Dialogues: October 2017

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Fela and Guevara by Odia Ofeimun

PS - The goodly advice as a social service to the Brethren, cannot be sufficiently emphasised. You wouldn't believe how many Brethren are in prison, wrongly or rightly accused and found guilty of rape.

In Sweden when she says "NO" it usually means "NO" and why insist when there are thousands of women out there, who are willing and able ? As ridiculous as the fish in the water complaining of thirst !

Sometimes the problem is cultural - the resistance of "NO" is not necessarily coyness or preliminary " hypocrisy" inviting you to use "just a little" force.

NO, means NO.

There are also innocent people in prison because later on when she woke up sober the morning after - or with a slight hangover, and found the soul brother - the one she had danced with all last night and took a taxi home - and now he's still snoring gently with a smile on his face, she could change her mind , maybe give him a slap to wake him up and ask him, "What are you smiling about ? " or "What are you doing in my bed ?"

Or leave him still snoring and steal away to the Police Station to make a report. Maybe she returns with the Police. Him still snoring soundly.

At the trial, she could be wearing a red mini skirt. With lustful eyes the male judges eye her prancing around, or sobbing uncontrollably in the witness box Booty therapy . Just one look at her curvaceous behind and the male judges could have already arrived at their verdict even before the Brother takes the witness stand : " By Gad! The Negro must have done it" ( in their heart of hearts, maybe thinking, " And in his shoes, I would have done it too I"

If the accused enters the courtroom escorted by the Police and looking dejected, they think, he is now feeling remorseful. If he looks normal or unperturbed or defiant, the idea is that he did it and doesn't even show any remorse.

Later, it's in the papers - it increases the xenophobia and there's much talk that "These people come here, take our women and those who say "NO", they rape them!"

On Tuesday, 31 October 2017 23:43:20 UTC+1, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:

31st October, 2017
Stockholm.

Chidi,

I take you seriously, when you are serious, that is. Sometimes, when you are being profoundly cynical/sarcastic/ negative/wise/ pessimistic/cautiously optimistic / wary, you remind me of Benjamin the donkey in Animal Farm . Please note: It's not meant to be an insult.

Re - your words :

"Sometimes,
We are lured
Into the lair
Of lucifer. "

Just as with anybody else, sometimes when you are cryptic or in the double-speak mode ( as Bob Dylan very often is) you are open to various interpretations. This time you are more straightforward. Indeed Sir, the third thing I thought of when I read you words above, was the horrible lyrics in this song by Black Widow – Come To The Sabbath which has the refrain

" Come! Come ! Come to the Sabbat
Come to the Sabbat, Satan's there !"

The fourth thing I thought was of Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan going on about
" The Synagogue of Satan"

And fifthly, the young Somali lad I encountered in the underground the other day , his cellphone had run out of juice and he kindly asked me if he could please use mine. I obliged him. After he had made his call we chatted for awhile, we got off at the same station shook hands and then I asked him his name. He replied, " My name is Lucifer!" - involuntarily I exclaimed, " what!" and he explained that Lucifer was originally an angel of light etc etc. Of course, when he asked me politely if he could please use my phone, if I had asked him what's your name, and he had told me "Lucifer", I would not have allowed him to use my phone. In fact that would have been the end of the conversation. Now, for all I know, that was the real Lucifer that I shook hands with or a young Somali homey who has adopted the name" Lucifer" to be the baddest cat in his rapper group...

Your poems, poetic thoughts and special reports are a social service and what I say here below is also meant to be a social service primarily addressed to the Brethren .

Absolutely correct, Sir Chidi Anthony Opara, when you say that

"Sometimes,
We are lured
Into the lair
Of lucifer. "

On the other hand, the lucky ones who escape must thank their lucky stars that

"Sometimes,
we are not lured
into the lair
Of Lucifer"

Beware of some perfumes, because sometimes, Lucifer comes in the shape a beautiful woman, la lionelle and there's no point in dousing yourself with petrol and then dancing with fire and believing that you won't be set ablaze and eventually go up in smoke.

In " Skin to skin" HarryBelafonte wails, " Her fire is burning me! Her fire is burning me! "

"cold desperation, she's a devil in bed, scratching till my bones are bare"
just ask the late Al Jarreau song no.4 …

Calmly enough she begins, Hi Chidi, my name is Lucy or Hi, how are you? You may call me Lucy - and that's when - from then on , you've got to be careful, Chidi.

More than four years later, poor Julian Assange is still holed up in the Ecuador Embassy in London. He has not been tried or convicted, but just ask him why up till today he can't go back home as a free man or why he's afraid to go to Stockholm to clarify what happened that evening.

If she opens the door only wearing her pyjamas/ kimono/underwear or only in her birthday suit no underwear at all, just like the original Eve in the garden of Eden , then brave one, either you depart from her presence immediately - just as Joseph departed / tried to depart posthaste away from Zuleikha - the she-devil/Pharaoh's wife - or all is lost.

When Lucy puts on that Diana Ross song " It's my house, and I live here " , a very popular song in early 80s Nigeria, you've got to be very careful and you've got to be even more very careful over here in Sweden , especially if the she-devil is single because just the next verse goes, it's not a joke :

"There's a welcome mat at the door
And if you come on in
You're gonna get much more
There's my chair
I put it there
Everything you see
Is with love and care"

Of course the first thing that some hungry, sex-starved guys look for in Lucy's lair is for the shock absorbers, pillows etc in the King size bed…

We've got to be extra-careful because these days it looks like the women are on the warpath and anyone - just about anyone can jump up and say that Chidi or some big bad Negro brute called "Thomas " jumped on her and her friend last week, last month, last year, ten years ago, sometime in the 1970s of the last century, in the summer of 1973 . Got to be careful Chidi.

