Dear Professor Gloria:
I made my interventions to inform the scholars on this forum about the state of origin of Professor Aluko's mother for two reasons. First, some of contributors were implying that he got his appointment because he is from the same state as President Jonathan; they said his mother is from Bayelsa State. I did not want such misinformation to take away from his meritorious appointment.
Second, someone has argued that he was against President Jonathan (whatever this means) because of ethnicity. The impression was that he is from the Southwest Nigeria and because of that was against Jonathan from the South-south. The impression was also given that he was against Jonathan because of inter-regional political alliance. My point is to nudge some of our scholars away from such a viewpoint and focus on the merits of his opinion and appointment. For people who judge others' motives on the basis of tribalism or ethnicity alone, complicating matters for them somehow weakens their arguments, so I hoped.
In all cases, I wanted to demolish the ethnic arguments or ethnic insinuations to let people focus on less emotional matters. We could engage Aluko's ideas or practices without turning to his ethnicity.
Thanks,
Nimi Wariboko
Boston University
On May 3, 2022, at 8:54 AM, 'Emeagwali, Gloria (History)' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Great detective work, Sherlock Holmes.But what does this have to do withProf. Aluko's well recognized merit andwell earned credentials for the job?
Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Okey Iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 3, 2022 3:41 AM
To: USAAfrica Dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>; Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com>; okey iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - SUNDAY MUSING: Johnathan's Impending Non-Presidency - By Bolaji Aluko--EXTERNAL EMAIL: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click any links or open any attachments unless you trust the sender and know the content is safe.
We've heard it said many times: If the hole has gotten to your shoulder level, perhaps it's time to stop digging.Prof. Aluko's nicely-packaged intellectual obfuscation continues. Read/hear this:
"In fact, an official at NUC and another close adviser of GEJ later told me that there was serious argument in presidential circles as to whether to retain my name in the list since I was said to be a known APC sympathizer nominated by an APC governor - the only one of the entire 12 New Universities. Common sense prevailed, particularly when the GEJ adviser revealed that my mother was Ijaw, and Otuoke would be home for me." --Prof. Bolaji Aluko
FACTS:1. Prof. Aluko was appointed VC, FU, Otuoke in February 2011.2. APC, Nigeria's ruling party, was founded on February 6th, 2013--a full two years after Prof. Aluko had become VC at FU, Otuoke!3. In 2011, Dr. J. Kayode Fayemi was an ACN Governor of Ekiti State and a staunch stalwart of the anti-GEJ/anti-PDP Southwest Nigerian machine.4. Dr. Kayo became an APC Governor in 2019--about 8 long years after Prof. Aluko became VC, FU, Otuoke and 4 years after Prof. Aluko had left that position!5. The earliest date Prof. Aluko could have become a card-carrying member, closet member, or sympathizer of APC would have been 2013. Yet, he claims that his supposed nomination as VC by Dr. Kayode was almost imperilled by his sympathies for an APC that didn't exist in November 2010!6. The truth is that President Goodluck Jonathan did not know, vet, or participate in the appointment of the VCs of any of the 8 universities he established. Period!
QUESTIONS1. Was Prof. Aluko at his intellectual obfuscation game again when he claimed that "In fact, an official at NUC and another close adviser of GEJ later told me that there was serious argument in presidential circles as to whether to retain my name in the list since I was said to be a known APC sympathizer nominated by an APC governor - the only one of the entire 12 New Universities"? (cf. Facts 1, 2, 3, and 4 above).
2. The last thing Aso Villa would have done in 2010/2011 is to seek Dr. Kayode's opinion or take nominations from him regarding the VC candidate for any university (new or old) anywhere in Nigeria. Period! So, did Prof. Aluko mix up his facts and dates; or is this another clever attempt at pulling wool over the readers' eyes about how he got his VC-ship, yet again?
3. Can Prof. Aluko's slickly canned "merit-based" account of his appointment as VC, FU, Otuoke be complete without detailing the role of the "official at NUC" in his appointment, as well as his kinship with that "official at NUC"?
4. Were there other equally well-qualified Ekiti professors who lost out in the VC appointment because they didn't have a nepotistic relationship with the person (not Gov. Kayode or GEJ) that offered or facilitated the offer of the job to Prof. Aluko?
