--
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/CAMkN8apHHyCm94%2BDCK53KfoFw5EqGYmkeWrixX4siCniSiRRfQ%40mail.gmail.com.
Saturday, April 1, 2023
USA Africa Dialogue Series - Interim Govt
Apropos the so-called Interim National Government
Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, 31st March 2023
Over the past couple of weeks, there have been statements and a petition by spokespersons to President-Elect Bola Tinubu; Femi Fani-Kayode, Festus Keyamo and Bayo Onanuga, claiming that there is a subversive plot to deny their principal access to the presidential seat he won. I never really understood the argument as I had not seen any action different from what has happened after previous presidential actions. The fact that some of them are questioning Tinubu's success at the tribunal is certainly not something new in our politics.
On Wednesday, Nigeria's secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS), joined the fray and announced that some key players are indeed plotting to impose an unconstitutional interim government on Nigeria. They confirmed speculations and calls by some for truncating Nigeria's democratic system. They said that the plot as an "aberration and a mischievous" way to set aside the constitution and undermine civil rule as well as plunge the country into an avoidable crisis. Their spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, said the planners, in their many meetings, have weighed various options, which include, among others, sponsoring endless violent mass protests in major cities to warrant a declaration of State of Emergency.
What then is the plot? I am not sure I understand it. Nigeria is a country where public demonstrations are very common and legal and they do not result in declarations of state of emergency. The state of emergency is declared by the president and the legislature. President Buhari has affirmed consistently and repeatedly that he is eager to hand over power to the declared winner of the 25th February elections, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, so I do not see the logic of his declaring a state of emergency to stop the handover of power. Senate President Ahmed Lawan and Speaker Gbajabiamila are also definitely not in the political mould of anti-constitutionalists so I am at a loss on where the fear of a declaration of a state of emergency is coming from.
The other possibility coming from the DSS statement is frivolous cases currently in the judiciary. Nigeria has the highest level of election-related petitions in the courts in the contemporary world. The fact of the matter however is that our Constitution allows for it and it is a legal and legitimate route to resolving contestations on electoral matters. Indeed, the counsel given to people who have been declared losers in an election is to go to court rather than contest it on the streets.
What I do not understand therefore is the route that would lead to the unconstitutional imposition of an interim government. Which branch of government is engaged in nefarious meetings to put a stop to our democracy? Is it the executive, legislature or judiciary? What we know for sure is that Nigerians are committed to the sustenance of democracy and would fight to preserve it. If the purpose of the statement is to get democracy defenders to stand by and get ready to defend democracy against anti-democratic elements, then the message needed to be clearer. If, however, the message is that there are fifth columnists within government branches planning evil against our democracy, then what is required is not a press release and tweets from the DSS, the suspects should be arrested and charged for their treasonable plot. The statement is coming barely a month after the 25 February presidential election that produced Bola Tinubu as Nigeria's next leader. Mr. Tinubu was the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and if some elements within the same government are plotting regicide then immediate action against them must be taken. We cannot accept an end to the handover of power on May 29, which has now become a constitutionally-entrenched habit we are all proud of.
My recollection is that the idea of an interim government was popularized by Afe Babalola, the renowned philanthropist, legal icon and founder, Afe Babalola University in April last year. He proposed that the 2023 general elections be suspended in favour of a six-month interim government to be drawn from various strands of the Nigerian social, economic and political life. Virtually all Nigerians condemned his proposal which was expressly meant to truncate Nigerian democracy. Mr. Babalola was looking for an unconstitutional short court to address his concerns over re-structuring. That issue is no longer relevant because the elections held and the outcome has been decided and what has not been addressed would be in the tribunals.
Th next iteration of the interim government was in rumours that emerged alleging that some people close to President Buhari were hatching a conspiracy to impose an interim government and have the elections postponed. As soon as those rumours surfaced, President Buhari once again spoke and assured Nigerians that the elections would hold and power would be handed over to the winner of the presidential race. What I find confusing is to re-fashion fears about aborting elections for interim government in a totally different context in which the elections have already taken place and a winner has emerged, even if the election results are in court, which in the Nigerian context is normal.
