Friday, April 21, 2017

SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Sexual Repression and Extremism in Northern Nigeria

However, I will continue to back Moses Ochonu's provocateur on a psycho-analytic examination of human motivation to horrendous mass action because it has been proven to be a useful (if difficult & technical tool) of social scientific and historical analysis. It is not a populist field in view of the highly technical manner of its investigative approaches and reactions so far had proven some of us trained in its intricacies right - Olayinka Agbetuyi.


You would have been telling the truth if Moses Ochonu's lecture at the University of Pittsburg had called for psycho-analytic examination of human motivation to horrendous mass action like the one allegedly perpetrated by "Boko Haram." The Christian name of the Lecturer at Pittsburg University is Moses, a Hebrew name from the Middle East. If his parents were Islamists, they would probably have named him Musa, also a Middle East Arabic equivalent name for Moses. I suspect that the majority of the audience at the University of Pittsburg, where Moses Ochonu lectured, must have been Christians and non-Africans (or non-Nigerians). He was not only being politically correct to the Christian majority listeners at his lecture, he was also selling himself to them by sinking Muslims in Northern part of Nigeria into sewage tank. Hear him, "Muslim-majority Northern Nigeria houses a sexual economy into which access to sex and the female body, whether mediated marriage or concubinage, is almost exclusively reserved for older, mostly Western educated, well off men."

"The region, moreover, is a home to a culture of sexual repression in which the expression and pursuit of desire is constrained by status and financial resources. The result is that sexual frustration coexists with and is exacerbated by the inability of young, uneducated and thus unemployable Muslim youth to access sexual resources and other benefits of heterosexual relationships."

"The rejection of Nigerian secular society and the concomitant allure of terrestrial caliphate or an extra-terrestrial paradise is intensified when the indoctrinated Muslim youth sees Western educated co-religionists and Christians engage in both licit and illicit sexual relationships with women. This is one of the silent but rarely acknowledged drivers of youth vulnerability to extremist indoctrination in Northern Nigeria."

"It is no coincidence that rapes, the kidnap of young girls, and sexual crimes have been rife within the ranks Boko Haram. Raids on the camps of Boko Haram have consistently turned up Viagra and other sexual enhancement drugs as well as condoms in large quantities." In the afore-cited statements from Moses Ochonu's lecture at the University of Pittsburg, nowhere was it indicated that he was calling for psychoanalytic examination of human motivation to horrendous mass action in general. 'Boko Haram (?)' might have committed criminal acts, but it is a product of the most horrible criminals in Nigeria, which are the political class and the intellectuals that serve under them in the Ministries, Departments, Agencies and parastatals. Any psychoanalytic examination of human motivation to horrendous mass action in Nigeria must start from the political class ruling Nigeria and the intellectuals serving under them. 'Boko Haram(?)' is just a stem in the tree of the evil in Nigeria and the best way to deal with the evil tree is to uproot it and not to just prune its stem.


