibements, while thoroughly embracing universal values consistent with my Christianity.  I make no apologies about that.  That mix of concoctions may be different for different people, but I believe that whoever puts too much Western "salt" into the African broth spoils the broth!   I do not look at the West, and see "See, they got to the Moon because they can abuse their fathers and mothers anyhow, in a demonstration of free speech."  That would be silly, which is what argument it amounts too when you read some people jump up and down about Western democracy.

Finally, you wrote that I was "once on the books for treasonable felony for simply backing your favorite political horse."  I have ABSOLUTELY no idea what you are writing about here.  I have NEVER been accused. arrested or charged to court for "backing" any "political horse" - never.  The issue of me "backing a political horse" has never even been one of public discourse - I am NOT a politician.  How is that even possible -  so were ALL the "backers" of that "favorite political horse" were "on the books for treasonable felony" - or why was I singled out?  What did I, Mobolaji Aluko, do SPECIFICALLY then?

But if you, in your hackneyed Goebbelsian manner,  are harping back to the fact that under the Abacha regime, while I was abroad, I and a few others were WRONGLY accused of manufacturing and throwing bombs in Nigeria to abort that regime - a charge which I have REPEATEDLY denied as being ABSOLUTELY false - then one can see the nature of your narratives.  First, I NEVER took part in "backing the Abiola political horse", in case Abiola was that horse.  I took part and aligned with those who believed that the Nigerian people had the absolute right to choose who they wanted as President, and having done that, that right should not have been abridged by cancelling a concluded election because the person who emerged was not to the liking of the military.  I was NOT backing Abiola - his name could have been Nwakanma -  but rather the Nigerian people. I MAINTAINED that stand all throughout the Pro-Democracy Days, a position that sometimes earned me opprobrium during those days, because the PDM had both politicos (die-hard partisans) - and non-politicos like myself, idealistic, Johnny-come-lately then to the activist, non-partisan arena.

But the regime HAD the absolute right to go after ANYBODY who they thought was VIOLENTLY trying to remove it. Yes, it THOUGHT wrongly that I was violently trying to remove it - but yes. I was NON-VIOLENTLY advocating for its removal.  But I knew the consequences of even those non-violent actions, and was prepared to bear it.....and bore it while it lasted.

The problem with some of you anarchists is that you do not wish to face the consequences of your actions.  Every action has a reaction, and even IF you would not have the same reaction, you must understand that others may have REACTIONS different from you, and you must then WEIGH either your readiness to DEFEND yourself against that reaction (so that it does not succeed), or bear that reaction, if it succeeds.  That is plain wisdom, which episodically you choose not to exhibit.

One thing I know:  Chinakwe has learnt his lesson:  he ain't naming another dog Buhari soon, and parading him in that same neighborhood.  He can buy a new dog, name him Buhari quietly in his own house; or move neighborhood to my Ode-Ekiti, and slap the name on both sides and walk around.  (Even at that, in my Ode-Ekiti,  I am not so sure! I might come after him:-))

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

On Tue, Aug 30, 2016 at 12:57 AM, Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com> wrote:

Dr. Aluko, your reactionary and fascist instincts cannot stand a young "colored" man "making fun of the "Oba" of his country?!! O ma bloody se o! There are those who actually hoped that you, of all people, should stand up and defend "free speech" and civic protest, and a difference of political and cultural views, wherever they're expressed. You were once on the books for treasonable felony for simply backing your favorite political horse. And meanwhile, we are not in a "traditional village." We are in the 21st century with its rapidly urbanizing ethos. And Buhari is nobody's "Oba." We, the Igbo belong to that country, and give no fiddler's fart for that medieval aberration, which civilized people dispensed with about 300 years ago. Nigeria is a republic with citizens. Not a monarchy with subjects - even if your reactionary soul cannot stand that fact of human equality and civilized conduct. Chinakwe's act is the fullest expression of his rights to free speech, and it is satire at its best. It is the same kind of satire Soyinka used to deadly effect at the height of his career. It is the same kind of theatre that only really nuanced, and sophisticated imaginations can comprehend and be amused by, but which heats up the collars of dunces and reactionaries! I think you guys should give this oppressed Nigerian, Chinakwe, a break.

