 |
| ||||||||||||||||
Monday, April 30, 2012
USA Africa Dialogue Series - NYTimes.com: Loyalists of Mali's Overthrown Leader Appear to Be Attempting Countercoup
Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Who can reclaim Nigeria?
Austin,
I do completely agree with you. Any attempts at reclamation has to start with a clear articulation of the ills from which to reclaim the country, and a delineation of the actors that could possibly undertake said reclamation. You covered the latter, and do not quite need to bother with the former. It is common knowledge, no? In fact, your piece is the best attempt at said reclamation so far. There is just one problem; I worry that even you and I, might, no scratch that, will probably become "them" should we find ourselves in those positions. I am yet to hear of a Nigerian that engages/or has engaged public office with the responsibility and accountability that such positions of trust demands, without turning it into a business venture, a "get rich quick or die trying venture". Tunde Idiagbon perhaps, no?, but he did try, yes? I weep alongside you, my friend. It does indeed seem hopeless.
Chichi
On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 6:15 PM, Chido Onumah <conumah@hotmail.com> wrote:
--By AUSTINE UCHE-EJEKE
Anyone who sees anything concerning redemption or reclamation of this country will be fired up to do everything possible to see that it comes to actualisation. And for a long time now, the call for a better Nigeria had been and is still very strident and sustained but unfortunately, several decades after, nothing concrete has come out of it.
Thus, Chido Onumah recently resurrected the issue in his book, Time to reclaim Nigeria, as he chronicled the several ills of the country.
The big question is, where and when the reclamation will start from. Do we start from the government of the day providing leadership guidelines and an enabling environment to kick-start the onerous task?
A country where a government official will conveniently stash away N20bn under his bed and still be walking the streets free is confusing. A situation where simple prosecution of culprits is so difficult for the anti-graft agency and which had made James Ibori a free man in Nigeria and a convict in United Kingdom is shameful. There are other cases yet to come to light.
For more than five decades of independence, no concrete leadership foundation has been laid to entrench good governance that can reclaim the land. But accept it or not, government is one institution that cannot be ignored in this mission of redemption of the country. If we do, we do it at our own peril, as whatever gains we might make in the struggle will be squandered by a ravaging megalomaniac ruling class.
The attention now shifts to the youths and the question is, which genre of youths are we talking about here? Is it the youth that cannot pass honestly the WASSCE and UME? For some time now, we have been clamouring for the inclusion of youths in the affairs of the country, but even the few that we had sampled had, to a large extent, betrayed us.
The incumbent Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, and his deputy, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, are young men that can fire up a change of attitude towards governance. So are other youthful governors, local government chairmen, councillors, etc. Maybe the National Association of Nigerian Students would have been a veritable tool in this onslaught. But, are we talking about a NANS that has been bastardised and polarised along selfish and primordial lines such that today, we have countless factions of student movements in the country, each trying to outdo one another in the brigandage of sycophancy and bootlicking. The problem of this country may not just be that of leadership but mostly that of a docile following, as today's leaders were once mere citizens or followers.
Another hard fact is that it is not just okay to be unrepentantly critical about the ills of the country when many of the so called 'progressives,' not quite long ago, were the harbingers of an egalitarian and better country. They have either compromised themselves with filthy lucre or just chickened out of the common good pursuits.
Yes, it is true that the excruciating conditions of the country may dampen their moral, as there are roadblocks and feeling of hopelessness in any angle they turn to; but is that enough reason to abandon the Nigerian project to scallywags?
Perhaps our messianic quest will be located at the doorsteps of the civil society groups that adorn the length and breadth of the country. But how realistic is that when all we have been getting all these years are just rhetoric and long sermons without any attempt at providing platforms that can galavanise the citizenry towards the reclamation of the country.
In the list of reclamation agents would have been the Nigeria Labour Congress, but we all know the state of affairs of labour movement. The history of labour movement has not been so docile and tainted than the past five years or thereabout. All we get to hear of are sell-outs. Even from the religious perspectives, no hope comes from the pulpit to provide a base for a change in the society. Most religious leaders find it difficult to speak out courageously against the ills being perpetrated by those in authority. Attention is focused more on prosperity messages and jihad. In some cases, we hear compromise of some sorts as a result of handouts of filthy lucre.
Do we now turn to the traditional institutions to provide the needed succour?