Emotions over the elections remain high and hurtful actions and words have been expressed over the period. Nonetheless, it is important to state that Nigerian elections have been improving steadily since 2011 and while significant problems remain, the only meaningful approach is to continue the advocacy for the continued improvement of the quality and integrity of our elections. Any attempt to truncate our democracy is a threat to the existence of the state itself and must be resisted by all democrats. When therefore an important institution such as the DSS comes out to make public comments on such a matter, it is important that the content of the messaging is indeed about preserving our democracy and not playing to the gallery of some spokespersons to an elected official.
5.3M
1.3K
My Daughter Was Preparing for Her Masters in UK Before Train Crac
Professor Jibrin Ibrahim
Senior Fellow
Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja
Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17
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/CAPWX8rW4%3DWyjV4Wcbrs3tTa0b6dQDE8QAUxvvOwEv3sSAMk%3DfQ%40mail.gmail.com.
USA Africa Dialogue Series - The Need for Readily Accessible Inspirational Sacred Texts in Classical African Spiritualities: Inspiring Short Overviews of Yoruba Origin Orisa Spirituality: A Few Words
The Need for Readily Accessible Inspirational Sacred Texts in Classical African Spiritualities
Inspiring Short Overviews of Yoruba Origin Orisa Spirituality
A Few Words
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
''Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge''
One of the great ways of developing and spreading a spiritual tradition is through texts, particularly written texts, a culture in which classical African spiritualities are still far behind spiritualities that emerged from those cultures which cultivated widespread writing.
A lot of published texts exist from the Yoruba origin Orisha tradition, one of the better textualized of classical African spiritualities. Yet, even this tradition suggests the problems involved in this subject.
If I want inspiration during a difficult time, which of these texts should I go to?
Can I use any of them for reflection and inspiration the way one would use the Bible?
Perhaps the best known texts in the Orisha tradition are ese ifa, literature of the Ifa system of knowledge and divination.
Ese ifa, however, demonstrates broad variety in content and literary power.
For now, I present a list of some of the best examples known to me of short, perennially elevating overviews of Orisa spirituality.
1. Wole Soyinka's seven stanza poem first published as part of his essay ''The Credo of Being and Nothingness'', and later republished as The Signposts of Existence.
The best very short summation of the Orisa tradition known to me. Comparable in power to the world's great scriptures and philosophical texts. Expressively lucid and ideationally sublime.
2. ''Obatala: Ifa and the Chief of the Spirit of the White Cloth'' by Awo Falokun Fatunmbi. A superb summation of Orisa cosmology in terms of nature, spiritual and physical. Luminous and soaring in expression and ideas given further concreteness and evocative force in correlating Orisa ideas with those of scientific cosmology.
Deity Images
3. Shloma Rosenberg on the supreme creator Olorun at his site Mystic Curio. Magnificent in imagistic explication. Short and memorable.
4. ''Eshu, Paradox''( my own title) anthologized in Jack Mapanaje and Landeg White's Oral Poetry from Africa and posted at their online site. Magnificently paradoxical poetry expressed in dazzling imagery.
This poem is better appreciated through such an overview of Eshu such as Toyin Falola's introduction to his edited Esu:Yoruba God, Power and the Imaginative Frontiers .
The interpretive possibilities of this poem are immense, as demonstrated by Abiola Irele's interpretation of the poem in ''The African Scholar'' and my expansion of Irele's interpretation in ''Abiola Irele at the Intersection of Disciplines.''
This poem is better appreciated through such an overview of Eshu such as Toyin Falola's introduction to his edited Esu:Yoruba God, Power and the Imaginative Frontiers .
The interpretive possibilities of this poem are immense, as demonstrated by Abiola Irele's interpretation of the poem in ''The African Scholar'' and my expansion of Irele's interpretation in ''Abiola Irele at the Intersection of Disciplines.''
5. ''Obatala'' in Yoruba Poetry, edited by Ulli Beier. Marked by images memorable, naturalistic and elevated. This poem is better appreciated through Beier's commentary in The Return of the Gods: The Sacred Art of Susanne Wenger.
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/CAGBtzfNswaeYV4spveE3MU069W8%3DoT1Z4apZtGTV-t-UvDhdHA%40mail.gmail.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)