Obi Nwakanma

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2016 10:27 PM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Naming a Dog and Buhari's Emerging Democratic Tyranny

 

Shola Adenekan:

I did not watch the video - my African sensibilities cannot stand a young "colored" fellow abusing a 70-year-old man (the "Oba"of his country) - making millions of dollars doing so.  You cannot make fun of an Oba's dick like that in a traditional village and get away with it.

But your commentary below about Trevor Noah and Zuma's dick in a modern democracy seriously lacks context.  That is political SATIRE, which is EXPRESSLY protected in America's Constitution, and may be also covered in South Africa's.  If Zuma does not sue Trevor Noah, then Noah can go on.

But Chinakwe's naming of a dog was not about Muhammadu Buhari - that would also be political satire - but about his neighbor's father's name - who happened to be Buhari.  That Father Buhari is NOT a political figure, and his son COMPLAINED, and the local Police man at the station considered the complaint sufficiently weighty to detain Chinakwe, arresting him for "possibility of breach of the public peace."  It is thereafter up to the court to say whether Chinakwe is guilty or not.

It is as simple as that, and all this harrumping about Western democracy and the onslaught of tyranny because of tyranny smacks of something more grieving of you commentators than the dog.  I think that you are just smirking secretly that a dog has been named after Buhari, which happens to be the President Buhari's name, the foe-du-jour.

And there you have it.

Bolaji Aluko

On Mon, Aug 29, 2016 at 4:40 PM, Shola Adenekan <sholaadenekan@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Mr Kadiri,

There you go again, not answering the question. You write without relying on facts. That is the difference between when Farouk writes and when people like you write. Farouk does his research, you sir, do not.

Anyway in other societies, people are not gunned down if they name their dogs or monkeys after their president. Here is a discussion about a person who named their dog Obama - http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-578765.html

Here is Trevor Noah - before he became famous - making fun of President Jacob Zuma´s dick, scroll to 1.30min - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v41uKgTxHNE

And here is him mocking Zuma again - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awimlo60jls

I think you, like the rest of our politicians, need to re-learn what democracy entails.

Be well, sir!

Shola

On 29 August 2016 at 16:10, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:

Dear Mr. Adenekan,

You have asked me to tell, "Who are these Americanized and Europeanized people you are referring to?" Your question is superfluous because you failed to read the complete sentence, which is as follows, "Americanised and Europeanised Nigerian intellectuals are known for their being exaggerated democrats who always dress themselves in the beautiful garments of democracy only in words and not in practice." The underlined part of that sentence answers your question, who are these Americanized and Europeanized people?

With regards to your lecture on the aspect of freedom of speech, I agree with you that not in any circumstance should it be contained. However, you should not confuse freedom of speech with freedom of action. Mr. Chinakwe did not utter any word to the effect that anybody bearing the name Buhari is a dog rather he dressed up his dog with a printed inscription of a human name, Buhari. Any human being bearing the name,  Buhari, and irrespective of the person's status in the society, is likely to react violently to Chinakwe's freedom of action during encounter. Similarly, if you buy a monkey and dress it up with a printed inscription of Obama in the United States, the probability that you will be gunned down with your monkey is hundred per cent. Yes, you can call Obama monkey in the public but you cannot print the name, Obama, on a monkey and walk around with it in the public.

Your assertion that the current administration *has bent the rule of law* in Messrs Kanu and Chinakwe's case is totally false. A law is either applied or misapplied. It is up to you to tell readers which law has been misapplied in the case of the aforementioned law breakers. While it might be true that I criticized Jonathan's regime for one thing or the other, it might be wise to cite what aspect of those criticisms are relevant to your current reference.