In circa 2005 apart from a Zimbabwean dude living down the road with his Swedish chick - he told me a couple of times that he was a lawyer (not clear whether a jurist, barrister or solicitor or both ) and apart from him - I was living in a more or less all white neighbourhood and got to confirm that it was an all white neighbourhood on election day, when I didn't see a single person that looked like me, at the school where we went to cast our ballot. A couple of months later , late at night a young Swedish lady on her way home is dragged from the road and raped in the roadside bushes - she reports that it was dark but her rapist looked dark , maybe a negro - she couldn't see him so well, but he looked darkish in colour and probably had dark hair too. Looked dark? Had dark hair? Well there's one living over there, somebody points in the direction of my abode. Heaven forbid ! Well, it was dark, and she couldn't see her assailant very well.

Suppose they had come knocking on my door and she had said " Yes, that's him!" and you know all Negroes look alike in the dark, and all they can see then is the white of our eyes.

To other unpleasant things.

It is reported that when he was tempted in the wilderness by Satan, Jesus said, "Get thee behind me Satan !" According to Obi, if old Jesus of the Galilee were to be walking on this planet today and the subtle serpent in the shape of Eve approached him once again say in San Francisco, doing his thing in contemporary spoken word Spanish or English poetry Jesus should not say " Get thee behind me Satan" he should instead reflect his distaste by using the language that the serpent would better understand these days and say something like , "Stop the shit, you fkkking slut " or "you get the fff outta my hair ya old muthfafkker!" because , perhaps, addressing Satan or " the Great Satan" as " thee" would be showing him too much respect. As Obi has made clear should the same old Jesus appear now, more than 2,000 years later, by now, by all accounts his language would according to Obi , be " significantly dated and archaic: contemporary poetry dispenses with words like "upon" as much as possible, for instance. It is like saying "thou" and "thine." "

- although, in this free word world, iconoclastic as he (Obi) sometimes is - even to his elders, I don't think that Obi's literary criticism would extend to Jesus' son of God poetry, no matter in which ancient or modern language Jesus would choose to address the nations so that everybody who hears, understands and I do suppose that apart from the immutable lashon hakodesh Jesus would be rapping with the rappers in Los Angeles and in New York, in the East Coast where half of his people now reside ; no doubt the Negro-Igbo Jews in Owerri would much prefer that he spoke to them in their mother tongue Igbo or in the Aramaic which he spoke the löast time he was on earth or perhaps that he addressed them preferably in in contemporary Nigerian English.

Claude Kayat, one of my more literary friends who himself has researched and written a book about Jesus, entitled " The Thirteenth Disciple" recommends this book for those who would have a better understanding of the translations of the Gospel from the language " Aramaic , which Jesus spoke during his earthly existence :
" Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus"

Concerning the devil business, a pious Muslim takes refuge in his Creator from " Stan the accursed" with these words after which the ritual prayers in Islam are said : a'uzu billahi minashaitanir rajim .
I'm sure that's what the Muslim senators say before entering through the portals of the Nigerian Senate...

Umar Bin Hassan : Be bop or be dead

We Africans are people's people, are sociable, love people, Whitey too ( I've known him/ her/them all my life) and Whitey too loves people, of course loves himself and his own kind more than he loves anybody else but can often feel good, helping others for example in Puerto Rico ; it's often cringe or starve..

Chidi, there's an enormous amount of poetry also being written in Swedish/ Swenglish Broken Swedish/ Rinkeby -Swedish etc or translated from Swedish/ Swenglish into English . There's no basis for saying that Nigerian English is/ is not moving at parallel rate of development as is "The Queen's English"
.
BTW, as I said somewhere before and this is also about the absolute relevance of whatever anyone says in this forum : "True too, the armchair critics are also valuable and as we all know we can only grow if we are also permitted to give and take criticism"

Last night I was feeling distraught (like Jane Austen) pisssed would be a much better word to describe the feeling and completely taken by surprise at what Obi wrote, probably, literally, in high -literary & mean- spirited mode, perhaps after a glass too many of the blood-red wine or some of the best from Scotland and feeling absolutely a little "so so ish" as Keats put it in a letter to his sister. I thought and still think that it was a good example of bad taste. Period. Somebody writes an eulogy, poem, funeral dire or composes a requiem for Fela and it's the height of not only bad taste, but bad manners to want to disembowel or piss on any such work of love. Like pissing on your father's grave.You could probably think of a worse simile? Let the Bomboclat , go down to Trench town which is in Kingston, Jamaica go down there in the Ghetto to disembowel Mutabaruka and Luciano's adaptation of Psalm 24 in which they celebrate Jah Rastafari or just go there with some highfalutin literary shit about the state of Nigerian English letters vis a vis what he thinks should be the modern language and metaphor of modern Jah poetry in the diaspora that's still speaking in tongues - tell them that Marcus Garvey is not modern poetry , tell them how / what is and what is not modern poetry according to Dr. Obi , tell Luciano to modernise the language when he sings his Psalm 23 tell them that it's too old fashioned and they should not use any reverential "thees" and" thous" or that the poem is not about Emperor Selassie but about the ALMIGHTY HIMSELF and see if he will leave the place alive or if they will have to carry him out in a coffin and from there fly him to Biafra for the funeral rites...

If I want to waste my time I could go to work on and do a pretty good job, disembowelling Obi's nice poetry, approach it with a torchlight , machete, koboko, pincer, microscope and I'm no nice Alexander Pope either.

Thinking of Mankind Olawale Oyewumi and the profundities that would ease from his keyboard if he were in my shoes just now.

That Funerals are the last passage of rites that terminate the seven ages of man

Over the past 40 years ; starting in 1978 with the funeral of Hugh Satterfield ( Professor Lobo - who used to present Jazz programs in Radio Free Europe) I have attended funerals mostly here in Stockholm in which it was clearly the wishes of the deceased that they wanted to elevate and enhance their last farewell with music by Duke Ellington, Miles, Trane, Bird, etc in spirit we were all there for the funeral of Bob Marley, Fela...

