Sunday, July 9, 2017

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

Moses: 
I have canvassed (and still do) restructuring the nation since 1998. I still prefer a decentred presidency given the geopilitical situation in Nigeria where there will not be only one person as president to the discomfiture of those who want to import the American system into Nigeria hook line and sinker.

I believe that should in large part take care of the separatist agitation caused in large part by the PERCEPTION that whoever is at the centre had cornered the largest cream of the national cake.

The presidency was not given to Obasajo after June 12 because of OPCs blackmail as you suggested but because decent men all over the country felt Aare Abiola should not have been murdered in captivity just because Babangida and his military sidekicks did not want him to rule.

If your thesis about ethnicity as the determinant of patriotism is valid why was this not more noticeable during the time of Obasanjo as President when everyone knew that he had more friends in the North and more critics in the Southwest that northerners were even hatching a plan for him to subvert the Constitution and run for a third time?

Isnt it a fact that Middle Belters in this campaign have just found unlikely bedfellows in the odious irrational separatist contention of Biafranists as surrogates because they think the larger Islamic population in the North is inferior to the minority Christians simply on account of their ways and their faith?  Fortunately and unfortunately democracy is a game of numbers.

Yes, there are issues of hate such as the attrocities of the Fulani Herdsmen which I have roundly condemned.  But is separatism the unavoidable solution to that?

Finally, if Buhari had treated the East with contempt but it is now the face of 'Joseph' Osinbajo (vizier) we see, (politics is the art of the possible) should that not be enough palliative for the East?



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
Date: 09/07/2017 06:47 (GMT+00:00)
To: USAAfricaDialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: IF YOU LOVE NIGERIA, SAY SO

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Yinka,

The absence of unanimity in Southwestern politics in the post-June 12 period does not vitiate my point. What I was referencing is the elite political consensus of the Southwest, the dominant political consensus of the post-June 12 period. By the way, the Southwest successfully leveraged that separatist  agitation (SNC, OPC, and Oduduwa Republic advocacy)  to ensure that a Yoruba person became president in 1999, with the two major parties both conceding their presidential tickets to Yoruba men--Obasanjo and Falae. 

There is no region of Nigeria that has enjoyed political unanimity in terms of its position on and in the union at any time. There were and still are dissenting voices in the Niger Delta, who never favored the oil militancy. Not everyone in Igboland is in favor of Biafra and some are heavily invested in the Abuja-centered politics of Nigeria. Not everyone in the Middle Belt bought into Joseph Tarka and co's Middle Belt political agenda. Not everyone in the North was a follower of Ahmadu Bello. There was PRP, just as Awoism had its dissenters in the Southwest, etc, etc. But at any point in Nigeria's postcolonial history, you can discern where a particular people or region stand, the prevailing dominant political sentiment, and the consensus of its political elite. There is no question that in the post-June 12 period, patriotic sentiment was in short supply in the Southwest and disillusionment with the Nigerian union was at an all time high there. Today, the story is dramatically different, with you and at least three other Yoruba people gleefully and, in my opinion, smugly performing your patriotism on this thread in response to the original post by Fakinlede. I consider the entire exercise a bit vulgar and disturbing. My scholarly sensibilities condition me to be suspicious of such displays. I speak for myself alone.

Anyway, let's not argue about irrelevant details. My point about the ebbs and flows of patriotic sentiments corresponding to people's relationship to, role in, or marginalization from the federal government at any point in time remains. Even Biafra agitation, while vibrant during the Jonathan period, reached a new crescendo in correspondence to the undisguised contempt with which Buhari (not Osinbajo) has treated the Igbo, their aspirations, and their interests. It is not an accident that all of you engaging in incestuously embarrassing declarations of patriotism on this thread are Yoruba people, whose ethnic unit are on the ascendancy in this government and whose ethnic kin is the acting president. I could give other examples from different parts parts of the country to illustrate my point about patriotism in Nigeria being a relative strategic, self-interested, and Machiavellian enterprise.

Two last things. My overarching point is not even about the ideological and prebendal underpinning of effusive expressions of patriotism. Rather it is about how aggressive patriotism of the type being exhibited here is a dangerous phenomenon because it excludes (thanks Ken) and provides comfort and succor to powerful people who hide behind patriotic rhetoric to perpetrate evil, avoid doing what they should, defend incompetence, ignore problems and legitimate agitations, get away with oppression, and divide people. 

I've been writing against the dangers of hyper-patriotic and pretentious patriotism that papers over the problems and deficits of the union for at least fifteen years. I could refer you to essays I published about fifteen years ago critiquing this woolly notion of patriotism. Besides, it was Wole Soyinka who said a tiger needs not declare its tigritude. I believe that wisdom applies to patriotism.

Finally, how can your response to the proliferation of centrifugal agitations in response to the malignant dysfunction of the union and to legitimate aspirations for structural reforms of the status quo be to simply declare your patriotism? How is that the answer? Is that not escapist?

On Fri, Jul 7, 2017 at 4:02 PM, Olayinka Agbetuyi <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com> wrote:
Chicken and egg situation again!  Is it the 'I love Nigeria ' attitude yhat leads to separatist agitations or the separatist agitations that provoke the "I love Nigeria"  attitude?



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.opara@gmail.com>
Date: 07/07/2017 06:37 (GMT+00:00)
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: IF YOU LOVE NIGERIA, SAY SO

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Kayode,
I am from the South-East and "my calculated self-interest" does not permit me to "love" Nigeria according to your own definition of love.

Moreover, it is this attitude of people like you(the elite)that gives impetus to separatist agitations, which you and your comrades try hard to label unpatriotic!

CAO.

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