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| From: ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com Sent: Friday, 30 June 2017 16:34 To: Hassan Saliu; Obadiah Mailafia Cc: bode fasakin; Oluwafisayo Ige; Nimi Wariboko; Ibini Olaide; Bunmi Ayoade; DOYIN AGUORU; Segun Gbadegesin; adigunagbaje@yahoo.com; Prof Funmi Para-Mallam; Ronke Ako-nai; Prof Ogunmola Ogunmola; Bunmi Makinwa; peter.kimani; Orogun Olanike; Bolaji Ogunseye; tunde babawale; Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso; Kole Omotoso; mimikofemi; Femi Babatunde; Paul Nwulu; Nkoyo Toyo; Prof Bayo Adekanye; rotimisuberu@yahoo.com; Innocent Chukwuma; Stephen Bolaji; egbemode_funke@yahoo.com; Ladi Adamolekun; Francis Irele; Ayobami Salami; cyril obi; Prof Emeritus Pai Obanya; Niyi Akinnaso; Oluwaniyi Osundare; Olayemi Foline Folorunsho; Kayode Soremekun; Isaac Albert; Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome; Osaghae Eghosa; nathaniel danjibo; Ebunoluwa Oduwole; Prof Dipo Kolawole; Saburi Adesanya; oyejide@isgpp.com.ng; Olufunke Adeboye; Mideno Bayagbon; Christian Ogbondah; Mohammed Haruna; Bolaji Akinyemi; Toks Olaoluwa; T Oyedeji; Odia Ofeimun; Gbenga Dr. Owojaiye; Jinmi Adisa; Warisu Oyesina Alli; Dr Oluwajuyitan; Christina Olaoluwa; Toyin Falola; adele jinadu; hafsatabiola@hotmail.com; alade rotimi-john; Solomon Uwaifo; Mr Edmund Obilo; Attahiru Jega; david atte; adebayow@hotmail.com; rebecca adugbe; cynthiafunmi@gmail.com; M Insa Nolte; Lanre Idowu; Taiwo Owoeye; Yomi LAYIINKA; Olufemi Vaughan; Remi Sonaiya; Alaba Ogunsanwo; Prof(Egbon) Jide Owoeye; Tade Aina; Noel Ihebuzor; Femi Osofisan; Tunde Oseni; Abiodun Salawu; Emmanuel Remi Aiyede; Richard A Joseph; Prof. Lere Amusan; chibuzo nwoke; Ariyo Andrew Tobi; Shehu Dikko Subject: Re: Disorder at Home, Excellence Abroad? |
Thanks for your take. A colleague noted recently that there are meeting points between radical Afropessimists and radical colonialists: both espouse that Africa has nothing to offer. Donald Trump will be applauding, after reading your essay. 2 So, it's all happening over there! Nothing to celebrate here. Facebook founder did not think so, neither do I. 3 Do you expect that our democracy will become accomplished in a few years, if after 200 years the Americans are still working at theirs? 4. A scholar sits here and produces papers for top flight journals around the globe. Must he become a British citizen before we begin to notice him? Nothing to celebrate? I refuse to sign in on that one. Prof Ayo Olukotun
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| From: Hassan Saliu Sent: Friday, 30 June 2017 11:44 To: Obadiah Mailafia Cc: bode fasakin; Oluwafisayo Ige; Nimi Wariboko; Ibini Olaide; Bunmi Ayoade; DOYIN AGUORU; Segun Gbadegesin; adigunagbaje@yahoo.com; Prof Funmi Para-Mallam; Ronke Ako-nai; Prof Ogunmola Ogunmola; Bunmi Makinwa; peter.kimani; Orogun Olanike; Bolaji Ogunseye; tunde babawale; Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso; Kole Omotoso; mimikofemi; Femi Babatunde; Paul Nwulu; Nkoyo Toyo; Prof Bayo Adekanye; rotimisuberu@yahoo.com; Innocent Chukwuma; Stephen Bolaji; egbemode_funke@yahoo.com; Ladi Adamolekun; Francis Irele; Ayobami Salami; cyril obi; Prof Emeritus Pai Obanya; Niyi Akinnaso; Oluwaniyi Osundare; Olayemi Foline Folorunsho; Kayode Soremekun; Prof Ayo OLUKOTUN; Isaac Albert; Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome; Osaghae Eghosa; nathaniel danjibo; Ebunoluwa Oduwole; Prof Dipo Kolawole; Saburi Adesanya; oyejide@isgpp.com.ng; Olufunke Adeboye; Mideno Bayagbon; Christian Ogbondah; Mohammed Haruna; Bolaji Akinyemi; Toks Olaoluwa; T Oyedeji; Odia Ofeimun; Gbenga Dr. Owojaiye; Jinmi Adisa; Warisu Oyesina Alli; Dr Oluwajuyitan; Christina Olaoluwa; Toyin Falola; adele jinadu; hafsatabiola@hotmail.com; alade rotimi-john; Solomon Uwaifo; Mr Edmund Obilo; Attahiru Jega; david atte; adebayow@hotmail.com; rebecca adugbe; cynthiafunmi@gmail.com; M Insa Nolte; Lanre Idowu; Taiwo Owoeye; Yomi LAYIINKA; Olufemi Vaughan; Remi Sonaiya; Alaba Ogunsanwo; Prof(Egbon) Jide Owoeye; Tade Aina; Noel Ihebuzor; Femi Osofisan; Tunde Oseni; Abiodun Salawu; Emmanuel Remi Aiyede; Richard A Joseph; Prof. Lere Amusan; chibuzo nwoke; Ariyo Andrew Tobi; Shehu Dikko Subject: Re: Disorder at Home, Excellence Abroad? |
With Sheu's intervention, the title of my paper that I presented at a conference in Ife last year still stands: Ugly at home and bad abroad. We surely need to do more to catch up with the rest of the world. The searchlight should be on the pathways, not celebrating episodic achievements.