There's "In Memoriam A.H.H." by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, a requiem for his dear friend Arthur Hallam…

Let us pray Chidi - to the Almighty - remember our parents, grandparents, great grandparents, neatest and dearest on earth and those who have departed pray for our friends, call them by name - Chidi, Ogbeni Kadiri, Obi, even pray that the evil ones will become good. You can't remember everyone each time you pray , and just praying for Israel or for the Palestinians is less abstract but for the social and sociable Africans to petitio the Almighty , calling everyone by name, your prayers could last hours and even then you discover that you didn't mentions some dear people. Your contact lists, telephone directors, obituary lists won't cover everybody either, but the Omniscient Almighty knows that when you say please Dear Almighty,, bless everybody, that you mean EVERYBODY of His creation…
It's not easy. yesterday I posted in this Saro Forum that if only there was only one tribe in the whole country, and everybody from the North, South, East, West and everywhere else in the country, the Allens, Banguras, Browns Coles, Contehs, Davies, Easmons, Kamaras, Sesays, belonged to the same tribe then it would be more of one love, one people, one country, one destiny. I suppose that the same would be true of Nigeria; In Sierra Leone, of course I know some people who would not like to belong to the same tribe as Abdul and unfortunately, that's usually the crux of the matter.

I've known Rivers

Lyrics based on a poem by Langston Hughes :

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Anyway, as in Gaia,

Pray for the forest pray for the tree,
Pray for the fish in the deep blue sea.
Pray for yourself and for God's sake,
Say one for me, poor wretched unbeliever.

Cornelius

On Tuesday, 31 October 2017 08:46:24 UTC+1, Chidi Anthony Opara wrote:
Sometimes,
We are lured
Into the lair
Of lucifer.

CAO.

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SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Memo To The Moderator

Obi Nwakanma is a wonderful creature and his ability to create something out of nothing is only comparable to that of a magician conjuring chickens out of an handkerchief. In character Obi Nwakanma is similar to Nnamdi Kanu, although the former is a mischievous trickster, the latter is a crude psychopath who a times can be honest. Thus, while Obi dishonestly claimed that, Awo plotted the first coup in Nigeria in this period, was arrested, and was properly tried, found guilty and jailed, Nnamdi Kanu asserted according to Chidi Anthony Opara blog spots report that Chief Obafemi Awolowo was jailed over trump-up treasonable charges which he deceptively blamed alone on Hausa/Fulani. While Nnamdi Kanu is claiming that Awolowo was released from Calabar prison, 2 August 1966, by Ojukwu and on that occasion the two agreed to create a common Southern Front against the North, on which Awolowo reneged, Obi Nwakanma asserted that the agreement for a common Southern Front was reached in Enugu during the visit of Awolowo to Ojukwu in early May 1967. The two Biafran irredentists agreed, although at different dates and year, that Awolowo signed a pact with Ojukwu against the North but the former betrayed Ojukwu and Biafra. While Nnamdi Kanu asserts that an average Oduduwa descendant is treacherous; is a betrayer; and a traitor, Obi Nwakanma asserted that Awolowo was a fascist because he founded Egbe Omo Oduduwa in London in 1945 and he even desires that children in future shall piss on Awolowo's statue.

