Dialogues: January 2021

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tigray crisis as genocidal war(Gebretsion /TPLF)

Well it is the kidnapping and ambush of about a thousand federal soldiers, at the army base in Mekelle, and other actions by the TPLF leadership, that set the stage for the federal military intervention in November 2020.

When PM Hailemariam Desalegn stepped down in 2018, Abiy Ahmed of the Oromo Democratic Party was nominated to be the new PM, but apparently Gebretsion of the TPLF saw himself as the rightful heir to the throne, if rumors are correct, forgetting that the TPLF, representing about 6 percent of the population, dominated for seventeen years before then, within the context of the EPRDF.

It is sad to see ordinary innocent Tigrayans caught up in the crossfire - fleeing from their homes, farms, and shops, and thrown into refugee camps etc. during a pandemic.

The TPLF leadership should have anticipated the chaos but like Trump and his followers at the Capitol, it seems that holding on to power at all cost was the prime concern.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2021 5:54 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tigray crisis as genocidal war(Gebretsion /TPLF)

Please be cautious: **External Email**

i see coverage, nyt and al jazeera.

i am not convinved by tigrayyan claims of victimhood.

gloria should be our local expert on the question

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

From: 'Dr. Oohay' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 31, 2021 3:57 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tigray crisis as genocidal war(Gebretsion /TPLF)

A growing civil war .... that apparently continues to elude international coverage.

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

On Sunday, January 31, 2021, 1:32 PM, Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.emeagwali@gmail.com> wrote:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.yahoo.com/amphtml/tigray-crisis-genocidal-war-waged-145942216.html

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAMkN8aoyXZsM_P%3DsQ-F%2B70hMFcgHaHTP2NCA7Yp6yq7AMqMAbw%40mail.gmail.com.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/2032325108.642679.1612126674952%40mail.yahoo.com.

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo Interviews: Media Reports

https://www.naijanews.com/2021/01/31/i-didnt-leave-weak-successors-obasanjo/

I Didn't Leave Weak Successors – Obasanjo

Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, on Sunday during an interview with academic and historian, Toyin Falola, said he did not leave weak successors in office when he left Aso Rock in 2007. Obasanjo stated this while reacting to the accusations that he installed former President, Umaru Yar'adua and Goodluck Jonathan as his vice after […]

www.naijanews.com

https://www.naijanews.com/2021/01/31/make-it-uncomfortable-for-old-leaders-to-remain-in-govt-obasanjo-advices-youths/

Make It Uncomfortable For Old Leaders To Remain In Govt - Obasanjo Advices Youths | Naija News

Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, called on youths in the country to work together in making it uncomfortable for old leaders to remain in government. Obasanjo stated this while speaking on a virtual interview with academic and historian, Toyin Falola, on Sunday. The ex-president while answering a question from youth during the interview said, […]

www.naijanews.com

Femi O.

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo: I thought I knew Buhari

https://theinterview.ng/2021/01/31/i-thought-i-knew-buhari-obasanjo/

Sent from my iPhone

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/17229CE7-37AC-4046-B8BB-F065354DD0B1%40austin.utexas.edu.

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo agrees with Nigerian political elite on restructuring at Falola interviews

Obasanjo agrees with Nigerian political elite on restructuring at Falola interviews

--
To join this group, send email to naijaobserver@googlegroups.com

View this message at https://groups.google.com/a/googlegroups.com/d/msg/naijaobserver/topic-id/message-id
---

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tigray crisis as genocidal war(Gebretsion /TPLF)

i see coverage, nyt and al jazeera.

i am not convinved by tigrayyan claims of victimhood.

gloria should be our local expert on the question

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

A growing civil war .... that apparently continues to elude international coverage.

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

On Sunday, January 31, 2021, 1:32 PM, Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.emeagwali@gmail.com> wrote:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.yahoo.com/amphtml/tigray-crisis-genocidal-war-waged-145942216.html

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAMkN8aoyXZsM_P%3DsQ-F%2B70hMFcgHaHTP2NCA7Yp6yq7AMqMAbw%40mail.gmail.com.

