When the bizarre truth is oftimes stranger than fictiona short list , none from this centuryOn Thu, 28 Aug 2025 at 13:14, Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:"A practically impossible conjecture."
You "wonder" how I "came by these negatively ethnocentric and reality-defying conjectures."
This phrase comes in handy : Elementary, my dear Watson , and here are the simple reasons why you're not me and please take note when it comes to what you call "reality-defying conjectures" or "these negatively ethnocentric and reality-defying conjectures" there's almost no limit to the mind's fantasies, sky, moon and stars are not off limits and as you take off, as you say, "Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge", please remember this, remember who you are , and may your tribe increase
You "wonder" how I "came by these negatively ethnocentric and reality-defying conjectures."?
I "came by these negatively ethnocentric and reality-defying conjectures", because, it could be that I am a racist, a tribalist, and to quote what you said to me I " might need better grounding in the background to these issues" that I am " so confidently addressing."
All this may be true, because
(a) unlike you, I was baptised in the holy waters of the Umuahia River (full immersion) and kept the company of Biafran war veterans in Umuahia, and especially in ABA and Owerri and through my relatively long liaison in that region (1981-84) developed some close friendships and strong affiliation with some of the indigenes. But long before that, during the Biafra War which I followed closely -from a great distance, from the beginning to the end, occasionally listened to Ojukwu's live radio broadcasts with Chuks and some other Igbos students - to the extent that emotionally, sympathetically and empathetically I should hope that I know what I'm talking about
(b) given your austere high seriousness and what you may mis-apprehend as some kind of general levity on my part, about some of these matters (and take note, the word levity has nothing to do with the Levites) I do not presume that you are familiar with the genre known as satire , nor I take it as for granted that you ever read Gulliver's Travels or that you occasionally read The Onion
A question for you : Do you think that John Lennon had Chinua Achebe's There was a Country, and then composed Imagine as a heartfelt response ?
--On Wednesday, 27 August 2025 at 17:39:30 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:IPOB and Igbo are not necessarily united.
The current situation in the SE is so bad, from the business emasculating strategy of every Monday sit at home to widespread and murderous lawlessness emerging from IPOB militia who have gone rogue, some say, that IPOB has been thoroughly demarketed in the SE, talk less Lagos, where Igbos would thank God for their distance from
the mayhem.So the idea of a Lagos centred or general IPOB mindset covering a decisive population of Igbos in Nigeria is most unlikely.
On demographics, how many Igbos can there possibly be in Nigeria,and in what positions i
of authority, in contrast to Yorubas, Hausas and others that can move to Igboize Nigeria politically?A practically impossible conjecture.
I wonder how you came by these negatively enthocentric and reality defying conjecjures.
On Wed, 27 Aug 2025, 10:43 Cornelius Hamelberg, <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:Oluwatoyin
You ask," Can you point to evidence that justifies your description of the Biafra vision as one of conquest of Lagos rather than of secession of the Igbo heartlands in the SE?"
That was some faulty ( insensitive) reading on your part, completely misunderstanding and misinterpreting both my tone and my intention. I was only joking. To fast forward such a vision , I suppose that if the Igbos populated Nigeria fast enough, in accordance with Professor Mobolaji Aluko's usual good-hearted best wishes " May your tribe increase" , then after a referendum in say circa the year AD 2070 when the population of Nigeria would have exceeded 700 Million, the Igbos could simply vote overwhelmingly by a two-thirds majority to change the name of the country from Nigeria to Biafra and thereafter raise their flag over the whole Federation.
Someone could then write some hall of fame poetry about the miraculous event.
Song : I believe in miracles
On Wednesday, 27 August 2025 at 01:21:16 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:Thanks CorneliusShould you not focus on speaking for yourself instead of this tendency to quote FFK and Kadiri?Can you share with us evidence about this No Man's Land mantra of dominance you ascribe to Igbos?As for your critique of Obi as moving across parties, why are you vilifying him for what is a general Nigerian political culture?Can you point to evidence that justifies your description of the Biafra vision as one of conquest of Lagosrather than of secession of the Igbo heartlands in the SE?On Tue, Aug 26, 2025, 2:32 PM Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,
dear patient one,
listening to My Back Pages
I sometimes wonder,
where is your sense of humour?