S.Kadiri    

 

---

Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> för Shola Adenekan <sholaadenekan@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 29 augusti 2016 12:58
Till: usaafricadialogue
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Naming a Dog and Buhari's Emerging Democratic Tyranny

 

Dear Mr Salimonu Kadiri,

Have you actually read your intial response to Farouk´s piece? Perhaps, you want me to copy and paste it again? Here it is:

"Americanised and Europeanised Nigerian intellectuals are known for their being exaggerated democrats who always dress themselves in beautiful garments of democracy only in words and not in practice. That explains why they dissipate so much energy on the fate of Mr. Joe Fortemose Chinakwe, who is being arraigned in court for behaving in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace. Our exaggerated democrats are saying that in Europe and America, one can name animals anyhow and as such there was nothing wrong in Mr. Chinakwe's naming his dog *Buhari.* But a name given to a pet animal in Europe and America is only known to the owner of the pet animal and his/her immediate close relatives or friends. Unlike Mr. Chinakwe the name given to a pet animal in Europe or America is never inscribed in print on both sides of the animal. If Mr. Chinakwe had named his dog Buhari without inscribing it in print on both sides of the dog, nobody would have cared to report him to the police as a plaintiff had done against Mr. Chinakwe. We must not forget that there are people who bear Buhari either as a surname or first name beside President Buhari. In fact, a man whose father's name is Buhari in the neighbourhood of Mr. Chinakwe's place of abode has threatened to kill him if he could lay hands on him for insulting his father. In Europe and America, one is stung if one touches the wasp-net with the head, as in Nigeria.

Mr.Chinakwe has been granted bail by the court, but he has not been able to fulfil his bail condition of N50,000 as his family has been able to raise only N20,000. Therefore, he has been remanded in police custody. If Mr. Chinakwe had been in Europe or America, there is likelihood that he might have been jailed for not taking proper care of his dog. A person who could take proper care of his dog should be able to fulfil a bail condition of N50,000. For now, what the Europeanised and Americanised Nigerian intellectuals who sympathise with Mr. Chinakwe should do is to send him money to fulfil his bail conditions and pay his defence lawyer. It is very disgusting to see that the degree of energy dissipated by the democratic pretenders have never been witnessed in the cases of treasury looters whose trials have been buried by the corrupt judiciary. Nigerians wallow in abject poverty and destitution today because of the backwardness imposed upon the country by those who held the lever of power in Nigeria from 1999 to 2015. Taunting Buhari in this wise is an invitation to argue about nothing and to learn nothing.

S.Kadiri"

Read the opening paragraph again. You are the person who pointed out that there are Europeanized and Americanized Nigerian interllectuals, not me. Pray, tell us, who are these Americanized and Europeanized people you are referring to? And how does their interpretation of democracy different from Nigeria´s version of democracy.  I think Kenneth Harrow has aptly commented on this: There is only one democracy, it´s either we practice democracy in Nigeria or we choose dictatorship. There is no in-between. Culture is not an excuse. As a matter of fact, the slogan of "this is our culture" has always been the precursor to tyranny. We have seen this in Nigeria, Uganda, Turkey etc.

One of the essential aspects of democracy is the freedom of speech and the protection of that freedom is paramount and more important than protecting the honour of President Buhari. Democracy also requires that the government follows the rule of law. In both Mr Kanu and Mr Chinalwe´s case, the current administration has bent the rule of law. 

I have archived most of your submissions over the years on this list. I remember you criticising the Jonathan´s government for not following the rule of law. I guess now that your man is in power, that same criteria no longer applies.

Be well, sir!

Best wishes,

Shola

On 29 August 2016 at 08:59, Kenneth Harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

Abdul, I liked your post, but a small set of reflections. If it is democracy you really want, then you must accept that a president is no more important than one else, and we are all free to use speech, even in offensive ways. That may not apply to a private usage, like this list, where we participate having agreed not to insult each other. But we can't have meaningful criticisms of public officials without feeling free from theburden of their office. In other words, why criticize American democracy and yet complain about freedom of speech?

