Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Re: [UTEXAS: SUSPECTED SPAM] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria is Doomed and Her Academics are Culpable

a footnote to my last comment on this.

sure, i don't believe in witchcraft. however, i do believe in scholarship, i.e., that all sets of beliefs that people hold are of interest for a range of reasons. from evans-pritchard's writings on the nuer till nowadays, anthropoligists have spilled tons of ink, and often written brilliantly about such beliefs. luise white's essay on kenyan beliefs on vampires etc in post war kenya, on the anxieties generated by colonialism, is classical, for good reason. and nowadays my favorite author, who writes on the occult in cameroon, is peter geschiere. we would lose enormously if we did not read these authors.

and for african film, you cannot understand nollywood without examining why the occult provided a major genre at the outset, beginning with Living in Bondage. just as you would not really understand american film without studying the genre of horror films.

and some people might believe that these images have a basis in reality. it isn't interesting to ask whether that is correct; it is interesting to ask, why do people hold these views.

and people do. a recent study in ghana showed that a large percentage not only believe in witches, but pay on a monthly basis for protection.


the beliefs are very firmly grounded in people's minds. there is no simple easy explanation for why. but if we want to discuss it seriously, i suggest we have to consult folks like geschiere who have devoted time to the question. (for instance, his recent book Witchcraft, Intimacy, and Trust. really a wonderful study)

or we can just chat.

ken


kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

From: 'Enyimba Himself' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 8, 2019 9:09:34 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [UTEXAS: SUSPECTED SPAM] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria is Doomed and Her Academics are Culpable
 
This is another comic review for lazy people who cannot differ fiction from reality.
Did we not almost lose a battalion in Biafra simply because of some greedy native
doctors who sold charms to Biafran Soldiers that made it impossible for bullets to
penetrate a Soldier.  The game changed when Nigeria brought a Maxman from America
called "Barbwire who knew how to aim and shoot.

What Biafran Generals discovered later was that the Nigerian Soldiers did not know
how to shoot guns.  They will be firing thousand shots and you can walk straight to them
and kill with hands.  That was the reason Biafra created the Buff Battalion.

Toyin, listen to me; there is nothing like witches and wizards, they only exist in the
minds of men and women suffering from untreated jaundice.

Enyimba Himself
You are not successful until your successor succeeds.



-----Original Message-----
From: Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wed, May 8, 2019 6:30 am
Subject: Re: [UTEXAS: SUSPECTED SPAM] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria is Doomed and Her Academics are Culpable

Moses:
 
With respect to the Nigerian army, are we not giving this Professor too much credit than he deserves? If I were Nwolise, I would now be so happy that people are taking me so seriously that I have even attained a global stature! We have now giving him a stature that he previously does not have!! I spent have a day trying to know him and his work!!!
 
All what we have are his statements, not the outcome of his statements. That he gives lectures and people clap for him does not translate into a project by the Nigerian army to convert witches into drones to fly in the middle of the night to the Sambisa forest. In any case, those soldiers already have charms and amulets in their pockets. The Marabouts are already there, and they don't need Nwolise to tell them that you need charms to support ammunition.
 
I am interested in what the Professor said as an epistemology…a way of thinking. We cannot be dismissive of the mode and ways of knowing—to do so it to undercut knowledge itself.  If the professor has been saying that many people believe that witches can land in Austin to break my legs, I won't have any issue with it as this is "faith", not science. People have described God to me, but I won't ask them for evidence.
 
Here is why we need to move in a different direction. When I sought to understand the Professor further, someone told me that he believes in occultism. This is none of my business. It is his right to join any association of his choice, as people join secret confraternities. Thus, I cannot ask him not to propagate his occultism and recruit additional members which might be what he is doing.  Or he could set up an Occult School, just as Adeboye has a Bible College different from the University.
 
