The Nation Newspaper

Category: Friday

  • POT POURRI: Annkio Briggs and other stories

    POT POURRI: Annkio Briggs and other stories

    Madam Annkio Briggs, President Jonathan and 2015: I was stopped in my track by an interview in Saturday Vanguard of April 6, 2013. It is titled: “Jonathan must complete South-South slot in 2015 – Annkio Briggs.” Taken aback at such a statement coming from a much respected critic and social interventionist, I read the story ravenously trying to understand the context of Annkio’s assertion but all through the interview, the above headline seemed to have been detached from the body of the story or edited out of it. However, one could see Annkio’s overflowing sympathy for the Goodluck Jonathan presidency and the can-do-no-wrong fervor with which she defends the president.

    It is all understandable that this amazon of the Niger Delta would be drawn to the trenches in defence of her kin; filial sympathy is only an innate call especially when you have endured a life of blatant inequalities, inequity and injustice. Nigeria has been graceless to the land that has afforded her sustenance in the last 50 years, raping and ravaging the Niger Delta most wantonly. One understands Annkio’s angst but we all have come to the harsh reality, most regretfully, that Goodluck Jonathan will not give us succor. Not to Annkio, not to the vastly damaged Niger Delta and certainly not to Nigeria.

    All of us who riled against the so-called cabal in 2010, who rushed to vote Jonathan in 2011 in expectation of a breath of fresh air have all have been sucker-punched it seems. Today, we are left bewildered, frustrated and foaming in the mouth. How could we have gotten it so wrong? How could a man who had a PhD in the bag and the combined hands-on of a deputy governor, governor, vice president, acting president and finally president; how could he be caught up in such inebriated inertia in running the affairs of state. To therefore insist on a second term for a guy who flunked the first term woefully must be the worst kind of self-immolation.

    Annkio insists some elements vowed to make the polity ungovernable for the president; she proclaims that the problems we are embroiled in today have heaped up like refuse for over 60 years and she caps it that, “No other President in the past can claim to have done what Jonathan has done.” Haba Annkio! While it might help to show us just one problem President Jonathan has mastered, it is trite to remind that it’s not how long you rule but the vision, will and character at play? How has Boko Haram got on the way of the East-west road, on delivering power and driving the building of refinery complexes in Nigeria? Is it the Boko Haram that has engendered the mind-bending corruption that has signposted and literally destroyed the Jonathan era? Even Annkio would agree that Corruption has done more harm to the Jonathan administration than the BH and MEND put together.

    Lastly, if the president has wasted the better part of this year in Tom & Jerry-like skits worrying about Rotimi Amaechi instead of driving his so-called reform agenda, who is to be blamed? Creating bogus excuses for the president will never help him to redeem himself. The unpalatable truth is that if elections were held today, Nigerians would probably rise as one to vote out this president. Good for him that he still has two years to pull the chestnut out of the fire, and better for him that his name happens to be Goodluck.

    PDP’s house of commotion Does Nigeria’s ruling clan, the Peoples Democratic Party have a strategy unit that thinks for it? It sure must have a think-tank having claimed to be the biggest party in Africa (unless it is a big for nothing fellow). Here is a quick assignment for PDP eggheads to chew upon quickly: let it do a content analysis of all the PDP stories in the national dailies in the last three months. The report will give the PDP top-notch a clue as to whether the party deserves to be running a country as big as Nigeria (or any country at all for that matter). The harsh truth is that today’s PDP reminds us of those days as kids when we played in the sand: “I will play daddy and you will play junior,” someone will suggest, “No, you will be uncle and I will be daddy,” another will counter and we would go on and on lost in their baby babbles. This is what the PDP has regaled us with in much of the 14 years it has been in power. An air-headed party can only beget air-headed governments. As I write this piece, I do not know what PDP stands for, what is its vision, mission, philosophy and its core essence. Any wonder Nigeria has been in regression in all spheres since the ascendance of PDP?

    Have you not been reading the utterly vacuous reports emanating from the PDP house recently? Ah, Oyinlola frets! Oh,Bamanga Tukur smooches governors! Anenih goes on merry-go-round! PDP governors say yes to Tukur, no, they actually said no! On and on! This cannot be any way to run a great party. PDP has dumbed-down this country so much that we will need a giant crane to reclaim our land.

    Ike Ekweremadu: upstairs peering down News filtering out of Enugu State suggests that Chief Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President (DSP) is eyeing the Enugu State government House in 2015. Ouch, what a climb down that would be. Though most matters concerning the 2015 electoral ‘warfare’ is still in the realm of speculation, we offer this unsolicited but humble advice to our distinguished number two senator, which is that,climbing down to seek to govern Enugu State is a no, no. We suggest he continues to nurture his already high profile for bigger jobs in the future.

    Lagos gangland.com Incipient gangster activities have been threatening to over take Lagos State for a few years now. Late February, a Lagos State University student known as Damoche was shot dead at the university’s gate. In the last few days, two other apparent members of rival gangs have been shot dead in cold blood. One, said to be a student in the US who was on holidays was killed in Idi-Oro area and another went by the name of Old Skool was gunned down in Somolu-Bariga all in the Lagos Mainland.

    While the Lagos State Government strives to make a model city of Lagos, it must not lose sight of the fact that law and order is supreme. Government officials, security agencies and indeed everyone knows that armed gang cells have become the order in most communities in Lagos with Mushin, Fadeyi, Somolu and Bariga being perhaps the most notorious. Anomie looms when groups of young men arm themselves and regale in killing, maiming the citizenry and terrorising their neighbourhood without fear of repercussions. Governor Babatunde Fashola and the security agencies must move to end this festering lawlessness. Government must stamp its authority.

    AIRCONDITIONED FLY-OVERS: come and see Amosun wonder! I had heard the story but I did not pay it any mind until I saw the photograph on the back page of The Punch last Monday. A newly built air conditioned pedestrian bridge in Abeokuta, Ogun State. My ‘surprisation’, I said muttered as I marveled at the latest Nigerian wonder. How did they come about this bountiful idea and how is it gonna work? To what end is this and how is it gonna be sustained; or are we trying to give the hoi polloi a taste of what we enjoy in which case we are set to trigger a dangerous phenom? In short one could go around the bend pondering this wonder. Perhaps one must go traverse this flight of fancy to fully appreciate it.

  • Once upon an idea

    Once upon a time, there was community. And it was not just an idea; it was also a practice. Does anyone, except foreigners looking for something other than what they have, still believe that we practise community? Those who do are engaged in an unconscious act of self-deceit. For what is the scope of such a community? Does it include the kidnappers? Or armed robbers? Or suicide bombers?

    Sure, we can indulge in a healthy nostalgia of what was. However, it’s even more rewarding to reflect on the logic of what was when it was. The question then is what is the logic of the relationship of the individual to the community in days gone by? How did it evolve? How was it destroyed?

    We may have a good idea of the evolution and practice of community, especially in Yorubaland, by taking a few steps back to the coming-into-being of a new member of a household. The new baby arrives into the waiting hands of the elder members of the household. From that point on, they see the baby as theirs. They invest their time and resources on her. Her naming ceremony is significant because it is the time she is formally recognised through naming. The names she is given reflect the values of the family and community. They must guide her so she does not bring the family name to ridicule.

    The process of socialisation begins right from birth and all extended family members have a role to play. The structure of the family compound makes this easy since everyone is close by. A child cannot misbehave without being corrected immediately. Love is lavished, but the rod is not spared. In this kind of environment, growing children are able to see themselves as a part of an extended family household and not as independent atoms. They see their intrinsic relation to others and see the interdependent existence of their lives with others.

    The picture just painted suggests the limit of individualism. Not that the community forces itself on an unyielding individual; rather the individual, through socialisation and the love and concern which the household and community have extended to him/her cannot now see himself or herself as anything apart from her community. Interest in her success is shown by members of the extended family who regard her as their “blood” and the community members are also able to trace their origin to a common, even if mythical ancestor. There is, therefore, a genuine feeling of oneness among its members.

    The process of socialisation, which begins in the family compound, ultimately gets extended to the community playground and market square, where the child is further exposed to the virtue of communal life. Here, the child and others like her have their exposure to the display of selfless efforts by adult members of the community. They see how adults contribute to the welfare of the community; how they contribute towards the education of one of them; how they prepare the market place for the new yam festival, etc.

    Building on the initial experience in the family compound, these new members of the community now see themselves as destined to carry the banner of the community. They make up their mind to do their part. They will pursue community interest and shun individualism. This is the meaning of the common saying: I am because we are. It follows that the common rendering of this saying to the effect that the individual in traditional Yoruba society is crushed by the almighty presence of the community is not the whole truth.

    Of course, individuals are valued in themselves and as potential contributors to communal survival. Further it is known that many individuals have the wisdom to guide the community and such people are well-respected. After all, the wisdom that created the idea and sustained the practice of community in the first place originated with individuals.