You remember, about ten years ago, all the hullabaloo
about the Oba of Lagos (jocularly) threatening to drown
all his Igbo friends in the Lagos Lagoon
if they did not support
his own chosen candidate ?
Ceasefire? Where?
You may if you like, stop right here
and read no further :
Femi Fani-Kayode and the Igbos of Lagos
This reminds me of the Torah portion Parshat Shemot / Parshat Shemot , of special relevance , the probable fear /fear-mongering among Yoruba stalwarts, Yoruba nationalists, cultural chauvinists, die-hards like our Femi Fani-Kayode, not without cause, another demographic nightmare this time about Lagos, Nigeria, a very particular fear, the fear of being outnumbered in their own LAGOS, their own piece of God's real estate, being outnumbered by the upstart, long-shuffering, stiff-necked, stiff upper lip, chest-beating, self-righteous, acronym. "I. Go. Before. Others", immigrant Igbos who are now to be seen everywhere since they started their veritable invasion of Lagos a few decades ago
Exodus 1 : 7 -10 ( King James Version)
"but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."
What you refer to as " anti-Igbo has been variously explained to me by the following analogy : you let the itinerant wanderer in, give him a pallet on the floor in your kitchen ,and gradually, gradually he takes over the rest of your living space and eventually declares himself "Lord of The Manor !" I last heard this analogy from an Algerian acquaintance who was trying to get me all worked up about Israel and the Pals, he wanted to know whether or not I thought it was right that the Israeli settler now wanted to evacuate his Palestinian brother from his own kitchen ?
Here's the foundation to whatever narrative is there for you to understand: You don't go to another country - by air, sea, road or rail) are warmly welcomed by the generosity of the indigenous Yoruba inhabitants of that place, occupy vast swathes of it -. and ( as Fela would say, "gradually, gradually") as your numbers increase -. and by dint of hard work , as you begin to enjoy the fruits of your labour, begin to show some economic dominance and prosperity, you start telling the original inhabitants that the land where you are now prospering is a " No Man's Land." Acting on such a perception is bound to have some consequences , some repercussions - perhaps, some serious backlash such as you taking some "flak" -you go on an ideological rampage ,they go on a punitive, physical rampage to cause some damage...
I suppose the ultimate nightmare for the ultra Yoruba / Oduduwa nationalists is that the Igbo population in Lagos state could so increase and outnumber the Yoruba, that in a couple of years the Igbos could after a referendum on secession, raise their flag over Lagos and declare that state the New Biafra because they have an overwhelming, absolute majority. Israelis also have or used to have a fear known as the demographic nightmare
I don't know what are the ideological foundations or platform of the PDP of which Obi was a leading member and thought that it was his turn to be ratified as their presidential bearer - instead of Alhaji Atiku
Conversant with the ideological roots of the British Labour Party - and over here, Sweden's Social Democrats, I must confess that I was more than slightly taken aback by the popular Nigerian media's vision of "Obi's Labour" - a party that he became a member of on the ( date) which he took over within a few a few days, and helter-skelter their presidential candidate a few days later
In part, this is the kind of Chameleon that Baba Kadiri was talking about… one who jumps from one ideological platform to another - today he is a " liberal -conservative" whatever that means in the the Nigerian political jungle/ spectrum - tomorrow he is a wannabe leader of "The Conservatives" -like Margaret Thatcher, and Ginny come lately, Kemi Badenoch , then he's born again on board with the Labour Party (Nigeria) next thing you know he's wearing the mantle of the late Karl Marx - like a bumble bee of no fixed ideological commitment or location, any which way the chop money must come…
As per Baba Kadiri's painstakingly accurate narration,
"However, four days to the PDP presidential primary election, Tuesday, 24 May 2022, P. G. O.O. resigned his membership of PDP. On Friday, 27 May 2022, Obi joined the Labour Party. On Monday 30, 2022, Labour Party had its presidential primary election and Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi emerged as the presidential flag bearer of the party. If the Labour Party had complied with Section 77 (2&3) of the Electoral Acts 2022, it ought to have sent its membership register to INEC latest May 1, 2022, and the name of Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi could not have been there since he was not a member until Friday, 27 May 2022. The implementation of why political parties are required to submit their membership register to INEC thirty days before their primaries, congresses or conventions is to ensure that a person must have been a member of a party for, at least, 30 days to be qualified to contest for an elected post on behalf of the party. Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi was a member of Labour Party for 72 hours when he became their presidential candidate in contravention of *Section 77 (3) of the Electoral Acts, 2022, specifically enacted to prevent those who failed to obtain nomination of their party to contest for an elective post to cross over to any of the small parties to buy nomination. That's how lawful Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi the Chameleon is."