I very much doubt that we can stop his occult beliefs, if he truly has them, not to be part of his life and conversation, just as we cannot stop a Pentecostalist from his faith. The deeper he is into the practice, the more he comes into the open. And that he makes it part of his Inaugural Lecture means that he is not as dumb as we think. It may sound silly but this may be his own mission, to enhance the credibility of occultism.
 
I wish I could be forwarding all our stuff to him but I don't have his contact so that he can respond.
 
This is a very good debate to have, and we must come to a full understanding of what the Professor represents. In the early years of my introduction to Toyin Adepoju, the person who sent his Internet stuff to me told me that he is eccentric and full of maniac ideas. I was later to discover that Toyin Adepoju has the mind of a Nobel Laurette!
 
TF
 
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue   
 
From: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of moses <meochonu@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, May 8, 2019 at 5:49 AM
To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [UTEXAS: SUSPECTED SPAM] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria is Doomed and Her Academics are Culpable
 
WARNING: The University of Texas at Austin email defense system has flagged the following message as suspicious. If the message asks you for a username and/or password, such as your UT EID or your UTmail login, DO NOT respond to the message. The university will NEVER ask for your username or password in an email message.
If you have sent your username or password in response to this message or a message like it, contact the UT Service Desk immediately at 512-475-9400.
"Prof. Nwolise and others like him should first reduce their esoteric knowledge to something more tangible and usable and observable and testable, even if they are the only one that can replicate the oddities, as it seems to be the case in many instances in the Tompkin book above. The context in which he is reported to be teaching it when all he has are assertions subverts rationalistic science and could compromise the military."
 
----Femi Kolapo
 
That is all we're saying. You cannot propagate untested, unverified, unproven, and unreplicable claims as assertions of fact and certitude and as the equivalent of verified and replicable scientific principles through academic mediums and forums, and recommending these dubious claims for operational use to senior military officers.
 
 
On Wed, May 8, 2019 at 5:07 AM Femi Kolapo <kolapof@uoguelph.ca> wrote:
The following publications include details of some of the most rigorous tests, including by sceptical establishment scientists, applied to issues of the paranormal or supernatural that you will find anywhere. I have not read each page of all of them, though. From the little I have read, I feel confident to conclude that you will encounter similar phenomenon as Nwolise was said to have described in his inaugrual adress and more. Watson and Rhine were top scientists. Some of the reported experiments in the Secret Life of Plants are simply mind-boggling, but they won't be to my relatives in the village who do not subscribe to the idea that all there is is NATURE and matter.
those who are interested should first read about Robert Pavlita's experiments and demonstrations  - about 5 minutes reading here: https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_psychotronicweapons05.htm
In 1973, during the First International Conference on Psychotronic Research, I met Robert Pavlita a most enigmatic man. This controversial Czech inventor is the designer of the so-called "psychotronic generator," a device for storing and applying "biological energy."I don't speak Czech, but with the help of a translator we had a long conversation, after which he demonstrated one of his ...
 
 
Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, PSI Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain-Abacus (1977).
Lyall Watson - Supernature . A Natural History of the supernatural (1973)
J.B. Rhine,  Extra-sensory perception-Boston Society for Psychic Research (1934)
Peter Tompkins, Christopher Bird,  The Secret Life of Plants a Fascinating Account of the Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Relations Between Plants and Man (1989)
The more important point for Nigeria, I believe though, is to hold these two worldviews and knowledge systems apart.
They must be held separate while we first master and exploit the tremendous benefits that the naturalistic, rational world of modern science affords.  Since it deals with the natural material world of regular, measurable, predictable forces subject to the replicable law of science.
natural science works and has been very productive in terms of enhancing material life and material comfort etc etc. its principles and methods applied to politics, economics, and to social organization, have led in some areas to significant socio-cultural, advancement - e.g. in advocacy for and attempt to realise human equality and human rights. 
Witchcraft and all the other things Nwolise was talking about, i.e., what otherwise we should call ESP and paranormal science, because they deal with oddities and unpredictable realities (odd occurrences)  that humans and scientific reasoning cannot control and which the law of science cannot handle, should not be dismissed. Hold it separate, encourage those who are interested in it to continue to investigate it and exploit it as safely as possible for the good of society, if they are able to fathom it. The USSR, US and some European countries during the Cold War, for purposes of control and power, supported research into this sphere of knowledge and in all probability, the rival world powers continue to investigate it.  Prof. Nwolise and others like him should first reduce their esoteric knowledge to something more tangible and usable and observable and testable, even if they are the only one that can replicate the oddities, as it seems to be the case in many instances in the Tompkin book above. The context in which he is reported to be teaching it when all he has are assertions subverts rationalistic science and could compromise the military.
/Femi Kolapo
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 7, 2019 2:16 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria is Doomed and Her Academics are Culpable
 
