The Nation Newspaper

Tag: american

  • Their American journey

    It is not April; so forget it, this is not an April Fool’s tale. Though it happened in April, the scandal blew open few days ago through the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr James Entwistle. By now, every Nigerian knows about the envoy’s  complaint on the supposed indiscretion of three members of the House of Representatives during a trip to the US for a leadership programme. While taking part in the programme, they were said to have also gone for some extra curricula programme, which the US finds embarrassing.

    A member of the House of Representatives is not just any Nigerian; he is a high ranking member of society who many look up to. As such, a person that we all look up to must conduct himself at all times with decorum. He must not be seen engaging in activities that will bring opprobrium to him and his high office. Being a member of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic, a parliamentarian is a gold fish with no hiding place. What he does or does not do will always attract attention.

    This is why the ambassador’s allegations that these parliamentarians conducted themselves in an unbecoming manner have been generating heat. And I believe that Ambassador Entwistle knows the implications of accusing our lawmakers of ‘’soliciting for prostitutes’’ and ‘’grabbing a housekeeper to solicit for sex’’ before he made them. Is it that there are no more women in Nigeria? Or is it that the Oyinbo woman is sweeter than her black counterpart? The ambassador’s allegations are grave and they can damage the reputation of the affected men. But who are these people at the centre of this sexual scandal?

    Of course, you would have read about them elsewhere by now. They are Mohammed Garba Gololo, Samuel Ikon and Mark Gbillah. From the tone of Entwistle’s letter to Speaker Yakubu Dogara, the matter, it seems, may have been resolved quietly if the lawmakers had shown ‘’remorse’’. The envoy appeared to have been forced by the lawmakers’ lack of contrition to petition Dogara. If the lawmakers had accepted that they acted indiscreetly and apologised, does that mean Mr Ambassador would have kept quiet and swept the matter under the carpet?

    According to his petition, ‘’members of this group reacted very negatively to my deputy when she brought this matter to their attention, further calling into question their judgement and commitment to the goals of the International Visitor Leadership Programme’’. Did the lawmakers do what the ambassador  accused them of doing? Was that why they reacted the way they did when they were confronted by Entwistle’s deputy? My advice to these parliamentarians is that they should bottle their anger. Yes, it may be annoying to be accused of something that one did not do, but who will believe them in this circumstance if instead of addressing the issue, they allow their emotions to rule them?

    Whatever they do, they should bear in mind, the calibre of the person that has made these allegations against them? So, it is his word against theirs. The ambassador alleged that Gololo grabbed a housekeeper in his hotel room and solicited her for sex and also claimed that Gbillah and Ikon requested parking attendants to assist them to solicit for prostitutes. Trust Nigerians, this matter has become topic of discussions in parks, game centres and beer parlours. In the eyes of the public, the lawmakers are guilty as alleged by the ambassador. But in the eyes of the law, they are not because, according to the law, he who alleges must prove. Does the ambassador have proof of the lawmakers’ alleged indiscretions?

    If he has, this is the time to produce the evidence and expose the lawmakers for who they are. But if there is no such proof, we may not be asking for too much to say that he should apologise to the lawmakers for bringing them to public ridicule. But, if  I were Gololo, Ikon and Gbillah, I will do away with legal niceties in order to prove my innocence. I will tell the world my itinerary for the one week – April 7 to 13 – that the leadership programme took place in Cleveland, Ohio, US. Where I was each day of the programme and what I did will be made public to let the world know that the ambassador is trying to, as they say, give a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

    Thank God that the House has taken up the matter. The nation, nay the world, is waiting to see how it will handle the case. The House knows that there can be no cover up because the US is interested in the matter. The country sees what happened as an affront to it and if I know the US well, it will not rest until justice is done. I am not saying that we should sacrifice Gololo, Ikon and Gbillah in order to satisy the US. If they did not commit the alleged indiscretions, their fellow lawmakers should say so and stand by them. But if they did, they must pay for their actions for bringing shame to their fatherland in a foreign land.

