Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - SIXTH ANNUAL LECTURE IN HONOR OFNIGERIA'S FIRST PRESIDENT: NNAMDI AZIKIWE

Beautiful.

I have long admired the work of the massively published Zalanga. I did not know he was Nigerian.

I find the dismissive assessment of Fani Kayode simplistic though. In a polity largely compromised by intimidation from the political centre and by desperation for crumbs from that centre, he has been a fearlessly  consistent voice of analytical anti-govt critique.

True, he was  engaged some years ago in such minor skirmishes as the who-owns-lagos/Yoruba/Igbo/Igbo women saga, but thats more part of his colorful personality than his defining political identity.

Particularly rich insight indicating the fundamental social engineering that is proving so difficult in Nigeria. I have placed the psychological and therefore more elusive issues in bold-

'Malaysia was ahead of the World Bank in understanding that merely implementing neoliberal economic reforms without social, socio-cultural and attitudinal change, the reforms per se will go no where. In Nigeria, neoliberal economic reforms were implemented but it had little or no impact on efficiency. Take for instance the privatization of the national electric power authority. It has done little to improve regular power supply even though it is privatized. Capitalism is not just about economics, it is also about certain socio-cultural and behavioral changes attitudes. It is like a secular religion. Understanding what makes institutions work effectively and efficiently is at the core of pursuing capitalist development if this is what a country chooses to do. How you achieve this can vary in terms of strategies and contexts but at the end without efficient and effective institutions, you cannot succeed. In this respect, the great majority of African elites do not have the courage to focus on justice, fairness, genuine efficiency and effectiveness of public institutions. They may say so, but the reality on the ground says something else in many cases.

Zalanga

On 26 November 2017 at 23:46, Ameh Dennis Akoh <ojodumi39@gmail.com> wrote:

I got it. Thanks a bunch, sir.

On 26/11/2017, Samuel Zalanga <szalanga@gmail.com> wrote:
> ​
>  ANNUAL LECTURE IN HONOR OF NNAMDI AZIKIWE -- FI...
> <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uAQIGzeRpYmeTF_NyDAS3_7-Tc0CAwZA/view?usp=drive_web>
> ​
> Thank you very much for alerting me. Please find Chief John NNIA NWODO's
> lecture / presentation attached as google drive document. Let me know there
> is still a problem. Thank you very much again.
>
> Samuel
>
> Samuel Zalanga, Ph.D.
> Bethel University
> Department of Anthropology, Sociology and Reconciliation Studies,
> Bethel University, 3900 Bethel Drive, #24, Saint Paul, MN 55112.
> Office Phone: 651-638-6023
>
> On Sat, Nov 25, 2017 at 2:26 PM, Segun Ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> John Nmodo's lecture does not open. Can you resend it?
>>  Thanks.
>> Segun Ogungbemi.
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Nov 25, 2017, at 4:54 AM, Samuel Zalanga <szalanga@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
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>> As some on this forum know, there is a serious debate going on about the
>> administrative structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They call it
>> RESTRUCTURING. I have serious reservation about it and I do not hesitate
>> to
>> explain myself to anyone who cares. I understand Nigerians have the right
>> to grant every family their own state for the sake of "empowerment." That
>> is their choice. But I do not see any good reasons for that. I attended
>> the
>> 6th Annual Lecture in Honor of Nigeria's First President, in the person
>> of
>> Dr. NNAMDI AZIKIWE. The lecture is annually organized by Nnamdi Azikiwe
>> University in Awka, the capital of Anambra State in Southeastern Nigeria.
>> There were many dignitaries in attendance at the occasion. We sat down
>> for
>> good four and a half hours at the event because it seems events in many
>> Nigerian Universities have many traditional and cultural ceremonies that
>> would be considered unnecessary in the United States.
>>
>> The title of the lecture is: "*The Political Economy of Restructuring in
>> Nigeria: Problems and Prospects.*" It was presented by Chief John Nnia