    This conception of the person in relation to the community is derived from particular metaphysical assumptions that are themselves value-laden and are therefore the basis for the articulation of particular moral values to which all subscribe. First, a person is a creature of God and as such is endowed with dignity and inherent worth. This is based on the belief that a creature of God shares in the dignity and worth that is sourced by God. This is the basis of Yoruba belief in the individuality of persons.

    Second, there is a metaphysical basis for egalitarianism in the Yoruba account of the making of humans. The most important element in the make-up of humans, that which endures their existence is emi, the breath of life; it is given by God and is given equally to all. Therefore, no-one can claim a greater share of God’s love and care, and everyone can claim an equal right to life.

    Third, a person thus endowed with dignity and inherent worth has a capacity for moral virtue and responsible choice and is therefore subject to praise or blame.

    Specific moral values also follow these metaphysical assumptions. First, because the individual is a creature and child of God, the community regards itself as the guardian of the baby, as seen above. Therefore it cannot cause unnecessary harm to the child and thus to an adult, and it must continuously seek the promotion of the good and welfare of the child.

    Second, a child that is immersed in love and care from infancy to adulthood in this way has a responsibility to contribute to the welfare of the children that he or she brings into the world and to the continuity of the group. Indeed, the faithful discharge of this responsibility is an essential precondition for the accord of personhood status to adults of sound body and mind. In other words for this group of individuals, personhood is an acquired status. An irresponsible loafer is treated as a non-person.

    The solidarity among members of a community is healthy because it is beneficial to all. There is common enjoyment and/or common suffering. But what must be prized most highly is that when genuine community relations exist, there cannot be a case of one section rising against the other. For there is an in-built mechanism of unity made possible by the internalisation of the communal norms by young and old, men and women: “I am because we are.” When I am conscious of the fact that my existence is made possible by the reality of the community, I will not undermine that reality since I know that my existence would be impacted.

    We have now embraced the logic of individualism at the expense of community. Yet we are wondering why things have fallen apart. Even our religious sensibilities have been destructive of our traditional values and have embraced the logic of individualism wherein what is important is no longer our earthly communities but those of the world beyond. The consequence of this is that it doesn’t really matter what happens to the former, individuals who embrace the latter have nothing to fear.

    Whereas communities of yore invested in the training of their youths according to their understanding and the resources available to them, we have neglected the youth in spite of the abundant of resources available to us. Yet we expect them to see themselves as communal beings. We practise a “do-or-die” politics in which opposing camps are construed as enemies to be eliminated, the antithesis of communitarian ethos, and we wonder why militants thrive across the land. Whereas in genuine communities, either everyone is poor or everyone is wealthy, we are now comfortable with the combination of extremes of undeserved wealth and extremes of unjustifiable poverty. Isn’t it time we learned the simple truth that what we sow is what we reap?

  • Poverty: Alleviation or prevention?

    Poverty: Alleviation or prevention?

    ‘In Islam, it is forbidden to live permanently on begging. Only necessity should force a Muslim into begging and such necessity must be temporary. As soon as the problem that leads to it is solved, begging in whatever form, must stop. Any further begging thereafter is an abomination’

    “I shall pass through this world but once; if, therefore, there is any good that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being,

    let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it; for I may not pass this way again”.

    Little things that turn out to form the particles of greatness in human life do not necessarily emanate from men or women with silver spoon in the mouth. Greatness is neither by birth nor by heritage. No notable Prophet of Allah, whether Ibrahim (Abraham) or Musa (Moses) or Isa (Jesus) or Muhammad (SAW) was born great in the temporal sense.

    Yet all of those Prophets personify greatness in all its ramifications. History bears testimony to this.

    Perhaps the above quoted poem motivated an unassuming woman of substance to initiate a poverty alleviation foundation called in 2009.

    She is Dr. (Mrs) Lateefah Moyosore Durosinmi, a Senior Lecturer of Chemistry who is also the current Dean of Student Affairs, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Coming from a humble background this indefatigable woman’s topmost aspiration has consistently been how to show meaningful appreciation to the Almighty Allah over His bountiful blessings for her in life. The opportunity for making that aspiration a reality came in 2009 when she turned 50 and was incidentally elected the National President (Amirah) of the Federation of Muslim Women Associations of Nigeria (FOMWAN) that same year. Rather than celebrate her birthday with fanfare in typical Nigerian style, she chose a rare

    noble course that could assist her to leave a footprint on the sands of time.

    Some of her colleagues, friends and well-wishers who had always admired her exemplary humaneness and humility rallied round her to ensure that her golden wish of gratifying Allah was fulfilled. That

    wish was translated into a book entitled ‘Women, Islam and Current

    Issues in Development’ to which those who value knowledge and intellectualism contributed. The book jointly edited by Dr. Wole Abbas of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Ibadan and Barr. Jade Muhammad, a Principal Lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State, was publicly presented and the proceeds there from were dedicated to the establishment of a foundation. The name of the foundation is Lateefah Moyosore Durosinmi (LMD) Foundation. Its objective of was to assist the less privileged people, especially among women and children in laying hopeful stepping stones for them in their life’s odyssey.

    The Foundation has a Board of Trustees (BOT) consisting of the following eminent personalities who are well familiar with the grassroots people: Fatimah Abdul Kareem, a Professor of Morbid Anatomy, University of Lagos (Chair); Muiz O. Durosinmi, a Professor of Dermatology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (member); Dr. Lateefah M. Durosinmi (founder and member); Dr. Wole Abbas, Senior Lecturer, Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Ibadan (member); Barrister Jade Muhammad, Senior Lecturer, Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State; Dr. Sururah Apinke Bello, Lecturer, Computer Engineering Department, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Secretary).

    The Foundation also has an Executive Committee which consists of the following people: Dr. Lateefah Durosinmi (Chairman); Barrister Jade Muhammad (member); Alhaji Abdul Rahman Balogun (member); Mrs. Misturah Sanusi (member) Mrs. Misturah Sanni, Lecturer, Computer Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, (member); Dr. Rafiah Oluwatosin Lawal (nee Durosinmi) and Dr. Sururah Bello (Secretary).

    The first presentation of such assistance to the beneficiaries came up in 2012 at Ile-Ife, Osun State, where 50 indigent primary school pupils were aided with educational materials ranging from text and exercise books to complete school uniforms and some cash sums. It was a great delight to the parents of those pupils most of whom could no longer cope with the provisions needed by their children despite the free education policy of the government.

    The second presentation came up on Monday, April 1, 2013 at ‘FOMWAN HOUSE’ in Akobo area of Ibadan. The beneficiaries this time were 24 mainly underprivileged Muslim women from Ogun, Osun and Oyo States who were financially aided with various cash sums. The number was in accordance with the applications received by the Foundation. And yours sincerely was invited as Guest Lecturer at the occasion. The theme of the lecture was ‘Concept of Poverty Alleviation in Islam (with references to Islamic history’).

    In the lecture, I queried the word ‘ALLEVIATION’ which I had always perceived as unnecessarily political because it was the coinage of the ruling class used to deceive the poor masses in the society. I insisted that the word PREVENTION ought to have been used instead of ALLEVIATION as it was better to prevent poverty than to alleviate it.

    I then told the audience that once you allow poverty into your life it becomes very difficult if not impossible to alleviate it because poverty is like virus which forages all organs of the body. The more you try to curb it in one part of the body the stronger it waxes in other parts. I pointed out that it was wrong to limit poverty to lack of possession of money or material substances alone and classified poverty as physical, mental, spiritual, psychological and material. If a person is lacking in health or in spirit or in contentment or in conscience or in morals he can be said to be poor and no amount of money he possesses can rescue him. But since the focus of today’s world is money along with material substances, it may become necessary

    to examine the causes of material poverty.

    CAUSES:

    Material poverty is caused by a variety of issues and circumstances some of which can be enumerated as follows: (1) natural disasters like flood, drought, famine and epidemics (2) government policies like demolition, inflationary measures (e.g. increase in fuel price and power tariff), relocation or change of environment as well as prohibition of sale of certain products or banning of their importation (3) weather variation such as excessive of rainfalls or unexpectedly prolonged dry season or devastating dunes (4) self-enticed poverty like war, extravagancy, ostentation and prodigality. Of all these causes, none is as biting as self-enticed poverty which is particularly rampant among Nigerian women who must wear the latest fashionable dresses in vogue at all costs and celebrate birthdays and funerals with borrowed money. And after spending so much on such unnecessary trivialities, some necessities of life will surface at a time when the wherewithal would have been exhausted thereby pushing the concerned person into the market of borrowing and indebtedness.

    Women are also the ones who must celebrate their children’s birthdays every year with pump and pageantry thereby showing those children how to spend money without showing them how to make money. Thus, by the time such children grow up into men and women they would have become so much accustomed to spending spree that working for the money being spent would look like an aberration. As a result, poverty will set in and they will embark on stylish begging in the name of poverty alleviation.