Before attending to the questions raised by you, I must express my dissatisfaction over the disparagement of Northern Muslims at a lecture where the audience were mostly Christians and, perhaps, whites. Moses might have sold himself cheaply to his audience but the cost of negative repercussion for future generation of Nigerians is now inestimable. Slave trade started with Africans capturing their fellow Africans and exchanging them for pittance from Europeans. And in the intellectual front, we have the example of our African brother anthropologist, Anicet Kashamura, who in 1973 published a book in French, titled : FAMILLE, SEXUALITÉ ET CULTURE. The book contained a story about the sexual practices of peoples from Rift Valley Region of Central Africa. A section subtitled : MAGIES D'AMOUR, described the following sexual practice. "In order to stimulate a man or woman and induce them to intense sexual activity one inoculates them in the thighs, the pubic region and the back with blood from a male monkey (for a man) or a female monkey (for a woman)." Kashamura's book began with the preamble, "In the countries of the Great Lakes, and in particular, in Idjwi, one encounters a great variety of magic rites involving love." Fourteen years after this book was written, the origin of AIDS became public debate in 1987, whereby some European and American Scientists insisted that the disease originated in Africa from where it spread to the Caribbean and from there to the US  and from there to Europe. Armed with Kashamura's book, J. Noireau got his letter published in the British Science Journal, Lancet, of June 27, 1987 with the title: HIV TRANSMISSION FROM MONKEY TO MAN. Since it was touted at that time that HIV jumped species from Monkey to man, Noireau asserted that the sexual practice described in Kashamura's book was the cause of AIDS originating in Africa. Professor Abraham Karpas of the Department of Haematological Medicine at Cambridge University Clinical School jumped on Noireau's assertion and wrote in the New Scientist of July 16, 1987 with the title: Origin of the AIDS Virus Explained. The explanation of course was the sexual ritual described by Kashumara in his 1973 book pertaining to the people around Lake Kivu on the Congo/Rwanda border. The only difference being that the alleged ritual sex practice was extrapolated to cover the entire Black Africa because of AIDS. It did not matter that Whites like Dr. Rosalind J. Harrison-Chirimuuta of Burton Hospital in Britain informed the world that thousands of Europeans in the 1920s underwent operation that was believed to slow down the ageing process, bring about rejuvenation and increase virility. The technique, she said, was pioneered by Dr. Serge Voronoff, a Russian working in Paris, and which involved the transplantation of testicles from living chimpanzees, monkeys and other simian species directly onto the testicle of the European recipient. She asserted that, those transplantations would have been far more efficient to transmit Simian Immune Virus to humans but her input was ignored. My point here is that just as Sexual rituals described by Kashamura in 1970 earned him French accolade and recognition of his most white French audience in 1973, Moses Ochonu's Lecture at the Pittsburg University before his Christan and perhaps mostly white audience may certainly earn him recognition or pecuniary reward now but which may turn negative not only to Nigerians but entire Africa in future. 


Your questions as to whether the abduction of the Chibok girls was sex specific or not cannot be answered in yes or no. As you already know, the Islamic sect, 'Boko Haram(?),' was formed in 2002. The abduction of Chibok girls occurred on 14 April 2014, which gave a time space of 12 years. Before 14th April 2014, there was no known abduction of girls by 'Boko Haram(?).' A commonsense questions that should be asked are, did 'Boko Haram's(?)' men sexual appetites die between 2002 and 13th April 2014 but were suddenly awoken on April 14, 2014? If easy access to sex is what attracted Northern Youths to 'Boko Haram(?)', how could  access to sex have been fulfilled through the abduction of only three-hundred Chibok girls? Apart from the Chibok girls, why were there no further kidnappings of girls since, as Moses is contending, access to sex is a major cause of youth's attraction to the sect? Do you know that despite the fact that the Chibok girls were said to have slept in a hall in anticipation to write their WASCE, no official at the State or Federal level has been able to confirm the exact number of girls that were kidnapped in Chibok till date? Some months ago, the federal government claimed that about 21 Chibok girls were released, but how the release took place was not disclosed. Why were only 21 girls released? There was no information on how many girls were still in captivity, why they were not released together with the 21 girls and when they are expected to be released. There are many illogic surrounding both the number of abducted Chibok girls and how the abduction was successfully executed in Bornu State where a State of Emergency and 24 hours curfew had been declared with patrolling soldiers and police to enforce law and order. Chibok to Sambisa forest is a distance of 60 kilometres. For 'Boko Haram (?)' to have transported three-hundred girls in a convoy from Chibok to Sambisa forest unhindered by the Nigerian armed forces is a mystery. Forty-two days after the Chibok girls were abducted, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Sabundo Badeh, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday, 26 May 2014 thus, "We want our girls back. I can tell you that our military can and will do it; but where they are held, can we go there with force? Nobody should say Nigerian military does not know what it is doing; we can't kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back." Badeh's statements implied that the where about of the girls were located and kept under surveillance by the Nigerian military. On July 22, 2014, the Director General of Nigeria's State Security Service (SSS), Ita Ekpeyong, told the press that the Nigerian government was aware of the location of the kidnapped Chibok school girls. He emphasized, "Government is making efforts. We know where they are, but we don't want to endanger their lives. That is the truth. We want to take it gradually and release them at the appropriate time. We know where they are. You can go to bed with that." Towards the end of July 2015, the newly installed President of Nigeria relieved both Badeh and Ekpeyong of their appointments and the Chibok's girls whose location they assured Nigerians they knew, remained in captivity. While retiring on 30 July 2015, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Sabundo Badeh, informed his audience that the Armed Forces he led lacked the equipment to fight the terrorists. He failed to add, as subsequent EFCC enquiry and ongoing trial have shown, that he was under 13 months  transferring N531 million every month into his private account from the Military budget. That was how President Jonathan and the service men under him gave life to 'Boko Haram(?)' and, in fact, the number of Nigerians killed by Jonathan's regime in a day could not be accomplished  by 'Boko Haram(?)' in a year. 


