Brother Cornelius:
Most certainly, Ghana's late President Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah had numerous adherents, literary collaborators and converts, including the famous Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) and another Abraham, who happened to be University of Oxford-educated Ghanaian Philosophy Professor William E. ("Willie") Abraham, who wasfamously known for his 1962 book, "The Mind of Africa". He supposedly proof-read (or collaborated on) the Osagyefo's main philosophical writing, which is famously titled "Consciencism".
Your thesis below about our great nation of Nigeria did remind me of a panel on "Pan-Africanism and Africa's Future" that I served on in the early 1970s at the Africa Centre in London (when I worked for former Ambassador Raph Uwuechue's "Africa Magazine" that was also based at the Centre. The five panelists (including myself) were from different African countries; also on the panel was the famous Liberian Radio/TV personality, Jonathan Raffel, who was serving in a diplomatic position for Liberia in the U.K. at the time. The panelist representing Nigeria was an elaborately-dressed Nigerian sister.
The moderator/coordinator of the panel, a British Journalist --sinisterly -- posed the question: "By the way, which is the most civilized country in Africa today." I wanted to respond by saying simply that it was neither fair nor appropriate to compare African countries in terms of which is more or less civilized. As I raised my hand to speak, our very "talkative" Nigerian sister raised her hand, and I deferred to her as a sister! Her response to the vexing question was: "Sir, Nigeria is the most civilized country in Africa today because Nigeria has a lot of oil, what you people call petrol in the UK." There was an unusual silence in the hall, punctuated by chuckles!
Indeed, Brother Cornelius, I lived and enjoyed life to the fullest in Nigeria in my youthful years as a crusading Journalist, and I travelled extensively in the country. Therefore, as I read Professor Chinua Achebe's THERE WAS A COUNTRY: A PERSONAL HISTORY OF BIAFRA (2012), it brought back a lot of exciting memories to my "aging" African mind for my own ongoing memoirs. For example, a few weeks before the declaration of Biafra as a nation (or secession?), I saw the would-be Biafran flag, with its rising sun symbol in the homes of the Chijioke and Nebolisa Families in Onitsha. Also, at the same time, I crossed over the Niger Bridge into the former Midwest Region on my way back from Onitsha. So, I know Nigerian history and even geography/topology pretty well. Therefore, Brother Cornelius, do let me know if you are serious about this sentence: "Nigeria is as it were about fifty-four African countries rolled into one."
A.B. Assensoh (Wofa).
Sent: Saturday, August 03, 2013 8:29 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: anthonyakinola@yahoo.co.uk; ama.biney@yahoo.co.uk; vmkwansa@yahoo.com; vessien@law.fordham.edu; tmford@indiana.edu; Nnaemeka, Obioma G; Assensoh, Akwasi B.
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria: Persistent calls for revolution? Who's calling?
Wofa Akwasi,
Yes, talking about personality cult, we had Arthur Abraham in those days, a real pan-Africanist and a faithful follower of Kwame Nkrumah if ever there was one. He used to actually dress like the Osagyefo, you know, in the short sleeve safari Mao tunic, and even after Kwame Nkrumah's overthrow there was never a time that I saw or met Arthur and he was not discussing, holding forth, extrapolating , lecturing or in deep argumentation about Consciencism or some other epistle by the Osageyfo. I surmise that some of those cases of the Chinese beer must have been keeping his tongue and throat lubricated. Why do you think that I eventually went to Ghana when I could have gone anywhere in the world?
But all I really want to add in reference to "as if Nigeria is the only country in Africa with problems" etc, is this: That Nigeria being Africa's most populous country and given Nigeria's size, it's ethnic, religious, cultural and regional diversity, Nigeria is indeed in some ways a microcosm of the problems that all Africa is presently experiencing. Nigeria is as it were about fifty-four African countries rolled into one.
So if there is a way /ways of solving Nigeria's problems, constitutional umbrella etc, would be a good workable prototype for not only individual problems of individual countries but even a good prototype for the AU....
That was all,
Cornelius, Honorary King of Sweden ("WE SWEDEN"):
Thank you very much for your enlightening responses. You make a good point about Sir Toyin Falola. In fact, that is why WE (the people) have already knighted him before the Queen and her royal court come up with the much-deserved knighthood for him. As a fellow historian, Sir Toyin should create his own religion, similar to Christianity, Bhuddism and others. Back at Indiana University, Spike Lee came there to give a talk, and we publicly gave him our campus' Oscar, a befitting honor (for hi as a film producer) that has eluded him in America's "Oscardom"!