    Every living thing created by Allah is endowed with sustaining wealth which is called talent. One man’s wealth may be his mouth (e.g. comedian), another man’s wealth may be his legs (e.g. footballer).

    There is no human being or animal or even plant without an endowed wealth. The duty of identifying such wealth and utilising it to one’s advantage is then left to every individual.

    In Islam, it is forbidden to live permanently on begging. Only necessity should force a Muslim into begging and such necessity must be temporary. As soon as the problem that leads to it is solved, begging in whatever form, must stop. Any further begging thereafter is an abomination. Even the institution of Zakah which is a whole pillar of Islam was introduced for the purpose of solving immediate problems for the poor, the indigents and the needy. No Muslim except an ally of Satan will take begging for a permanent job.

    A poor man once approached Prophet Muhammad (SAW) seeking his financial assistance to enable him and his family feed that day. He told the Prophet that he had nothing at home with which to feed his wife and children. The Prophet then asked whether he had anything in his house that could be sold to enable him and his family feed for the day. In response, he said there was nothing. Then the Prophet pressurised him to think of anything in his house that he could sell.

    The man then remembered a small bowl made of bronze which someone had given him several years back. He, however, told the Prophet that no one would want to buy it because it was useless. The Prophet told him to go and bring it. When he came back with the bowl, the Prophet took it from him and sought from his companions if anyone of them could pay for it. Sensing that the Prophet had reason for putting the bowl up for sale, one the companions volunteered to buy it for only one Dirham. The Prophet further sought to know if someone else could pay more for it. And another companion volunteered to pay two Dirham.

    Then, the Prophet took the money and handed over the bowl to the buyer while he gave the money to the owner of the bowl instructing him to spend only one Dirham on food and the remaining one Dirham to purchase an axe.

    The poor man rushed home and returned later with an axe as instructed by the Prophet. Then the Prophet told him to use the axe to fetch firewood and sell it so that he could use the money realised from it to feed his family the following day. The man followed the Prophet’s instruction scrupulously and after one week he returned with a better dress and informed the Prophet that he had been making 15 Dirham every day and therefore had no more problems feeding his family. There and then, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) came up with the Hadith that says: “the upper hands are always better than the lower hands” meaning that the giving hands are better blessed by Allah than the receiving hands. (This Hadith was related by Abu Huraira).

    The wisdom in the above Hadith is not just about dignity of labour but also about self-esteem in feeding from one’s sweat. This is the wisdom which Dr. Lateefah Durosinmi intends to inject the poor Muslim women who will be benefitting from her philanthropic largess some of whom were granted interest-free loan. The objective is to let those women know that it is far more dignifying to sell coal, firewood or sachet water to earn a living than to depend on begging for survival.

    If about one thousand other privileged Muslim women in the Southwest Nigeria could embark on a similar rewarding venture, surely, a reduction of poverty in this region would have become manifest by now.

    The book that led to the establishment of LMD Foundation is still available for purchase by any good-hearted person who may wish to support the foundation in one way or another.

    “Who shares his life’s pure pleasure and walks the honest road; who trades with heaping measure and lifts his brother’s load; who turns the wrong down bluntly and lends the right a hand; he dwells in God’s own country and tills the Holy land”. Dr. Lateefah has done this much.

    We are witnesses. She deserves encouragement from all those who want to join in sharing the bounties of Allah with her.

    The role of Zakah in poverty prevention and alleviation as well as the general misconception about Nisab which has turned many potential Zakah payers into Zakah recipients will soon be discussed in this column in sha’Allah.

    Erratum

    A verse of the Qur’an about the devastating effect of imperialists’ intrusion into a territory as discussed in this column last week was inadvertently misquoted as Chapter 12 verse….. instead of Chapter 27 verse 34. My attention was drawn to this by General Abdus-Salam of Nigerian Army. I pray Allah to reward him abundantly.

  • Homosexuality, America and the end of humanity

    Homosexuality, America and the end of humanity

    That is why God let go of them and let them do all these evil things, so that even their women turned against God’s natural plan for them and indulged in sex sin with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sex relationships with women, burned with lust for each other, men doing shameful things with other men, and, as a result, getting paid within their own souls with the penalty they so richly deserved. Romans Ch. 1 vs 26-27 (TLB)

    Woe alas, the end has begun for humanity! America is capitulating and falling. Madmen are chasing away the specialists; deviants are finally winning the battle. Woe alas, the world stands on its head. Come June, the United States Supreme Court (USSC) will decide whether same-sex (SS) marriage could become the norm in the U.S. With about 58 per cent of Americans already loving SS union; with a serving president endorsing it; with bishops and archbishops proudly being gay and consecrating ‘strange’ wed locks, and some influential countries around the world already practicing it, the USSC would be hard put not to give its nod to it; if only to rest the matter once and for all.

    THE FINAL FALL: Man has finally fallen from all grace. Across the ages, the battle between good and evil has raged. Homosexuality, one of the greatest human deviant behaviors had been with man from Adam. Man had fought it, consigning it to the closet for a long time but it refuses to be still. For instance, just 40 years ago, homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. Today, it is considered a normal sexual behavior and a human right issue. There are over 600,000 SS families in the U.S with about 115,000 of them raising children.

    Today’s licentious world has convinced itself that deviant behavior is okay and acceptable; it has allowed maladjusted people to have their way. They have allowed people who need help, who need prayers and divine intervention to reclaim their checkered lives to take control of the driver’s seat of the human race. It is most aptly captured in the Yoruba saying: k’afi ibaje se ayo – to glory in rottenness. As humanity wallows in rottenness and extreme carnality, they are far removed from the divine and the glorious. If our permissive world accepts that it is a man’s right to sleep with another man, by the same token, shouldn’t it be his right and sexual preference to choose to sleep with his dog, goat, cow and chicken? And why should anybody worry when strange diseases begin to ravage the world and seek to exterminate humanity? If we accept lesbianism and homosexuality, we must by the same token allow kleptomania, sadism and other deviant behaviours as norm and individual right.

    GOD, NATURAL ORDER AND SOVEREIGN WILL: Is any surprised that humanity has come to this sorry pass? For many decades, the Western world has repudiated God. It has civilized ‘beyond’ God. The West has bred generations of anti-Gods; denizens who never attended church, who read no scriptures; who have grown old soulless and never reading a word of the Bible. They have bred spiritual zombies, vacuous people who are infuriated by the very concept of deity or religious codes. The world is filled with carnal beings groomed on dollars, flesh and individual freedom. They are wise by themselves and are gods unto themselves; whatever feels good is okay, whatever their feeble minds can justify is right.

    Sometimes one wonders which god is referred to on the American dollar bill which proclaims, “In God we trust”. It must be the god of dollars.

    But God is God, his sovereign will is written and will be fulfilled in due time. Empires will rise and fall; superpowers will thrive and wane all according to his long-stated design. People of God must not despair but must remain in fervent prayers for the lost souls who have deviated from His natural order and are sold to the enemy.

    Let us close with the exchange between God and Elijah as recorded in the letter of Apostle Paul to the Romans (Ch. 11 vs. 2-4) in which the prophet Elijah confronted God lamenting that the Jews had killed all the Prophets and torn down God’s alters. Elijah even claimed that he was the only prophet left in all the land who still loved God and he lived with the imminent danger of being killed. And God replied Elijah: “No, you are not the only one left. I have seven thousand others besides you who still love me and have not bowed down to idols!” God’s elect will stand in the gap and His sovereign will only, will be done.

    FEEDBACK:

    Re: Trouble with Things Fall Apart

    Mr. Osuji I have just read through your article on page 22 of The Nation (April 5, 2013). I must admit that you are well aware of the ethnic politics that is ravaging us and your style of writing is living / alive. Please keep it up. Mrs. Fatoyinbo, 07030334456.

    Steve I agree totally with you that the trouble with TFA is the trouble with Nigeria. How could anyone equate Wole Soyinka with Chinua Achebe? Soyinka’s writings are esoteric while Achebe is lucid and devoid of jargons. If Achebe were to be a Yoruba, he would have been in the exalted horizon of literary pantheons. From Prof. S.O. Aghalino, UNILORIN, 08054896603

    My dear EXPRESSO Steve, God bless you on your write-up on Things Fall Apart. Your ink will never run dry – 08033100848

    Steve, on The Trouble with Things Fall Apart, I owe you a drink. From Ezeugo , Abuja, 08037003315

    Steve, the Achebe vs. Soyinka controversy is unfortunate. With or without laurels, both are African literary icons. Achebe was a great novelist who treasured simplicity like the romantics. Essentially, WS is a great dramatist. He takes much interest in the literary approach of the post-modernists, the celebrators of obscurity. But WS had the Jero Plays and A Play of Giants presented in a simple language. A simple language does not diminish the greatness of a literary work, it enhances it. Each writer should be seen within the limits of his genre. From Kamaldeen, Ilorin.