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: BlackLives Matter Awarded Olof Palme Human Rights Prize

Fact: Black Lives Matter has attracted a lot of unhelpful negative attention from White Supremacist echo chambers and right-wing journalese.

What the BLM critics have in common is pretty much what you'll find here , that they (BLM folk) are basically God-forsaken, good -for-nothing "Commies", Marxists, Militants, and just as Vincent Adepoju says about our dear Fulani Herdsmen, so say the most ardent critics of our BLM Brethren, that they are "radicalised and militarised" insurgents, a threat to democracy and anathema to the American way of life.

So say the BLM critics who are busy resurrecting the spectre of the McCarthy era of the Communism scare. This is what happens in today's USA, when a Black man, Black men get up to take a stand against racism and the sort of police brutality that was videoed and shown on world wide TV for all to see.

The new McCarthy era dates back to the type of propaganda that was invoked against Brother Barack Obama when he announced his intention to become President of the United States of America: I read in more that one propaganda website that Brother Obama was "the illegitimate son of Malcolm X."

Exactly as Malcolm said at that Black Unity Rally in Harlem, that whenever some Africans in America, African-American Brothers and Sisters want to get together in peace and love, the African way, you'll always have the White Man there as the first to oppose that kind of getting together. That kind of White Man has not changed much since Malcolm's time; he certainly hasn't changed his skin or his Klan morals for the better

With regard to what Baba Kadiri says here, Allan, a Facebook friend made this observation - the ration is of course terribly exaggerated, and in our phone chat with Baba Kadiri this evening I agreed with all the points that he made about this matter, and I have urged him to make the same points here. There can be no point of disagreement about the last point he made to me this evening, his wry comment that the Rwanda Genocide is another tragic event that merits our working together in Peace and Harmony under the banner of Black Lives Matter…

Take note:

Victims of the Nazi Era: Nazi Racial Ideology

Holocaust victims

On Sunday, 31 January 2021 at 19:40:05 UTC+1 ogunlakaiye wrote:

In a world where the praxis is all lives matter except that of the Black Man, it will be logical to counter that praxis with Black Lives Matter. No other racial group is being wilfully asphyxiated or shot dead by the US police in the street except the Black man, am I wrong?

S. Kadiri

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>

Sent: 31 January 2021 14:02
To: Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@ccsu.edu>
Cc: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: BlackLives Matter Awarded Olof Palme Human Rights Prize

PS

I should like to remind us that whilst Pan-Africa and Africa-America is happily celebrating the recognition, reward and endorsement of the work being done by The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, we should also be painfully aware that there are forces that are still violently opposed to the existence of Black Lives Matter, some of them still "Loving one brother and killing the other "among We the People Who are Darker than Blue, simply out of frustration and racial (racist) hatred, and others who are less violently, but still strongly opposed to BLM on the flimsy, not so well thought out objection (excuse) that Black Lives Matter is too exclusively Black, not sufficiently inclusive of all humanity (I-manity) and that the movement should be expanded to embrace, under one umbrella, the idea that "All Lives Matter"

Then there are those who say they are opposed to the people in BLM on principle and are also opposed to some of values of the Olof Palme Foundation that Awarded The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation the prize, on these grounds, and that among other things they stand accused of anti-Semitism, and sympathies with both Marxism and totalitarianism.

The battle against all forms of racism will continue - it is a just War, and the battle cry is A luta continua; vitória é certa !

On Sat, 30 Jan 2021 at 21:01, Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:

Delightful news indeed that the prize was awarded to The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation with an emphasis on the motivation for awarding the prize "peaceful civil disobedience against police brutality and racial violence".

This has to be emphasised as a corrective to some of the enemies and critics of Black Lives Matter who have mostly linked the movement to looting and burning

More on this in speeches made at the award ceremony

Another subtext : Gregory Pardlo: A Letter to Juneteenth

On Sat, 30 Jan 2021 at 17:07, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@ccsu.edu> wrote:

Wonderful!

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2021 3:18 PM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: BlackLives Matter Awarded Olof Palme Human Rights Prize

Please be cautious: **External Email**

Black Lives Matter Awarded Olof Palme Human Rights Prize

Subtext : Sweden : Black Lives Matter

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAFYPD-S0NaGEu_niHWw5-4sJBju2LV2%2BPYyEV_c1xOcU5rb_Cw%40mail.gmail.com.

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAFYPD-RvWuoiBuUzK6isMu-tjaNq040q1jFvuZPD14zD%3DST32Q%40mail.gmail.com.

RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - AN OPEN ADDRESS TO MEMBERS OF CONCERNED CITIZENS

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com>

Date: 31/01/2021 20:47 (GMT+00:00)

To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - AN OPEN ADDRESS TO MEMBERS OF CONCERNED CITIZENS

Edited copy

OPEN ADDRESS TO MEMBERS OF THE CONCERNED CITIZENS OF NIGERIA.

Olayinka. Agbetuyi.

Members of Concerned Citizens of Nigeria:

(Hereafter to be called Concerned Citizens)

This piece was originally intended for members of the National Assembly to whom I addressed a similar piece a few months back, on where the nation faltered during the Second Republic, leading to our 40 years in the wilderness of military brutality and back to a penumbra of the excesses of military rule in civilian disguise. The moral tenor of the National Assembly is in serious doubt as the crucible of progressive change, if they daily invite convicted looters within their ranks as part of the law making process ( pray what laws can looters make but that which pander to and excuse brigandage?)

Your group came into the country's memory a few months ago when you decried the security situation in the country under the watch of the current administration. Sadly, the situation has hardly improved and it seems Nigerians will have to look forward to the next incoming administration in 2023 to see a marked improvement in their lives.

A cursory look at your membership reveals names of persons of integrity and experience including some of my own intellectual mentors now in retirement. Then I knew the situation must be dire indeed for some of you who were the icons of democracy to come out again to declare:'this is not what we fought for.' Indeed the situation has gone beyond issuance press of releases to a call for re- mobilisation to salvage the country.

The current administration came into being on the promise to rectify three serious anomalies: to stem the tide of monumental corruption and bring the corrupt to justice, to improve the dire security situation in the country and to restructure the country to ensure equity. Today, six years on, the security situation is seen by the majority as worse than when the administration took office. Cases of obscene corrupt enrichment started before the administration took office are in the main, still unresolved, and the journey toward restructuring of the nation has hardly begun. No one needs to be a genius to conclude that no appreciable success has been recorded on the score card in these areas and the nation may need to look up to another incoming administration come 2023 to fulfill their dire needs. President Muhammadu Buhari squandered a golden opportunity on the eve of the 2019 elections by not holding the APC to ransome that he was unprepared to be the flag bearer of the party unless the Nstional Assembly puts in place enabling laws to expedite the anti- corruption crusade. And this is where the Concerned Citizens come in.

The Concerned Citizens stand at the cusp of history to facilitate a new beginning for the country by mid-wifing a genuine government in waiting as the New Labour Party did in 1997 in the United Kingdom. The Concerned Citizens can begin to put its house in order to form a party that can truly deliver those goals which the current administration has failed to deliver so far by scrutinising the ruling party's manifesto and constructing their own on how the lapses can be filled pragmatically for the purposes of the next election so that the electorate can be given real choice. The current main opposition party, the PDP has been discredited that it no longer fulfills the role of a serious opposition party and many of its corrupt members sucked into the current ruling party that, unless a credible opposition party is fielded come 2023, Nigeria stands the risk of becoming a one party state of a mediocre APC ruling party.

Issues that the the party floated by the Concerned Citizens need to address urgently include the nature of executive power at the centre, which singularly is the most intractable 'national question' in Nigetia's history, the response to which bred other problems such as corruption ( bribery to influence the choice of national leader, who in turn rewards his clientele with bribery of political patronage and repression of opponents. I have suggested the problem is best solved by electing a presidential council of six from the geo- political zones of the country, which takes national decisions in concert after deliberation, with one year chairmanship rotation among the council of six, in a six year non renewable fixed term tenure. Pending the required constitutional change when in office, the Concerned Citizens can elect an interim president from the South East as the last president under the current dispensation, who will serve as first chairman and anchor of the new system within the first year in office.

This process referred to as necessary devolution of powers at the centre by HE Olusegun Obasanjo in a zoom interview today is already in practice in the United Kingdom that now practices a Tetrarchy of its main ethnic nationalities of the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish and the English each with its separate First Ministers who are the counterparts to the England's chief executive the Prime Minister. It now practices a Tetrarchy after facing the same problems of ethnic exclusions now faced by Nigeria for centuries of its union. State governors can implement similar devolution into gubernatorial councils. Nigeria will immensely benefit from the geo- political equity facilitated by a Sixtarchy. As HE Obsasanjo puts it, justice fairness and equity are the foundation of peaceful co- existence.

The Concerned Citizens must also propose a corruption- free process of electing members of the presidential council on merit other than the current system of the presidential bazaar primaries.

The Concerned Citizens party on assumption of office must change other highlighted areas in their manifesto including but not limited to the provision of capital punishment for serious fraud (involving sums in excess of US $10,000) and the exclusion of the trial process from the offence from the normal courts, to be tried by special tribunals subject to the ratification of the presidential council. The tole of traditional rulers as auditors to ensure budgeted funds are spent on the right projects, during project execution and conclusion in a transparent manner should also be inscribed into the constitution to ensure non partisan formal scrutiny and accounting.

Olayinka Agbetuyi

31 January 2021

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo; youth and old leaders

https://punchng.com/make-it-uncomfortable-for-old-leaders-to-remain-in-govt-obasanjo-urges-youths/

Sent from my iPhone

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/A70CD489-D506-41F0-A7CE-D008A5B1F4F3%40austin.utexas.edu.

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tigray crisis as genocidal war(Gebretsion /TPLF)

A growing civil war .... that apparently continues to elude international coverage.

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

On Sunday, January 31, 2021, 1:32 PM, Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.emeagwali@gmail.com> wrote:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.yahoo.com/amphtml/tigray-crisis-genocidal-war-waged-145942216.html

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAMkN8aoyXZsM_P%3DsQ-F%2B70hMFcgHaHTP2NCA7Yp6yq7AMqMAbw%40mail.gmail.com.

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Rockwell Lecture: Ann Gleig on 2/10 @ 3pm

Department of Religion

presents a

Spring 2020

Rockwell Lecture Series on Black Lives Matter

February 10, 2021

3:00 pm (CST) Via Zoom

Talk title: The Dukkha of Racism: Racial Justice Work in American Convert Buddhism

Speaker: Ann Gleig ('10), Associate Professor, University of Central Florida

Ann Gleig is an Associate Professor of Religion and Cultural Studies at the University of Central Florida. She is the author of American Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Modernity (Yale University Press, 2019).

In May of 2020, George Floyd was brutally killed when a police officer kneeled on his neck while other police officers stood by and did nothing. Mr. Floyd's death evoked condemnation from across the world, leading to weeks of protests denouncing not only police brutality and racism, but the politics of domination and death. The murders of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Rayshard Brooks, Atatiana Jefferson, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Michael Brown are not only discrete tragedies, but events that testify to structural histories of oppression and injustice against Black people in America.
The Department of Religion at Rice University is responding to these events in part by dedicating the 2020-2021 Rockwell Lecture Series to the theme of "Religion and Black Lives Matter". We are pleased to invite the general public to the 2020-2021 Rockwell Lecture Series that will focus on "Religion and Black Lives Matter." Speakers will include department alumni whose research focuses on issues of race and religion, gender and economic inequality, negative nationalisms, and critical global movements and human interactions that unfold in a post-George Floyd world. The Rockwell Lectures are part of a long- term engagement by faculty and alumni whose research and teaching engage the need to confront such systemic violence on the social, cultural, political, medical, economic, and ecological levels. The lectures will also probe some of the religious dimensions of the divisive practices that determine who can live and thrive or, conversely, who experience what Orlando Patterson has called Social Death. While we have framed this series as a critique of domination and oppression, the lectures will also offer insights on the things we can do to build just communities where Black Lives Matter. They will also address materials and ideas for teaching religion.

================================================
Registration is required and made available here.
This lecture series is sponsored by the Rockwell Foundation.
Free and open to the public.