    The US may have already passed judgement on them by revoking their visas, but we should not act like that. We should judge them based on the evidence produced by the US. So far, the US’ action is predicated on the fact that it is on sure ground. This is why the lawmakers must do everything possible to repudiate the ambassador’s claims. As stated earlier, it is the ambassador’s word against theirs. People will believe the ambassador more than the lawmakers; so they are fighting from the position of weakness. The only thing that can save them is to produce concrete evidence to counter the envoy’s allegations. Anything short of that, nobody will believe their stories that they did not do it; that is the unfortunate thing.

    I am saying this because I want to give them the benefit of doubt. It is possible that they did not do it and it is not impossible that they did it. The lawmakers have been insisting on their innocence, while the US has stuck to its guns that they were indiscreet. Who is right? Who is wrong? As Dogara tweeted last Sunday, ‘’together with the US Embassy in Nigeria, we (House) will get to the bottom of this matter and until then, let’s not be judgemental’’. The earlier this case is resolved the better for US-Nigeria relations.

  • Super Tuesday and American democracy

    SIR: It is an incontestable fact that America parades the best and most effective presidential democracy in the world. The origin of this democracy began almost with the emergence of United States of America with the declaration of independence in 1776. After the initial challenges associated with nation building, and after a several trials and errors in fashioning out the best political system for the new nation, the continental congress of 12 consenting states agreed to adopt Presidential Democracy. Since then until now, United States political system had endured a lot of political, social and economic thick and thorns. Beginning with the first president, George Washington, the nation had continued to grow and expand in all aspects of nation building.

    As at today, it has had 44 Presidents, endured war of revolution, civil war, several years of segregation against blacks, social inadequacies and major economic down turn and up turns. Yet, the country had continued to absorb and assimilate every social, political and racial upheaval and has grown from strength to strength in its 240 years, it has never had any violent regime change i.e. coup de tat, rather every democratic regime had been through democratic process as outlined in the country’s constitution and its amendments. The kernel of America’s democratic processes lies in the rule of law and the people’s adherence to political process for the election of their presidents and other political offices.

    For example, American presidential election takes place on first Tuesday of every November in every four years. Every presidential election is preceded by what is known as party primaries and caucuses. This is a process through which party presidential candidates are selected. The process sometime is highly complicated but once understood, is smooth and peaceful. In each case, each of the two main political parties: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party conducts its primaries in accordance with the laid down procedures.

    In the past few months, these two political parties have been engaged in their party primaries.  The climax of American party primaries comes up first Tuesday in March of election year known as “Super Tuesday.” It is referred to as a Super Tuesday because it is the only period that a large number of convention delegates are selected. It is a deciding moment for such presidential aspirants to bow out of the race if they have not done fairly reasonable, because Super Tuesday to many aspirants is the most effective acid test as to whether an aspirant should continue the race or not. For example, after the last Super Tuesday primaries, it has become evident that on the Republican Party side, Donald Trump is the front runner while on the Democratic side; Hillary Clinton is the person to beat.

    From the beginning of the party primaries exercises last January, some aspirants have bowed out, including Jeff Bush, the younger brother of a former US President, George W. Walker Bush. In fact, American presidential party primaries must be seen as a gradual elimination process for all the presidential aspirants because this process is spread across the country over about a period of six months. So by the end of the party primaries in June, each of the presidential candidates must have known the prospects of their electability depending on the number of convention delegates each must have garnered.

    It is very different from party conventions in Nigeria where presidential aspirants usually go to conventions with trailer load of currencies and cash with agents to buy convention delegates. We can remember the show of shame in PDP convention at Jos where retired generals acted as purchasing agents to buy delegates for Obasanjo to defeat Ekwueme. That was the beginning of the downfall of today’s downturn in PDP fortune. Therefore, for the party to bounce back, it must adopt free and fair congresses and conventions. There is no alternative to this.