One thing that fascinates me about Obi Nwakanma is his lack of respect for the intelligence of non-Igbo Nigerians. Obi can tell a non-Igbo Nigerian that the sun sets in the East and rises in the West. But when he is asked for evidence, Obi will say something of this nature: I was at a dinner yesterday with two American astronauts who showed me scientific evidence that the sun rises in the West and sets in the East. And if he is told that it is Biafra's sun that sets in the East, he will react like an earth worm sprinkled with sodium chloride. Obi Nwakanma's lack of respect for non-Igbo person's intelligence is demonstrated in his submissions when he wrote, "I did not call Awo a fascist, his description of his own political philosophy in his own book describes him. He was an advocate of a version of National Socialism." Noteworthy here is that Obi did not tell us which of Awolowo's books portrayed him as a fascist in addition to not giving us excerpts from the book that connote fascist ideology. Obi's command to his readers is that they should believe him that Awolowo was a fascist since he, Obi, has said so. Earlier, on Friday, 27 October 2017, at 16:52:00 hours, Obi Nwakanma wrote thus, "And Salimonu, the colonial documents available to me have no records of an Igbo Federal Union in London in 1943, but do have a record of the formation of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa in London in 1945. Ikpeazu and G.C.M. Onyiuke may well have been members of an Igbo Union in London, but Azikiwe never founded it, nor was a member of that association in 1943, nor was he a member of the Ibo State Union... The records are available and also show clearly, that there was no Igbo Federal Union in Nigeria by 1943, of which Zik was part, this is Salimonu's invention. Again, Obi's claim to non-existence of Igbo Federal Union in London, in 1943, is premised on colonial documents available to him alone which he does not consider sensible to share with his readers. Readers should just believe that Obi has read all available colonial documents and that he did not find any records of an Igbo Federal Union in London in 1943. Why is Obi referring to a fictitious colonial documents to claim that there was no Ibo Federal Union in Nigeria in 1943, when I had already submitted that Awolowo admitted, in his autobiography published in 1960, to founding Egbe Omo Oduduwa in London in 1945 (p. 168)? And I did submit that Awolowo disclosed on page 169 thus, "Before the Egbe was founded in London in 1945, there was already a two-year old branch of the Ibo Federal Union there. By this revelation, the Ibo Federal Union did exist in London in 1943. Equally, I submitted that on p. 170, Awolowo stated that the Egbe's Executive Committee attempted, through his Ibo friend, Mr. G Onyiuke, to dialogue with the Executive Committee of the London branch of the Ibo Federal Union chaired by Chuba Ikpeazu without success. Which available record was Obi referring to which showed clearly that there was no Igbo Federal Union in Nigeria by 1943, of which Zik was not a part? Yet, the same Obi Nwakanma wrote, "The convening of the Igbo Federal Union on December 1948 happened only after the Egbe Omo Oduduwa had been inaugurated in February 1948..." When was Ibo Federal Union founded? And when was Ibo State Union founded? If Obi is allergic to my reference to Awo's autobiography on the formation of the Ibo Federal Union, I hereby refer Obi to Richard L. Sklar's book, Nigerian Political Parties: Power In An Emergent African Nation, published in 1963. The learned Professor wrote, "The Ibo Union of Lagos, was a pillar of strength for the NCNC at the time of that Party's inauguration in 1944; in that year, leaders of the Lagos Ibo Union organized an IBO FEDERAL UNION, encompassing local Ibo associations throughout Nigeria (p.65)." Further on page 70, he wrote, "In December 1948, a pan-Ibo conference was held at Port Harcourt to organize the Ibo linguistic group into a political unit in accordance with the NCNC Freedom Charter. The conference produced a new association, the IBO STATE UNION, the membership of which was open to the CLANS AND TOWNS OF IBOLAND." Contrary to the assertion of Obi Nwakanma that there was no Ibo Federal Union in 1943 until 1948, it did exist but only transformed to Ibo State Union at the latter year. Azikiwe was the President of the Ibo Federal Union from 1943-1948 and after transforming to Ibo State Union he continued to be its President, a history which Obi Nwakanma's fictitious colonial records (documents) cannot change. Arrogating to himself a special privilege that gives him access to official documents denied ordinary Nigerians, Obi Nwakanma wrote, "Awo plotted the first coup in Nigeria in this period, was arrested and was properly tried, found guilty and jailed. Among those with whom he was tried were some non-Yoruba. Among the plotters who escaped to Ghana was S.G. Ikoku, who in the 1980s in an interview finally, openly confessed that his party, Awo's faction of the AG, had indeed stocked arms, and plotted a coup. It was also a fact confirmed for me by Dr. Chike Obi, who was himself in the know." Again, only Obi Nwakanma is aware of the interview with S.G. Ikoku in the 1980s confirming that the Action Group, under Awolowo's leadership stocked arms and plotted a coup. The source of the purported interview with S.G. Ikoku, whether electronic or print media is a secret only known to Obi Nwakanma and as if he were intellectual autocrat, he decreed that we should must believe the statement he deceptively attributed to the then Secretary General of the Action Group and leader of opposition in the then Eastern House of Assembly, Samuel Gomsu Ikoku. In which media was the interview published in 1980s? Obi in his inflated self- perception went further to claim that Dr. Chike Obi had confirmed to him that Awo and Action Group stocked arms and plotted a coup. Dr. Chike Obi was never a member of the Action Group but the leader of Dynamic Party, which was among the small political parties that entered into alliance with the NPC to form NNA in 1964. As Dr. Chike Obi has long been dead, it is impossible to ask him if he actually confirmed AG's stock of arms and coup plot. As if he was influenced by overdose of ego booster pills, Obi Nwakanma lied, deliberately, against the late Chike Obi because he knows that the chance of verifying the truth from Chike Obi is zero. When and where did Chike Obi confirm AG's arms stock and coup plot to Obi Nwakanma? Was Chike Obi a member of the Action Group?

On Awolowo, Obi Nwakanma wrote, "He was also extremely disdainful of the North and her leadership, and was unwilling to work within the pragmatic formulation of a transitional 'government of national unity' under Balewa whom he regarded as beneath him. The Nationalist party (NCNC) was prepared, in the interest of nation, to swallow their pride, having been rigged out of power and denied the opportunity to govern, just so that Nigeria survives."

To begin with, NCNC was not rigged out of power after the December 1959 Federal elections since none of the political parties had absolute majority to govern alone. Of the 312 seats in the federal parliament, NPC and its allies had 148, NCNC/NEPU had 89 and AG/UMBC had 75. At least, two parties were needed to decide who should be the Prime Minister of Nigeria and the leader of the Government. Due to the fact that the combined seats controlled by the NCNC/NEPU and AG/UMBC were 164 against 148 for NPC, Awolowo suggested a national government led by Nnamdi Azikiwe of the NCNC. Nevertheless, the NCNC entered into coalition agreement with the NPC and conceded the post of Prime Minister to the NPC in the person of Balewa. Although Balewa expressed desire to form a national government, Awolowo declined to serve in a government led by a feudalist party, but promised to lead a responsible and constructive opposition in the federal parliament. Azikiwe's NCNC had gone into coalition government with the NPC, and ceded away the post of the Prime Minister to the NPC, on the belief that the educated Igbo controlled NCNC would fill most of the positions in Government and parastatals since few Northerners had Western Education. That the Igbo-led NCNC achieved its aims of entering into coalition government with the Hausa/Fulani-led NPC was confirmed by Chinua Achebe in his swansong, There Was A Country, thus,"The Igbo led the Nation in virtually every sector - politics, education, commerce and the arts." It was on that ground that he declared the Igbo as the dominating tribe in the book.