USA Africa Dialogue Series - AN OPEN ADDRESS TO MEMBERS OF CONCERNED CITIZENS

OPEN ADDRESS TO MEMBERS OF THE CONCERNED CITIZENS OF NIGERIA.

Olayinka. Agbetuyi.

Members of Concerned Citizens of Nigeria:

(Hereafter to be called Concerned Citizens)

This piece was originally intended for members of the National Assembly to whom I addressed a similar piece a few months back, on where the nation faltered during the Second Republic, leading to our 40 years in the wilderness of military brutality and back to a penumbra of the excesses of military rule in civilian disguise. The moral tenor of the National Assembly is in serious doubt as the crucible of progressive change, if they daily invite convicted looters within their ranks as part of the law making process ( pray what laws can a looters make but that which pander to and excuses brigandage?)

A cursory look at your membership reveals names of persons of integrity and experience including some of my own intellectual mentors now in retirement. Then I knew the situation must be dire indeed for some of you who were icons of the icons of democracy to come out again to declare:'this is not what we fought for.' Indeed the situation has gone beyond issuance press of releases to a call for re- mobilisation to salvage the country.

The Concerned Citizens stand at the cusp of history to facilitate a new beginning for the country by mid-wifing a genuine government in waiting as the New Labour Party did in 1997 in the United Kingdom. The Concerned Citizens can begin to out its house in order to form a party that can truly deliver those goals which the current administration has failed to deliver so far by scrutinising the ruling party's manifesto and constructing their own on how the lapses can be filled pragmatically for the purposes of the next election so that the electorate can be given real choice. The current main opposition party, the PDP has been discredited that it no longer fulfills the role of a serious opposition party and many of its corrupt members sucked into the current ruling party that, unless a credible opposition party is fielded come 2023, Nigeria stands the risk of becoming a one party state of a mediocre APC ruling party.

Issues that the the party floated by the Concerned Citizens need to address urgently include the nature of executive power at the centre, which singularly is the most intractable 'national question' in Nigetia's history, the response to which bred other problems such as corruption ( bribery to influence the choice of national leader, who in turn rewards his clientele with bribery of political patronage and repression of opponents. I have suggested the problem is best solved by electing a presidential council of six from the geo- political zones of the country, who take national decisions in concert after deliberation, with one year chairmanship rotation among the council of six, in a six year non renewable fixed term tenure. Pending the required constitutional change when in office, the Concerned Citizens can elect an interim president from the South East as the last president under the current dispensation, who will serve as first chairman and anchor of the new system within the first year in office.

This process referred to as necessary devolution of powers at the centre by HE Olusegun Obasanjo in a zoom interview today is already in practice in the United Kingdom that now practices a Tetrarchy of its main ethnic nationalities of the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish and the English each with its separate First Ministers, who are the counterparts to the England's chief executive the Prime Ministers. It now practices a Tetrarchy after facing the same problems of ethnic exclusions now faced by Nigeria for centuries of its union. State governors can implement similar devolution. Nigeria will immensely benefit from the geo- political equity facilitated by a Sixtarchy. As HE Obsasanjo puts it, justice fairness and equity are the foundation of peaceful co- existence.

The Concerned Citizens must also propose a corruption- free process of electing members of the presidential council on merit other than the current system of the presidential bazaar primaries.

Olayinka Agbetuyi

31 January 2021

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

Dialogues

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tigray crisis as genocidal war(Gebretsion /TPLF)

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo Interviews: Media Reports

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo: I thought I knew Buhari

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo agrees with Nigerian political elite on restructuring at Falola interviews

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tigray crisis as genocidal war(Gebretsion /TPLF)

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: BlackLives Matter Awarded Olof Palme Human Rights Prize

RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - AN OPEN ADDRESS TO MEMBERS OF CONCERNED CITIZENS

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Obasanjo; youth and old leaders

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tigray crisis as genocidal war(Gebretsion /TPLF)

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Rockwell Lecture: Ann Gleig on 2/10 @ 3pm

USA Africa Dialogue Series - AN OPEN ADDRESS TO MEMBERS OF CONCERNED CITIZENS

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me