>> Nwodo, who is the President of OHANAEZE NDIGBO WORLDWIDE.  This is a very
>> important and high ranking position in southeastern Nigeria and the
>> country
>> at large. The tone of his presentation suggests he was not just speaking
>> for himself but for the whole region. My sense is that by reading his
>> speech carefully, whether you are a Nigerian or not, you can get a sense
>> of
>> the kind of quarrels that Nigerians are having among themselves and maybe
>> some other African countries too are going through similar challenges.
>>
>> I am writing a reflection on the document and will share it later. Again,
>> I will be candid by saying that my own personal preference is that
>> Nigeria
>> does not decrease the degree of integration in the federation, and I am
>> convinced frankly after being in Nigeria for some time now that merely
>> restructuring the country will not solve the real problems of Nigeria.
>> Sometimes in terms of vision, Cecil Rhodes vision of having a rail from
>> Cape to Cairo, even though colonial is more encompassing. I do not deny
>> that there are problems in Nigeria and in many respects my assessment now
>> is that the demand for restructuring is just an accident owing to fear. I
>> got a sense that the restructuring demand has more to do with President
>> Buhari being in power. On a critical note, most of the problems that were
>> identified at the federal level by those calling for restructuring, also
>> exist at states and local government levels in their region. But states
>> and
>> local governments operate under the supervision of local elites who have
>> full control over resources they receive from the federal government. And
>> they do receive quite a lot, as the former finance minister of Nigeria,
>> Iwela-Okonjo disclosed publicly in the past.  If all states and local
>> governments in Nigeria use the resources they receive judiciously,
>> Nigeria
>> would still have been a better country, in spite of.... And the
>> efficiency
>> at the state and local government levels, if such exists all across the
>> country, will create a political atmosphere where it will be difficult
>> for
>> the federal government to continue to be inept. The Obi of Onitsha who
>> was
>> at the lecture and a calm and truly senior statesman confirmed this
>> suspicion of inadequacies in the management of resources at the state and
>> local government levels. Based on evidence, I do not believe that the
>> states or local government elites have moral grounds to criticize the
>> federal level because they themselves do not take the masses seriously.
>>
>> It seems to me that from listening to the lecture, there is a kind of
>> generational difference among older gentlemen from the southeastern
>> region
>> and the current younger generation. The younger generation, not the
>> youngest, are in a hurry to be somewhere, which is understandable. But
>> the
>> conundrum is that many of the decisions that led to the current
>> constitution of Nigeria were made with many elders from the southeastern
>> region involved. During the lecture, at one point I felt like, the
>> president should have first met with the older gentlemen from the region
>> who approved of many things he is now condemning and thrash out their
>> differences. But now a younger generation from the region feels
>> otherwise.
>> And when you talk to the very young, like college graduates or even
>> market
>> women, restructuring frankly is not their concern. And for persons in my
>> generation, we have been deceived by creation of more states and local
>> governments to bring the government closer the people but all turned out
>> to
>> be a farce. My current local government in Nigeria is less effective and
>> less efficient compared to when the local government was made up of three
>> present day local governments. When I visited the elementary school I
>> attended in my hometown, tears rolled down my eyes because all the
>> windows
>> of the classroom are destroyed and so you can enter the classroom from
>> the
>> window any time. There was not a single seat in the classroom. How can
>> anyone justify the creation of more local governments and states in this
>> respect.
>>
>> Compared to Malaysia, Nigeria took this dubious and lousy approach to
>> development, which amounted to creating more opportunities for corruption
>> and paying salaries, instead of investing in capital projects like
>> infrastructure, healthcare, education etc. which can benefit not just
>> present but future generations also. Malaysia invested more in making
>> state
>> structures and institutions work more efficiently and effectively and
>> they
>> saw the results clearly in their pursuit of capitalist development, which
>> Nigeria is equally trying to do. Once the people in Malaysia tasted the
>> benefit of efficient and effective state institutions, they push for more
>> of that and Malaysia saw how efficient and effective state institutions
>> helped the country to attract foreign investment, technology transfer
>> etc.
>> Even the World Bank commended the country for that. Malaysia was ahead of
>> the World Bank in understanding that merely implementing neoliberal
>> economic reforms without social, socio-cultural and attitudinal change,
>> the
>> reforms per se will go no where. In Nigeria, neoliberal economic reforms
>> were implemented but it had little or no impact on efficiency. Take for
>> instance the privatization of the national electric power authority. It
>> has
>> done little to improve regular power supply even though it is privatized.
>> Capitalism is not just about economics, it is also about certain
>> socio-cultural and behavioral changes attitudes. It is like a secular
>> religion. Understanding what makes institutions work effectively and
>> efficiently is at the core of pursuing capitalist development if this is
>> what a country chooses to do. How you achieve this can vary in terms of
