Dr. Nwakama,
Since it doesn't look like I will have the time to fully address your points anytime soon, let me quickly address the highlights of your post.
On Northern Education
It is no secret that Sardauna was more preoccupied with recruiting his wards into the military than colleges which he saw as the future of Nigeria. He was right to some extent. It is trite, therefore a waste of time debating it.
On Training Igbo Elites in Yorubaland
I didn't make this assertion in reference to Awo's free education but in reference to your assertion that the West was trying to catch up with the East. At what point was that possible when the first sets of Igbo to have better education had to set their feet on Yorubaland to acquire it. Is it not trite that the first Nigerian Doctor, Lawyer, Accountant etc were all Yoruba?
On University of Ibadan
I get uncomfortable when intellectuals manufacture stories that can be easily debunked. The Commissions set up by the British Government, Asquith & Elliott Commissions already decided to set up University College Ibadan in 1943 before Arthur Richard who was "cuddling Zik circa 1945/46" according to you even became the Governor of Nigeria.
On Zik & Nkurumah
I think whereever the history of Pan Africanism is being told, after W B Dubois, the names of the likes of Nkurumah and Julius Nyerere would be next.
That is actually besides the point, the truth is that Pan Africanism is a movement to get independence for all African countries, therefore it can't be Zik's political ideology for post independent Nigeria.
Pan-Africanism is irrelevant with regards to Nigeria local politics.
Thanks,
Ayo.
--Obi,Point of correction, I am not a professor at Ibadan. I was however a student at UI and later went to the US for further studies. I also taught there for several years before coming home to teach in some Nigerian universities. I am currently at Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria.
Prof. Segun OgungbemiDear Segun Ogungbemi:
You must be a professor at the University of Ibadan! It does actually show in the quality your thinking and your writing. It is very contemporary Ibadan. For that, I thruway salute. May your tribe increase wherever you study or 'profess' interdisciplinarity. Your logic astounds me, and the world, not just I, needs be astounded. I salute you.
Obi Nwakanma
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - From Nnamdi Azikiwe: " a lamp to guide our feet..." & history that vindicates the just
From: seguno2013@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2015 04:25:52 +0100
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.comThanks Ayo for your response. I get disturbed when some of our Ibo intellectuals present hear says as historical facts to smear Pa Awolowo. A man who contributed so much to the unity of Nigeria. Any form of invented history by anyone will not be a fact of history when its goals are to distort historical facts that we know.I think it is false to say that there is "no ideological difference between NPC and AG," for instance, AG propagated free education for all while NPC rejected it. How many schoolgirls enrolled in schools in the North where NPC was a dominant political party? How many almojiris went to school in those days in the North? Today, you will not be surprised that a number of intellectuals, scholars, professionals from the defunct Western Region were able to be what they are now as a result of free education ideology and policy of the AG.I want everyone to know that I am a 'student' of interdisciplinary studies because it offers better knowledge and understanding of humanities.
Prof. Segun OgungbemiI cannot see anything in the rather rhetorical question of Mr. Ogungbemi that limits the understanding of who will qualify as an historian to the traditional definition of an historian.
His question could as well be asking if OA is an "historian" in the mould of Edmund Wilson or Paul Krugman. The operative part of his statement is for OA to stop saying or write what he doesn't know.
The truth is that no matter how many times a lie is told, a lie told a million times will still not make it the truth. I will like to challenge OA as an intellectual to provide us with the link or the source of his information where Shagari attested to Awo's double-dealing.
That is another gospel according to Igbo intellectuals just like the "masterpiece" tales by the moonlight of "carpet-crossing" in the Western Region, manufactured by Zik and Mbadiwe and perpetuated by the likes of Chinua Achebe. I hope you know that didn't happen as well.
I am prepared to supply you with the names of everyone that participated in that election and the party they represented.
The truth is that there is the Nigerian history and there is the Igbo-made version of Nigerian history.Well if there is no ideological difference between NPC and AG, how come that Zik the different one was always the one to quickly jump into others bandwagon?
I am still putting this challenge out there, what was Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe political ideology? Where did he stand as a politician?