On Tuesday, 26 August 2025 at 01:44:43 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:To the best of my knowledge, such a thing has never happened -the Obidients"... exuberance /over-enthusiasm when some of them went on the rampage in Lagos, claiming Lagos to be " No Man's Land ".II understand it as a narrative created by APC Lagos when they lost the Presidential election to Obi"s Labour.Hopefully the same multi-ethnic coalition which defeated them will do it again.I have been following the subject closely before, during and after the elections.People need to breathe after the less than people elevating politics of the Nigerian political class.All this talk of owning or not owning Lagos is ultimately a smokescreen created by people whose interests is in distracting the electorate while they emasculate them of their political vision to unseat vested interests impoverishing Nigerians.ThanksTheyOn Mon, Aug 25, 2025, 10:04 PM Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:Oluwatoyin,
Once upon a time, only because of Uncle Jeff ( John Bandele Jeffery-Coker) and Herbert Macaulay, I became interested in the early history of Lagos mostly gleaned from Michael Crowder's The Story of Nigeria. I am not a Lagosian , unfortunately, I never kept the appointment I had with my friend Chris Okonkwo at the Surulere Night Club. Maybe, just as well.
You had better look into this matter of who is saying most vociferously that "Lagos is no man's land". I daresay that it's not the original Yoruba inhabitants that are making that kind of outlandish, absolutely preposterous Christopher Columbus type of claim. Unfortunately, some of the people asserting " Lagos is no man's land" took some flak. Well grounded or not, I'm sure that you must have read about it in the newspapers. It was discussed in this forum.
You must understand that people - Nigerians - including Nigeria's former Minister of culture and tourism could get a little emotional when defending or asserting some proprietary rights over their own hometown and homeland. Take Freetown for example once the capital of the Western Area of Sierra Leone , which was a crown Colony. The very last time that I was there - and for only a total of ten days - 20th April to 30th April 1970 and then back to Ghana - the population of Freetown was less than 250,000 souls. Today it's over 2 million, with an overwhelming influx from the former protectorate…
Today's Cosmopolitanism does not necessarily confirm the idea that "Lagos is no man's land" - Search - or that New York, London, Paris or indeed Jerusalem is a " No man's land !"
It should be interesting to convene a special panel discussion of this palaver featuring you, Kwame Anthony Appiah , Kemi Badenoch , Peter Obi and of course Femi Fani-Kayode
Third World : Lagos Jump
E.T Mensah & Victor Olaiya : Trumpet Highlife
On Monday, 25 August 2025 at 20:07:54 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:Thanks, Cornelius.
Could you describe the details of this- im not aware of such a thing happening-
"the Obidients"... exuberance /over-enthusiasm when some of them went on the rampage in Lagos, claiming Lagos to be " No Man's Land ".
Bcs you suggested it, I looked into the FFK link. As expected, it's one of the most idiotic things I have ever read.
The man has no shame.
He and Bayo Onanuga, assistant to Tinubu, were the most visible arrowheads of the struggle to reverse APC's historic defeat in Lagos, using ethnic war as a means of dividing the electorate.
Everything he wrote there is nonsense and desperate fantasy which he too knows there is no evidence in support of.
He was mouthing ridiculous things about IPOB, a separatist movement which has no interest in Nigeria as something Obi will impose on Nigeria while Obi has not even suggested any identification with IPOB.
He excoriates Rhodes Vivour then Lagos guber candidate, on the grounds of his having an Igbo wife as therefore an anti Yoruba aspirant while he, FFK, had earlier boasted of his amorous relationships with Igbo women.
Please Cornelius, if you bring up FFK in this discussion again I will ignore it.
I shall also ignore any anti-Obi critique that is not critically grounded.
We need to use our time better.
You might need better grounding in the background to these issues you are so confidently addressing.