>> strategies and contexts but at the end without efficient and effective
>> institutions, you cannot succeed. In this respect, the great majority of
>> African elites do not have the courage to focus on justice, fairness,
>> genuine efficiency and effectiveness of public institutions. They may say
>> so, but the reality on the ground says something else in many cases.
>>
>> Interestingly, one of the Elder Statesman from the Southeastern region of
>> Nigeria, Chief Iwuanyanwu warned during his short impromptu comment that
>> those clamoring for Nigeria to return to regional government structure
>> should forget about that because even within the same southeastern
>> region,
>> areas that currently have state governments would not like to abandon
>> that
>> for a regional government. He did not get into the details of explaining
>> why he thought so but he highlighted a very important issue that everyone
>> should take seriously. States in Nigeria are structures that allow some
>> elites to claim identity and control access to power and scarce
>> resources.
>> This situation makes such elites politically relevant in the country,
>> because they have  a base. Reverting back to regional government will
>> cause
>> greater competition, maybe even ruthless one in the various regions for
>> power because controlling the state means controlling access to means for
>> patronage and patronage enables ruling elites in Nigeria to become like
>> demi-god as the masses come and beg the elites for access to scarce
>> resources and public institutions. I am very confident that mere
>> restructuring will  NOT do away with this modus-operandi  of public
>> institutions, which many of the Nigerian elites calling for political
>> restructuring take for granted.
>>
>> Two persons from Northern Nigeria were invited to the lecture but only
>> one
>> came. Professor Ango Adullahi who is the leader of the Northern Elders
>> Forum was invited but he did not show up. I am not sure that one can
>> assume
>> all elders in Northern Nigeria speak with the same voice but people do
>> make
>> such claims. Professor Addullahi in my assessment represents the very
>> conservative north that is not in a hurry for social transformation and
>> adopts a more antiquarian approach to history as Friedrich Nietzsche
>> would
>> describe it. The other person invited was Alhaji Tanko Yakassai. I
>> visited
>> Yakassai ward so many times in Kano City when I was an undergraduate, and
>> he was invited to speak to us as students then.  For those who do not
>> know,
>> it was great that Yakassai was invited because he represents a different
>> voice in northern Nigeria. He was imprisoned several times by the NPC
>> which
>> was the government in charge of Northern Nigeria. He was not part of NPC
>> but NEPO who were more attuned to the masses. If Professor Abdullahi was
>> present, many in the audience would be shocked to know that the
>> simplistic
>> view of some people that there is a monolithic voice in northern Nigeria
>> is
>> mistaken.  In any case, Gayatri Spivak makes the point that even the
>> subaltern group or people do not speak with one coherent voice.
>>
>> Alhaji Yakassai is very articulate and willing to stand for what he
>> believes, no matter what, and he told this to the audience. He even
>> called
>> for the need to use scientific evidence to resolve some controversies
>> instead of basing claims on sentiment. I have not heard many people in
>> his
>> generation in Nigeria talking about the "scientific method."  He is now
>> 92
>> years old. But the organizers made one terrible mistake. The occasion
>> totally ignored him in spite of the fact that he was the oldest in the
>> forum and they invited him and he accepted to come to Awka from Kano for
>> that purpose. And for a man of his age to grace the occasion was truly a
>> sign of commitment. It was obvious that he has very close relationship
>> with
>> some high ranking Igbo people that he met since the days of Nigeria's
>> First
>> Republic and they were very sincere and close friends with each other.
>> He
>> mentioned some of the names right there and I sensed from the context
>> that
>> the current president of Ohanaeze, coming from a younger generation, does
>> not have that kind of cross-cultural or regional relationships as the
>> older
>> generation.
>>
>> Alhaji Yakassai also was a witness of many of the things that the
>> presenter made reference to in his speech and he quickly corrected what
>> he
>> thought were some glaring errors and insisted that if anyone disagreed
>> with
>> him he or she can go and get the contrary evidence if it  is in existence
>> somewhere. The place was quiet as the old man explained himself.  Having
>> been ignored, when Yakassai stood up, he scolded the organizers  on
>> grounds
>> that that if they were committed to protocol as they claimed they were,
>> what they did to him was inappropriate. Second, he told the audience that
>> the ovation that were made in response to some of the things the
>> presenter
>> said suggests that the audience was an uncritical one and he gave them
>> the
>> reasons why he thought so. By all standards the Ohanaeze president is a
>> very sharp, intelligent and passionate person. The problem is how
>> everyone
>> of us channels his or her passion and knowledge. I always feel bad when I
>> see the way a highly educated person in Nigeria like Femi Fani-Kayode who
>> is a product of Cambridge University, but yet reduced himself to pursuing
>> petty squabbles across the country. He can do far better than that.  But
>> in
>> my discussion with a Professor in the Sociology Department  at Nnamdi
>> Azikiwe University whom we sat close to each other, we agreed that the
>> problem was the forum was more like a political one, but it was publicly
>> advertised as a scholarly one. There are many things that can be said and
>> go unchallenged politically, but in a scholarly forum, this would not be