    Good work Steve. Talking about the Nobel, they seem to enjoy the writer who massages the Whiteman’s ego and WS played along and got the reward. Achebe had no time to massage anyone’s ego even for the Nobel. For instance, while in Death and the King’s Horse man, the author warns the reader not to hold the White man responsible for the wrongs in the play, Achebe stated clearly that our past was not one long night of savagery from which Europeans acting on God’s behalf, delivered us. He demonstrated it twice in the case of the National Award. From Prof. Emeka Nwabueze, fmr Dean. Fac. Of Arts, UNN.

  • Leadership matters

    Leadership matters

    The Presidency has responded to critics who accused it of complicity in the police detention of Leadership newspaper journalists on an allegation that the journalists deliberately published a false story. It is interesting that the “false story” itself was about a “Presidential Directive” on opposition leaders. And when that story broke, the Presidency was alleged to have directed the police to clamp down on the journalists. The Presidency has therefore been in the business of issuing directives. The response was to deny this allegation. Did it succeed?

    The Presidency rightly and, in my judgment, validly argued that once it convinced itself that the Leadership story was false, it denied it and “the rebuttal from the Presidency was appropriate.” We should also accept the suggestion that publishers and editors have the professional obligation to “double check their claims, and where errors had been made, to quickly retract the story.”

    Let us go further and accept the Presidency’s favorable reference to the principle that “the freedom of expression goes hand in hand with great responsibility” and that professional ethics requires that journalists abide by this principle at all times.

    The question that follows is this: Assume that a journalist errs and fails to abide by this code of ethics. Let us assume further that the said journalist does so deliberately and with malice. What, on the part of a republic that is founded on the rule of law, is the appropriate response to such a deviant behaviour? It is the response to this question that distinguishes a democracy from a dictatorship and it is where the response of the Presidency still appears troubling.

    The presidential response speculates that Leadership story, which it considered “fictitious” was intended to “cause civil strife, engender a breakdown of law and order and negate the values of our democracy” and it concluded that it is a “very grievous act which should not be ignored.” We heard this before and it was not in a democratic setting! Once you start speculating about intentions, it is a short course towards clamping down “in the interest of the nation”, the interest which you determine on behalf of the nation. This has always been the challenge that democracies must respond to. No one—no matter how highly placed— has the right to determine the interest of the nation because behind every such move lurks ubiquitous self-interests camouflaging as national interest.

    The presidency response leaves no one in doubt concerning its leaning. Once it considers itself the aggrieved party, it has no problem claiming the right to feel offended and bruised. If a journalistic action that is judged to be a “disruptive act erodes the ethos of governance and professionalism,” as far as the Presidency is concerned, it “naturally stirs up those entrusted with the protection of law and order.” In other words, while the Presidency denies directing law enforcement officers to clamp down on Leadership journalists and detain them, it has no scruple defending the detention because it is “natural” for the police to “act in the public interest.”

    We are told by the Presidency that its response is not a brief for the law enforcement and security agencies, but it defends their actions by its insistence that “such a publication (as Leadership’s) like all others that threaten our democracy and undermine law and order, become the duty of the Police as an institution to investigate.” The danger here is obvious. It is the Presidency that has the certain knowledge that a publication threatens our democracy and undermines law and order. What is unclear is the basis on which the Presidency makes the judgment and, more importantly, what gives the Presidency the prerogative for that determination.

    Surely no person or agency is above the law. However, it is also true that we have separation of powers for good reasons, part of which is to avoid one arm of government from being the accuser, prosecutor, judge and jury at the same time to the detriment of the rule of law. The police is an agency of the executive for all intents and purposes. The reason that the Federal Government, including the Presidency, has been unsympathetic to the demand for state police and has blocked the amendment of the constitution to establish state police is the argument that state governments, including the governors, will use the police as a political weapon against opponents. There is understandable fear that this is exactly what is going on with the federal government.

    We can picture a different scenario. The Leadership newspaper publishes a story that the Federal Government deems false and defamatory. The Chief Law Officer of the Federal Government goes to court with a case against Leadership. Each side argues its case before a court of competent jurisdiction. The judge, an independent arbiter, pronounces a judgment. If Leadership is found guilty, it pays the price and other media houses learn from the case. This is the ideal path of democratic governance. More than a decade ago, we heaved a sigh of relief when we ushered in a new era of the republic and we vowed never to go back to the era of dictatorship and jungle justice. We cannot afford to go back.

    The Presidency suggests that the case of Leadership “offers the media an opportunity for introspection” on issues of “ethics and professionalism.” Indeed, it is also an occasion for the Presidency and governments at all levels to come to terms with the meaning and practice of true democracy. You are not going to like everything that citizens choose to say or do. But we have laws and processes. You have no right to abuse those laws and processes just because you feel offended and abused by a story. You do not have the right to determine what story endangers national interest. That is for the courts of law to determine. Each of us has a genuine interest in making sure that the rule of law is protected from those who would choose to drag it in the mud just because they have the power to do so. In the final analysis, it is what good governance is all about.

  • Reverse moral revolution

    Reverse moral revolution

    Oke-ogun is on my mind today. But I need tofollow a detour to get to my favorite landscape and its innocent people.

    The credit for the 21st century popularisation of the term “moral revolution” is, without argument, Kwame Anthony Appiah’s. It was his 2009 book, The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen that reintroduces the term and injects it into our modern consciousness as the moral equivalent of scientific revolution. In his account, a moral revolution occurs when a people who have been long engaged in a shameful, embarrassing, immoral way of life or behaviour abandon it in favour of a decent or morally defensible practice. Among his examples, one that resonates with us in this part of the world is the abolition of transatlantic slavery.

    The practice of hunting, capturing, parking, and transporting, against their will, thousands of human beings across the Atlantic and forcing them into servitude was so inhumane and barbaric that it is still now a surprise that it was considered acceptable and legitimate for such a long time in spite of the efforts of a number of abolitionists and beyond the lifetime of the pioneers. That is the nature of tradition.

    “Tradition” is a customary way of doing things that is unique to a group, a habitual way of life, what sociologist Edward Shils defines as “anything which is transmitted or handed down from the past to the present”. Of course, being handed down does not necessarily entail being accepted. A tradition is a tradition only because it is accepted by the next generation. The acceptance of a traditional idea, belief, or practice is subject to what the people it serves make of it in terms of their well-being. The notion that a tradition necessarily has a suffocating grip on a people is, therefore, misleading. The influence of a tradition depends on the moral weight that the people accord it. A tradition survives if subsequent generations accept it, and that also depends on how they assess it relative to their interests.

    Beneficiaries of the practice of enslaving African peoples obviously found it acceptable relative to their interests; hence their tardiness in accepting the abolitionists’ logic. When eventually they saw the proverbial light, the tide shifted and moral revolution occurred.

    With the foregoing as a backdrop, I am interested here in what appears to me to be movement in the opposite direction of the kind of moral revolution that I just described. Hence my title: reverse moral revolution.

    If there is moral revolution, can there be a reverse moral revolution? Can a people with a good moral tradition abandon it for whatever reason, reverse course, and initiate a practice or set of practices that negate human flourishing? To my mind, the answer is “yes” and there can be no better example than the realities of our everyday experience.

    We are heirs of a rich tradition of cultural and moral values which privileges the community as the bearer of value and the protector and benefactor of the individual. Distant relatives would gladly contribute pennies and shillings for the upkeep of a young boy or girl on the way to school or college. They saw themselves as the keepers of their brothers and sisters. Teachers were accorded due respect as the guardians and mentors of the youth. Religious harmony was taken for granted as clerics of all faith took seriously their calling as shepherds of the entire people. Religion was an instrument for forging communal peace and allaying fear about the unknown. For the Yoruba, the individual who exemplifies its ideal of the human person is an omoluabi and that was what everyone desires to be.

    Failure at realising the goal of becoming an omoluabi is not just the failure of a family; it is the failure of the entire community if the young ones turn out to be exiles from the moral community. When communal values that enrich human flourishing are set aside by a new generation, there is reverse moral revolution; and since such a revolution is against the ideal of human flourishing, it a communal failure.

    There is no doubt that this is where we are now even as we are yet to place our feet on the first step on the ladder of development. We have fully embraced the post-modernist distaste for moral values even as we collectively suffer from its suffocating grip.

    It is happening in real time in unusual places. As Georgia was on the mind of Ray Charles, so Oke-ogun is always on my mind. And as I sit by my current River of Babylon, contented and grateful for my life’s story, I cannot but remember my Zion, and I am certainly not ashamed to sing of its heritage, its innocence, its virginity, its rustic beauty, and above all, what I still celebrate as its core values: hard work and contentment. While the opportunities were limited, we learned that tenacity of purpose and perseverance paid out. And there was communal cooperation in the training of children. While four eyes were there in the making of the baby, two hundred are involved in its upbringing. It was the tradition I grew up in and my generation accepted it and passed it on.