When the Premier of the Western Region and Deputy leader of the Action Group, Samuel Ladoke Akintola, observed the lop-sided ethnic configuration of the federal civil service and parastatals, he drew the attention of Awolowo to it and urged him for the sake of ethnic balance to join the national government Balewa offered. Awolowo told his deputy, that as long as goods and services to be produced in Ministries and parastatals were not ethnically based and biasedly distributed, but national, the ethnic belonging of any official was of no value. Disagreement between Awolowo and Akintola caused majority of the Action Group members of the Western House of Assembly to recommend Akintola's removal as the Premier of the West to the Regional Governor, Sir Adesoji Aderemi, which the Governor accepted. When the Regional House of Assembly met to pass a vote of confidence on the new premier, Alhaji Dauda Soroye Adegbenro, on May 25 1962, Akintola's four supporters disrupted the proceedings of the House. Instead of providing police security, which was under the control of the federal government, so as to enable the house to carry out its functions without obstruction, the Igbo-led NCNC in federal coalition government with the Hausa/Fulani-led NPC declared a six-month State of Emergency in Western Region, thereby, overthrowing the Action Group controlled government of the region. The 13 emergency Acts were signed into law by the Igbo-ethnic Governor General, Nnamdi Azikiwe. During the period of emergency, that commenced from 29 May 1962, Awolowo was restricted to the remote Island of Lekki and by September 1962, he was charged with treasonable felony together with most of his political associates from all parts of Nigeria. No weapons were presented as evidence against Awolowo for plotting a coup and no single person was presented as having been trained militarily to fight and overthrow the federal government. On this, I challenge Obi Nwakanma to publish part of Awolowo's trial where it is stated that arms and ammunition were produced in court as evidence of a coup plot. Viewed from that angle, Nnamdi Kanu was correct in saying that Awolowo was tried on trump-up charges of treason. At the end of Emergency in December 1962, the Federal Coalition Government of Igbo-led NCNC and Hausa/Fulani-led NPC installed a puppet regime containing an unregistered political party, United People's Party (UPP) led by Akintola and the NCNC. The people of Western Region protested violently against imposing on them an undemocratic government that they have never voted into power. Towards the end of 1963, the Privy Council came with a judgment that the removal of Akintola by Governor Adesoji Aderemi was constitutional which implied that Akintola should vacate office. Nigeria had become a republic in October 1963 and Nnamdi Azikiwe had become the ceremonial President. The Federal Government that had the power to implement the judgment of the Privy Council refused on the ground that Nigeria had become a republic and the highest court of appeal was no longer the Privy Council but the Supreme Court of Nigeria. The Privy Council judgment was ignored by the NPC/NCNC controlled Federal government.

Just as Nnamdi Azikiwe was thinking that the God of Africa was about to make the Igbo conquer Western Region, the result of population census in Nigeria was released in February 1964 by the Federal government, indicating that out of the 55.7 million people enumerated, Northern Nigeria had 29.7 million. Since number of seats allocated to each region in the federal parliament depended on population, the new census figures implied that the North would have more seats in the parliament than the South.The Igbo-led NCNC controlled governments of Eastern and Midwest Region rejected the census figures and expected that the puppet coalition government of NCNC and UPP in the West to do the same. On the contrary, a political earthquake occurred, whereby all members of the NCNC in the Western House of Assembly, except five, had secretly teamed up with Akintola's UPP to resurrect NNDP, the oldest political party in Nigeria which Nnamdi Azikiwe inherited from Herbert Macaulay to climb to political fame in 1946 but which he buried in 1951 after he had attained his political goals with it. The resurrection of the NNDP was a thumb on the nose of President Nnamdi Azikiwe and his hope that the God of Africa was about to make the Igbo conquer the West became futile. The newly resurrected NNDP government of the West quickly published a white paper accusing the NCNC of exploiting the coalition government with the NPC at the centre to practise what was termed IBOCRACY, implying a network which secured for the Ibos a disproportionate share of jobs, commercial opportunities, federal scholarships, etc. The Attorney General and Minister of Justice in Eastern Region instituted a court suit to prevent the use of the census figures to allocate seats in the December 1964 federal elections without success. In the West, violent protest against the unelected government of NNDP continued with increased energy. By August 1964, the NPC and NNDP had formed the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) in preparation for the December 1964 federal elections. While Awolowo was in jail, the NCNC crawled to the AG so that the two parties could constitute the base for UPGA alliance comprising of NEPU and UMBC in the North. As thuggery and raw violence raged throughout the country, UPGA decided to boycott the election. President Azikiwe asked Prime Minister Balewa to postpone the election and invite the United Nations to come and help Nigeria conduct free and fair election, but Balewa rejected the idea. UPGA's boycott of the election was totally successful in the East but partially in the Middle-belt, West, Lagos and Midwest. Yet, declared results showed that the NCNC won all the 14 seats in the Midwest, in the West, 54 out of 57 constituencies were declared, of which NNDP was said to have won in 36, 13 for AG and 5 for NCNC. In the North, NPC was declared winners in 162 out of 167 seats. Azikiwe kicked against the result of the elections and refused to call on Balewa to form a government. Around January 4 , 1965, Azikiwe threw in the towel and asked Balewa to form a broad-based national government after elections might have been conducted where they were boycotted. The boycotted elections were conducted in March 1965 and to the chagrin of AG, NEPU and UMBC, the Igbo-led NCNC abandoned its allies, the UPGA, in opposition to join the NNA-led government of Balewa. It was not national interest that motivated the decision of NCNC, but lack of will to stay in opposition. As usual the Igbo-led NCNC was composed of sewage rat elements, always willing to be part of anything cheesy, no matter how messy it may be. The NCNC has long been disbanded, but the pattern of political behaviour of the children and grand children of the NCNC politicians remains the same today, where a PDP senator is the Deputy President of the Senate even when the APC is in the majority. They must always be in the government because they believe that only fools are in opposition.

Violent protests against the unelected government of the NNDP in the West continued until the two coups of January 15, 1966 occurred. However, the part that finally succeeded in capturing government power kept Awolowo and other Nigerian political prisoners in prison until after the revenge coup of 29 July 1966 when they were released by the new military leader, Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon.The major problem confronting Obi Nwakanma is that he has read the history of Nigeria from his own ethnic perspective and found the roles his own particular ethnic group have played in the political history of the country displeasing, and in fact, nothing to be proud of. Since he does not like the history as it actually occurred he has decided to rewrite it as he imagines it should have been to suit his own taste. Awolowo, as a human being certainly had his own falts, but among his Nigerian political peers, he was second to none. When he said that Nigeria was not ripe for self-government in 1947, his opponents labelled him a gradualist that wanted Britain to continue ruling Nigeria for unlimited time. The reason for Awolowo's stand was stated in his book, Path To Nigerian Freedom thus, "The existence of a microscopic class would lead to exploitation of the great majority of illiterates by the intelligentsia." That was why when the Action Group Party was formed in 1951 one of its aims was: The education of all children of school-going age, and the general enlightenment of all illiterate adults and all illiterate children above school-going age. Today, we are all witness to how a few educated Nigerians in government steal resources meant for the development of the country without any reaction from the great majority of illiterate Nigerians who believe that they have been destined by God to be impoverished or poor.