Questions which you think Psychologists should find answer to in Nigeria are : Why did the eastern Nigerians not react to whole sale corruption in their region the way Boko Haram did?; Why did Sata Guru religious commune not take up arms against their surrounding State?

Throughout Southern Nigeria, some people react to whole sale economic deprivation and impoverishment through armed robberies (Banks and private homes) and kidnappings of illegitimate millionaires and  their close relations, for ransoms. 'Boko Haram(?)' also resorted to Bank robberies and kidnaps for ransom later after it had been attacked militarily by the power that be which felt threatened politically by the socio-political movement of the sect. Your observation about Eastern Nigerians to economic deprivation and impoverishment, presumed that all Northerners are 'Boko Haram (?).' That is not true. As for Sata Guru religious Commune, if their leaders had constituted threats to the surrounding ruling class, they would have been extra judicially murdered and their surviving members might have resorted to armed resistance just like 'Boko Haram(?)'. 


Moses asserted that when Northern  Muslim Youths were excluded from  or deprived of sexual intercourse, and see their Western educated coreligionists and Christians engage in both licit and illicit sexual relationships with women, they become attracted to extremists who offer to quench their sexual hunger. What is just too easy for Northern Muslim youth to see their Western educated coreligionists and Christians engage in, than licit and illicit sex, is illegal acquisition of wealth and the worship of money, material wealth and not the worship of God or Allah. Whether Western educated or not, a Northern Muslim male youth knows that if  he has money he can marry and care for, at least, a wife. If he is asked to choose between enslaving a woman sexually and money he will definitely choose to get his own legitimate share of the Federal allocation funds to his state with which he knows, he will be approved by his community to get married to a wife according to the tradition and culture. By the way, Western education should not be a criterion for a man to get married because before slavery, whether colonial or neo-colonial, Nigerians have been contracting marriages between the opposite sexes. What we proudly call Western Education in Nigeria is fluency in spoken and written English language which is not the mother tongue of Nigerians. Imposing English as the official language of Nigeria and making it a criterion on which one can get marry without simultaneously compelling the impostors of the language to provide opportunity for all Nigerians to acquire knowledge of the language is criminal. The imposition of Western education in Nigeria as a criterion for a man to gain access to a woman demands psychoanalytical examination of the impostors.


With Western education comes the perversion of our marriage system, traditionally and culturally. Thus, Moses in his drivel claimed that Western produced sexual facilitators were found during raids on 'Boko Haram's (?)' camps. Before the  cultural pollution of Africa family-wise, boys and girls were brought up to abstain from sexual intercourse before marriage. Marriage itself was not just an affair between the bride and the bridegroom alone but parents and extended families on both sides. Even where the boy or the girl chose their would be partner in marriage self, parents were informed and mediators from both sides were appointed to investigate  the suitability of the would-be couples together and to negotiate payment of traditional dowry to the family of the bride. Sex was seen only as means of procreation and not just a means to satisfy the man's lust. Boys, in particular, were trained to discipline their sexual instinct. The practice of polygamy ensured that every female was mated, especially where there were shortage of men. Even Lord Lugard who wrote the book, ' The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa,' to scorn Africans, could still appreciate the following, "The custom, which seems fairly general among the negro tribes, of suckling a child for two or three years, during which a woman lives apart from her husband, tends to decrease population." Lugard says the woman lives apart from her husband because they do not have sexual intercourse for the period of suckling when the child is still being tied to the back of the woman. There were no condoms but African men exercised self-control over their sexual behaviours. As history had it when the Western educated Nigerians returned from overseas to take appointments in Nigeria after independence, their loggages contained some kilograms of condoms which they intended using on their Nigerian wives. Contrary to the belief that Nigerian women are dominated and oppressed by their men, Nigerian wives of the condom wearing Western educated told their husbands that they should learn not only to know when to shower but not to shower with the rain-coats on. Some wives were even more blunt to their condom wearing husbands with questions, "Do you think I am a prostitute or a masturbating machine?" It was under the pretence of curbing the spread of HIV/AIDS that sexual intercourse with condom was forcibly introduced in a large scale to Africa. By 2005, Africans began to see not only environmental pollution caused by condoms all around their streets, towns and cities but explosion of youth engagements in illicit sex for fun. Campaigns for abstinence as it used to be before AIDS era began in Africa, and that caused the UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa then, Stephen Lewis, to protest that the abstinence campaigns were hampering distribution of condoms in Africa. 