     

    • Dr. Chuks Osuji,

    <researchcom3@gmail.com>

  • American varsity counts blessings at anniversary

    American varsity counts blessings at anniversary

    The American University of Nigeria (AUN) celebrates the tenth anniversary of its Founder’s Day, pointing out its achievements, reports ADEKUNLE YUSUF

    Children from various schools, parents and teachers, students and other invited guests defied the negative news emanating from the state and gathered in the Lamido Aliyu Musdafa Commencement Hall, American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Yola, Adamawa State. It was AUN 10th Annual Founder’s Day and Special Award Ceremony.

    Speaking at the well-attended ceremony, which featured outstanding staff awards, community service award and other honours for outstanding students, AUN President Dr. Margie Ensign declared that the university has weathered many storms in its bid to touch lives of students and the people in the host community. Since October 2004, when the first brick was laid at AUN, the pursuit of quality education in Nigeria and Africa has been growing at a steady pace, she said.

    With the bringing of the best in Africa and the United States together in one location, Dr Ensign added that students from 36 countries in the continent now enjoy a new experience of critical thinking through liberal studies that respect African culture, which is a departure from the colonial system.

    Also, while thanking all those who have contributed in one way or another to the success recorded by the university, AUN founder and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar acknowledged that the journey has been bumpy with numerous challenges. He, however, added that he is relieved that AUN has braved another challenging year.

    “The insurgency in the North-east, which has had devastating effects on thousands of people, tested our resolve – but it also confirmed that we the AUN community can respond to mistrust and cruelty with care and love. Looking ahead, there are still plenty of clouds, but they pale in comparison to the silver lining on the horizon.

    “I ask you to support not just AUN, but education reform. We must persuade federal, state, and local authorities to provide universal, free, and valuable basic education; we must convince lawmakers, teachers, and unions to encourage competition among schools; and we must encourage government and the private sector to give public universities the leeway, and the ways and means to catch up with their international peers.”

    The AUN seized the opportunity to flaunt its record as an eco-friendly university, having constructed an environmentally-friendly office accommodation that is replete with all appurtenances. The special edifice, which now serves as the administrative building, was named after AUN chair of board of trustees Akin Kekere-Ekun. It was commissioned by Abubakar, and witnessed by Kekere-Ekun, AUN BoT member Peter Okocha, and Governor Muhammad Umar Jibrilla of Adamawa State.

    Dr Ensign said the building “answers the urgent need for AUN to consolidate its administration on main campus, in a modern facility, with low operating costs, and with the budget constraints of academic institutions.”

    It will hold over 120 working stations of different types, a 100-person training facility, an open-air formation area, changing rooms with showers, toilets and resting areas for staff.

    Elaborating on the unique features of the building, Alex Cobo, executive director, Projects and Facilities Management at AUN, explained that the steel roof of the building was manufactured on site by local craftsmen, adding that the building also enjoys 52 solar skylights that bring in sunlight so efficiently that no electric lighting is required during the day, besides ample ventilation and insulation to reduce air conditioner needs by 30 per cent. Its open office design saves space, eliminates partitions, promotes collaborative work and accountability, improves operational efficiency, just as its landscaping consumes less water because it is designed to capture rainwater and return it to the groundwater reservoir.

    “This project was developed and supervised by the AUN project team. No outside general contractor was required. This project has relied on the most part on local labor, local vendors and local craftsmen. They have worked day and night; weekends. Together we have all learned how to make a sustainable building. The acoustic panels required to control noise were made by groups of empowered local women who use tailoring scraps. Toilet partitions are made of container cutouts. Our two decorative water fountains at the entrance have been manufactured of container scraps. This building has a special skin. Its skin is made of laterite, prepared the old way, mixed with grass and natural resins, molded by local hands, preserving ancient traditions. It will never need paint. It will never fade. It will breathe.

    “This project uses clay bricks made in AUN, made of local materials, cured in the sun, following local traditions while opening long-term opportunity to local laborers. To enhance our environment, we have brought six baobab trees, the trees of life, which carry many spirits inside, and will protect our colleagues who will work here. 100 per cent of the water it uses is recovered and treated biologically for re-use in irrigation.”