    I am uncertain what is going on now and has been for some time. Do teachers still see themselves as the conduit for the transmission of communal moral values? Or are they overwhelmed by the incessant urge for primitive acquisition that defines our national life? Of course, teachers cannot take on the responsibilities that parents and the community abandon. And when parents run after the elusive happiness of material wealth, they ought to be reminded that the children they fail to train will end up squandering whatever wealth they are lucky to accumulate.

    The foregoing is not without a context. I received two calls in the past week from two friends for whom I have a lot of respect. They were both concerned about the current terrain of the moral tradition of our people. In particular, they raised issues about the young ones who cut school, do drugs, and engage in cult activities, and about parents who appear to have no time for the education and upbringing of their children. They offer solutions as well, which is part of what makes them respectable.

    One solution is the recruitment of role models among the successful members of the professional class—those who passed through the proverbial fire and were not burnt; those who did not reach the pinnacle of achievement by cutting corners, and those who do not take political activism and participation as a means to self-advancement at the expense of the community. I hasten to say that Oke-ogun is not lacking in such individuals who put others, and especially the community before self, and that is one reason I applaud and endorse this suggestion as a viable option.

    The issue, of course, is not all that simple. Successful role models are willing and ready to make contributions and pay back a debt of gratitude to the community that gave them a chance in the first place. But you don’t get clean hands when you use just one hand to self-wash. And when one side lifts, and the other pushes down, you don’t get the luggage onto the head as you desire.

    This is the predicament of Oke-ogun today as it is of Nigeria as whole. There is a side that is genuinely concerned about bringing up the next generation to their God-given potentials. And there is a side that sees the youth as exploitable entities. For the latter, good education is an impediment. I believe that the forces of good can and will overcome through tenacity and persistence. After all, that is the proud and enviable tradition of Oke-ogun.

  • By their script

    By their script

    “And beware of a calamity that may afflict not only the transgressors amongst you but also the innocent ones and know that Allah’s retribution can be very severe…..’’

    Q. 8:25

    Writing a drama is like conceiving a pregnancy. For the drama to be practically actable, the writer must take into consideration not only the theme, the setting, the characters and the complications of such a drama as they build up spirally to the climax. He must also think of the anticlimax of the drama as well as its possible denouement.

    Nothing shows the ingenuousness of a playwright as vividly as the crew of actors who put into action the script that gives birth to the drama in question. It is like delivering a pregnant woman of her pregnancy. If the delivery process is not carefully handled, the deliverer may end up becoming an undertaker. And that is when a drama is said to be tragic.

    Brilliant students of literature must have perceived today’s entire world as a paradoxical theatre in which over seven billion human beings, including Nigerians are watching a drama. For either ecstasy or dismay the viewers may randomly roar into controversies or anxiety as the drama progresses. But the main concern of each viewer is what may become of his favoured character.

    In the ongoing global drama against which we had been warned in the Qur’an as quoted above, the concern of this columnist in today’s article is the ‘colony’ called Nigeria. This is not just because the colony is my immediate and paramount constituency but also because Nigeria is the heart of Africa. And if anything negative happens to her, the whole of Africa will cease to be at rest.

    Currently, the Federal Government of Nigeria is half-heartedly preparing for the centenary anniversary of the country’s existence as a unified entity as designed by the colonialists in 1914. The anniversary is expected to come up in 2014 when the country will be 100 years old, God willing. But no one except the Almighty Allah, is cock sure of what may happen to Nigeria subsequent to its centenary anniversary. This is because the same deliverers of Nigeria as a country have prepared a mausoleum in anticipation of her funeral. A clandestine script was unveiled in 1995 predicting a tragic absurdity awaiting the most populous African country. The contents of the script revealed that this heart of Africa called Nigeria was heading for a break up by the year 2015 when she will be 101 years old. The designers of this devilish agenda had set a timeframe of 20 years for its execution without proffering any positive alternative. And to portray their dream as a realisable one they kept hammering the probability of the success of that obnoxious project citing some hazardous occurrences in the land as reason.

    For students of International Relations, such a prediction cannot be strange. It is part of the strategies often used by the imperialists either to re-colonise some old colonies or to scoop on and dominate their economies in a typical capitalist style. As a result of such an imperial strategy, Poland had once ceased to be a country for about 123 years when it was partitioned about four times by Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1772, 1792 and 1795. And for well over a century thereafter, the country did not exist. But the Polish people never gave up the resilient spirit of regaining their independence until the country was fully revived after the World War I in 1918. In contemporary time, the modern day imperialists have been doing the same successfully in some other countries none of which is now firmly on her feet. Countries like Vietnam, Korea, Yemen, China, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Somalia, Sudan, Palestine and lately the entire Arab nations all of which have had their bitter share of the subtle pillage can testify to this assertion. It is a modern day equivalence of the 1884/1885 partition of Africa carried out in Berlin, Germany, by the European imperialists, which led to the colonisation of the black continent. If any of the above countries had resisted that obnoxious project at the planning stage and stood their ground in resistance to imperialism, perhaps the world would have been spared the throat-cutting threats posed today by the United States and her allies against what they perceive as lesser nations.

    Incidentally, the US had also once been a victim of this same imperialists’ guillotine especially in the hands of Britain. Yet, the cult of capitalism which has now become their common bond would not allow the duo of Britain and US (which had been mutually antagonistic) to dwell differently because it is only in such collaboration that the gains of their common interest can be accomplished. Unfortunately, Nigeria doesn’t seem to have learned any lesson from countries that had been tricked into toeing the imperialists’ path hook, line and sinker.

    Rather than looking inwards for solution to our domestic problems as the US did in her time of resistance to oppression, our own government does not beckon to Uncle Sam for solution even to a minor problem but also cries out randomly to the collective body of imperialists for help. The official behaviour of Nigerian government is just like that of a baby who has adapted to being spoon-fed at all times even while asleep. Today, Nigerian government can hardly think on anything without reference to American or European example.

    Whereas some progressive countries like Japan, China, India, Brazil and even the United States in their days of search for growth and development shut their doors to the world and made do with whatever they could produce internally which was why their sudden zoom into the limelight came to the world as a surprise, this has never taught Nigeria any lesson. Rather, all that matters here is empty and monotonous noise about becoming one of the biggest economies in year 2020 even when it is crystal clear that such aspiration will only end up being forlorn. No truly progressive country in modern time has ever indulged in such empty and wishful propaganda. What would have ordinarily justified such propaganda is a surprise zooming into the global economic stage as the above listed countries had done.

    It can only take a shameless country with so much wealth and without any visible progress in place to embark on such hopeless propaganda even as over 75% of her citizens wallow in penury.

    What our government ought to have told us is how billions of Dollars allegedly voted for revamping our electricity was spent without any resultant availability of power or the billions of dollars allegedly recovered from General Abacha’s loot or multi-billion naira realised from the so-called privatisation policy that threw our national economy into taters or the scandalously embezzled billions of naira realised from the arbitrary and callous increase on fuel price and many others of the like. On the other hand, the government ought to have shown Nigerians the blueprint that qualifies us for such empty propaganda about year 2020 since it is a Nigerian project.

    Now, by inviting foreigners, including the US and Israel, to help resolve the problem of insecurity in Nigeria, has the government not only admitted its incompetence in protecting the citizenry thereby surrendering its authority to the invited countries? And with that has it not also begun to compound the existing problems by externalising those internal affairs? After all, are these same invited countries not the manufacturers of the instruments of insecurity in our land? Security of a country is like the heart in human body. Handing it over to someone else is like paving way for one’s fortuitous death. No serious government will ever trivialise the existence of its nation to that extent. We all know that whoever pays the piper must surely dictate the tune. Iraq, Libya and Pakistan are living examples confirming that in diplomacy, a friend today may become an enemy tomorrow.

    Yes, in the name of solving Nigeria’s problem even when they have been unable to solve theirs, the invited countries may bring their arsenal to subdue some government’s perceived and imaginary enemies. But what is likely to happen thereafter is the question which many generations of Nigerians may not be able to answer for decades in future. This has happened in most of the countries which had solicited for military intervention of the imperialist countries. Today, those countries are licking their fingers in total regret. Yet, Nigeria’s ruling class which sees power as a matter of life and death is bent on forcing the country into the league of hopeless nations.

    A government is said to be in power only if it is believed to be capable of protecting its citizenry and defend the territorial integrity of the concerned nation. Any government that is incapable of doing this and rather decides to throw the gate of the nation’s security open to foreigners for whatever reason is unfit to be called a government.