I second Brother Chielozona. Okey Ugaga, please give us an example of a modern army that gathers/gathered intelligence from ghosts and spirits. I watch a lot of crime detective stories and I know that some police investigators consulted psychics in the course of murder or missing person investigations. It's not something they do as part of official practice and in all my years of watching detective shows, I've seen no single instance in which the crime was solved through psychic consultation. But more relevant to our discussion, I've never heard of any modern army emplying the services of ghosts and spirits for intelligence gathering. I want to be educated, so I, like Chielo, await your response.
 
On Tue, May 7, 2019 at 1:01 PM Chielozona Eze <chieloz@gmail.com> wrote:
"Perhaps you are not aware, but the military and intelligence services of some other countries (including the USA, USSR/Russia, and even Nazi Germany) have at one time or the other also practiced some of what Nwolise is asking the Nigerian Military to try here"- Okechucku Ukaga.
Interesting. Could you, please, provide evidence? Or are you seeking to sneak in ideas plucked from the air?
Chielozona
 
 
 
 
Chielozona Eze
Professor, African Literature and Cultural Studies, Northeastern Illinois University; Extraordinary Professor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa.Fellow - Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa
https://neiu.academia.edu/ChielozonaEze
www.Chielozona.com
 
 
On Tue, May 7, 2019 at 9:16 AM Okechukwu Ukaga <ukaga001@umn.edu> wrote:
Moses, my broda:
Perhaps you are not aware, but the military and intelligence services of some other countries (including the USA, USSR/Russia, and even Nazi Germany) have at one time or the other also practiced some of what Nwolise is asking the Nigerian Military to try here. So I would not say Nigeria is doomed just because of his suggestions and/or the following applause. The problem with Nigeria (as Chinua Achebe famously wrote many years ago and Wole Soyinka recently reiterated a a BBC interview) is poor/bad/ineffective leadership, not second or third order issues. 
Now, on a different but related issue, what do you make of the reported negotiation between the federal government and Miyetti Allah? Any historical context? Any insights regarding potential alternative(s) to the current approach? 
Regards,
Okey 
 
On Tue, May 7, 2019 at 6:08 AM Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:
Colleagues and friends,
 
Setting aside for the moment the bizarre atmospherics of Professor Nwolise's oeuvre, have we pause to consider the implications of what Okey Iheduru posted from eye-witness knowledge? He told us that in this age of heightened insecurity and multiple threats to the sovereignty of Nigeria, Professor Nwolise makes regular lecturing appearances at the only postgraduate institution of the Nigerian armed forces, the National Defense College, urging army colonels and generals and their equivalents in other branches of the armed forces to gather military intelligence through ghosts and spirits and, more disturbingly, that he receives a "rapturous" applause and positive reception each time he presents this dangerous nonsense to the students. Wow, just wow. And we wonder why the Nigerian armed forces cannot understand the security threats facing the country, let alone tackling them. And some say I'm exaggerating when I say the country is doomed.
 