Apologies for any abrasiveness.
We are better off in our religio/philosophical discussions.
Thanks
Toyin
On Mon, 25 Aug 2025, 17:07 Cornelius Hamelberg, <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:Oluwatoyin,
Moving forward after so much grieving about the past , I really envy your vantage position, that you are actually in Nigeria and can feel the political temperature there, whereas, for instance, I can only sympathise with you in a more abstract way when you suffer epileptic fits of no electricity and have to read by candlelight
Hopefully, you will soon catch up with modernity!
Cheers ! President Bola Ahmed Tinubu the transformer is on the move!
Freedom starts here : Top 50 Massive Projects Transforming Lagos State
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n13YmkG1qYo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsxtM7To4I4
Sadly, your judgement passed on Wole Soyinka has not changed. You seem to believe that he is not being even-handed because he seems to be or has been less critical of Nigeria's former President Buhari and Nigeria' s current President Tinubu. That, dear Oluwatoyin does not invalidate, diminish or detract from the many truths that he has voiced about Peter Obi, including the incontrovertible fact that as the anointed leader of his flock "the Obidients" Obi could have done more to curb the flock's exuberance /over-enthusiasm when some of them went on the rampage in Lagos, claiming Lagos to be " No Man's Land ". He could have told them to stop the nonsense , and as faithful
" Obidients "or Zombies, they would have probably obeyed him. Did you follow up on Femi Fani-Kayode's commentary on the concept of Lagos as a" No Man's Land"?
First of all, let me set the record straight : I'd like to assure you that I'm not into the idolatry and deification business. It seems that you are always asking for some incriminating "evidence " without which the criminal is presumed to be innocent, right ? According to Spinoza Forever and Witness of The End when it comes to deification, even Jesus is not exempt, speak less of a wanton sinner like your Peter Obi .
As I've already told you, I don't have a dog in the fight about who is going to win the next Presidential Election in Nigeria. Not even if Johnny Onyeukwu or Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju or Ojogbon Falafel himself or Her Distinguished Royal Highness Lady Ofe Owerri herself were to be running for that unenviable position.
For your edification : Nahjul Balagha :Sermon 3 in which Amir al Mu'minin - Imam Ali, alaihi salam says, "But I remained low when they were low and flew high when they flew high" . In the given circumstances that's an example of strategic adaptation…
Please take note : It was not Cornelius Ignoramus that said "Peter Obi is a chameleon" - although in my view it is always a matter of degree, the extent to which political chameleonism , camouflage, adaptive political behaviour, critically adjusted to be in synch with circumstances as could be required to survive and even triumph, gains the upper hand in certain circumstances. It should be therefore understandable that in trying to win the support of Bishop David Ayedepo he should play the religious card , likening his position of Christian presidential candidate to that of flagbearer of the Cross of Jesus and comparing the presidential election to a religious war between him and his main opponent, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Muslim and by definition, belonging to the army of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa salam. The chameleonic behaviour of course kicks in when on the campaign trail the pragmatic opportunist Peter Obi travels to Nigeria's Muslim North and in his own strategic interest does not repeat that kind of nonsense, that" it's a religious war" but on the contrary , as the smart guy that he is, whilst courting the Muslim vote he knows that at the very least he must give the Muslims the impression that he truly loves them and does not want to annihilate them in a religious or a non-religious war; he may even quote this Quranic passage that declares "Christians are closest to the believers" and therefore policy wise try to act accordingly (humbly)
On Monday, 25 August 2025 at 03:51:04 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:EditedCornelius,I stated I'm yet to see evidence that backs Soyinka's claim that Obi controls the negative behavior of the combative ones among his followers.If you describe Obi as a chameleon, what is Soyinka?Please go over the reasons why I told you Soyinka's comments are not worthy of being taken seriously, being the stance of a person's whose perspectives are no better than those of an APC stooge.When you are prepared to analyze the specific points I made about Soyinka's politics instead of of quoting the same Kadiri, an anti-Igbo ideologue, who, in the wake of Obi 's victory in Lagos in the last elections, argued in this group, in a bout of fantasy, that IPOB was working on invading Lagos, then we can have a serious discussion.Otherwise