When his political opponents opted for unitary form of government with the concentration of power at the centre, Awolowo was against it with reason. As between the various ethnic groups, he said, there were differing standards of civilisation as well as uneven stages in the adoption of western education and the emulation of western civilisation. A unitary constitution with only one central government would only result in frustration to the more push-ful and more dynamic ethnic groups, whereas the division of the country into regions along ethnic lines would enable each linguistic group not only to develop its own peculiar culture and institutions but to move forward at its own pace, without being unnecessarily pushed or annoyingly slowed down by the others. (pp. 164-65, AWO). The federal constitution which Nigeria enjoyed up till 24 May 1966, was the handiwork of Obafemi Awolowo and Bode Thomas. Awolowo in particular was labelled, Pakistanis, regionalist and fascist by those who wanted unitary government for Nigeria. While he was in prison, the unitarists abolished the regions and thereby the federal constitution. Their Cock crew one nation, one government. Today, the cry is devolution of power, restructuring and true Federal Constitution for the federating units of Nigeria.

It was Awolowo who told Nigerians that the ethnic origins of officials are not important but their competence and ability to perform and discharge their duties effectively. Today, in the 21st century, Nigerians still talk about marginalisation and ethnic quotas, the so-called Federal Character, in appointing public servants and when they are grossly incompetent and incapable of performing, we blame the tribe of the officials as if it is their tribes that are employed and paid in the offices concerned.

Finally Obi Nwakanma cited Tekena Tamuno thus, "THE IGBO ARE THE MAKERS OF MODERN NIGERIA. WHEN THEY LEFT, NIGERIA COLLAPSED." NOTHING WOULD HAVE GLADDENED ME, IF TEKENA TAMUNO HAD ADDED, "WHEN IGBO LEFT NIGERIA, THEY RETURNED TO ABIA, ANAMBRA, EBONYI, ENUGU AND IMO STATES AND DEVELOPED EACH STATE INDUSTRIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY TO THE SAME LEVEL AS NEW YORK, HAMBURG, LONDON, PARIS AND TOKYO."

S. Kadiri

Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> för Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com>
Skickat: den 28 oktober 2017 21:15
Till: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Memo To The Moderator

I'd like Salimonu Kadiri to understand that Obi Nwakanma will never insult the Yoruba people, or any other people at all. I make it a point to write about individuals, and not an entire group of people. Everyone who reads me may notice this for a fact. I have never, ever insulted the Yoruba people. I have analyzed the individual actions of Awolowo in the context of Nigerian history, and on occasion, I have made a clean demarcation between those Yoruba followers of Awo and his philosophy and program, and those Yoruba who followed Azikiwe and his philosophy and programs. I have always been the one exactly to accept that in spite of the current frenzy of revision, Awo was not the "leader of the Yoruba," he was a member of the Egbe and a leader of the Action Group. He was a leaders, therefore, of some Yoruba and other adherents of his political doctrine. Not all Awoists are Yoruba. Not all Yoruba followed him into the Action Group, nor were for that matter members of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa. As history records, numerous enlightened and the liberal Yoruba, some among the most liberal, broad-minded, and tolerant people in the world - the ones I consider reflective of the true Yoruba character of liberalism and toleration - followed Azikiwe and the NCNC, and were as ardent as any other nationalists. The pattern of votes in the west in 1951, 1954, and 1959 clearly indicates that where Zik and his party did not win, they shared the votes almost in half with Awo's party, and for many of these Yoruba Nigerians, Awolowo did not represent their ideal their interests, nor was he their leader. They followed Zik. So, how could I insult a people such as the Yoruba, who are among some of the most liberal and tolerant people in the world? I do not. I do not even insult Awo. I give him his just dessert following evidence available to me, outside of the idolatrous frenzy of his fanatical followers who continue to retail and circulate his terrible ideology. I did not call Awo a fascist, his description of his own political philosophy in his own book describes him! He was an advocate of a version of National socialism. He was also extremely disdainful of the North and her leadership, and was unwilling to work within the pragmatic formulation of a transitional "government of national unity" under Balewa whom he regarded as beneath him. The Nationalist party was prepared, in the interest of nation, to swallow their pride, having been rigged out of power and denied the opportunity to govern, just so that Nigeria survives. These are clear facts of history without Salimonu's romantic embellishments, which when you challenge it, and subject it to scrutiny becomes in his mind, an "insult on Yoruba people and Awolowo." Awolowo is not "Yoruba people." Awolowo in my book is Awolowo - individual who happens o be Yoruba, and who can be scrutinized in the context of his historical actions. The Yoruba did not act in just one single, unidirectional way in that history. It is Salimonu who insults the Yoruba.
It is equally not true that an "Igbo-Hausa" government jailed Awolowo. This is the kind of ignorant falsehood that riles me into responding to Salimonu because (a) it circulates a fundamental disregard for truth, (b) if a child reads this without context that child might swallow this and be ruined for ever, and (c) it draws from the kind of what Salimonu calls an insult in which an entire "Igbo" and "Hausa" people plotted to bring down a single super-hero, Awolowo. But the truth of this history is quite ordinary, and can very easily be verified that (a) the Police detectives that discovered the plot were of Yoruba ethnicity (b) the Judge that tried Awolowo, Justice Sowemimo was Yoruba, (c) all the witnesses that provided evidence against Awolowo were Yoruba like him, including Dr. Maja, once one of his closest allies, and one with whom he in fact he formed the Egbe Omo Oduduwa. In what ways therefore did the "Igbo/Hausa" conspire to jail "super-hero" Awo? For what exactly? And for one thing, the government in question was the NPC/NCNC coalition government, and had Yoruba in that government. The third ranking figure of that government after the President and the Prime Minister, according to the protocol of that era, was the Attorney-General and Minister for justice, and he was a highly respected Yoruba legal scholar, Dr. Taslim Elias, and the Chief Justice of the Federation was an Egba-Yoruba, like Awolowo, Justice Adetokunbo Ademola. Furthermore, it was a fierce intra-party fight for power, and an ideological crisis within the Action Group after it had failed to secure national power for which it made very huge investments, that broke the Actin Group and led to the Akintola faction moving against Awolowo and seeking closer links with the NPC, with whom it also wanted to go into a coalition. The move by this faction and the NPC to consolidate power and entrench themselves in western Nigerian politics led to what Salimonu calls a "puupet regime" and it was Akintola, elected Prime Minister of the West, with his own followings that Salimonu calls a "Yoruba puppet." Awo plotted the first coup in Nigeria in this period, was arrested, and was properly tried, found guilty and jailed. Among those with whom he was tried were some non-Yoruba. Among the plotters who escaped to Ghana was S.G. Ikoku, who in the 1980s in an interview finally, openly confessed that his party, Awo's faction of the AG, had indeed stocked arms, and plotted a coup. It was also a fact confirmed for me by Dr. Chike Obi, who was himself in the know. These attempts by Salimonu to deflect truth, and insult everyone else, I think, is the reason for Falola's admonition. As for his comments on Ojukwu, and its left-handed compliment of Ogunewe, I shall not bother even to respond to this, because the facts are all documented for those who wish to read beyond Salimonu's romances and anxieties, and I think Ojukwu could, and had spoken for himself. Fact is quite simple: the minutes of our last meetings are all well documented, and revisionist attempts are futile, and when the occasion demands, will be fully challenged as the case may be. I think that Dr. Falola should let Salimonu Kadiri keep insulting people if it makes him feel good. It may just be his style, and it may just hide something deeper than this forum can really cure. So, I plead to let him be who he is. Just read him with the necessary pinch of salt.
Obi Nwakanma