On Mon, May 6, 2019 at 9:03 PM Ashafa Abdullahi <abashafa@gmail.com> wrote:
Oga Toyin, 
It's my deliberate judgement to agree with you entirely. My concern about majority of posts here here is inconclusive lamentation. Let's not portray ourselves as if the politicians & leadership across we complain about daily are better than us. They complain & pretend they are the solutions. But we lament and don't proved solutions, which means we need to shift ground. There's nothing that has not been said regarding Nigeria's ills. Let's put our analysis on the solutions.
 
On Mon, May 6, 2019, 14:40 Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu wrote:
Moses:
 
The most productive argument will be to assume that many won't disconnect! Society and people do not just shift. Something must first shift before they respond. Thus, we have to work out a new way of thinking that will accommodate that, which may be unfortunate.
I have been to Jos and Kaduna where making the disconnect argument to our colleagues may not even have any appeal. If you wake up in the city, driving to work to see which road is taken by the Christians and another by the Muslims, the first thing they do when they get to the office and return back home is to pray. Even as an External Examiner in such places, I joined them in that prayer. And in the classrooms, they pray, and they prayed for me, and they work faith into their presentations. I listen and process to understand where they are coming from. Not that I agree with them, but that I understand why they do what they do.
 
I know how to make the theoretical arguments about the disconnect, but at the same time, I know that in practice it won't happen.
 
 
TF
 
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue   
 
From: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of moses <meochonu@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, May 6, 2019 at 7:40 AM
To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria is Doomed and Her Academics are Culpable
 
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TF,
 
We get all that. Some of my own family members get scandalized when I tell them that they're too quick to blame the devil/witchcraft and to resort to prayers for problems that are physical and require taking concrete action. That's not the point. In our work, we reckon with the existence and influence of that worldview, which cuts across all of Africa's religious traditions. The point is that an academic should not uncritical substitute a religious dogma founded on faith and unverifiable supernatural truth claims for a rigorous, analytical engagement with such claims. An academic who is a Pentecostal Christian, devout Muslim, or Ifa practitioner should compartmentalize his religious beliefs when doing academic work. Yes, all writings are autobiographical, but when we say that, we are talking about subconscious bias and the ways in which our socializations seep into our approaches subconsciously. It does not refer to the conscious certitude of passing off unverifiable spiritual and other truth claims as "factual." There're  probably Western academics who believe in alien abductions but will they try to publish that belief in a journal or present it as fact in an academic lecture? They know better than to try to do that. Even if they want to write on alien abductions, they know that the academic protocol is to maintain a critical, scholarly distance from the subject/object of inquiry and analysis.
 
On Mon, May 6, 2019 at 7:25 AM Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
I am beginning to enjoy this debate.
What is "factual"? At Ibadan, my city, and yours, witchcraft is "factual"!!  The mission of Christ is "factual". It is the fact of faith, not the fact of science.
Years ago, in the company of others, when I told my mom that I did not believe in witchcraft, I sent her into panic and she began to look for remedies for me to stay alive. I don't believe that there are witches, but have the witches now left Ibadan because I don't believe in them?
TF
 
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue   
 
From: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of moses <meochonu@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, May 6, 2019 at 7:13 AM
To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria is Doomed and Her Academics are Culpable
 
This message is from an external sender. Learn more about why this matters.
 
And, by the way, yes, a "fundamentalist Christian" can win the Nobel Prize in Medicine but certainly not by advancing his religious beliefs as his oeuvre. Yes, we need an epistemology that engages with prevalent beliefs in supernatural causation in Africa because these beliefs are pervasive, inform devotional practices, and animate and constrain attitudes towards politics in African countries. That epistemology is already underway, with many scholars such as Nimi Wariboko, Obadare, Peter Gaschere, Elias Bombgba, Olupona, Asonze Uka, yourself, Are Adogame, and others already engaging critically with that world. However, it would be academically suicidal if these scholars where to attempt to pass off an uncritical endorsement of Nigerian religious beliefs as "factual" in the most important academic lecture of their career or in a book.
 