As for American democracy, well, in a real sense  it is a democracy. We all vote, etc. but it is an imperfect democracy, exactly in the ways you indicate

ken

 

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

 

From: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Abdul Salau <salauabdul@gmail.com>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Sunday 28 August 2016 at 17:00
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Naming a Dog and Buhari's Emerging Democratic Tyranny

 

Farooq

I don't know where you got your sensibilities from but naming a dog after a president of the most populous Black  country in the world is offensive and is distasteful culturally not because of the president because he is a mortal like all of us.   But because of institution of the presidency.   You may rationalize all you want about demoncrazy a wood that stays in the river cannot become crocodile.   United States is not a democracy it is plutocracy governed oligarchs it is the same way that the elites of the United States named cars, helicopters Apache after native Americans.

You can borrow ideology but we have to responsibilities to use this ideology in a culturally acceptable ways.

Abdul Salau

 

On Sun, Aug 28, 2016 at 2:03 AM, Shola Adenekan <sholaadenekan@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Mr Kadiri,

I guess you do not have any concrete response to the issues Prof Kperogi raised in his piece, so instead you decided to insult him and those of us who believe in genuine democracy.

 

You started with "Americanised and Europeanised Nigerian intellectuals are known for their being exaggerated democrats who always dress themselves in beautiful garments of democracy only in words and not in practice."

 

Please tell us, what sort of democrat are you as a Nigerianised democrat? How is your interpretation of democracy more ´real´ than our version of democracy?

 

I remember those days when you used to point out some of the undemocratic mistakes of Goodluck Jonathan´s government´-  when you were running for office a few years back. Is it not right for people who truly care about democracy to discuss Buhari´s mistakes?

 

Now on Mr Chinakwe´s case, you said: "But a name given to a pet animal in Europe and America is only known to the owner of the pet animal and his/her immediate close relatives or friends. Unlike Mr. Chinakwe the name given to a pet animal in Europe or America is never inscribed in print on both sides of the animal."

 

Are you telling me you know a lot more about the rule of dog ownership in Europe and America more than those of us who live in these places? Do you know how many times people have called Obama unprintable names and the president - because he believes in the First Amendment - just laughed these off as part of what makes democracy great?

 

You obviously did  not  do your research about Prof Kperogi. This man does not write without doing his homework. He takes his writing very seriously and that is why many respect and admire him. Did you ever look up what he wrote during Jonathan´s government and during the election that brought Buhari to power?

 

If you actually care about knowledge, you will sit down and Google his work and also research how things actually work in a true democracy, and then you can come back on this forum and criticise Prof Kperogi. What you sir, have done is a very lazy job.

 

Best wishes,

Shola

 

 

 

 

On 27 August 2016 at 22:26, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:

Americanised and Europeanised Nigerian intellectuals are known for their being exaggerated democrats who always dress themselves in beautiful garments of democracy only in words and not in practice. That explains why they dissipate so much energy on the fate of Mr. Joe Fortemose Chinakwe, who is being arraigned in court for behaving in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace. Our exaggerated democrats are saying that in Europe and America, one can name animals anyhow and as such there was nothing wrong in Mr. Chinakwe's naming his dog *Buhari.* But a name given to a pet animal in Europe and America is only known to the owner of the pet animal and his/her immediate close relatives or friends. Unlike Mr. Chinakwe the name given to a pet animal in Europe or America is never inscribed in print on both sides of the animal. If Mr. Chinakwe had named his dog Buhari without inscribing it in print on both sides of the dog, nobody would have cared to report him to the police as a plaintiff had done against Mr. Chinakwe. We must not forget that there are people who bear Buhari either as a surname or first name beside President Buhari. In fact, a man whose father's name is Buhari in the neighbourhood of Mr. Chinakwe's place of abode has threatened to kill him if he could lay hands on him for insulting his father. In Europe and America, one is stung if one touches the wasp-net with the head, as in Nigeria.