we might do well to remain on spiritual and philosophical discussions.Soyinka is a great writer and a superlative thinker on cultural issues but he is an unreliable politician which is the more accurate way to see him,not simply as a social activist.He seemed to have supported Biafra during the war, going by his memoir The Man Died and he also legitimized IBB's coup created govt by accepting an appointment in it.He was a solid fighter against the first Buhari regime but he also enabled Buhari's becoming President even though not only was there no evidence that Buhari was reformed but the evidence indicates that Buhari had become a terrorism supporter.He is known to condemn Obi but is not known for much critique of Buhari or any critique of the deeply controversial govt of Tinubu.So, Soyinka is not best seen as an epitome of political values but as a once impressive social activist as well as a mercurial politician.You are invoking Femi Fani Kayode on Peter Obi.Do you know anything - with all due respect - about the political history of FFK?And you are invoking the chameleon concept against Obi in contrast to FFK?Are you aware that FFK is the consummate Nigerian politician of no fixed ideological identity?A once vitriolic critique of Tinubu he crossed over to APC and became an APC attack creature, writing hateful things against Igbos after Obi's victory in Lagos, advocating a sweeping economic emasculation of Igbos in Lagos even if it meant the denudation of the Lagos economy?A brilliant writer but a person of no political stability.I looked through what Kadiri had to say about Obi.Has Kadiri similarly addressed the controversies about Tinubu and Buhari?Why the selectivity?ThanksToyinOn Sun, Aug 24, 2025, 9:51 PM Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:Cornelius,I stated I'm yet to see evidence that backs Soyinka's claim that Obi controls the negative behavior of the combative ones among his followers.If you describe Obi as a chameleon, what if Soyinka?Please go over the reasons why I told you Soyinka's comments are not worthy of being taken seriously, being the stance of a person's whose perspectives are no better than those of an APC stooge.When you are prepared to analyze the specific points I made about Soyinka's politics instead of of quoting the same Kadiri, an anti-Igbo ideologue, who, in the wake of Obi 's victory in Lagos in the last elections, argued in this group, in a bout of fantasy, that IPOB was working on invading Lagos, then we can have a serious discussion.Otherwise we might do well to remain on spiritual and philosophical discussions.Soyinka is a great writer and a superlative thinker on cultural issues but he is an unreliable politician which is the more accurate way to see him,not simply as a social activist.He seemed to have supported Biafra during the war, going by his memoir The Man Died and he also legitimized IBB's coup created govt by accepting an appointment in it.He was a solid fighter against the first Buhari regime but he also enabled Buhari's becoming President even though not only was there no evidence that Buhari was reformed but the evidence indicates that Buhari had become a terrorism supporter.He is known to condemn Obi but is not known for much critique of Buhari or any critique of the deeply controversial govt of Tinubu.So, Soyinka is not best seen as an epitome of political values but as a once impressive social activist as well as a mercurial politician.You are invoking Femi Fani Kayode on Peter Obi.Do you know anything - with all due respect - about the political history of FFK?And you are invoking the chameleon concept against Obi in contrast to FFK?Are you aware that FFK is the consummate Nigerian politician of no fixed ideological identity?A once vitriolic critique of Tinubu he crossed over to APC and became an APC attack creature, writing hateful things against Igbos after Obi's victory in Lagos, advocating a sweeping economic emasculation of Igbos in Lagos even if it meant the denudation of the Lagos economy?A brilliant writer but a person of no political stability.I looked through what Kadiri had to say about Obi.Has Kadiri similarly addressed the controversies about Tinubu and Buhari?Why the selectivity?ThanksToyinOn Sun, Aug 24, 2025, 7:51 PM Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju :
Your problem seems to be that it's not the veracity or reasonableness of Soyinka's critique that bothers you - it's the identity of the critic, and there too you unwittingly commit the biographical heresy, after all Wole Soyinka is not celebrated or venerated by either hagiographer or detractor, as a confounded liar, on the contrary his credibility is not undermined but cemented by the values espoused in his Reith Lectures, which I recommend you pay some attention , and please stop exaggerating about the petty and the patently ridiculous such as his alleged " running battle with GEJ's wife"
This man ( Eddie Palmieri) just died.
Here's one of his early hits
Eddie Palmieri : Harlem River Drive:
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