On Mon, May 6, 2019 at 5:11 AM Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:
Oga TF,
 
As a person of faith myself I have absolutely no problem with people believing in whatever they choose. That is their right. However, there are two issues here. One is that this was an inaugural lecture delivered to an academic community and later self-published as an academic book. An inaugural lecture is supposed to be the capstone of a professor's research enterprise and academic contributions, which if not publishable, should at least be worthy of submission for peer review. Can this mishmash of Pentecostal and African traditional religious beliefs be submitted for academic review in any serious academic culture?
 
Secondly, here is what Nwolise wrote: "The scientist or intellectualist may not see or accept these as real based on his training, but they happen daily and are factual." The Professor of political science is passing off his witchcraft claims as factual. He is both professing and affirming witchcraft remote controls and the instrumental and causative agency of malevolent spirits as factual, but what is the basis for this? Where's the proof, the demonstration, the logic. I would not have a problem if he had stated that he was outlining the prevalent beliefs in Nigeria. No, he advanced these unproven and unprovable beliefs and spiritual opinions as factual. This is what I expect to hear and hear all the time from the pulpit in my church. I've never heard it in an academic lecture unless the academic is quoting or paraphrasing someone in order to analyze the claims or beliefs. Professor Nwolise would have delivered his spiritual thesis to an audience of Pentecostal Christians. Conjectures, faith, opinions, and beliefs cannot substitute for academic rigor, scholarly skepticism, and analytical tentativeness and distance in matters that are beyond empirical proof and rest on faith, piety, and belief.
 
Some of my Facebook friends posited that I should at least give the man credit for putting his imagination to good use and for giving us something in the magical realism genre. But the man is not a novelist. He is not even a Professor of literature. My favorite fictional niche is actually magical realism, two of my favorite novels being Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and Ben Okri's The Famished Road. I also love Tutuola's The Palm Wine Drinkard and Fagunwa's Forest of a Thousand Demons. But these are works of fiction and folklore, not academic lectures/books purporting to explicate and solve a problem in society as Nwolise claims to be doing in regard to human (in)security.
 
The full title of Nwolise's inaugural lecture is: Is Physical Security Alone Enough For the Survival, Progress and Happiness of Man?"~O.B.C Nwolise- (Inaugural Lecture 2012/13, University of Ibadan). 
 
By the way, what does Nwolise proffer as a solution to his claimed ubiquity and multivalent instrumentality of evil spirits? He says Nigeria needs to take "spiritual security" and "Strategic Spiritual Intelligence" seriously and that Nigerians should counter this ubiquity of spiritual threats with what he calls "Divine Security Insurance."
 
At any rate, several of my Facebook interlocutors raised the questions you're raising here and I will save myself some effort by reproducing my responses to them below.
 
 
 Eric Terfa Ula-Lisa, Believe whatever you want. I am a Christian and believe similarly as you. It is your right and prerogative. Other people, including atheists, have their own opinions and beliefs. Find a church or the appropriate venue to peddle and profess those beliefs. Beliefs and mere opinions are not admissible as factual in academic discourse, period. I can believe if I want that lizards are capable of giving birth to humans. I will probably find an audience somewhere that is receptive to it, and I have the right to that opinion. But I would be laughed off the stage in a serious academic culture were I to try to pass it off in a lecture as factual. Piety and belief have their place. Academic rigor and analysis have their place as well.
 
 
 Eric Terfa Ula-Lisa but how can we proceed when there is no verifiable, empirical basis to do so? If I come to your church, the Christian that I am will take your word for your "empirical experience with witches." But in my terrain of academics, how can you convince me except by merely inviting me to accept your word for it. Academia has its rules and that is not how it works. The gentleman in question is a professor and was giving an academic lecture to an academic audience. And yes, as an academic theory or argument, the quote deserves nothing but ridicule. He should have been laughed off that stage, but I'm sure they clapped for him and praised him. However, if he had expressed those sentiments in a church, I would not have ridiculed him at all.
 