 

Mr.Chinakwe has been granted bail by the court, but he has not been able to fulfil his bail condition of N50,000 as his family has been able to raise only N20,000. Therefore, he has been remanded in police custody. If Mr. Chinakwe had been in Europe or America, there is likelihood that he might have been jailed for not taking proper care of his dog. A person who could take proper care of his dog should be able to fulfil a bail condition of N50,000. For now, what the Europeanised and Americanised Nigerian intellectuals who sympathise with Mr. Chinakwe should do is to send him money to fulfil his bail conditions and pay his defence lawyer. It is very disgusting to see that the degree of energy dissipated by the democratic pretenders have never been witnessed in the cases of treasury looters whose trials have been buried by the corrupt judiciary. Nigerians wallow in abject poverty and destitution today because of the backwardness imposed upon the country by those who held the lever of power in Nigeria from 1999 to 2015. Taunting Buhari in this wise is an invitation to argue about nothing and to learn nothing.

S.Kadiri   

 

 

 

---

Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> för Farooq A. Kperogi <farooqkperogi@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 27 augusti 2016 15:51
Till: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Ämne: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Naming a Dog and Buhari's Emerging Democratic Tyranny

 

My column in today's Daily Trust:

 

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Twitter:@farooqkperogi

 

Buhari's administration is shaping up to be perhaps the most intolerant and petulant civilian administration in Nigeria. But it isn't the intolerance and petulance in and of themselves that are disquieting; it is the crying incompetence of this government's handling of dissent, which often ends up popularizing and lionizing nonentities.

 

It started with Indigenous People of Biafra's Nnamdi Kanu. He was spewing his rib-tickling inanities on the fringes of the Internet and on a barely known radio station. Then, suddenly, when he started attacking President Buhari, Nigerian authorities moved in swiftly to contain him. They announced that they had successfully jammed his radio station, but came back a few days later to refute an alleged libelous falsehood the station made against Buhari!

 

Of course, news of the "jamming" of the radio and the press release refuting what the station reportedly said against Buhari (after it was supposed to have been jammed!) caused the station—and the ideology it espouses—to make national and international headlines. And there was an enormous spike in the number of searches for "Radio Biafra" and "Nnamdi Kanu" on Google and other search engines.

 

This, combined with Buhari's unambiguous antipathy toward the southeast, has sparked a resurgence of Biafran and neo-Biafran movements and periodic sanguinary communal upheavals. This was completely avoidable. If the government had ignored (or quietly diluted)  Kanu and his Radio Biafra and demonstrated even token large-heartedness toward the southeast (and the deep south) in the immediate aftermath of Buhari's epochal electoral triumph in spite of opposition from the region, we wouldn't know of Kanu and IPOB. But Nigerian authorities couldn't stomach an insult at Buhari.

 

Now another man by the name of Joe Fortemose Chinakwe has become an international celebrity. He has been arrested, detained, imprisoned, and charged to court just because he named his dog Buhari. This is the height of petty intolerance.

 

Worse bile was directed at previous civilian presidents in the country. Tafawa Balewa, Shagari, Obasanjo, Yar'adua, and Jonathan were often at the receiving end of so much thoroughgoing hate, but the world didn't know about this because no one was arrested and imprisoned. (Comedian Ali Baba said he named one of his dogs "Obasanjo" during Obasanjo's administration and publicized it. In northern Nigeria, Jonathan and Attahiru Jega were called some of the vilest names I have ever heard—and in songs, too.) Public office is not for huffy crybabies.

 

 

I have read many Muslim commenters point out that giving a dog a Muslim name was offensive in and of itself. I agree. The problem is that the name wasn't given to the dog to spite Muslims; it was given to make a political statement. If Buhari's name was Smith Punapuna, the dog would be named precisely that.