  • American jailed for ‘pinging’ in court

    Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of Federal High Court, Lagos, on Wednesday jailed an American for operating her mobile phone in court.
    Megan Chapman, Co – Executive Director, Community Legal Support Initiative was locked up by the judge at the court’s waiting cell for about 10 minutes, after an angry Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia walked her out.
    The American who was seated at the last bench, directly facing the judge, did not know that Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia was noticing her ‘romance’ with her phone.
    Having asked her to leave the court, Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia directed her support staff to escort the American to the waiting cell, where she stayed for about 20 minutes.
    She later ordered her release following appeals from lawyers in court.
    Confirming the incident, Chapman said she has learnt her lessons, adding that her action was not intentional.
    She said: “I was replying an urgent message. It was not like I intentionally disrespected the court but I have learnt my lessons. I have apologised to the court for my action.
    “The prison officers were kind to and treated me well in the short period I was there.”
    Asked what brought her to court, Chapman said she came in respect of a fundamental rights suit her group filed against the Ojora of Lagos, Chief Abdul Fatai Aromire.
    The case marked FHC/L/CS/346 was instituted by the NGO on behalf of residents of Badia East in Apapa-Iganmu LCDA, who were not parties nor represented in suit LD/443/2002 decided by the Supreme Court.
    The affected residents have allegedly been terrorised and threatened with demolition by Chief Aromire, who they claimed brandishes the Apex Court judgment to extort money from or dispossess them of their lands.
    At the time this reporter left the court, the matter, which was slated for mention, was yet to be called.

  • American rapper Nelly arrested for drug abuse

    American rapper Nelly arrested for drug abuse

    Following the discovery of marijuana and meth in his bus by a Tennessee State Trooper, popular American rapper, Nelly, was arrested for abuse of hard drugs. He was arrested on Saturday morning.

    According to reports, the troopers perceived the smell of marijuana when they stopped the bus and then proceeded to search it. The search uncovered marijuana, meth, as well as multiple handguns. Nelly and one of the other five people in the bus were immediately arrested and taken to the Putnam County Jail.

    In an official statement released by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Securities, Nelly was charged with felony possession of drugs, simple possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

    The bus was occupied by six subjects, one of whom was identified as Nelly, 40, Brian Jones, 44, of St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Jones, a convicted felon, was also in possession of a handgun and was charged accordingly.

  • Indigenous, American firms partner to boost real estate

    Indigenous, American firms partner to boost real estate

    Opportunities for Nigerians to invest in a foreign real estate market has received a boost as 3INVEST,  a real estate firm,  partners an American firm, Houston EB5, to raise capital for Marlowe, a real estate project in Houston.

    Houston EB5, a real estate investment company and promoter of the project, is offering not only the prospect of a good return on investment on the project, but also a chance for a prospective investor to qualify for permanent residency in the United States through the EB-5 programme.

    The project, Marlowe, is planned as a 20-storey, 100 residence contemporary tower, with one, two, and three-bedroom floor plans, and is located in the heart of downtown Houston.

    It provides exquisite living experience within the Houston environment, including sports venues, parks, shopping centres, and restaurants, all situated within less than 200 metres.

    Randall Davis, a Houston Luxury Condominium Developer and his partner in Houston EB5, Mexico City native and Houston entrepreneur Roberto Contreras, who are  involved in a similar construction project, Astoria, are upbeat about Marlowe, insisting that given its ideal location, it will provide the very best living experience.

    The deal with 3INVEST may not have come as a surprise. This is because foreign investors have to, a large extent, influenced similar projects. For instance, in 2010, Houston EB5 embarked on a programme targeting wealthy foreigners to fund their real estate projects – a $70 million residential tower in Houston Galleria area called “Astoria” and also a $48 million, eight-story, 240-unit apartment building in the heart of Downtown Houston called Block 384. The raise for Astoria was completed with $30million from EB5 investors and the raise for Block 384 with $12million.