    Globally, the US and Israel are known for their belligerence and implacable transgression against nations that refuse to comply with their imperialist policies. And it is probably in reference to such imperialist powers that Allah had warned mankind in the Qur’an over a millennium and a half ago thus: “When imperialists enter a territory they audaciously pillage and brutally destroy it even as they subjugate the juggernauts therein to the level of servitude”. Q. 12: 22

    The real problem of Nigeria is neither the destructive anti-economic activities of the Southsouth militants, nor that of the greedily callous Southeast kidnapers nor even that of the heartless Boko Haram bloodletting vandalism. Rather, it is the willingness of the so-called government to turn the country into an incubator of problems while relying on foreign imperialists for solution even when such imperialists cannot solve their own domestic problems. It is like the case of an infamy who consumes poison while depending on an antidote for safety. In an axiomatic stanza, an Arab poet once opined thus:

    “We all blame time for our misdemeanour; whereas, the misdemeanour blamed on time is actually in us; We smear time with all types of iniquities and yet expect time to cleans us of any blame; Were time endowed with mouth to comment on us; it would have blamed us for generating all crimes; No dog eats fellow dog; it is only men that eat fellow men’’.

    The truth of the matter is that the roots of the multi-dimensional problems staring Nigeria on the face are traceable mostly to the corridors of our government. Of all the vices that constitute seemingly insuperable problems for Nigeria today particularly corruption and injustice, none originated from a source other that of the government. The various high profile corruption cases since 1999 have confirmed this assertion. How, on earth, can any sensible person justify the case of immunity clause deliberately injected into our constitution to protect stealing of public funds either by the President or Governors in a country where overwhelming majority of people are so wretched that they can hardly afford even one meal per day despite the enormous wealth with which we are naturally endowed? And this so-called constitution was never subjected to any referendum as a way of assessing its general acceptability in the first instance.

    The real absurdity in that immunity clause is not just in chasing around the protected public thieves after vacating office but also in setting up anti-corruption agencies as a political camouflage. For God sake, if a person aids a thief in the casting away of his property has he not become an accomplice in stealing that property? What justification will such a person have in wanting to prosecute such a thief? Those who injected immunity clause into our constitution as well as those who are in position to remove it but rather chose to retain it are together accomplices in the entrenchment and spread of corruption in the land. Ordinarily, such people should never have moral right to talk of fighting corruption because they are its creators and sustainers but we live in a shameless country where conscience does not matter.

    We are our own problems. We know the sources of what we call problems and we incubate them. We know how to proffer solution to those problems but like ‘lotus eaters’, we are so much drunk with illegality that it has become so difficult if not impossible for us to part with it. Now, as we start importing imperial mercenaries into the country to solve our immediate problems, we must not forget the social and financial implications of their coming. And we must remember that those mercenaries will like to find a permanent seat here even if they will have to invent new problems for us in order to justify their profitable stay.

    This admonition may taste bitter especially to those in government who may have hidden agenda. But Allah’s words will never be in want of relevance. They are regularly accompanied by relevance. Allah warns us in Qur’an 13:11 thus: “Surely, Allah will not change the situation of a nation or community until they (the citizens) themselves, have resolved to change it through their attitude”. Whoever calls for equity must come with clean hands. Those in government must show good example of what they want Nigerians to be as citizens. Acting the imperialists’ evil script will do no one any good in Nigeria. Think before you act.

  • The trouble with Things Fall Apart

    The trouble with Things Fall Apart

    I state upfront that my original article was to be: “You ain’t literate if you haven’t read Things Fall Apart (TFA).” But upon reading “Achebe Versus Soyinka”, the submission of Sam Omatseye, my Editorial Board chairman, in his In Touch column in The Nation last Monday, I changed the focus of my write up and expanded the scope a little. Sam in his inimitable way re-stoked this long-running controversy about Chinua Achebe vs. Wole Soyinka; and what makes up art in literature. It is a continuation of some of our heated debates during meetings. As part of my vehement disagreement with Sam on his take on TFA, I thought of this new title. The trouble with TFA in my reckoning, is the trouble with Chinua Achebe; it is the trouble with Nigeria. I will return to it later.

    TFA as pristine art

    Sam asserts that Achebe “wrote good works, not great works, not textured by deeper insights you would see in better accomplished works”. He says further that “Achebe was a good storyteller (but) turning from a raconteur to an art of sublimity and depth belongs to the masters”. First, one would have expected to see a list of such exemplars of great works of sublime depths so we can compare with TFA but Sam did not give us such an opportunity. In my humble submission however, Achebe’s spare and simple style of narrative is deliberate and not to be mistaken for Wole Soyinka’s convoluted and multi-layered streaming. So it is first a question of style.

    I believe that Achebe is capable of twisting his thoughts to the 10th degree if he wanted, the way Soyinka is wont and is naturally predisposed. It is genius no doubt but I find greater genius in deconstructing even genius so that mere mortals like us could feed from its morsels. Prof. Niyi Osundare says TFA, “ represents Achebe’s literary essence because of its delicate simplicity.” Gabriel Okara, another master of the art puts it this way: “I found it (TFA) interesting because here is a book written in a way I would have liked to write. I was happy that someone had done what I was trying to do in writing our African experience using the English man’s language to explain the African experience. And I appreciated the skills with which he did it.”

    Elechi Amadi, another great man of letters and contemporary of Achebe’s puts it thus: “My impression of the book then (1958/59 when he first read it) was that I felt it was well written. The language was ‘rock-solid’. He handled the English language competently. In my opinion, compared to his other novels, Things Fall Apart is his best. It was the first novel written by a Nigerian or an African to attain world recognition…he galvanized us into action to write books of quality as he has done. Achebe was an inspiration.”

    This is how Time magazine puts Achebe’s style in an obituary tribute in its current edition: “He liked writing in English.”I feel the English language will be able to carry my African Experience,” he declared in 1965. It would have to be a different English, though, “still in communion with his ancestral home but altered to suit its new African surrounding.” There it is: what Sam may have mis-read as a lack of depth or as pedestrian narrative was altered, contrived to suit; the way only a great mind would.

    Wole Soyinka, Nobel prize and the Asiwaju controversy

    I think Achebe was right to have asserted that Wole Soyinka is not the Asiwaju of African literature, Nobel prize or not. It is the way he said it that might have furrowed eyebrows. While only an illiterate would doubt WS’ genius, I think his forte is not literature. He is the quintessential human, the artful crusader for social justice and sanctity of the human man; a cultural icon. Soyinka represents the original man in his most pristine and divine state. With all sense of responsibility, I hold that Soyinka dabbled into literature as a platform to project his original essence.

    Let us make a few conjectures: if WS didn’t write literature, he would have easily written anthropology, laws of social justice, governance with equal dexterity. Would he not have remained the universal icon he represents today? If he did not get the Nobel prize, his ultimate literary validation, would his literary works have amounted to much beyond serving as literary repast for gray-haired academics? For instance, while I read TFA in primary six, I could never grasp The Man Died in class five and I had to give away my copy of The Interpreters during Youth Service because I couldn’t break through it. One thinks that Soyinka effectively started his literary career with his autobiographical Ake, a story of his childhood days. Since then, he had dutifully ensured he brought his high genius down to the pedestal of mere earthlings.

    On the other hand, without literature and the seminal TFA, what would Achebe be? Perhaps another renowned professor among a myriad, teaching contextual African literature and literary criticism across the world. But Achebe’s validation was in his world acclaimed literary prowess. Not getting the Nobel did not diminish him one bit. How many other writers of literature have a singular book which has sold 12 million copies worldwide; a book never out of print and is read in every corner of the globe? It has also been translated into about 50 languages and has been adapted into different forms including business books.

    I wager that the Nobel clan will forever live with the burden of ignoring Achebe and TFA. I have a feeling that as the friendly fire of TFA continues to rage and ‘consume’ the world for a long time yet, I see the Nobel people shamefacedly admitting their error and reconsidering their policy on post-humus awards. TFA would elevate the Nobel.

    Again, what is art?

    Art, in my view, has been what the critics and superior culture determine it to be. Thus Mozart’s work is high art. So is Shubert’s and Beethoven’s? That is what they have trained our minds to accept. Is Osita Osadebey’s work art? What about Sunny Ade and Fela‘s? But if you ask me, beside Achebe and his TFA, the only other cultural and artistic export out of Nigeria and the Black world is Fela and his body of works. In other word, for me, art must have universal appeal for it to be so-called. And before I am accused of mixing pop culture with art, I note that even pop culture could grow to be art. Example: William Shakespeare’s work was pop culture in his days and the likes of Samuel Johnson derided him as a hacker. Today, Shakespeare is the touchstone of literature in English.

    Trouble with TFA

    The trouble with TFA, I dare say, is the trouble with Nigeria. Let us do further conjecturing: what might have been if Wole Soyinka was Chinua Achebe and vice-versa? My guess is that the armada of the boisterous and very active (God bless their souls) Yoruba intelligentsia would have hoisted TFA on their wings of glory and (mark my word), staged it on every street corners of the world. It would have been the recommended standard text of the Yoruba, nay Blackman’s worldview; his history, sociology, anthropology, etc. No grudges there though because enlightened self-interest is the first wisdom.