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2017 2:57 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Memo To The Moderator

Dear Professor Toyin Falola, the Moderator,

I am writing you in view of your response to Chidi Anthony Opara's claim to the supposedly fast degeneration of this forum into what you never intended when creating it. Having agreed that Chidi Anthony Opara was correct in his assessment, you itemised reasons for your agreement in four points.

Some are now even afraid to contribute, thinking that they will be insulted. This you wrote despite the fact that after your reaction stating that my expression, 'For those who are not intellectually lazy,' was insulting, I immediately retracted the expression and substituted it with 'For those who are intellectually smart,' even though I am pretty sure that my earlier expression was not insulting to anyone. I am a critical reader and every intellectual that is worth its salt must always welcome and appreciate criticism, both positive and negative. Traditionally, any criticism in Nigeria and no matter how well founded, is regarded as insult and critics are always declared as enemies.
It was never intended to be a Nigerian forum, but a Pan-African forum. My Nigerian brothers took over. Well, two out five black Africans in Africa are demographically said to be Nigerians. Nigeria would impact positively on the rest of black nations of Africa if she is socially, politically and economically progressive and successful. What affects Nigeria, affects the whole of Africa because of her size and population. Thus, if forum's discussions are dominated (with Nigerian affairs) by Nigerians, it is only because charity begins at home. However, since I joined this forum two people have, for unknown reason, disappeared from the forum. They are Mr. Anunobi and Mr. Ikhide, who to the best of my knowledge are Nigerians.
I don't like any one to use what I am associated with to abuse or insult any one. My purpose of joining the union is not to insult or abuse anyone, whether a forum member or not. Mostly, I want to learn from others as much as I can through exchange of ideas and information. And even if in the course of exchange of ideas and information, I overzealously express myself in a way that may be misconstrued as an abuse or insult, I am always prepared to explain myself and apologise if necessary whenver such is brought to my attention. I don't have that special skill, like many others, for verbal fencing.
Then there is the never ending ethnic countering - my tribe is better than yours, your leader is better than mine. No human being, including my dear Moderator, has ever chosen who should be his or her parents and consequently in which race or ethnic group one should be born. We were all born into our respective ethnic group by our parents which we cannot reverse no matter how much we try; and as such no one should be blamed for being born into a specific ethnic group.

If you are resentful of never ending ethnic countering, I think that you, the moderator, has the power that such posts never see the light of the day. The topic that I was commenting on was cross-posted from African World Forum, Nigerian World Forum and Igbo World Forum to this forum. It is your responsibility to read through before approving it for publication. In Obi's exchanges with one Ayo Ojutalayo which you published or allowed to be published on this forum read, ".... history will record that Awo was a felon, was a fascist and tribalist, and that his faction of the Yoruba were reactionaries and revanchists who practised and propagated the African version of the Nazi national socialism, and that great greed for power spiral into that lurch of madness called 'the wild, wild west,' which later led to events that destroyed the early foundation of Nigeria as a nation-state. ...//... You can erect all the statues you want of him (Awo) today, whitewash AND lionize him (Awo) all you want, but the children of tomorrow will piss on that image (the statue of Awolowo), because the history book of the nation are already open, and try all the revision you can,the voice that would be heard down the ages, would be that of the historian Tekena Tamuwo, who wrote unambiguously: 'The Igbo are the makers of modern Nigeria. When they left Nigeria collapsed...' Until the Igbo return spiritually to Nigeria, it will continue to be a wasteland..." In another exchange of Obi Nwakanma which you allowed for publication, he wrote, "Awo's disdain for Balewa's government moved him and his faction in 1960/61 to begin to make plans for a coup, which was discovered, and they were jailed for it. That was the beginning of Nigerian chaos. The 'restless west' or the 'wild west had collapsed. It was in the effort to save it that compelled the January 1966 coup. ...//... The civil war may not have happened had the West asserted the agreement reached in Enugu between Ojukwu and Awo to establish a common 'Southern Front' and compel the North either to accede to negotiations or secede. Awo and the West betrayed the agreement, and rather joined in the war against the East...." I will be the last person to believe that you will approve Obi Nwakanma's insult and abuse of any living or dead person like Awolowo. Yet, having permitted Obi Nwakanma to rain abuses and insults on the late Obafemi Awolowo, you think it is abusive or insulting for me to write that for those who are not intellectually lazy, Azikiwe left behind documents in book forms for them to read. When dirty pigs have been allowed to enter our living room, it would be unjust to turn around and accuse those who wrestle out the pigs from the living room of being dirty as the pigs. I don't become a dwarf for bending low to wipe the face of a dwarf who has contemptuously and deliberately stepped on my toes. Similarly, I do not become a tribalist/ethnicist by responding to any Nigerian tribal and ethnic historian.