5. Prof. Aluko lived and worked in GEJ's backyard as a beneficiary of his (GEJ's) benevolence, irrespective of his academic and administrative creds. Throughout 2013-2015 period, Prof. Aluko spent more time and energy than he did on his VC-ship churning out almost daily a barrage of propaganda "charts and tables" and "analysis" dressed up as "facts" from The Muse which he distributed widely to his vast unsuspecting networks (including the USA-Africa Dialogue forum) and GEJ's APC opponents and attack dogs who voraciously consumed and weaponized these "intellectual analysis" to bring down "clueless" GEJ. So, was Prof. Aluko being truthful when he claimed that " 'I could not have been "one of those who helped bring to power the destroyer now in office" because as a public servant VC in GEJ's hometown during the period, I was very careful not to run any partisan political commentary and was not active in the APC' "?
Finally, Prof. Aluko wrote earlier: "I was never a throbbing admirer of Buhari - no single write-up by me promoted him - but while he was certainly not an economic guru, his reputation then for incorruptibility and security credentials fueled a wait-and-see attitude in 2015. It has been a major disappointment. He is leaving soon, very soon." Of course, there's absolutely nothing President Buhari has done or has not done since 2015 that Nigerians were not warned about (including in this forum), but Prof. Aluko and his co-travellers had their eyes too focused on the impending ethnic harvest to bother about such "cat-whistles ... [that] are of no moment."
Unfortunately, the hordes are back at work again marketing another Third Mainland Bridge built on maggot-infested stilts as "a democrat," just as these "world-class intellectuals" sold a certified ethno-religious bigot and fiendishly corrupt hypocrite to gullible Nigerians and the world as a "reformed democrat" in 2014-2015. Guess what? These same "pro-democracy activists" who no longer malign everyone else as "the wailing wailers," will be the first to do a mea culpa by the time another Savior in Depends underwear insists he can--and must--rule what's left of Nigeria by "the destroyer now in office" from a convalescent home in London after 2023!
As in 2014-2015, all the evidence against such a self-defeatist blind ethnic project would have been there, hidden in plain sight!
On Mon, May 2, 2022 at 1:47 PM Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
--
Dr. Emeagwali:
Adepoju's critique of my Sunday Musing on GEJ was inaccurate in many particulars:
1. I could not have been "one of those who helped bring to power the destroyer now in office" because as a public servant VC in GEJ's hometown during the period, I was very careful not to run any partisan political commentary and was not active in the APC. In fact, I was Presidential Returning Officer in Delta State in April 2015, a state which was declared handily for GEJ. (GEJ and I spoke on the phone two nights before the final results declaration by Inec's Jega).
2. GEJ did not just pull me cold from the US. I have told the story a number of times how I had already been nominated by Governor Fayemi as VC of the new Federal University Ikole (later sited at Oye) in Ekiti State in November 2010, at a time when only six universities - three in the North and three in the South - were to be announced. But a dispute resulted from the fact that all Southern States would then have federal universities, while six states in the North would not. A Northern pressure group therefore got the announcement delayed until February 2011 when three more new Northern states were included, with the promise of three more by the time GEJ's term expired in 2015. GEJ further stipulated that no VC's state of origin should be sAme as thenew university, hence my posting got transferred from Ekiti to Otuoke. So my two benefactors were actually Fayemi and GEJ, because the latter could easily have scuttled my nomination.
3. It is also not true that GEJ and I "share(d) no ethnic kinship". We shared it on two levels. In fact, an official at NUC and another close adviser of GEJ later told me that there was serious argument in presidential circles as to whether to retain my name in the list since I was said to be a known APC sympathizer nominated by an APC governor - the only one of the entire 12 New Universities. Common sense prevailed, particularly when the GEJ adviser revealed that my mother was Ijaw, and Otuoke would be home for me. Ironically, when I got to Otuoke - which is really Ogbia country rather than Ijaw - I was quickly regaled that I was in Yoruba country, since Otu-Oke means "the People of Oke", Oke being a Yoruba man (pronounced no-no, with dots below the O and the "e") who settled in the town from Ile-Ife via Benin! Fascinating!
4. Again, I never "rejected (my) benefactor GEJ anyway in supporting a man who could not find his first school leaving certificate". Rather, INEC simultaneously announced the electoral "rejection" of the former and the 'support" of the latter. I did not even vote in the election- I was on electoral duty in Delta State during the period.5. Finally, no "minister of education (who) removed Aluko and others chosen by GEJ to head the new universities he had founded." I and seven others out of 12 VCs served our full five-year terms until February 16, 2016. The four others were unprofessionally removed along with us for no particular reason - someone did not remember that those four did not start their five-year terms on the same day as we eight.