 

But Buhari isn't even a Muslim name in the strict sense of the term.  As I pointed in previous articles, the name Bukhari (which we render as Buhari in Nigeria because many Nigerian languages don't have the guttural consonant that the phoneme "kh" represents), is derived from Bukhara, which is the name of a town in what is now Uzbekistan in the former USSR.

 

The person who popularized the name is a 9th-century author of hadith collections known as Abū 'Abd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismā'īl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Mughīrah ibn Bardizbah al-Ju'fī al-Bukhārī.

 

In Hebrew, Arabic, and Farsi, "i" is added to the name of a town to indicate descent from the town. So "Bukhari" simply means someone from (the town of) Bukhara, what Hausa speakers would call "Dan Buhara." It's like someone taking offense because someone named his dog Dan Kano, Dan Daura, Dan Hadejia, etc., which, though names of towns, are borne by some northerners as last names (without the "dan").

 

But that's not even the most important point. How many people will the Buhari administration arrest for getting under the president's skin? In other words, how many people will this administration make undeservedly popular because of its intolerance and incompetence? Many frustrated people who feel they have nothing to live for in light of the present economic crunch in the country are going to name their dogs after Buhari. Watch out. It's now the surest way to cheap popularity, and the intolerance and incompetence of this government will ensure that they get all the attention, and possibly financial benefits, they crave. 

 

But it isn't only after Buhari that dogs will be named; dogs will also be named after key ministers of the government.

 

As I am writing this column, I read that a woman by the name of Ada Ogbonna has named her dog after the comically loudmouthed Lai Mohammed. "Meet my dog, Lai Mohammed," she wrote on Facebook. "I named it after someone I admired."

 

There will be several such publicity baits. A competent government with some clue won't swallow such easy baits. This is all part of democracy. I live in America where the president of the country is called all sorts of dreadful names without consequences.  For instance, many racists named their dogs Obama, but Obama disarmed them by naming his dog Bo, which is short for Barack Obama.

 

We can't pretend to be practicing democracy and clamp down on people for merely saying hurtful things that get on our frail nerves.

 

This is particularly telling coming from a government that is caught flatfooted in almost everything, a government that daily inflicts misery on its poor citizens while its power structure feeds fat on the misery of the poor. It's troubling when a government that took six months to appoint a predictable cast of characters as ministers wastes no time to arrest a person for naming his dog Buhari. It is concerning when a government that is mute in the face of the horrendous mass murder of hundreds of Shiites in Zaria arrests inconsequential people because they got under the skin of the president.

 

Maybe Buhari is not even aware that someone has been imprisoned because he named his dog after him.  Maybe. But people who are close to and love the president should tell him that the emerging pettiness and intolerance of his administration are becoming intolerably embarrassing.

 

You can't be paying over-sized attention to minor, inconsequential irritants while the country burns under your watch.

 

Related Articles:

Why Buhari Should Leave Radio Biafra Alone

After the Euphoria, What President-Elect Buhari Needs to Know

 

Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Journalism & Emerging Media
School of Communication & Media

Social Science Building 

Room 5092 MD 2207

402 Bartow Avenue
Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw, Georgia, USA 30144
Cell: (+1) 404-573-9697
Personal website: www.farooqkperogi.com

Twitter: @farooqkperog

Author of Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World

"The nice thing about pessimism is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." G. F. Will

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Regards,

Dr. Shola Adenekan

African Literature and Cultures

University of Bremen

 

Editor/Publisher:
The New Black Magazine - http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com

 

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Regards,

Dr. Shola Adenekan

African Literature and Cultures

University of Bremen

Editor/Publisher:
The New Black Magazine - http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com

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Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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Regards,

Dr. Shola Adenekan

African Literature and Cultures

University of Bremen

Editor/Publisher:
The New Black Magazine - http://www.thenewblackmagazine.com

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Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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