On Friday, 27 October 2017, at 11:43:00 hours, Chidi Anthony Opara posted a link to his blog-spot reports on this forum. The report contained an interview conducted by one Jane Obiorah, on behalf of Every News 247. com, with Nnamdi Kanu in his hide out somewhere in the Creeks of Bayelsa. Here follows an excerpt from Jane Obiorah's interview with Nnamdi Kanu.

Every News 247.com: And why did you say, you don't expect the Yorubas or Southwest people to blend with IPOB on Biafra agitation?

Kanu: An average Oduduwa descendant is treacherous; he is a betrayer; they are traitors of the worse poisonous breed. So, how can they be party to a struggle of liberation? They are bootlickers of the Hausa/Fulani hegemony. In spite of their claims to education and international exposure, cattle and sheep rearers are the one ruling them, while they are followers like zombies to the hegemonic leadership of Northerners. It's nonsense and I repeat, absolute nonsense! They are not even complaining, they are comfortable with it.

But I think God is punishing the Yorubas for betraying our hero and mentor, Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu during the Biafran struggles of 1967-70. The Hausa/Fulani oligarchy conspired and jailed Chief Obafemi Awolowo over trump-up treasonable charges. He was jailed in the Southeast and Ojukwu freed him with an agreement that he would mobilize his people against federal forces to give Biafra a boost. But after regaining freedom, Awolowo ignored everything and rather pitched tents with his jailers. They (the Yoruba) are not normal human beings, very womanish, that's why they dread every shadow. Please quote me anywhere! It is a fact none of them can deny.

But let me warn again that the Yorubas must stop exploiting the Igbos. We can no longer tolerate the exploitation of our people. I am warning them to desist from taking an undue advantage of Ndi'gbo especially in Yoruba churches. If they continue, I swear by my ancestors, we shall chase them to their shrines, fight them spiritually and physically, and we ensure we kill all Yorubas in the name of Chukwu Okike Obiama.

Chidi Anthony Opara must have found the interview with Nnamdi Kanu worthy of circulation not only through his blog-spot report but even in this USA-Africa-Dialogue Forum. Before concluding, I will like to remind who ever cares to know that after assuming power on August 1, 1966, Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon, granted amnesty to all political prisoners, including those jailed during the TIV riot of 1964. He granted Awolowo, Enahoro and others pardon through Government Notice No. 1507/1966. Gowon was personally at the then Ikeja Airport, Lagos, to welcome Awolowo from Calabar prison on 3 August 1966, remarking, "We need you for the wealth of your experience." (Nigerian Daily Times of 4th August 1966, reported). At that time Ojukwu had fled Enugu, the Capital of Eastern Region, and relocated to the Police Headquarters at Onitsha, because of his fear that if shooting broke out at the first infantry Battalion Enugu, the numerical strength of the Northern soldiers, mostly from Middle-Belt, put him at a disadvantage and at a risk of being killed. It was the highly respected Igbo, Lieutenant Colonel Ogunewe, who pleaded with the Northern soldiers not to fight and negotiated with them to return to the North with their arms and ammunition. Ojukwu did not return, from his Onitsha hideout, to Enugu until the middle of August 1966. Awolowo, who left Calabar prison on 2 August 1966, could not have had any agreement with Ojukwu who at that time was hiding at the police headquarter in Onitsha for his personal safety. As for the trum-up treasonable felony charges against Awolowo, it was the Ibo-Hausa-Fulani controlled federal government that jailed Awolowo, after overthrowing the Action Group controlled Western Region's government, and installed a puppet regime there.

With the posting of Nnamdi Kanu's interview on this forum, I wonder if Chidi Anthony Opara is implying that the intention of Professor Toyin Falola in creating this forum is for people to utilize it to vilify the Yoruba people and to castigate and insult late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, or are vilification of the Yoruba people, castigation of and insulting the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo degenerations that Professor Toyin Falola neither intended nor observed?

S. Kadiri

Från: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> för Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>
Skickat: den 26 oktober 2017 21:59
Till: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Memo To The Moderator

Dear sir:

You are correct!

1. Some are even now afraid to contribute, thinking that they will be insulted!

2. It was never intended to be a Nigerian forum, but a Pan-African forum. My Nigerian brothers took offer.

3. I don’t like anyone to use what I am associated with to abuse or insult any one.

4. Then there is the never ending ethnic countering---my tribe is better than yours; your leader is better than mine.

But I wont disband; I will only keep warning. I have written many private notes to so many people.

So, Oga Chidi, you, too, should be an agent of change.

From: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.opara@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 2:46 PM
To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Memo To The Moderator

Dear Professor Falola,

Let me use this opportunity to inform you (assuming that you have not noticed) that this forum is fast degenerating into something that I am sure, was not in your mind when you were creating it.

Be well sir.

CAO.

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USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Fela and Guevara by Odia Ofeimun

SV: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Memo To The Moderator

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