The media would have been a good recourse to this all-important quest for the redemption of the country. But we all know the state of the media today. Apart from providing platforms for the emergence of independence, contemporary Nigerian media are not doing enough to urgently reclaim this country.
Even the legislature that is supposed to play an oversight and pivotal role in the struggle for a better Nigeria is, to say the least, the worst culprit. Their attention is focused on fund allocation and sharing of money which makes it near impossible for them to lead this fight. Even those in the so-called 'progressive' parties partake in the national loot, as we have not heard of any rejection of the outrageous sharing of public money by any member of the opposition.
The judiciary that should be the last bastion of hope for the country is also to some extent messed up. We hear of unsavoury verdicts by some judges, depending on the depth of your pocket. That is why whopping 170 charges against ex-governor James Ibori were dismissed, while another judiciary outside our shores found him guilty and jailed him.
Where then lies the redemptive apparatus that this country needs for a change?
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria, beyond geographical expression
My basic question to, Eugene, would be: What is patriotism? What makes a Nigerian a patriot?
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
From: Chido Onumah <conumah@hotmail.com>
Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:43:43 -0700
ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria, beyond geographical expression
By Eugene Uwalaka
Chido Onumah authored a beautiful book judging by its rather illuminating and edifying title – "Time to Reclaim Nigeria". But this budding author seems to have been persuaded by his reviewers that the country he wants to reclaim does not exist. (ThisDay, April 1, 2012).
One of the reviewers, Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola observed that the mission to reclaim Nigeria is a bit problematic. To attempt to reclaim something suggests that it was in your possession ab-initio... To attempt to reclaim what you never had is a misnomer, the governor asserted.
On his part, the erudite Marxist scholar and columnist, Dr. Edwin Madunagu reinforced Governor Aregbesola's position when he remarked as follows: "To reclaim, as I understand it, is to take back. I am aware that this ideological slogan is now popular with radical patriots, democrats and human rights activists in Nigeria. But I doubt if the Nigerian masses had at any time since Nigeria was created in 1914 and especially since independence in 1960 owned Nigeria. There is another side of this debate about reclaiming Nigeria, which is whether we actually have a country in the true sense of the word".
I find the foregoing remarks by both Osun State governor and Madunagu rather misleading and unpatriotic. Take it or leave it, "The Nigerian nation exists". This fact was both geometrically and polemically proved in the Ethics of Political Leadership. How to reclaim this nation was the obsession of the author of the Ethics of Political Leadership, who marshaled out plans, programmes, policies and procedures for reclaiming Nigeria in the chapters on analysis and diagnosis of disunity. We can and we will reclaim Nigeria! It takes only good governance to achieve this feat.
Prof. Esko Toyo, (University of Calabar), once remarked that Nigeria may be a historical accident like any other state in history but it was a lucky and desirable accident. Pursuing this position further, he said, "the existence of the Nigerian nation is important not only for expanding the possibilities and the dignity of the Nigerian but also for wrestling the black race from exploitation and indignity. Only Nigeria has the potentiality to achieve this feat fairly easily, given good and patriotic leadership". Dr. Osisioma Nwolise of the Political Science Department, University of Ibadan, writing on the theme "vision without defence", seemed to share Prof. Toyo's vision of a great Nigeria when he said, "Africa is potentially the richest continent in the world today and I am convinced that Africa will be the most important continent of the 21st century.
Nigeria should begin to prepare herself for the greatness her position thrusts upon her. The defence and security of Nigeria must be built to dovetail with the defence and security of Africa. Dr. Osisioma's position effectively reinforces Prof. Toyo's thesis that "the nation exists". Nigeria is not a mere geographical expression. This writer totally agrees with both Toyo and Osisioma.
Nigeria is beyond the geographical expression some short-sighted and unpatriotic leaders call it. Chido Onumah could not muster the intellectual courage to market his vision of the great Nigerian nation. The present United States of America was not a ready-made geographical entity. It was rather tailor-made. America had to fight territorial wars to amalgamate contiguous or proximate satellite states until it achieved a size its founding fathers adjudged politically and economically optimal.
But Nigerian leaders prefer to lose territory as in Bakassi. Nigerian leaders had in the last 100 years continued to vegetate aimlessly and lament over the un-bloody territorial expansion engendered by the constitutional amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914. While Americans had seen size (measured in land mass, concomitant resources and expansive population), as a great comparative advantage, Nigeria's leaders have a negative mind-set that sees size as a comparative disadvantage. Internationally, whether you are talking about the USA, China, Russia or India, you are talking of big nations that determine how other nations are ruled because they are big and have converted their natural resources to national powers. Nigeria is extremely lucky to be born into this League of Nations that rule or lead other nations.