Best,Ayo Turton
On Apr 28, 2015 9:28 PM, "Ibrahim Abdullah" <ibdullah@gmail.com> wrote:Interesting question. From Zik of Africa to the Owelle of Onitsha. This says it all about Zik. The history of post-colonial Nigeria would have been different If only he had stayed in the West to tough it out. But he choose to retreat to his Dar: to defend his 'home' turf like Awo and Sarduna. And the result? The fractured nation-state that we now call Nigeria.The singular legacy of the notorious trio is the nation-state that has refused to come to terms with meaningful citinzeship as the key marker of modernity.----------------------On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 7:53 PM, Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com> wrote:Dear Segun Ogungbemi:In this era of interdisciplinary work and multi-disciplinary research, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, the generic boundaries of the disciplines have almost nearly disappeared. Serious scholars doing cutting edge research no longer ask that question. It is like asking the entomologist, Edmund O. Wilson, if he is a historian, given his work in the biospheric and ecological history of the species, or the economist Paul Krugman, if he were a Political Scientist, Literary critic, or journalist. We no longer live in these silos. Permit me to suggest that your question to Ogugua is not only presumptuous and patronizing, it is frankly meaningless and myopic! What does it mean to be a historian? Is political or literary memoir a valid source for historical research? I'm just now reading Paul Anderson's finely edited collection of George Orwell's journalism, (Orwell in Tribune: 1943-7) from a compilation of Orwell's column, "As I Please" in the London Tribune. Is it literary criticism, political writing, or journalism? I do not wish to belabour the point.Perhaps, it would have been more profitable to this forum if you had essayed a more concrete rebuttal to challenge the facts as Ogugua had presented them. Many of the claims he makes are actually in the public records. Proceedings of the Coker commission are public record. Interviews, and statements by active political agents of that era of history are valid historical testimony, and certainly, Alhaji Shehu Shagari testifies to the evidence that Ogugua calls up. Unless you can claim some deeper insider knowledge in the operations of any of the parties in that period, your knowledge of such events, however old and present you were in those times, can only be contingent on the kind of fragmented and mediated knowledge made generally available to the public. Not everyone present at the unfolding of the events of history know its true contours. The true value of history is that it is preserved in documents - diaries, memoirs, court records, minutes of meetings, newspaper interviews and reports, and sometimes first person oral accounts of close participants of events. If you have those, and you have alternative information and perspective that might challenge the primary argument, share it, rather than making opaque quips that do not add or shed new light to the discussion.The more significant fact for me however is how Nigerians have generally not taken a closer, more critical look at the political culture of the first republic. W have relied mostly on hear-say and myth. The hard fact is that there was no fundamental ideological differences between the Action Group and the Northern People's Congress. They had the same programmatic vision, to the point of echoing each other in places. They each catered to the preservation of the same traditional, conservative political institutions of the monarchs of the west and the feudal oligarchies of the North. AG was as oligarchic as the NPC in spite of all the attempts at later-day revisionism. All we need to do is examine them closely using historical data and analysis. So, to hyperventilate about why the NCNC, founded on a broad coalition of trade and town unions, the Labour movement, Literary and Debating societies, socialist organizations, and the like, made the pragmatic choice to work with one over the other amounts in some ways to navel-gazing, i'm afraid. The north was threatening to pull out of the federation in 1954/55 and in 1959/60; Azikiwe and his party's choice was principally to preserve the nation as an independent commonwealth by reassuring the leaders of the north. Zik, in fact, sublimated his own personal ambitions for the sake of that goal. This is historical fact.Obi Nwakanma
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - From Nnamdi Azikiwe: " a lamp to guide our feet..." & history that vindicates the just
From: seguno2013@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2015 23:06:01 +0100
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.comoa,Are you an historian? If you are, which area of history is yours? And if you are not, please don't say or write what you don't know. There are still many of us who were living witnesses of the political and historical events of the defunct Western Region and other parts of the country before and after independence.This forum is meant for the dissemination of intellectual and scholarly discourse with a view to contributing to Pan-African dialogue. Let us focus on intellectual facts and not self-glorification of any political idols.
Prof. Segun Ogungbemi
After the hung 1959 federal elections, Awolowo did propose to Azikiwe that their parties come together and form the government at the center with Azikiwe as the prime minister. What is true too is that although Awolowo public claimed that he would not serve in a feudalist government in partnership with Ahmadu Bello's party, he (Awolowo) was contemporaneously, secretly consulting with Ahmadu Bello to form such a coalition government at the center. Shehu Shagari said he was. Shagari was Ahmadu Bello's confidant, and emissary to Azikiwe after the 1959 elections. He informed Azikiwe that Awolowo was two-faced and should not be trusted by either Ahmadu Bello or Azikiwe. Awolowo's two-timing has been claimed to be the proximate cause of Azikiwe's swing away from Awolowo and toward Ahmadu Bello.
Akintola and Awolowo's disagreement was first economic before it was political. Akintola wanted some of the propitious economic/business privileges (spoils) of the office of premier of Western Nigeria that Awolowo continued to enjoy even after he, Awolowo, was no longer premier and had relocated from Ibadan to Lagos. Awolowo refused to give them up. Akintola would not take "no" for an answer. Hell broke loose from then on and an economic/business disagreement over the spoils of the office of the premier of Western Nigeria became political as it was bound to become if it was not amicably and promptly resolved. The disagreements led to what became known as the Western Crises which was one of the reasons for the January 1966 military coup.
Awolowo did become the leader of opposition at the center- Lagos. He was determined to become prime minister even without an election mandate. He was suspected of, investigated, and accused of planning to overthrow the federal government by force. He was arrested, charged to court, and prosecuted fairly under the law. He had ample opportunity to defend himself and he did robustly. One of his defense lawyers was Sir Dingle Foot- a highly competent, senior British lawyer (Queen's Counsel). Awolowo along with some of his co-conspirators, was convicted after their treasonable felony trial by the very well-respected Supreme Court Justice George Sowemimo (an Abeokuta man). Awolowo was sentenced to ten years in prison. Awolowo was serving his sentence in Calabar prison until his release by Emeka Ojukwu and not Yakubu Gowon as some revisionists of history have claimed.
A majority if not all Nigerians should share Ugo's sentiments when he says " We (Nigerians) need to aim higher and to do so with belief and determination!" This will be less likely to happen if history continues to be intentionally misreported and misrepresented to present and future generations, and always misunderstood.
Mistakes were made in the past. It is time the all effort must be to not repeat the same or similar mistakes are not repeated. There is enough national, state, and other communal experience already to inform the enlightened construction of an achieving country in which all citizens who are prepared to work hard, have faith and true love of country would have peaceful enjoyment of the duties, right and privileges of equal citizenship.
oa
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Salimonu Kadi
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