The traditional marriage system has now been commercialized in Nigeria and many men can no longer afford to pay the high bride prices, irrespective of whether they are Western educated or not. Recently, the wife of Governor of Benue State, Mrs. Eunice Ortom, appealed to the traditional ruler of Tiv land to reduce bride price so that young girls in the state could find husbands. https://guardian.ng/news/reduce-bride-price-for-tiv-women-governors-wife-pleads/  Thus, if the Northern Muslim youths are being sexually starved, the same sexual starvation is happening to Northern Christian youths of Benue State.

S.Kadiri      


 


 

   
 

Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> för Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com>
Skickat: den 17 april 2017 20:01
Till: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Sexual Repression and Extremism in Northern Nigeria
 

Alagba Kadiri.

Your research into the background to the formation of Boko Haram is very educative to a lot on the list serve, yours truly inclusive and Hillary Clintons informed comments are highly appreciated.

However I will continue to back Moses Ochonus provocateur on a psychoanalytic examination of human motivation to horrendous mass action because it has been proven to be a useful (if difficult  & technical tool) of social scientific and historical analysis.  It is not a populist field in view of the highly technical manner of its investigative approaches and the reactions so far had proven some of us trained in its intricacies right. May I pose a few questions and observations:

First of all when you see captivity of hundreds of girls from a girls school is that crime sex specific or not?

When religious war commanders treat girls taken against their will rape them forcibly put them in the family way is that a sex specific crime or not ?

When we see on BBC  prime time television Panorama a young woman buried in the soil to her neck  for not doing the bidding of her captors is that a sex specific crime or not?

What psychoanalysis as a field has shown is that a passion may arise from a specific origins but may transform behavioural manifestation from source to the satisfaction of the passion.

It is true that religion as an alternative equitable organising paradigm may be the originating intention of Boko Haram. That reality is not incompatible with the realization that some of the foot soldiers and commanders did see sexual gratification as boon of war as the evidence I invoked in my earlier questions clearly demonstrate.

Nor  is Islam the only culprit.  Because of the uncertainties of war and the cheap commodities that lives have been turned into soldiers always want to enjoy the last pleasures coming to them because they know that without much notice death might come calling with a stray bullet.

In Cyprian Ekwensi' novel on the Biafran War 'Survive the Peace' the ubiquity of death and ' the last cigarette' of accessible sex was demonstrated in the amorous banter of one of the female characters and her lover: 'While you are shelling make sure you dont pour in the troops.'

We may validly explain the formation of Boko Haram due to purely socio- economic factors but we may also pose the question 'why did the eastern Nigerians not react to whole sale corruption in their region the way Boko Haram did?  Why did organising alternative ways of providing for the people turn to capturing female members of the same people against their will?

Sata Guru had formed a religious commune on Badagry expressway for decades why did they not take up arms against surrounding states and conduct raid for female captives?

These are legitimate questions for the firld of psychonalysis as indeed the whole question of religion.  They are not always easy to answer but psychonalysis believes all problems in our lives start with the satisfsction or repression of the pleasure principle starting from the pleasure of being born whose sustenance is the reason for living.  All the need for aquisitions is traceable to that.  

It believes that in raising all members of the society to civilized standards we are being taught how to channel our basic pleasures into acceptable ways that promotes the goals of scoiety/ civilization.  Those not acceptable are repressed or sublimated into acceptable forms.

During war situations this civilizing mission breaks down and our unbridled lusts and unchecked instincts take over.  The stages by which these processes take over is what you have been demonstrating in the original goals of Boko Haram and the twists and manifestations of war similar to what happened in the Holocaust in Hitlers 'Final Solution' whose meanings changed as the fortunes of the perpetrators changed in the context of excalation of war until perpertrators feeling they had nothing more to lose resorted to the basest of bestiality in human history.

Yes. Sex has a lot to do with it in the context of war. Sex has a lot to do with the exteriorization of the libido and testosterone in aggression to discharge the libidinal impulses and to use female war captives as the pleasursble discharge of the libidinal impulses.




Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com>
Date: 16/04/2017 23:24 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Sexual Repression and Extremism in Northern Nigeria

First, we drove away non-Africans from the USAfrica Dialogue forum. Next, Sierra Leoneans and Ghanaians took flight, followed by Nigerians who craved for more civility. Now more Nigerians are complaining that they are finding the Forum too toxic for active engagement, just as many who have remained "on the side lines" have long moved/ are moving on to newer and intellectually more refreshing/nourishing media. Would the Endowed Abusers-in-Residence at USAfrica Dialogue forum be putting out the lights? - Okey Iheduru


Since Okey Iheduru addressed his post direct to Toyin Falola, I cannot help wondering if the "we" that "drove away non-Africans from the USAfrica Dialogue forum" contained only Okey and Toyin or if other people were contained in the "we." How were the non-Africans driven away from the forum? Did Sierra Leoneans, Ghanaians and Nigerians, who deserted the forum, complain to Okey Iheduru that the cause of their desertion was due to incivilities suffered from members? What constituted the incivilities? While awaiting answers to these questions, I feel very sorry to observe that pressures have been mounted on the 'Moderator' of this forum to censor out of publication some posts on this list serve because the language of communications were not pleasant enough to some people. Africans, and especially Nigerian intellectuals, always feel that it is incivility to openly prove in a public discourse that their ideas on any socio-political-economic subject are foolish or stupid. They feel belittled and demeaned and they get angry at any person they think is uncivil to them. That is the problem we now encounter on this subject captioned 'Sexual Repression and Extremism in Northern Nigeria,' which the author admitted to as being a deliberate  provocation. And when one provokes in normal clime, the provocateur must expect both rational and irrational responses from those who are provoked. Here the provocateur wants every responder to laugh and sanction the stigmatization of Northern Nigeria's men as sex addicts on the ground of 'Boko Haram and when that did not happen, he was enraged.


I once enquired on this forum if anyone with the knowledge of Hausa and English languages could confirm if the translation of Boko Haram into English is Western Education is Forbidden. I did not get any response. Jama'atu Ahl-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal-Jihad, meaning People Committed to the propagation of the Prophet's Teaching and Jihad, was formed in Bornu State in 2002 as a religious group. Between 2004 and 2009, they grew as a movement and started cooperative farm settlements, created jobs for their members, provided welfare for disabled members and trained people as artisans. They provided an alternative to the Government of the day in Bornu State with their programmes  and attracted more members. In 2007, the Governor of Bornu State, Ali Modu Sheriff, appointed a strong member of Jama'atu Ahl-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal-Jihad, Buji Foi, as Bornu State Commissioner of Religious Affairs. There was peace in Bornu State until when the government of Ali Modu Sheriff banned riding bikes without wearing helmets, in February 2009. Five months later in July 2009, a prominent member of the movement died, and a large number of the sect trouped out on bikes to bury him. They were stopped by the police for lack of helmets while riding. In the ensuing resistance, police shot and wounded many members of the sect on their way to the burial ground. The sect quickly mobilised and killed policemen in Bauchi, Bornu and Yobe States. In Maiduguri, they took over the town and controlled it for three days until the Army was drafted in to help. The Army regained control and arrested the sect's leader, Mohammed Yusuf and a lot of his members. Mohammed Yusuf was handed over to the Police who was extra judicially murdered as well as Buji Foi, the Commissioner of Religious affairs who was shot at the back by the Police as testified to by the online video film.


Although Yar'Adua was President of Nigeria when the leader of the sect, Mohammed Yusuf, was murdered by the Nigerian Police and the sect became militant, some intellectuals have posted on this list serve that the sect, later named Boko Haram by opponents, was formed to make Nigeria ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan. Religion might have been the rallying point for the sect but at the beginning their aim was to tackle poverty in their communities of which they succeeded, to some extent, from 2002 to July 2009. Sexual hunger was not the cause of the founding of 'Boko Haram' it was as a result of social and economic injustice not only in the Northeast but entire Nigeria. That was why the US refused to classify Boko Haram as a terrorist organisation when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. After addressing a town hall meeting on Tuesday, 26 January 2010 with US State Department employees to mark her one year anniversary as Secretary of State, she opened the floor for questions. One Tood Woodard asked, "Given the recent alleged attempted attack by the young Nigerian on a Christmas Day and also the purported audio message from Osama bin Laden heralding that attack and assuming responsibility for it, I'm curious to hear what your thoughts regarding the connection between Islamist's organisations and young Muslims in West Africa, specifically Nigeria. I'm curious to hear what your opinion is regarding the driving factors for the youth accepting and embracing the Islamist ideology?"