Nigeria was born great. It is curious that it is this privileged status and blessing God has given Nigeria that some place-seekers and charlatans want to destroy through negative sloganeering and incessant ethnological sagas.
If Nigeria is unstable today, it does not mean it will be unstable forever. If Nigeria is unstable, it is not because of the heterogeneous and multi-ethnic nature of her large population. Rather these factors constitute her strength, not weakness, as our leaders want to make us believe. These factors have contributed to Nigeria's stability in no small measure. (Read the Ethics of Political Leadership).
The cause of instability and disunity is the lack of political will to co-exist on the part of opportunistic and unpatriotic leaders. The Nigerian people are willing to co-exist socially in business, trade, commerce, politics, economics, and in service to God and humanity. But often times, Nigerians are constrained to take sides and identify themselves with disintegrating and divisive forces that resort to cleavage politics and ethnological sagas when out-witted, outsmarted and out manoeuvred by other political aspirants.
Nigeria is the proverbial Garden of Eden. Those who quarrel with its size, heterogeneity and complex circumstances fail to open their eyes to perceive the outpouring of high divine fecundity and how lavishly God made His blessings and favours available to this nation. Those who lament the multiplicity of disparate and antagonistic tribes, groups and classes and the consequent multiplication of cleavages fail to see this phenomenon in terms of the multiplication of alternatives, interdependencies and opportunities God opened to us as a people.
This reasoning is in consonance with the law of inertia of large numbers that states that "large groups or aggregates of data show a high degree of stability than small ones". The greater the number comprising the aggregate, the greater will be the compensation or tendency of random movements or chance events to neutralize one another and consequently the more stable will be the aggregate". (Read the Ethics of Political Leadership).
By and large, a monolithic Nigerian nation (that is, one comprising only Ibo or Hausa or Yoruba), is far less desirable and less enduring than a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and heterogeneous Nigerian nation. This reasoning is based on the principle of plenitude mooted by Arthur Lovejoy. It states that "a universe or population that contains as many different kinds of being as possible, lower as well as higher, is a more perfect and desirable universe than one containing only the highest kind of being".
Finally, leaders should mind their utterances. They should refrain from unedifying words. Unedifying words communicate disunity, instability, sadness, stress, strife, and capability deprivation. They should use words that communicate vision, mission, purpose, faith, trust, love, unity, stability and peace. Leaders should note that what they say can make or mar the nation. The nation exists. Let's join Chido Onumah this "time to reclaim Nigeria.
USA Africa Dialogue Series - Who can reclaim Nigeria?
By AUSTINE UCHE-EJEKE
Anyone who sees anything concerning redemption or reclamation of this country will be fired up to do everything possible to see that it comes to actualisation. And for a long time now, the call for a better Nigeria had been and is still very strident and sustained but unfortunately, several decades after, nothing concrete has come out of it.
Thus, Chido Onumah recently resurrected the issue in his book, Time to reclaim Nigeria, as he chronicled the several ills of the country.
The big question is, where and when the reclamation will start from. Do we start from the government of the day providing leadership guidelines and an enabling environment to kick-start the onerous task?
A country where a government official will conveniently stash away N20bn under his bed and still be walking the streets free is confusing. A situation where simple prosecution of culprits is so difficult for the anti-graft agency and which had made James Ibori a free man in Nigeria and a convict in United Kingdom is shameful. There are other cases yet to come to light.
For more than five decades of independence, no concrete leadership foundation has been laid to entrench good governance that can reclaim the land. But accept it or not, government is one institution that cannot be ignored in this mission of redemption of the country. If we do, we do it at our own peril, as whatever gains we might make in the struggle will be squandered by a ravaging megalomaniac ruling class.
The attention now shifts to the youths and the question is, which genre of youths are we talking about here? Is it the youth that cannot pass honestly the WASSCE and UME? For some time now, we have been clamouring for the inclusion of youths in the affairs of the country, but even the few that we had sampled had, to a large extent, betrayed us.