For me, Sir Toyin as well as Professors Adu Ajayi, Kenneth Dike, the Lambos, the Obicheres, my celebrated Baba Ijebu and a few others ushered me into the learning of Nigerian history years ago. Baba Ijebu (in his over-sized shoes), for example, showed such vast knowledge of Nigerian political history that I used to urge him (in my days at Palmgrove and the Awolowo Market in Mushin) to become a full-time Nigerian politician. But he would smile and respond: "Baba Ghana, you mean this gyau-gyau ["you chop and I chop") politics in Nigeria? Not for me oo!"
I smiled at the depiction or notion as if Nigeria is the only country in Africa with problems, as described in the postings, including yours "WE SWEDEN"). In grade school, the British colonial education taught us many proverbs, one of which was, "If you have not been to another person's farm, do not think that you are the only farmer...!" Please, go to all other African nations (including where a sitting President could be caught and chopped into pieces like the way Africa was sliced into pieces like bread at the berlin Conference) to see that, probably, Nigerian problems are "easy potatoes", compared to the problems of several other nations. Look at Egypt today, where there is no full-fledged coup d'état, but the duly-elected and sitting president Morsi is, indeed, in a "cage", just like how Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, reportedly, once described himself as Nigeria's first ceremonial President: "A bird, with large wings, in a girded cage!"
For example, in Nigeria's January 1966 first successful coup d'état, several eminent political leaders were assassinated. Well, that was very sad, but it was in the heat of a coup. Yet, is it not also true that in some other African countries, retired generals and serving senior military officers were rounded up, some weeks or even months after coups d'état, and slaughtered like cattle? The killings were similar (as death is death), but different in terms of motives and how they happened. Sadly, the Nigerian situation is so much harped on that it seems as if Nigeria is the only place with problems. Mother Africa is a place with "problems galore" in all of her countries, but many of us should thank God (or Allah) that we are not politicians! To echo Baba Ijebu's words: "Africa's gyau gyau politics? Not for me oo!"
A.B. Assensoh.
From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com [usaafric...@googlegroups.com ] on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg [cornelius...@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, August 02, 2013 9:06 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Nigeria: Persistent calls for revolution? Who's calling?
Before Oga Harrow starts singling me out to ask his questions and make his awesome comments, let me state quite categorically that the only Nigerian history I've read so far are those written by Michael Crowder who I knew personally, and our own Oga Toyin Falola. And that's how I have come to know a little – and by talking to people, a little bit of osmosis there. Now if Oga Falola were a high Buddhist lama or Iranian Sufi Master, he would probably transmit so many books he has written and much of his special knowledge to his sensitive & receptive disciples through special transmissions as in this story , the story of Shams meets Rumi . There are other stories, even Hindu stories. Personal stories. Suffering, anguish, separation. Hidden Stories. Secret stories. Difficult to relate stories. True stories. Cerebral stories. Stories (and poetry) from the heart, and also secrets that cannot even be understood.
Yes, the problems in Nigeria are immense, are immensely deep-seated, entrenched.
Over the years, from the innocence of pre-independence ( the good old days), a culture of corruption and impunity has gradually evolved , has taken over and is now part of the warp and woof of what's called "the system", the very fabric of the Niger nation, whilst at the same time, the rule of law has taken a permanent leave of absence and some of the Mafia and the corrupt elite have taken complete control of the nation and it's being widely reported that there's "spiritual wickedness, in high and low places" The nation is now in their grip.
Optimists opine that a nationwide recovery from this decadence would take nothing less than a moral revolution - a revolution in public morality and public probity and the ideal solution would be that we (all ethnicities, faiths, lack of faith) re-turn to the traditional cultural values and high ethics that once strengthened the great nations that have since been welded together to form the Lugardist experiment of 1914 which saw the birth of Nigeria as a national entity.