    The trouble with TFA is the trouble with Nigeria. TFA is the hard copy, the crystallization of the ethnic rivalry between three major nations yoked together under one flag. The trouble with Nigeria is that three peoples; Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa, three great nations are strapped together as one. Their very existence is a pervasive mind-game, a rivalry that will either make or mar them. Imagine England, France and Syria under one flag as a nation! That is Nigeria, a salad of a nation that gets increasing sour and unsavoury by the day.

    But egbe bere, ugo bere, nke si ibeya eberele, nku kwa ya. That remains the Igbo dictum. Let the hawk perch, let the eagle perch (on the iroko), he that seeks to upstage the other, let his wings dislocate. Adieu Chinualumogu, the great ugo flies into the horizon…

  • The insect that heals

    The insect that heals

    It cannot be strange to regular reciters of the Qur’an that there are 114 chapters in that sacred book. Out of these, six chapters are dedicated to the animal kingdom, three of which are specifically dedicated to insects. They are chapters 16, 27 and 29 which are dedicated to ‘The BEE’, ‘The ANT’ and ‘The SPIDER’ respectively.

    Each of these chapters is particularly symbolic of the purpose to which it is dedicated. But it takes only those who can reason to comprehend them. However, our immediate concern here is the insect called ‘BEE’ about which Qur’an 16, verse 68 quoted in this column last week is explicit thus:

    “And your Lord revealed to the bee (saying): Build your homes in the mountains, in the trees and in the hives which men shall make for you. Feed on every kind of fruit and follow the trodden path of your Lord’. “From its belly comes forth a fluid of many hues as healing (fluid) for mankind. Surely in this, there is a sign for those who can reason….”

    Honey is like a message. No one can gain access to a message except through the messenger. And the messenger, in this case, is the bee. To appreciate the value of honey and other bee products, it is necessary to know something about the life of the bees.

    Bees are social insects living a communal life under an organised and disciplined government. Bees have male and female genders. Their males are called drones. Their females are known as workers. They all live together in an abode called hive. Such hive may be wild or man-made. Though people had been harvesting honey for thousands of years, it was not until 1851 that the idea of a definite man-made hive came into existence. In that year, an America apiarist, Lorenzo Lorrain Langstroth, discovered the principle of ‘bee space’ and designed a man-made hive that came to be named after him (Langstroth). According to his discovery, bees leave spaces of about 0.6 cm (about 0.23 inches) between wax combs. Thus, Langstroth’s discovery made it possible to remove individual frames from a beehive and to harvest honey and wax without destroying the colony. It also became possible to control diseases in the hive and to maintain a larger number of colonies. (A colony is a hive effectively occupied by bees while an apiary is a place where hives are sited and kept by an apiarist).

    Man-made hives are of three types. These are Langstroth, Kenyan top bar and Tanzanian top bar. Kenyan and Tanzanian top bars are similar in shape and outlook. The one was designed in Kenya while the other was designed in Tanzania in the 1950s and 1962 early 1960s. Each of the Kenyan and Tanzanian hives can contain an average of 20 litres of honey. Langstroth on the other hand can contain as much as between 38 and 40 litres because of its double chamber capacity. To get the bees to occupy a hive, what apiarists do is to bate such hives. And to bate the hive, some pure, genuine honey is added to a piece of beeswax and put at the entrance of the hive. Once this is done, the bees will come in their hundreds to colonise the hive. Thus, it becomes a colony.

    Bees are governed by a female monarch called ‘the Queen’. To choose a Queen, a group of kingmakers in the hive meet to select some fertilised eggs shortly before those eggs are hatched and give them royal incubation. When they are hatched and become princesses, they are then fed with a special food called Royal Jelly to accelerate their growth and facilitate their longevity. After about 16 weeks, one of them is chosen and made the Queen while the rest are either taken out into new hives as Queens or left altogether to slug it out among themselves in a battle of survival. In such a situation, whichever of them emerges as overall winner retains the crown as the Queen of that particular hive. The other fertilised eggs not specially selected for the same purpose are left to grow naturally until they become worker bees.

    Drones are the male bees produced from unfertilised eggs. They neither sting nor work. They are idle in the hive except for mating with an emerging queen which they do only once in a lifetime. As soon as they finish mating, the drones fall down and die as they have completed their destined duty. The queen also mates only once in a lifetime but she does not die as a result. Drones are very few in any hive since the unfertilised eggs that produce them are scantily laid by the Queen. They constitute less than one per cent of the hive population. The other drones which do not participate in mating only loiter around the hive and feed freely from the labour of the workers. Their population is invariably determined by the Queen which lays very few big and unfertilised eggs from which the drones are produced. The worker bees are produced from smaller but fertilised eggs. Only one Queen can be found in a hive at any given time. And she has no deputy. If two or more Queens should meet in the same hive, they will engage in a fight of survival killing one another until only one (the strongest) is left to reign.

    By the natural culture of the bees, the Queen neither mates inside her own hive nor mated by the drones from the same hive. This is similar to the principle of endogamy (marriage within the same family) which is culturally prohibited in most African clans. When it is time for the Queen bee to mate, she produces a glandular secretion with which she sends out a powerful pheromone into the air to alert the drones in other hives that she is ready for mating. A meeting is then arranged by the worker bees, between her and some interested drones, to mate with the Queen. And the mating is done in the air.

    To breed new bees, the Queen bee lays unfertilised eggs in the larger chambers of the bee comb while she lays fertilised ones in the small chambers of the comb. The eggs in the larger chambers are meant for the production of the drones while those in the smaller chambers are meant for the production of the workers. This is because the drones are naturally bigger in size than the workers. Both chambers are expertly designed in the honeycomb by the worker bees for the purpose of breeding. One of the mysteries of the beehives is the building of the honeycomb by the bees. Researchers in the field of apitherapy know that the bees use wax to build honeycomb but they are still puzzled by the natural skill with which those tiny insects do it. An attempt by those researchers to manufacture similar honeycomb as a means of assisting the bees in reducing their workload has proved abortive as the bees have shunned such artificial comb. Honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal cells built by the honeybees in their nest to contain their larvae and store honey and pollen.

    Worker bees are classified into groups for the purpose of carrying out specific duties assigned to them. Some go out every morning to scout for flower nectars with which to produce honey. Some are assigned to the duty of picking resin with which to produce propolis. Some others are charged with fetching water to be used in the hive. All of them travel out in groups of hundreds into the wild vegetations or plantations every morning as a matter of duty. For carrying out such duties, they are called foragers.

    Among the other multitude others remaining in or around the hive, some are responsible for guarding the hive against any foreign attack or aggression. They are the security officers. Some are assigned to carrying out the conversion to honey of the flower nectars brought into the hive by the foragers. Those are the corporate cooks in the hive. Some engage permanently in fanning the interior of the hive with their tiny wings to reduce the heat and neutralise the humidity therein. Those are the ventilators. Some specialise in converting to propolis the resin brought by the foragers. Those are the pharmacists or apothecaries. Some are assigned to the Queen’s kitchen as special cooks and prepare royal jelly for the Queen which is the latter’s exclusive food. Those are the Queen’s royal chefs. Some are kept at the entrance of the hive for monitoring the environment and for passing any gathered information to the busy workers. Those are the informants. Some are put in charge of nursing the young bees into adults. They are the foster mothers. Some are assigned to the building and maintenance of the honeycomb. Those are the colony architects and builders. Some are assigned to sterilising the interior of the hive with propolis and to ceiling any leakages therein as well as to embalming any predators that stray into the hive after such predators might have been stung to death to prevent any outbreak of epidemic in the hive. Those are the sanitary inspectors. All of these duties are carried out by the female bees called worker bees.

    In the performance of their duties, some foragers do alert others about the discovery of sources of raw materials like nectar and pollen in the visited vegetations by doing a “waggle” dance, which explains the direction and distance of those raw materials. If the source is within the range of 100 meters from the hive, the bees dance in a circular shape. If it is further away than 100 meters, they dance in figure 8 shape. Worker bees, by their nature, do travel very far in search of water or raw materials needed to carry out their assigned duties in the hive. And they follow the principle of ‘esprit de corps’ in carrying out such duties.

    This great division of labour is a daily routine which enables perfection to be attained in the hive. And all these activities are centrally co-ordinated by the Queen bee from her palatial chamber. The Queen bee herself is about three times bigger in size than the worker bee. She lays an average of about 2,000 eggs per day. And she lives about 40 times longer than those other bees because of the exclusive diet of Royal Jelly which she takes every day. The average lifespan of an ordinary bee is six weeks. That of the Queen bee is two and a half years but she can live for as long as six years depending on the conduciveness of her royal environment.