To the Facebook follower who posted a link to an academic study of witchcraft, I had this to say.
 
 
This is a study of witchcraft. Academics have been studying witchcraft and associated beliefs for centuries. But they don't advance them as factual. They maintain a critical distance from the belief system and practice. They don't pass off these unproven and unprovable phenomena, beliefs and practices as "factual." They don't lionize or legitimize the beliefs.
 
 
 I don't have the energy to even engage this type of academic, but you mentioned opinions, which we all have. He wasn't just expressing an opinion on Facebook or to his friends in a conversation. This is his inaugural professorial lecture, which should be publishable or at least worthy of submission to a journal in his field. Tell me, can this paper be submitted to any journal let alone be considered for publication in a journal in his field? Is it even worthy of an academic debate? Can it provoke academic debate? I am a practicing Christian. I have my beliefs in that regard. But I will not deliver an ACADEMIC lecture at a university, let alone a professorial inaugural, that is basically a rehash of my Christian or theological beliefs. If I desire a forum and platform to propagate a theological theory of spiritual causation, I will look for a religious audience, preferably in my church. I have no problem with people believing what they believe, but religious beliefs or opinions or convictions do not constitute academic theories. He actually says in the excerpt that his witchcraft scenarios are "factual," as actual as the science behind TV transmission and remote control technology. Where is the proof for this? Where is a demonstration of this? In scholarship, you do not make claims or assertions without demonstrating them. I am a little disappointed that you're dignifying a mishmash of traditional African religious and Pentecostal spiritualist explanations as a social scientific theory. The man is a political scientist for crying out loud. I can say a tree can learn a language. I have a right to that opinion but would I not be laughed off the stage and humiliated if I were to go before an audience of academics and express that opinion and posit it as fact?
 
All peoples have their beliefs, superstitions, metaphysical claims, and cosmologies. The difference is that you don't find their professors of political science delivering academic lectures claiming, without proof, that they are factual.
 
 
Scholars study all phenomena, including religious and superstitious beliefs but they maintain a scholarly distance and/or engage critically with them. They don't advance such unproven and unprovable phenomena as "factual" without proof or verifiable methodological demonstration. And stop with excusing poor, inept, and uncritical scholarship with claims of a decolonizing agenda. That's how some Nigerian academics who cannot write simple English sentences will claim that their poor writing skills are a form of rebellion against the white man's colonizing language and that they are trying to Africanize and decolonize African scholarship.
 
Anyway, perhaps I should not waste energy and time on nonsense and heed the advice of my brother, Professor Adeeko, below.
 
 
Adeleke Adeeko Moses Ochonu My friend, please leave witch hunters alone! Why bother to debate people who choose to equate the being of electronic remote devices and the being of beliefs. How can you begin to understand the structure of a moral framework that cedes complete control to forces beyond understanding, an allegedly moral (?) system that accepts as justified the killing of children as witch, a system that fails to question the sexism that restricts witch convictions to women, a system that equalizes belief and proof. Moses, please leave these people alone. How can you talk to them?
 
On Sun, May 5, 2019 at 7:04 PM Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
Question:
 
Is the professor expressing a belief system or affirming a belief system? If expressing a belief system, there is nothing new in what he has said. If he is affirming it, can you and I deny him of his faith? Pentecostalists tend to believe in magic and witchcraft. There is a clue in one sentence:
"In these two instances, one is seen as science, and the other is seen as magic."
 
Suppose the professor is a practicing Muslim who is observing the Ramadan and he talks about Allah and the rewards of heaven, is this not similar to his ideas on Nigerian religion?
 
And what about he a Christian, do we accept his faith-derived statement? A fundamentalist Christian can win the Nobel Prize in medicine.
 