And then – long before the oil boom, it was a country with a population of about thirty-three million people, fed by the produce of the farmers and cattle rearers. A nation that could feed itself. It was basically, pounded yam, egusi soup and garri and back then there was no real or artificial scarcity of food and no need to import rice from Burma, China, India and Pakistan or sardines from Morocco or, in spite of plentiful Fulani Cattle, any need for Nigeria to burn up valuable foreign exchange importing corned beef, leather belts and shoes from Brazil
Now that we are as many as 165 million people and with a heavy reliance on oil exports for the nation's sustenance, that reliance has diminished the importance of even palm oil as a cash maker/ cash crop, even as the rate of exchange of the naira has risen and fallen disastrously from the Naira equaling the £ sterling in 1981 – to the Naira now floating at about two hundred and forty naira to the pound sterling, just now.
(But not as bad as Zimbabwe was a couple years ago - for the Zimbabwean dollar was valued at a little over the American dollar in 1981 and by the time Mugabe was transferring some settler farms to" his people", the Zimbabwe currency had plummeted to six hundred million Zimbabwean dollars to the American dollar.)
It cannot be wholly mythological that prior to Independence on 1st October 1960, in the Islamized Northern Nigeria it was a normal practice for the faithful to leave their wares unattended, go to the various nearby mosques say in Kano, do their absolutions and Friday congregational afternoon prayers and then return to the market place and their wares would still all be there, safe and sound, intact, not stolen. Sadly, today this is no longer the case.
About the moral revolution, the then president of Sierra Leone, Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah proposed Seven National values. Today, with Sierra Leone allegedly at the top of the corruption League - world champions, according to Transparency International, beating even Nigeria and Kalabule Ghana , methinks that honesty should be at the top of the "Seven national values"
About this whole revolution business, gun or no gun, the term revolution itself is a loaded one.
31st December 1983 was in my dream the beginning of a positive revolution in Nigeria. But of course the corrupt political elite that was being overthrown would not take their loss of privilege and position lying down. Since day one they were scheming how to take back power so that they could continue to rob the innocent, defenceless people.
Recently we were reminded of this: "Now, Napoleon stated that there never had been a Revolution without a change of ownership " – by which I understand that in a successful revolution there must be some transfer of power and looted monies, to their rightful owners or to the national till and retributively, back to those who have been defrauded.
If there was a revolution in Nigeria today – a real revolution - I'd be paid my gratuity that I had lodged in Savannah Bank in Nigeria, at Number 10 Aba Road, Port Harcourt , Rivers State , Nigeria a gratuity consisting in 15% of 42 months' salary plus 50% of 42 months' salary, all in £ sterling. Till today, my main regret is , that innocent boy that I was then, I bragged to the Igbo Bank manager, that he should not forget that after all we are all Nigerians and that my mother and grandmother etc are Yoruba. After which he told me that if I gave him half of the money, I could leave with the rest, immediately.
Half ? I asked him.
Yes, he informed me, half, 50% !
And if I don't give you half of MY MONEY?
Then you'll have to wait, he told me.
Wait?
Yes.
How long?
Oh, a few months.I felt relief. Only a few months and 100% of my hard earned cash will be mine!That was before his X-mas 1984. Savannah Bank eventually went bankrupt.
Sadly those four years in Nigeria are not accounted for in my pension scheme - so I only worked for 37 years in Sweden - and my pension is calculated on that – minus my years in Nigeria and the gratuity for that period.
It's now 2013 and I'm still waiting. I had a governor friend in Cross Rivers (Dr. Mathias Offoboche) and some real oga friends in Rivers state politics, the judiciary and the Police, but did not consult them about this matter, believing that would be some kind of nepotism and trusting that in a few months time I would get MY MONEY!
When I got back to Sweden he (the Igbo Bank Manager) then wanted to know how I could have "so much money" in my account and wanted me to go through a process of declaring my assets. I phoned the then great oga in Sweden, Jan Eliasson about the matter and when I told him the amount that was breaking my heart he laughed and asked me whether or not I did not know of the billions that were owed Swedish companies in Nigeria.
I'm still waiting. Was hoping that my man Buhari would do something but not too long after that he too was deposed, couped by the same corrupt elite looters.
We ought not to lose sight of that when we talk of "revolution "in Nigeria , such talk always makes the corrupt elite and their beneficiaries uneasy - since they do not want to suffer any losses. However, since the probability of any cataclysmic upheaval or overthrow of the system at best is far away, they are not so worried and can still sleep soundly at nights...
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