Hillary Clinton answered, "In Nigeria, which is, as you know, evenly divided between Muslims and Christians, about 75 million of each - Christians predominantly in the South, Muslims predominantly in the North - there has been accommodation that has enabled Nigeria to survive politically. But the failure of the Nigerian leadership over many years to respond to the legitimate needs of their own young people, to have a government that promoted meritocracy, that really understood that democracy can't just be given lip service, it has to be delivering services to the people, has meant that there is a lot of alienation in that country and others. ...//... And the information we have on the Christmas Day bomber so far seems to suggest that he was disturbed by his father's wealth and the kind of living conditions that he views as not being Islamic enough and just the kinds of attitudes young people often portray toward their families as they go through their maturing. But in this case, and in so many others, such young people are targets for recruiters to extremism. So I do think that Nigeria faces a threat from increasing radicalisation that needs to be addressed, and not just by military means. There has to be recognition that in the last ten years, a lot of indicators about quality of life in Nigeria have gone the wrong direction. The rate of illiteracy is growing, not falling, in a country that used to have a very high rate of literacy in Africa. The health statistics are going the wrong direction. The corruption is unbelievable. And that is an opening for extremism that offers an alternative world view. You want to live in peace and safety and feel good about yourself and be part of the community that you can be proud of, then turn away from your society and your family and come with us. And that can be a powerful message, whether it's a gang in America or an extremist organisation in Nigeria."

In order to back up what Hillary Clinton said about the fertilizer of Islamic extremism in Nigeria let us look at the total income that accrued to all the 19 States in the North between 1999 and 2010. During the 11 years, the sum of N 8.3 trillion was received by the 19 States in the North from Federation Account. The breakdown is as follows : Kano State got N333.1 billion for its 44 local governments and N428.4 billion for the state government. Total allocation of funds was N761.7 billion. Katsina State got N253.8billion for its 34 local governments and N310.2 billion for the State govern. totalling N564 billion; Kaduna State got a total of N530.1 billion; Bornu State got N 503 billion; Niger State got a total of N487.2 billion; Benue State got a total of N465.3 billion; Bauchi State got a total of N463.3 billion; Jigawa State got N475 billion; Adamawa State got N410.3 billion; Sokoto State got N432.3 billion; Yobe State got N364.9 billion; Gombe State got N299.1 billion; Zamfara State got N359.8 billion; Taraba State got N370.2 billion; Kogi State got N413 billion; Kebi State got N403.1 billion; Kwara State got N345.3 billion; Nasarawa State got N301.6 billion and Plateau State got N377.9 billion. The exchange rate of Naira to a dollar between 1999 and 2010 fluctuated between 90 and 140 naira. So the big question is what did the 19 States in the North do with all the allocations from the Federation Account that they received between 1999 and 2010? Nearly all the 19 Governors have been  standing trials for treasury lootings since 2007 till date. Instead of highlighting treasury looters whose loots cause more deaths per day than what Boko Haram can accomplish in a year, our intellectuals see extreme sex appetites as the cause of Islamic extremists in Nigeria. I beg to disagree because people normally do die of lack of food to eat, potable water to drink and pure air to breath and not of sex starvation.

S.Kadiri


 




Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> för Okey Iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 14 april 2017 23:21
Till: USAAfrica Dialogue
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Sexual Repression and Extremism in Northern Nigeria
 
Dear Prof. Falola:

First, we drove away non-Africans from the USAfrica Dialogue forum. Next, Sierra Leoneans and Ghanaians took flight, followed by Nigerians who crave for more civility. Now, more Nigerians are complaining that they are finding the Forum too toxic for active engagement, just as many who have remained "on the sidelines" have long moved/are moving on to newer and intellectually more refreshing/nourishing media. Would the Endowed Abusers-in-Residence at USAfrica Dialogue forum be putting out the lights?

I believe it was Ernest Hemingway who said that only fools write for for free. If folks will voluntarily forego food on their tables to engage with this forum, the least we can all do is to insist on illuminating civil discourse, and not condone incivility or cut anyone slack for their past accomplishments when they contribute little and/or even relish in squelching the conversation.