The other issues raised by Adepoju about anti-NAdeco and Abacha and Fulani herdsmen are just cat-whistles,and are of no moment.
There you have it. I thank you.
Bolaji Aluko
On Mon, May 2, 2022, 17:09 'Emeagwali, Gloria (History)' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
--I am sure that Dr. Aluko is nota fortune teller to know how Buhariwould have ruled. Many saw Buhariin his first term as an active man ofchange, and anticipated a continuationof that enthusiasm and activistspirit. In politics, hares turn into snails andprinces into frogs, unfortunately.
But feel free to share with us thefortune telling cookies at your disposal.
Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovdepoju@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 1, 2022 7:14 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - SUNDAY MUSING: Johnathan's Impending Non-Presidency - By Bolaji AlukoEXTERNAL EMAIL: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click any links or open any attachments unless you trust the sender and know the content is safe.
--Really?
Aluko, one of those who helped bring to power the destroyer now in office?
The same GEJ who provided Aluko with his most significant career opportunity by inviting Aluko from the US to head a university in GEJ's hometown, even though they both shared no ethnic kinship, a deep irony as ethnicity was raised to a hitherto unparalleled level in Nigerian history by the man Aluko helped bring into office after GEJ.
In the spirit of freedom of association, Aluko rejected his benefactor GEJ anyway in supporting a man who could not find his first school leaving certificate, a man of no signficant credentials, an open identifier with Boko Haram Islamic terrorism, as Nigerian President.
On entering office, this man appointed a journalist as minister of education who removed Aluko and others chosen by GEJ to head the new universities he had founded, the minister replacing them with Muslim Northerners, most from the new President's state, Katsina, a move I did not read Aluko even referencing.
Bros, if you have anything to say on GEJ, put yourself together and say something serious.
You were one of those who helped transform the man who loyally served the anti-NADECO demon Abacha whom you and others fought and yet you championed this man's return to lead Nigetia.
On what grounds?
You are one of those who long tried to obfuscate the facts of Fulani herdsmen terorirism until it became unavoidable, likely beceause you understood the man you helped bring into office as rightly soiled by that problem.
We need from you an explanation for these political gymnastics.
Is such gymnastics, whether from you, Soyinka, Tinubu, OBJ who has had to apologise to GEJ, not the name of the game as you all joined together to repudiate your own political histories in 2015?
So why are you acting surprised at another person playing the same political game of alliance by convenience?
Apologies for the tone of this piece. I could not polish it.
Thanks
Toyin
On Sun, May 1, 2022, 23:54 Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
--Johnathan's Impending Non-Presidency
Nothing turns more heads in this unfolding political season than the prospect of a Goodluck Ebele Johnathan's return to Nigeria's presidency, ostensibly to complete his second term, and thereafter to return power to the North in a shortened power rotation scheme.
The GEJ trial balloon is a political howler - but why APC and not his PDP? A 2015 anti-APC Pariah suddenly transforms into a 2023 APC Messiah? Just like that?
Has someone smoked a bad reefer somewhere or what?
If in the very unlikely event he contests and wins, he will most probably spend the first year or two fighting legal demons; Madame Patience's Aso Villa health demons will return - if Reuben Abati's recent surreal account of the national residence's Harry Potter environment is to be believed - and GEJ's simplistic simpleton-icity - if there is a word like that- will be confirmed once and for all. And Nigeria will be the worse off for it.
Chineke ekwena ihe ojoò....
My since advice to my Otuoke compatriot? Don't run please, GEJ. You will be messed up.
And there you have it.
Bolaji AlukoMay 1, 2022Shaking his head
------------------------
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAORq2DASqWQU4f1E63bxu4kv-WL8yuUVYVG2z1HgVLJZENuEFA%40mail.gmail.com.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGBtzfN7E6e%2B_cNFW0ASL42e1Tt2QNhBsH%3DS_XJX85262uGagA%40mail.gmail.com.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/BL0PR01MB451454DF757D34D16EAB5938DEC19%40BL0PR01MB4514.prod.exchangelabs.com.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAORq2DBxWTmK-VijJaCq%3D4t1FW5-WDZkxVm0LGJjHHZvZLEEpw%40mail.gmail.com.
--
--Okey C. Ihedurue-mail: okeyiheduru@gmail.com
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAGCbkjoOfdixkhWLHmh0CXuDVfTQLkoyjEQXKRioGofc5Sbgjg%40mail.gmail.com.
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/BL0PR01MB4514394C878242F6D73D79C3DEC09%40BL0PR01MB4514.prod.exchangelabs.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment