USA Africa Dialogue Series - Time to stop!

I don't support censorship, but I think it is time to stop this thread and move on.

TF

 

Toyin Falola

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From: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of "Farooq A. Kperogi" <farooqkperogi@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at 6:21 PM
To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Pita Agbese <pitaagbese@yahoo.com>, "Dr. Bitrus Gwamna" <bgwamna@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Pita Agbese's response.

 

Even you, Adeshina Afolayan, need to be told why the "group" is fraudulent in spite of all I've written about it? Na wa o. Since you want me to spell it out for you, let me oblige you.

 

1. Nigerian newspapers have called the "group" an "umbrella association of Nigerian scholars in the diaspora." This characterization is based on a press release written by Bitrus Gwamna (and Pita Agbese). Curiously, all the stories have the exact same verbiage, which indicates that it was Gwamna (and Agbese) who intentionally called their "association" the "umbrella association of Nigerian scholars in the diaspora" (See the story in the Nation:  https://thenationonlineng.net/emefiele-scholars-hail-buhari-task-fg-against-replacing-security-chiefs/ ; see it in the Nigerian Tribune: https://tribuneonlineng.com/213118/ ; see it in the Daily Independent: https://www.independent.ng/emefiele-scholars-commend-buhari-caution-against-replacing-security-chiefs/ ; see it in the Vanguard: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/05/emefiele-scholars-hail-buhari-task-fg-against-replacing-security-chiefs/ ).These are different newspapers, but the phraseology of the story shares uncanny mathematical similitude. That clearly shows that it was Gwamna (and Agbese) who willfully characterized themselves as "the umbrella association of Nigerian scholars in the diaspora." It's impossible for every single newspaper to publish the same wording the same day. That only happens when newspapers simply publish a press release as is.

 

 Gwamna and Agbese wrote their press release like a news story and gave it to newspapers. The first paragraphs read like a reporter's authorial intervention of a press release, but it's actually not. It was set up that way to deceive the reader. Either out of laziness or because they were paid, all the newspapers published the press release verbatim. If you don't think that is fraudulent, you must have a really weak moral core. Plus, in his pitifully rambling response to me, Agbese said it was the newspapers that chose to call the "Association of Nigerian Scholars in the Diaspora" an "umbrella association," not them. That was an embarrassingly intentional lie, and that's fraudulent.

 

2. Agbese tried to be smart by half by claiming that his "association" is modeled after a previous 8-member association founded by Julius Ihonvbere of which he was a member. He implied that although the association had a broad name, its membership wasn't broad. But the contrast of context he attempted to draw was imperfect. First, the  "Association of Nigerian Scholars in the Diaspora" is a two-member "association." Anyone with even an elementary grasp of English grammar would know that two people can't, properly, be called an association. At best, they are a dyad. I also doubt that the Ihonvbere association called itself an "umbrella association" of any set of people. If it did even when only eight people constituted it, then it was fraudulent, too. The decision to call an association an "umbrella association" is a strategic rhetorical move calculated to confer unearned social and political capital to it from unsuspecting people.

 

3. The Agbese-Gwmana dyad claimed in its latest press release that "The Association of Nigerian Scholars as a prelude delegated its committee on Economic Development that consists scholars versed in Economic Development to assess the tenure of Godwin Emefeile as the CBN governor in Nigeria and discovered that the Nigeria economy indeed gained substantial traction in the last four years and also commended the dexterity with which the governor of the CBN handled our economic crisis." That's straight-up fraudulent. As I've pointed out repeatedly, Gwamna and Agbese, the only members of the "association," are professors of communication and political science and can't conceivably constitute a "committee on Economic Development," much less assess the economy of any country with any expertise, both because you can't have a committee out of a dyad and because a professor of communication and a professor of political science don't qualify to be called "scholars versed in economic development." Of course, the fact that Nigeria became the world's headquarters of extreme poverty and recorded the slowest growth in recent memory during the tenure of the same CBN governor undercuts their claim and aggrandizes their duplicity.

 

4. Although Gwamna and Agbese live in Iowa, they sent out a press release in March 2019 where they claimed that they'd held a meeting in London. They DID NOT!  I've confirmed this from sources. That's fraudulent. The lie was intentional: they wanted to give unsuspecting Nigerian readers a false impression of wide diasporan geographic spread of their dyadic pro-regime conspiracy. I study the rhetorical strategies of scammers. I know fraud when I see it. I have written more than 70 percent of a book manuscript on the persuasive techniques of scammers. 

 

I can give you more reasons why the "Association of Nigerian Scholars in Diaspora" is fraudulent, but I have better use for my time than persuading a grown man with a PhD in philosophy what constitutes fraud.

 

Farooq

 

 

 

On Wed, Jun 5, 2019 at 1:59 PM 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Thank you, Oga Chidi. May you prosper! I just wonder how scholarship or principles are preserved when we must undermine others through barbed words and essays. It makes no sense to me. Any group of persons can call itself any name, as long as my name is not included without my consent. And whatever politics the group decide to play is the group's or the individuals concerned. Why inflict negative words on them, if there isn't any other issue involved beyond what we are made to read here? Why call the group a "fraudulent" one? And, please enlighten me, what kind of patriotic fervor is that that is so close minded and refuses others their say and perception on what is good or bad? As the Yorùbá would say, we all cannot sleep and face the same direction. There's a whole world separating reckless writing from principled writing. When they collide, we leave bad feelings all around and that undermines friendship and even good sense. 

 

Adeshina Afolayan 


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

On Wednesday, June 5, 2019, 6:22 PM, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:

"Is it not possible for the group to have chosen a name that does not suggest an umbrella organisation representing Nigerian diaspora academics?"(Oluwatoyin Adepoju).

If a group of Nigerian poets decide, for example to form an association and name it "Nigerian Poets Association", without consulting me and decide to support the Buhari administration, which I do not support, it would not mean that the association is "fraudulent" and/or that what they are doing would be "wrong".

The best I can do is to come out and say that I am not associated with the association and that should end it!

I would not start some unnecesary arrogant postulations about the group being "fraudulent" and all that!

CAO.

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