Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Awo's reply declining membership of the 1986 Political Bureau

Only Christ Himself went to the synagogue and decided to teach (or reinterpret to) the Rabbi and the Pharisees the laws of Moses. And they were not too happy about that.

So, ordinary mortals do not go to a  crowded synagogue, church or mosque intentionally trying to tamper with the biography or tenets of the "founders". That is not going to be looked upon kindly, at the very best.

However, in as much as the tenets of these great MEN/prophets are relevant and are still being propagated, it may just be appropriate to continue to seek explanations to better understand what they are telling us.

We are lucky that these great MEN/prophets(especially the modern) leave us with lots of original tapes, videos  and written materials containing some of their teachings and thoughts, to ponder and possibly learn from.

This becomes more pertinent in forums like this one, where minds knowledgeable in the subject of discussion can enlighten, clarify and some even sometimes attempt to confuse us.

Human nature.

It is quite agreeable that the writings/tenets should be looked at and evaluated in context especially regarding to time, and circumstances, however, we should also realize that these MEN/prophets sometimes spoke in parables, at times  to wiggle out of trouble, point to a certain direction  (eg. giving to Caesar  what belongs to Caesar) and at other times to challenge the status quo.

Thank you very much for the advice though. 

There was never any intention to add to or subtract from anyone's biography. I believe that this can impartially be done only by those who undertake to carefully study the subject or by those who observed the subject closely or interacted with all or particularly stages/segments of their lives.

On Dec 25, 2019, at 3:22 PM, Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:



Corrected :

For me, it's not clear  whether His Holiness Pope Francis' kind words of consolation on Christmas Day was meant exclusively for the Roman Catholic Faithful or if his words of encouragement and assurance are also addressed to the other wanton sinners in the family of mankind,  when he said, "God still loves us all, even the worst of us".

God still loves, "even the worst of us", like Adolf Hitler and his henchmen, Pol Pot, Saddam, Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar's military, all the rich people, all the unrepentant looters whose entry into paradise will be less easy than a camel passing through the eye of a needle?

Well, even before Pope Francis Christmas Day homilies, Boko Haram had already celebrated their Christmas eve with another trademark attack , apparently without remorse, they struck at dawn.

This is my preamble to the horrible on-going discussion about our late great, most venerable & beloved AWOLOWO,  Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo.

May the Almighty be pleased with him.

This is really the crux of the matter: According to the King James version, we have Jesus of Nazareth speaking here: " Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country" – and there is a ring of truth to this, depending on what we mean by "prophet" and what is meant by his "own country".

If you are an honourable Yoruba man, then assuredly it's probably much easier to be a prophet in your own country, if by your "own country" you mean Yorubaland.

There is a statistical probability that it should be easier for you to be a prophet in Yorubaland than for you to be welcome as a prophet in e.g., Igboland, unless of course, and this is a paradox  - unless of course, your name is Jesus, and you happen to have been born  of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a cowshed in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago and happen to have been baptised by John the Baptiser in the holy Jordan River, which is in Israel.

Which also explains why Chinua Achebe the author of "A Man of the People" (1966) and "The trouble with Nigeria" (1983) denied AWO a national funeral, Achebe's words, on the grounds that AWO "was not an Igbo God!"

 Fy fan!

As for the Jews not accepting either Jesus or Muhammad (s.a.w.) as one of their prophets, there's the Blessing before the Haftarah and the  Siddur note on "good prophets" reads:

"The theme of the Haftarah blessings is the integrity of the prophets and their teachings. Even when it is their mission to criticize and threaten, they are good to the Jewish people. Also, they are chosen because they are good people: learned, righteous, impressive, etc. Our tradition does not accept prophets who are lacking in any of the attributes of Jewish greatness."

There are other types of prophets too, such as Karl Marx ( for some) Mao Tse Tung ( China) Kwame Nkrumah ( Ghana) Fidel Castro ( Cuba) Sherwin Wine (USA)

The Christian message (New International Version translation) is "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Sometimes, it's the bitter truth.  

 In the letter to Babangida, we hear ( read) Chief AWO in the tradition of his namesake the prophet Jeremiah , speaking truth to power and without fear.  We recognise the truthfulness at the heart of Chief Obafemi Awolowo's words at that juncture of the life of the political entity that's still welded together as Nigeria under one constitutional umbrella. Before we commit any biographical heresies, we ought to further situate that letter in its proper context considering all that had transpired in Nigeria from a few years before Independence in 1960, through the Biafra Civil War, through the coup that deposed Shagari – and imprisoned Chief Obafemi Awolowo ( for no just cause whatsoever)  - I was in Nigeria and that time  -  and the  Babangida coup that deposed Buhari and that it was the military man Babangida that Chief Obafemi Awolowo was addressing in that terse letter written about fourteen months before his own departure from the  shuffering and shmiling vale of tears that was then Nigeria…

 

On Wednesday, 25 December 2019 11:30:42 UTC+1, Ogedi Ohajekwe wrote:

"unless the dialectic processes which have been at work for some twenty years now, perforce, make us perceive the abominable filth that abounds in our society, to the end that an inexorable abhorrence of it will be quickened in our hearts and impel us to make drastic changes for the better."

 

February 28, 1986 minus some twenty years. 

Jan 1966?🤭🤭🤭

Yikes.

On Dec 24, 2019, at 6:56 AM, Tunji Olaopa <tolao...@gmail.com> wrote:

Reading Papa Awo's letter declining to serve on IBB's Political Bureau in 1986 again, and with the clear declining fortune of the Nigeria Project, I woke up this morning wondering, did the sage saw something about the future that we are in that we were perhaps too blinded to see?

RESTORING GOVERNMENTAL AND SOCIAL ORDER - CHIEF OBAFEMI AWOLOWO

In 1986, former President Ibrahim Babangida had asked Pa Awolowo to provide input into charting a New Social Order for Nigeria via a National Debate. A couple of my bosom friends have over the last few days reminded me of the force and depth of Pa Awolowo reply:

"Dear Sir, I received your letter of February 28, 1986, and sincerely thank you for doing me the honour of inviting me to contribute to the National Political Debate. The purpose of the debate is to clarify our thoughts in our search for a new social order. It is, therefore, meet and proper that all those who have something to contribute should do so. I do fervently and will continue fervently to pray that I may be proved wrong. For something within me tells me, loud and clear, that we have embarked on a fruitless search. At the end of the day, when we imagine that the new order is here, we would be terribly disappointed. In other words, at the threshold of our New Social Order, we would see for ourselves that, as long as Nigerians remain what they are, nothing clean, principled, ethical, and idealistic can work with them. And Nigerians will remain what they are, unless the evils which now dominate their hearts, at all levels and in all sectors of our political, business and governmental activities are exorcised. But I venture to assert that they will not be exorcised, and indeed they will be firmly entrenched, unless God Himself imbues a vast majority of us with a revolutionary change of attitude to life and politics or, unless the dialectic processes which have been at work for some twenty years now, perforce, make us perceive the abominable filth that abounds in our society, to the end that an inexorable abhorrence of it will be quickened in our hearts and impel us to make drastic changes for the better. There is, of course, an alternative option open to us. To succumb to permanent social instability and chaos. On the premises, I beg to decline your invitation. I am yours truly, Obafemi Awolowo."

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