The incumbent Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, and his deputy, Mr. Emeka Ihedioha, are young men that can fire up a change of attitude towards governance. So are other youthful governors, local government chairmen, councillors, etc. Maybe the National Association of Nigerian Students would have been a veritable tool in this onslaught. But, are we talking about a NANS that has been bastardised and polarised along selfish and primordial lines such that today, we have countless factions of student movements in the country, each trying to outdo one another in the brigandage of sycophancy and bootlicking. The problem of this country may not just be that of leadership but mostly that of a docile following, as today's leaders were once mere citizens or followers.
Another hard fact is that it is not just okay to be unrepentantly critical about the ills of the country when many of the so called 'progressives,' not quite long ago, were the harbingers of an egalitarian and better country. They have either compromised themselves with filthy lucre or just chickened out of the common good pursuits.
Yes, it is true that the excruciating conditions of the country may dampen their moral, as there are roadblocks and feeling of hopelessness in any angle they turn to; but is that enough reason to abandon the Nigerian project to scallywags?
Perhaps our messianic quest will be located at the doorsteps of the civil society groups that adorn the length and breadth of the country. But how realistic is that when all we have been getting all these years are just rhetoric and long sermons without any attempt at providing platforms that can galavanise the citizenry towards the reclamation of the country.
In the list of reclamation agents would have been the Nigeria Labour Congress, but we all know the state of affairs of labour movement. The history of labour movement has not been so docile and tainted than the past five years or thereabout. All we get to hear of are sell-outs. Even from the religious perspectives, no hope comes from the pulpit to provide a base for a change in the society. Most religious leaders find it difficult to speak out courageously against the ills being perpetrated by those in authority. Attention is focused more on prosperity messages and jihad. In some cases, we hear compromise of some sorts as a result of handouts of filthy lucre.
Do we now turn to the traditional institutions to provide the needed succour?
The media would have been a good recourse to this all-important quest for the redemption of the country. But we all know the state of the media today. Apart from providing platforms for the emergence of independence, contemporary Nigerian media are not doing enough to urgently reclaim this country.
Even the legislature that is supposed to play an oversight and pivotal role in the struggle for a better Nigeria is, to say the least, the worst culprit. Their attention is focused on fund allocation and sharing of money which makes it near impossible for them to lead this fight. Even those in the so-called 'progressive' parties partake in the national loot, as we have not heard of any rejection of the outrageous sharing of public money by any member of the opposition.
The judiciary that should be the last bastion of hope for the country is also to some extent messed up. We hear of unsavoury verdicts by some judges, depending on the depth of your pocket. That is why whopping 170 charges against ex-governor James Ibori were dismissed, while another judiciary outside our shores found him guilty and jailed him.
Where then lies the redemptive apparatus that this country needs for a change?
USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria, beyond geographical expression
By Eugene Uwalaka
Chido Onumah authored a beautiful book judging by its rather illuminating and edifying title – "Time to Reclaim Nigeria". But this budding author seems to have been persuaded by his reviewers that the country he wants to reclaim does not exist. (ThisDay, April 1, 2012).
One of the reviewers, Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola observed that the mission to reclaim Nigeria is a bit problematic. To attempt to reclaim something suggests that it was in your possession ab-initio... To attempt to reclaim what you never had is a misnomer, the governor asserted.
On his part, the erudite Marxist scholar and columnist, Dr. Edwin Madunagu reinforced Governor Aregbesola's position when he remarked as follows: "To reclaim, as I understand it, is to take back. I am aware that this ideological slogan is now popular with radical patriots, democrats and human rights activists in Nigeria. But I doubt if the Nigerian masses had at any time since Nigeria was created in 1914 and especially since independence in 1960 owned Nigeria. There is another side of this debate about reclaiming Nigeria, which is whether we actually have a country in the true sense of the word".
I find the foregoing remarks by both Osun State governor and Madunagu rather misleading and unpatriotic. Take it or leave it, "The Nigerian nation exists". This fact was both geometrically and polemically proved in the Ethics of Political Leadership. How to reclaim this nation was the obsession of the author of the Ethics of Political Leadership, who marshaled out plans, programmes, policies and procedures for reclaiming Nigeria in the chapters on analysis and diagnosis of disunity. We can and we will reclaim Nigeria! It takes only good governance to achieve this feat.