It would be worth reflecting on these historical snippets: Years ago, IBM was mass-producing "Selectric Brother Type-Writers" while Apple and Microsoft were making PCs. Look at where and what we are today! USAfrica Dialogue forum (outliving its usefulness?) vs. new social media? And, as a historian, you remember Elder Dempster Lines as the preferred passenger service vehicle on the River Niger? 

Listen to the humming bird; it might be saying something interesting :).

Regards,

Okey

Peace as always!

On Fri, Apr 14, 2017 at 1:26 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:
Professor Falola, where is the contribution to this discussion by Jibrin that I missed? Am I missing something. I was responding to Abdul and Ibrahim, the two artful dodgers and anti-intellectual debate killers, not to Jibrin, who has not joined this discussion.

On Fri, Apr 14, 2017 at 3:18 PM, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
I said Jibrin and Ibrahim 
Not Abdul 
Jibrin is one of the continent's most formidable scholars and he deserves our respect. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 14, 2017, at 3:12 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:

With all due respect, Professor Falola, your moderator note fails the basic test of fairness and balance. First of all you should not be basing your moderation on who is formidable and who is not. Everyone should be treated the same. Leave members to decide who is formidable and who is not. It is all in the reader's eye. Secondly, Ibrahim and Abdul attacked me, saying that I have a minority agenda, that I am masking the truth, that I am driven by ethnicity, etc. Did you read my post? Did you see anything that remotely resembles a mention of ethnicity or the promotion of an ethnic agenda or a minority agenda in it? I responded to the suggestion that war and sex have always been interlinked--an obvious point--and pointed out Boko Haram and other Salafi-Jihadi groups are peculiar precisely because they have developed an elaborate theological rationale for justifying and promoting the sexual enslavement of the female members of their enemy societies (infidels), an ideological infrastructure of sexual entitlement that you don't find in secular warfare, a theological justification of sexual enslavement in jihad that the "weaponization of sex" argument does not explain or capture. They left that point alone and continued to call me names and make silly ad hominem insinuations about my motive and "where you're coming from."  Even Bolaji had to intervene to redirect the conversation back to the issues I raised by restating the main questions. They continued to make all insinuations and to impute imaginary motives to me. You stood aside watching this anti-intellectual attitude of their unfold only to now weigh in to exonerate them of anti-intellectualism and to pretend as though I had not responded to the reductive, pedestrian, and commonsensical point about the weaponization of sex. This is not moderation. 

On Fri, Apr 14, 2017 at 2:24 PM, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Moderator's note: 
Only that both Jibrin and Ibrahim are too formidable to dismiss and they don't make anti intellectual arguments.
War and sex have been interlocked for centuries; so the point for you is to insist on what is peculiar about Boko Haram and you leave out their asides.
TF

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 14, 2017, at 2:04 PM, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:

Chidi,

I'm not bordered by critique; I savor it. That is how I refine my thinking. In fact, I posted this provocation here in the hope of getting critique and of sparking a rich conversation around the issues raised. There is critique that is grounded in substance and faithful to the issues at stake and one that is grounded in emotive bluster and in unfounded preconceptions and assumptions. I welcome, appreciate, and engage critique. You've known me for a long time, so you should know that I am game for debate and that in fact I enjoy it. But the debate and critique have to be substantive. Nowadays, I have no time for conversations that will not challenge me to think or add intellectual value to me; I'm too busy. What you have here is an anti-intellectual hostility to debate and discussion on controversial and sensitive topics, as well as a tendency to instinctively lash out at people who broach such subjects in the hope of silencing them. That is the problem I have with some of the responses and attitudes here. Of course such juvenile antics will not work with me.

You're my friend on Facebook and you may have seen the conversation on the same post over there. The reception of my provocative hypothesis there is not unanimously positive. Some agree with me, others disagree. Some agree partially and others disagree partially. But everyone is focusing on the issue I raised and making their points as passionately as they want to without the personal obsessions, insinuations, and escapist tactics you see on display here. No one there is questioning my motive or insinuating a phantom ethnic agenda. Folks there are discussing the post in the spirit of intellectual debate and inquiry that I offered it. I have learned a lot from the exchanges there.

Which is why it is disappointing to see those who call themselves intellectuals and academics display such unscholarly revulsion to controversial, unfamiliar, and disagreeable opinions.

On Fri, Apr 14, 2017 at 9:05 AM, Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:
Toyin, Moses,
The facebook crowd are not as critical as the persons you would find here.

CAO.

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