>> possible.
>>
>> I have attached the speech read by the President General of Ohanaeze
>> Ndigbo Worldwide for you to read. There was discussion in the forum that
>> the speech will be printed and distributed across Nigeria. But my sense
>> is
>> that given even what some of my graduate students said in class to me
>> about
>> their feelings with regard to the lecture, the speech may not be a true
>> representation of the vision or opinions of all Ndigbo people. I think
>> this
>> will be true for any similar lecture given in any region of Nigeria, not
>> just this one.  Some may think differently, just as Alhaji Yakassai's
>> position would have been different from that of Professor Adullahi.
>> Yakassai would have obviously been critical of some of  Professor Ango
>> Abdullahi's claims as representing a monolithic northern Nigeria even
>> though they are both from the same region. But why should anyone in any
>> case assume that simply because people come from the same region, they
>> will
>> have to necessarily share the same opinions or beliefs. We live in a much
>> more complicated world. If life was such simple, we just need one person
>> as
>> a representative sample of the whole region. Maybe that would work in a
>> simple hunter and gatherer society. But anthropologically, once humans
>> had
>> the courage at a point in their evolutionary history to claim nature,
>> something they did not create or own, but appropriated it, saying they
>> own
>> it and privatized it, excluding others from accessing it, at that point,
>> we
>> reached a turning point in how we relate to teach other. Ownership of
>> property in various ways distort and vitiate ordinary human relations,
>> among other numerous factors.
>>
>> The President General of Ohanaeze in his speech raised the concern that
>> the various constitutions of Nigeria have never been democratic because
>> there was no referendum to validate the documents based on the voices of
>> the Nigerian people. The audience clapped for that, but amazingly for the
>> whole four and a half hours of the lecture, there was no attempt to allow
>> the members of the audience to ask  any question such as by writing the
>> question on a card and giving it to the organizers to read it out, so
>> that
>> the president and other elites on the high table can respond and clarify
>> some of their assertions. People were just expected to sit down and
>> listen
>> or so it seems. My students complained about being denied the opportunity
>> to ask questions at the forum, when we later met in class. Wherever such
>> an
>> important document or speech is presented in my assessment, I think the
>> audience should be allowed to ask questions. If nothing, this will have
>> more credibility if one is making case for people's voices in shaping a
>> complex decision. Social inequality and differentiation is an
>> indisputable
>> reality in all regions of Nigeria, and such realities, shape people's
>> consciousness in divergent ways. They cannot be ignored.
>>
>> For the reader who is not familiar with Nigeria, the country is in her
>> 57th year after independence. But the identity question, the problem of
>> developing effective and efficient institutions that will promote
>> inclusive
>> development, and how to manage competition for scarce resources are
>> challenges that the country is seriously struggling with. These are of
>> course concerns that are equally relevant in other African countries as
>> well. Indeed some developing countries in other regions of the world are
>> equally dealing with these challenges too. Until these questions are
>> resolved to a level that is optimum, no one should expect Nigeria taking
>> giant strides. And if it does, it will be "growth without development."
>> The
>> gap between the elites and masses in all regions and even in places of
>> worship is just so wide. The intense pursuit of lucre and material wealth
>> has not only penetrated the inner-sanctum of places of worship and
>> distorting and vitiating the message from the podium or pulpit, but it
>> has
>> also captured any kind of social imaginary and vision of the people by
>> making it a slave and servant to appetitive human desires. As a result,
>> the
>> peoples' vision has become fuzzy and therefore it is difficult to see the
>> common good or what we are in our shared humanity, in spite of our
>> racial,
>> ethnic religious, class and other differences. I believe the U.S. is
>> going
>> through similar challenges. The only major difference is that there are
>> relatively strong social institutions and civil society groups that are
>> already in existence with guaranteed rights there than here.  It is a
>> very
>> diffiuclt situation when you go through all these difficult situations
>> that
>> are made possible by centrifugal forces prior to having strong
>> institutions
>> and civil society organizations with guaranteed rights. The concern about
>> appetitive human desires which lead to acquisitive tendencies that are
>> insatiable led Aristotle even during his time to raise concern in his

>> vision of *civic republic tradition *about how distorted commerce and

>> acquisitive tendencies can constitute a threat to the cohesion and
>> stability of ancient Greek city of his time. His observation is still
>> relevant for us today.
>>
>>
>> Samuel
>>
>>
>>
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--
Ameh Dennis Akoh, Ph.D.
Professor of Drama & Critical Theory
Faculty of Humanities
Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo (FUNAI)
PMB 1010, Abakaliki
Ebonyi State
Nigeria
Alternate Email: amehakoh@yahoo.co.uk, ameh.akoh@funai.edu.ng
+2348035992490, +2348050293410

"We ought not to court publicity for our virtue, or notoriety for our zeal;
but, at the same time, it is a sin to be always seeking to hide that which
God has bestowed upon us for the good of others." – Charles Spurgeon

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