     

    When the Queen bee becomes old or weak and can no longer lay enough eggs (of between 1,500 and 2,000 per day) with which to sustain the population of the hive, the kingmakers in the hive meet and decide to depose her by jointly stinging her to death. Then, she is replaced with a new, vibrant Queen.

    The drones (male bees) cannot sting because they are naturally not endowed to do that by virtue of the infertile eggs from which they are produced. Stinging is part of the duties of the worker bees. And each of them can sting only once in a lifetime. No bee can sting twice. That is why they move in groups when they are going for attack on an enemy. Stinging bees are like suicide bombers. They die in less than 30 minutes after they had stung. However, by virtue of her position and the special food she eats, the Queen can sting many times without any fear of death.

    It must be noted that the bees work and produce honey and other products for themselves and not for human consumption. Honey is the food of the bees. They work during the dry season and never in the rainy season because they cannot cope with the wind and storm which often accompany rains. Thus, during the rainy season, they concentrate on taking care of the Queen and on nursing of the younger bees. Therefore, the food which they had stored during the dry season is what they consume during the raining season. It takes an average bee about 21 days to grow into an adult from the egg status while it takes the Queen about 16 day to develop from the egg status to the royal status of a Queen.

    Bees have as much friendly stinging as they have of hostile stinging. Their friendly stinging is for healing purposes. Their hostile stinging is like missiles reserved for attack on enemies. The natural sac in which their venom is kept at the tail end of their abdomen is called ‘ovipositor’. Bees also have three ways of communicating among themselves. These are through buzzing by the collective clapping of their wings; through pheromone released by the Queen and through certain dancing styles. They have eight of such dancing styles each with comprehensible connotation. The number of honey bees inhabiting a hive at a time may range from 10,000 to 100,000 depending on the size of the hive and its proximity to the needed raw materials.

    The Queen bee mates with about six to eight drones, only once in a lifetime. And this is done over a period of two to seven days. And she must fly to at least a height of 20 metres in the air before mating. This is to maintain royal privacy and avoid unnecessary disturbance. There are about 20,000 species of bees in the world. But the most prominent ones in relation to human life are seven. These are Bumble Bees; Carpenter Bees; Honey Bees; Killer Bees; Ground Bees and Yellow Jackets Bees. Some worker bees are stingless. But generally, the world of bees is a wonderful one. It takes those who know it to appreciate its value. Without bees, there will be neither crops nor farmers. No amount of narration here can expose all about the communal life of the bees. Their story is inexhaustible.

     

    Identifying genuine honey

    Following the publication of an article in this column last Friday entitled ‘The Prophet’s Medicine’, many readers of this column (not less than 401, as of last Tuesday when this piece was being put together), have called yours sincerely or sent messages wanting to know how genuine honey can be recognised. This column has no choice but to oblige since readers, like customers, are kings and queens.

    A genuine honey can be recognized in two simple ways thus:

    (1) By dropping a little quantity of honey in a transparent glass of water. It should ordinarily go straight to the bottom of the water and stay there without mixing with the water. If it mixes, consider it as either debased or not genuine.

    (2) By dropping a little quantity of honey on a small portion of sand (not soil). It should ordinarily stay on top of such sand without sinking. If it sinks then it is not genuine. There are other ways by which genuine honey is tested. But those two ways should suffice for now. The idea that ants do not go near a genuine honey has no basis. Ants will go for anything sweet anywhere. The only reason why ants are careful about honey is its gummy nature. Ants have six legs. If they are not careful about their approach to honey they may get trapped in it. Thus, when the ants want to consume honey, they put only two legs forward and retain the other four backwards to enable escape getting trapped in gummy honey.

    Besides, consummation of honey by human beings has rules and regulations. For instance honey should not be put in any hot substance like tea or pap. Such substance should be allowed to cool down to a warm level before honey can be added to it. Otherwise, one will merely be consuming the fructose in honey and not the vital properties like enzymes in it which are of high benefit to the body system.

    Finally, looking at the communal life of the bees as well as the style of government in the beehive, no sensible person will disagree with an Arab poet who once coined a couplet part of which reads thus:

    “…..And in every creature, there is a natural sign confirming not only the true existence of Allah but also His indisputable oneness”. God bless the readers of ‘THE MESSAGE’.

  • What makes this Friday good?

    What makes this Friday good?

    According to convention, this is a Good Friday. It is also a Holy Friday. And convention is what human beings create and stick to. It is our tradition of doing things and naming events. There is a paradox here.

    From the perspective of the God who ordained the birth and death of Jesus the Christ, whatever He does is good, and that includes the sacrifice of a son. But for us as humans, we tend to see things differently. We would not be humans if we don’t. So, we consider death in whatever form or shape as bad.

    In the particular case of the death of Christ on the cross, it is not only the manner of the death but the intrigue that caused it that was extremely bad and evil. He was wrongly accused of treason and blasphemy. He was maltreated by his accusers. He was mocked. There was a palpable miscarriage of justice. In the midst of it all, he was calm and cool. In that regard, the day on which his unjust killing occurred must be judged a bad day for all intents and purposes—that is, from our human point of view. If it happened to any of us, and we were in a position to pass judgment, we would curse the day it occurred. Therefore, if by convention we have come to recognise the day on which the messiah was crucified as good, there better be a good explanation and justification.

    There is an explanation and, humanly speaking, it is a selfish one. For Christians, the death on the cross is even a happier and merrier occurrence than the birth in the manger because without it, salvation is impossible. Therefore, for the salvation of humans, Christ must die on the cross and resurrect from the grave. The assumed consequence of death on the cross—the salvation of humans—is good. Therefore the means to that consequence is good. Even the elders who prosecuted and judged Christ made the point that it is alright that one should die so that the many may be saved.It is a utilitarian reasoning.

    Let us assume that this is a valid reasoning and there is something good in the death on the cross and therefore this is indeed a Good Friday. Shouldn’t we also expect at least believers in the sacrifice that made possible the salvation of souls follow suit? Shouldn’t the example be a model for leaders and followers at least in Christendom? His was a life of simplicity. His armour was truthfulness. He delivered a message of hope and redemption. He not only empathised with the poor, he also blessed them with sustenance. And while he abhorred sin, he did not reject sinners; he dined with them.

    Two thousand years after the supreme sacrifice of the one we claim to follow, many Christians, including those in the leadership rank of all stripes and collars have only paid lip service to the creed of the messiah. They complicate what is a simple message of love and sacrifice. They are pretenders and impostors who draw crowds of sycophants through means other than Christ. They court satanic powers to attract membership to their congregation and expect the spirit of Christ to fall on them! They sell their halls of worship to the highest bidder and hope that the God who noticed and recognised the widow and her mite is not attentive. And while they condemn corruption from the pulpit, they are not ashamed to receive the bounties that corrupted hands deliver.

    No one preaches or expects perfection. Even the messiah who reflected the perfection of God was humble enough to attribute perfection to God alone. But there is an expectation that spiritual leaders have the responsibility to lead by example and not just by words, in the observance of the teachings of Christ. Instead, in many congregations, the human inclination to division by rank and the promotion of inequality instead of the egalitarian teaching of Christ has been the order. We identify spiritual kinds with some higher than others and the concept of the priesthood of all believers is jettisoned. Christ taught his disciples that he was their only Teacher and they shouldn’t call anyone on earth teacher. He told them that their only Father was in heaven and they shouldn’t call anyone on earth Father. He taught them that whoever was greatest among them shall be their servant. And he demonstrated this by washing their feet.

    Christ lived a simple human life but was not a proud and haughty human. He dined with sinners; he drank wine; he associated with an adulterer without condoning adultery, and he revered the Sabbath day without worshipping it, which was one of the reasons he was rejected by the Pharisees.

    On our part, we have substituted for Christ’s teachings the Big-man philosophy of religion. In this philosophy, what really matters is how big the followership is, and how much power and resources we are able thereby to control. No wonder that even as churches litter the nooks and crannies of our streets, the evils of cultism, kidnapping, and armed robbery are on the rise. Sure, we condemn the evils that eat at the soul of the individual perpetrators without harming others, but we condone those evils that harm others but benefit the perpetrator.

    On this remembrance of an otherwise bad day which by convention we have come to regard as good because we believe that it was the moment our salvation was bought with the blood of the innocent, it behooves all Christians to truly imbibe the teachings of Christ and the lessons of the cross. If we truly believe that He sacrificed his life so we can gain salvation, it is our obligation to make humanly possible sacrifices so the downtrodden, the rejected and forgotten in our midst may live a live that is dignified and decent. It is not the magnificence of a cathedral that matters; it is the spirit of giving that we imbibe in the hearts of men and women that God appreciates.

    If the foregoing sounds like a sermon; it isn’t. It is only a sober thought and reflection on our spiritual heritage in the age of ostentatious spirituality, an oxymoron in itself.