Prof. Esko Toyo, (University of Calabar), once remarked that Nigeria may be a historical accident like any other state in history but it was a lucky and desirable accident. Pursuing this position further, he said, "the existence of the Nigerian nation is important not only for expanding the possibilities and the dignity of the Nigerian but also for wrestling the black race from exploitation and indignity. Only Nigeria has the potentiality to achieve this feat fairly easily, given good and patriotic leadership". Dr. Osisioma Nwolise of the Political Science Department, University of Ibadan, writing on the theme "vision without defence", seemed to share Prof. Toyo's vision of a great Nigeria when he said, "Africa is potentially the richest continent in the world today and I am convinced that Africa will be the most important continent of the 21st century.
Nigeria should begin to prepare herself for the greatness her position thrusts upon her. The defence and security of Nigeria must be built to dovetail with the defence and security of Africa. Dr. Osisioma's position effectively reinforces Prof. Toyo's thesis that "the nation exists". Nigeria is not a mere geographical expression. This writer totally agrees with both Toyo and Osisioma.
Nigeria is beyond the geographical expression some short-sighted and unpatriotic leaders call it. Chido Onumah could not muster the intellectual courage to market his vision of the great Nigerian nation. The present United States of America was not a ready-made geographical entity. It was rather tailor-made. America had to fight territorial wars to amalgamate contiguous or proximate satellite states until it achieved a size its founding fathers adjudged politically and economically optimal.
But Nigerian leaders prefer to lose territory as in Bakassi. Nigerian leaders had in the last 100 years continued to vegetate aimlessly and lament over the un-bloody territorial expansion engendered by the constitutional amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914. While Americans had seen size (measured in land mass, concomitant resources and expansive population), as a great comparative advantage, Nigeria's leaders have a negative mind-set that sees size as a comparative disadvantage. Internationally, whether you are talking about the USA, China, Russia or India, you are talking of big nations that determine how other nations are ruled because they are big and have converted their natural resources to national powers. Nigeria is extremely lucky to be born into this League of Nations that rule or lead other nations.
Nigeria was born great. It is curious that it is this privileged status and blessing God has given Nigeria that some place-seekers and charlatans want to destroy through negative sloganeering and incessant ethnological sagas.
If Nigeria is unstable today, it does not mean it will be unstable forever. If Nigeria is unstable, it is not because of the heterogeneous and multi-ethnic nature of her large population. Rather these factors constitute her strength, not weakness, as our leaders want to make us believe. These factors have contributed to Nigeria's stability in no small measure. (Read the Ethics of Political Leadership).
The cause of instability and disunity is the lack of political will to co-exist on the part of opportunistic and unpatriotic leaders. The Nigerian people are willing to co-exist socially in business, trade, commerce, politics, economics, and in service to God and humanity. But often times, Nigerians are constrained to take sides and identify themselves with disintegrating and divisive forces that resort to cleavage politics and ethnological sagas when out-witted, outsmarted and out manoeuvred by other political aspirants.
Nigeria is the proverbial Garden of Eden. Those who quarrel with its size, heterogeneity and complex circumstances fail to open their eyes to perceive the outpouring of high divine fecundity and how lavishly God made His blessings and favours available to this nation. Those who lament the multiplicity of disparate and antagonistic tribes, groups and classes and the consequent multiplication of cleavages fail to see this phenomenon in terms of the multiplication of alternatives, interdependencies and opportunities God opened to us as a people.
This reasoning is in consonance with the law of inertia of large numbers that states that "large groups or aggregates of data show a high degree of stability than small ones". The greater the number comprising the aggregate, the greater will be the compensation or tendency of random movements or chance events to neutralize one another and consequently the more stable will be the aggregate". (Read the Ethics of Political Leadership).
By and large, a monolithic Nigerian nation (that is, one comprising only Ibo or Hausa or Yoruba), is far less desirable and less enduring than a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and heterogeneous Nigerian nation. This reasoning is based on the principle of plenitude mooted by Arthur Lovejoy. It states that "a universe or population that contains as many different kinds of being as possible, lower as well as higher, is a more perfect and desirable universe than one containing only the highest kind of being".
Finally, leaders should mind their utterances. They should refrain from unedifying words. Unedifying words communicate disunity, instability, sadness, stress, strife, and capability deprivation. They should use words that communicate vision, mission, purpose, faith, trust, love, unity, stability and peace. Leaders should note that what they say can make or mar the nation. The nation exists. Let's join Chido Onumah this "time to reclaim Nigeria.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)