I am not sure that one can win the argument in many parts of Africa that it is possible to disconnect this kind of belief from the work they do. In many Nollywood movies, the medical doctors tell their patients to forget about modern medicine and see the "native doctor".  The campuses are littered with sacrifices, and when I was at Ife, one was put in my office.
 
There must be an examination of his essays and books to conclude on the degree to which his faith as affected his findings. Human beings can "fragment" one part of the brain to write the most brilliant essay today and another part can see witches the next day.
 
The assumption that human beings are rational all the time is actually not correct. Indeed, they are not, in the secularist understanding of faith.
 
In any case, I hope the professor is reading this so that he can teach Moses a lesson by breaking his two legs!!!
TF
 
From: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of moses <meochonu@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Sunday, May 5, 2019 at 4:56 PM
To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria is Doomed and Her Academics are Culpable
 
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I am reading Professor Ebenezer Obadare's brilliant new book, Pentecostal Republic: Religion and the Struggle for State Power in Nigeria (Zed Books, 2018), and I came across the quote below, one of those he advances as touchstones for his central argument.
 
It is not lifted from a sermon or a facebook post. It is not extracted from a theological or hermeneutical document. 
On the contrary, ladies and gentlemen of Facebook Nigeriana, it is an excerpt from the inaugural professorial lecture of a certain Professor Osisioma B.C Nwolise, a Professor of Political Science (a social science that teaches logic, empirical proof, rigor, verifiability, and rational analysis) at the University of Ibadan. 
 
This is the most important lecture of his academic career, delivered in a university to an academic audience. And yet if I did not know its context I would have surmised that this was a sermon delivered in one of the parishes of my home church, the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
 
Here is an academic lending his professorial weight to the Nigerian pastime of spiritualizing sociopolitical, security, and economic problems--our culture of conflating piety and politics, or neglecting political action for pietistic escapism. 
 
We try to pray away our problems when we should be acting against them. Now, our professors who should know better are uncritically legitimizing and trying to intellectualize this culture of fatalistic spiritualization of secular, practical problems.
 
Farooq Kperogi is right; our problem is not just leadership but also a national scourge of illiteracy (literal and figurative) and irrationality. How can a country whose professors profess such nonsense make progress or solve its problems?
 
And how can a people challenge their oppressors and tormentors in power when even their professors subscribe to such drivel, such spiritual causality for everything, including election rigging, bad governance and incompetent leadership?
Read and weep for what remains of the diminishing country called Nigeria.
 
"When we want to watch our television, we switch it on with our remote control by pressing a button. Then we can stay in Ibadan and watch a football match being played in Athens, Sydney or Paris. In the same way, a witch stays in her house in Lokoja or any other town, stirs water in a pot, or conjurs(sic) a mirror, and can monitor any targeted person or object in London, Athens, or Sydney. In these two instances, one is seen as science, and the other is seen as magic. A witch can also stay in South Africa or the United Kingdom and break the leg of an effigy spiritually programmed to represent a person domiciled in the United States, and the person's leg will break mysteriously there. The scientist or intellectualist may not see or accept these as real based on his training, but they happen daily and are factual. There are spirits attached to walls, plants, leaves, found in bushes, on people's clothes, etc.; and there are roving spirits that move about especially between 12 noon and 2.00 pm, and at night. Some of these spirits are benevolent, while others are malevolent. It is the malevolent spirits that constitute threats to humans. They can project sickness into people's bodies, change people's star or destiny, or change the sex of a baby in the womb, remove the baby completely or turn it into a stone, or tortoise, snail, horse, snake, or a disabled [person]. If it were possible to carve out a block of the air for spiritual analysis, we can find several arrows, and many other dangerous pollutants, spiritual weapons of mass destruction flying in various directions 24 hours of the day."
 
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Book Review Editor, Environment, Development and Sustainability (www.springer.com/10668),

"Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach" -- Clarissa Pinkola Estes
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