Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: IF YOU LOVE NIGERIA, SAY SO

Kayode, “we all know this to be true.”

You think the fbi investigates all threatening language?

Hmmm.

You have an image of the u.s. As some kind of perfectly policed universe. What exactly is this based on?

Anyway, it doesn’t really fit mine. We are free to give opinions of any sort, sedition act or not. We are not free to threaten people, but it has to go beyond empty words to be taken seriously by anyone. And you imagine an fbi as covering an infinite universe….

If you’ve lived in the u.s. So long, surely you’ve seen all the critical letters and publications, signs, acts by millions of people who, like me, hate trump and everything he represents. 

We are free to criticize him and call him a fascist,without fear of visits by the fbi

ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studiesbi

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 "Kayode J. Fakinlede" <jfakinlede@gmail.com>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, 12 July 2017 at 15:55
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: IF YOU LOVE NIGERIA, SAY SO

In America, if a person should use a language that is perceived to be threatening and it is believed that he means what he is saying by acting in that direction, the law enforcement agents - particularly the  FBI,  will at least pay the person a visit, and keep him under surveillance. We all know this to be true. The situation got even more delicate after 9-11. Laws in the US may not be enforced for some reason. They however,have those laws so thay can be enforced if needs be.

Surely there are so many things here that one should not say or at least expedient not to say and, nowadays, even not to write and text. That is the reality of American life. I have lived in this country long enough to witness a lot of changes in that freedom we talk about. 

I have used the bit about the internet to say that the information is available to all

On Thursday, July 6, 2017 at 2:43:38 PM UTC+1, Kayode J. Fakinlede wrote:

In recent months, I have witnessed the most organised and coordinated effort to tear down our country that any person or a group of people can muster. Nigeria, our country, has suddenly transmogrified into a country of confused people who cannot put two and two together, its impending doom and imminent collapse being broadcast every minute on the internet and the print media.

Some months before, I was at a gathering in the United States and, as a lone person out, I had tried to defend our country among some of these naysayers only to find out that I was dangerously outmunbered. “What has Nigeria done for you?; why should I speak well about Nigeria, etc, etc?’ These kinds of questions were coming from even new arrivals and from young people who had just received their freshly minted certificates in one university or another in Nigeria and were lucky enough to have been able to secure a visa to America. Of course, I had previously, and several times found myself among groups of Nigerians who would spend the night castigating our country and throwing darts at it. Some even swore never to set eyes on Nigeria for ever.

Ah, Ah!!, I discovered why it is easy for these to put Nigeria down. The light and glare of the country America have blinded them to the reality of where they come from and the sacrifices made by their forebears to get them there. Evidently, much that they see and experience in America magically appeared across the landscape. A little learning, they say is a dangerous thing.

Of course, there is a majority of us, the silent majority, who by reason of our experience know that things do not always go harmonioulsy in God’s own country.  In America, in spite of the daily jostling of each individual to get to the top regardless of whose ass is gored, we see the combined efforts of its citizens, irrespective of and in spite of their differences, to continuously improve - emphasis on improve -  the school system, the legal system, the water system, the health provision system, the electricity supply system, roads and bridges, etc.

‘Towards a more perfect Union,’ Americans often proclaim this as their intention. But when I see the level of acrimony some issues generate within the polity, I often wonder if a perfect union can ever be achieved on earth. But at the end of it all, I realise that the glitter and fluorencence that we foreigners now come to enjoy are the results of years of the acrimonious debates and sacrifices –  emphasis on sacrifices - made by their forebears.

One fact seems to run through the vein of all Americans though, they love their country, warts and all. Every American proclaims this at the roof top every time and before they start the aforementioned acrimonious debates.

Majority of Nigerians are like Americans too. We wake up in the morning, try to take care of our families the best way we can,  get to our individual workplaces to earn a living, send our children to the best schools we can afford, and in general try to earn a living. We also love Nigeria, warts and all. And try our best to work towards a better Nigeria.

But we have let the naysayers hijack the debate. We have allowed them to control the tempo of our discussion. We have given them the megaphone, they are now browbeating us with negative propaganda, and we are cowered by the intensity of their intention.

Let us therefore begin to take to the bulhorn to declare our love for our country Nigeria. Let our positive proclamation drown the organized, cacophony and grandiloquence of the naysayers. They do have a plan and their plan is to tear Nigeria apart. We have a better plan and that better plan is to keep Nigeria one. And we do not have to debate or apologize to anyone for this.

God bless Nigeria

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