On Jun 30, 2017 12:16, "Obadiah Mailafia" <obmailafia@gmail.com> wrote:
Well said, thank you Shehu.On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 10:46 AM, Shehu Dikko <shehuspen@gmail.com> wrote:* Ayo Olukotun [20170629 15:01:18]:
> DISORDER AT HOME, EXCELLENCE ABROAD?
This is interesting.
Some comments:
1.0: Can a Nigerian stand as a candidate for election into the British
parliament? No. Can a Nigerian footballer play for England? No. So how
can some Nigerians be seen as players in those two fields? I do not see
how they can be. They may have their origins in Nigeria but those
winners are not Nigerians nor should they be celebrated as such. They
are British and they achieved what they achieved in Britain; in an
environment that made it possible for them to do so.
1.1: In Nigeria we have similar persons, Nigerians who have their
origins in other countries in Africa and beyond including in Britain.
Where are they in our assemblies and in our football teams? Nowhere. We
haven't achieved it. We have not created the environment that makes
similar achievements possible. We have nothing to celebrate.
1.2: Our current state is even much worse. Where is the Kanuri person in
the Abia State House of Assembly? Where is the Yoruba woman in the
Zamfara House? They are nowhere to be found. We have not created the
environment for them. We have nothing to celebrate.
1.3: What do we have to celebrate? Those winners now in the British
parliament are not there to serve the interest of Nigerians but the
interest of the British people who elected them. The Nigerian elected by
Nigerians to serve Nigerians is now resident in Britain where he is
ineligible to serve the British for he is not one of them nor could he
have been elected by them, especially not so as to speak to them in a
language they do not understand.
1.4: We are not ashamed to hear our present absent President try to
communicate with us through the British in a language that is one of
ours and not theirs but which their international mouthpiece, the BBC
World Service, has arguably done more than us to nurture. We might as
well do what? All move to Britain and win elections there? All move to
Britain and learn to speak Hausa there?
1.5: You mentioned David Cameron. Did he have a problem vacating the
office of Prime Minister for Theresa May? No, because they are members
of the same political party; they share a common ideology and their
interest is ultimately in service to their one and only country. Have we
achieved that here? What has stood in our way?
1.6: Cameron gave Scotland a choice to exit or to remain a part of the
United Kingdom. He urged it to remain. Scotland opted to remain. He
gladly welcomed its choice. Cameron gave the UK the choice of remaining
in the European Union or leaving it. He urged it to remain. The UK voted
to leave. He respected the choice the people made. He resigned
honourably. Have we seen comparable clarity here? We are spectacularly
what?
2.0: Are the domestic achievements you have listed worthy of
celebration? I am not sure that they are. They seem rather ordinary to
me.
2.1 In a message shared with a number of young persons recently which
was a follow-up to an old one about "future awards," in which one of
them had seen little of value in what the young award winners had done
to merit awards and after which I had advised him to save the list of
the winners and review it in another ten or twenty years or more, I
asked him whether, and how, he has saved the list. Then, after showing
why the popular view that "the internet never forgets" is baseless, I
wrote:
"Digital media has a shelf life. Diligent transfer of data from old to
new media is required to preserve content and this process is not
guaranteed to be flawless nor devoid of surprises.
"There is nothing to say that the internet itself may not one day be
forgotten having been long progressively replaced by other technologies
but the development of much better tools and much more reliable
processes hitherto not known to the world are challenges that Africans
never seem able to confront. Ours is to consume, including unfounded
popular views without much in the way of scrutiny. It may not be a bad
idea to think about future awards after landmark or pathbreaking
achievements since you care about awards."
Thank you very much and best regards,
shehu
--
Wagner's music is better than it sounds.
-- Mark Twain
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