Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - No Testimonies in Official Forms Please! By Pius Adesanmi.

Ademola Dasylva,

In the specific case of the driver who "invokes the blood of Jesus" I think you might have misplaced the bone of contention.

I do appreciate those special circumstances of Nigeria which you described. Nigerians particularly tend to do this, giving the erroneous impression that this situation, these challenges are unique to Nigeria. There are traffic challenges similar to what you have described in many other parts of the world. 

What the driver could do and should actually do is to "invoke the blood of Jesus" in the morning privately or whenever he first come into contact with the car before his guests! I think it is rude and inconsiderate for the driver, for example, to do that in presence of others. Suppose the Professor does not believe in the blood of Jesus? Could it have been said silently as an alternative? God is not deaf!

When it comes to religion there tend to be so much "show off" with Nigerians. My God is bigger than yours! My generator is bigger that yours! "I better pass my neighbour - ha - wetin"!

I focus only on this simple example, clearly the issue we are talking about here is much bigger.

Best,

Gbolahan Gbadamosi

Sent from Outlook Mobile

_____________________________
From: Ademola Dasylva <dasylvaus@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, February 29, 2016 13:16
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - No Testimonies in Official Forms Please! By Pius Adesanmi.
To: Bola Dauda <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: DOYIN AGUORU <doyinaguoru77@gmail.com>, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>, Adeshina Afolayan <shina73_1999@yahoo.com>, <ebomobowale@yahoo.com>

Alagba Dauda,  P.A.'s concern is not misplaced at all; he is right on the mark. He is simply drawing attention to candidates who are engaged in public examinations, essay contests/competitions, and especially, scholarship interviews and t‎ests, TO KNOW WHEN TO DRAW THE LINE between religious practice or felicity, and a formal examinable writs. This is to underscore the practicality of addressing realistic issues as are required of them for external valuation, at all levels, local, national and international. This is the thrust of P.A.'s treatise, if I understand him well.

This other point I like to make is to address Alagba Dauda's slightly distracting remark, and overgeneralization on  religion which I consider was a bit off the mark. Religious matters are sensitive issues; beliefs and practice are both cultural and personal. For example, you may not agree with the driver under reference, but ‎you don't have to blame him should he believe that his safety is dependent on God, and on being careful too.

 You will agree with me that the situation is marked ly different in Europe or America if you drive a car often on Nigerian roads. You may very well have the requisite skills, and be extra vigilant each time you are behind the wheel on Nigerian roads, but you might need more than your skills and vigilance to cope with "Okada" riders that overtake you right, left and center, as you feel "trapped" like an unprofessional bee honey collector. Or some mad driver overtaking on a blind hill and there you are, suddenly faced with a vehicle crashing straight into you, on your lane.

 No doubt, there is a measured sanity in Lagos, courtesy of LASMA. Well, don't drive on Ibadan roads if you are hypertensive. The commercial vehicle operators are in some curiois fraternity with the law enforcement agents. So the commercial drivers have a field day, everyday. The Micra cabs and the "Okada" riders are lawless, they don't obey any traffic regulations, including the traffic lights. There you are, a level-headed motorist, struggling to keep your sanity. Therfore, it is not right to trivialise such a sensitive  issue as religious beliefs and practice if the driver, like most Nigerians, saw it as the last resort. So you don't poke fun at an official driver who in addition to his driving skills chooses to pray to his God in order to survive the madding traffic system. 

Ire o.

Ademola O. Dasylva.

University of Ibadan.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

From: Bola Dauda Sent: Sunday, 28 February 2016 23:48 To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com Reply To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - No Testimonies in Official Forms Please! By Pius Adesanmi.

Dear Pius, I regret to say your plea to Nigerian Professors and colleagues to address this issue is misplaced because most of them are in the same religious camp! Recently it took me over a month to recover from overdose of series of prayers inflicted on me when I accompanied Professor Falola to a Nigerian university. The official university driver invoked the blood of Jesus on the vehicle before he started the car, the Professors prayed before and after the lecture, the dinner, etc, etc. I don't know who can fix the problem, but my experiences so far in the last few years in Nigeria have convinced me that our Nigerian colleagues cannot help the students. Bola Dauda

On Feb 28, 2016 9:20 AM, "Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso" < jumoyin@gmail.com> wrote:

What do we now call this madness?? 

.......................................................

No Testimonies in Official Forms Please!

By Pius Adesanmi.

This is a public service announcement to Nigerian kids applying for things at the international level. Some of the things you do wrong have reached epidemic proportions and one has to say something instead of constantly gnashing one's teeth during evaluation. And that is why I am always in Ghana and Nigeria running those workshops in the summer.

I am very angry and frustrated!

I've just had to play native informant, explaining Nigeria and her swags and lingo to some colleagues because "these our shudrens" won't hear word!

We just finished evaluating applications for an international scholarship reserved exclusively for students from Africa. Good spread from the continent if you look at the nationality of the applicants. As usual, when you are 180 million, you send more applications and dominate these things.

Just a straightforward scholarship scenario. The form asks about your academic profile, goals, how the scholarship would help achieve your goals, etc.

I am assessing the first one, I encounter "blood of Jesus" in the opening of the goals section. I swallowed deep and hard. I move on to the next dossier, "God willing, I hope to..." I move on to the next dossier, "By the special grace of the Holy Ghost, I aim to ..." I move on to another one tackling the question of why you need the scholarship and I see something like: "Up till now, enemies have thrown obstacles on my educational path and I have been able to do back to sender but now I need help..."

These are applications in the Humanities, Social Sciences and science. By now, I am so uncomfortable I had to explain to other members of the evaluation team why there is a preponderance of the registers of prosperity Pentecostalism in the applications from Nigeria. 

I explained that Prosperity Pentecostalism is more than faith in Nigeria now. It is a cultural phenomenon whose language and diction are now part of the cultural world of all these children on Facebook and Twitter. They just don't know boundaries - hence they are doing testimony in scholarship applications. And these are kids who are already here o. Imagine what we often get from those who are still at home.  Luckily, there were some who rescued one's sense of injured national reputation by not doing testimony in the forms.

So, dear Professors and colleagues in Nigerian Universities, take care of this thing. This is what these kids that you are sending our way are writing. They write like they are filling forms to serve on committees in COZA or Living Faith.

If you fill your forms like I have described above, those evaluating your dossier here will also do back to sender.

E nor finish?

--

Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, PhD

Department of Political Science and Public Administration,

Babcock University,

Ogun State, Nigeria.

P. M. B. 21244, Ikeja, Lagos.

Official email: yacob-halisoo@babcock.edu.ng 

Departmental email: pspa@babcock.edu.ng

Primary email : jumoyin@yahoo.co.uk

Institutional website: www.babcock.edu.ng 

"Intelligence plus character -- that is the goal of true education" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

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