    “Astoria was really made possible, thanks to the help of foreign investors, and we are steadfast on continuing to build and strengthen our relationships with investors abroad,” said Contreras, adding that the firm’s continued accomplishments overseas are a testament to the opportunities the EB5 programme provides. He further said that expanding their investor reach in Nigeria as well as other African countries if a priority for the firm.

    The Managing Director of Houston EB5 Regional Centre, Acho Azuike, said the firm plans to attract more investors from Nigeria for its future projects because of the huge involvement of Nigerians in EB5’s past development projects. “Nigerians are familiar with the Houston area already and we now have a track record of success because of our Astoria and Block 384 projects,” Azuike explained.

    He assured investors in the Houston EB5’s Marlowe project of a more reliable and timely return on their investment, given that real estate investments remain much safer in nature than typical business investments, a trend buoyed by Houston’s strong economic environment. And like previous Houston EB5 projects, Marlowe has received great support from the City of Houston. A “TEA” designation has been assigned to the project, lowering the minimum investment amount to $500,000 as opposed to $1 million.

    The EB5 investment programme is administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Department of Homeland Security. It allows investors who make a qualified investment to fast track permanent legal residency in the US for themselves and their immediate family without the usual roadblocks or red tape associated with the immigration process.

  • American midterm elections, 2014: two-thirds standing beside one-third in the shadow of big capital

    American midterm elections, 2014: two-thirds standing beside one-third in the shadow of big capital

    Where one thing stands, another thing will stand beside it.
    Chinua Achebe, “The Truth of Fiction”

    Come and see, American wonder, come and see American wonder!/Come and see American wonder, come and see American wonder!
    The single, repeated line of a magicians’ song from my childhood

    A big tidal wave, a tsunami, a landslide, a complete and unmitigated rout: these are some of the metaphors or terms that have been applied to the defeat of the Democratic Party by the Republicans in the just concluded American midterm elections of 2014. The defeat is so thorough, so crushing that you have to go back to almost a half century to see something close to it in modern American political and electoral history. The Republicans not only expanded their control of the House of Representatives and regained control of the Senate, they did so by taking seven senatorial seats away from the Democrats, four of those in so-called “purple or swing states” that had voted for Barrack Obama in the presidential elections of 2012. Moreover, in local and state elections around the country, the Republicans wrested control of governorships from states like Maryland and Massachusetts that are some of the “bluest” states in America where “blue” means heavily Democrat, red means heavily Republican and “purple” means a swing state that could vote Democratic or Republican depending on how successful the party which wins such state is in winning voters away from the other party.

    As a matter of fact, the thorough defeat of the Democrats was compounded by the fact that many legislatures throughout the length and breadth of the American hinterland are now controlled by the Republicans. This means that with their expanded control of the machinery of local politics and administration across the country, the Republicans can, and will almost certainly, tinker with existing state and local laws so as to redraw the electoral map of the country to tilt things in their favor in future local, state, federal and presidential elections. There is not the slightest doubt about it: this week the Democrats, with their far more progressive positions on internal American and global affairs than the Republicans, suffered an electoral rout greater than any defeat they had experienced in recent memory.

    With regard to my own emotions as I sat watching television coverage of the elections on Tuesday night, two things stood out above all others in mind. One: I recalled the famous, tongue-in-cheek observation of the contemporary German philosopher, Jürgen Habermas, that because of America’s significance for the rest of the world, all other countries on the planet ought to be able to vote in one way or another in American elections. Two: because as I watched and listened to the tidal wave of the rout of the Democrats I did so as a person from the Third World, a person who divides his time between Cambridge, Massachusetts and Ibadan, Nigeria, I was able to see a silver lining of progressive, liberal trends in the dark and ominous clouds of the Republicans’ conservative electoral victory that I imagine most Americans are probably not predisposed to perceive. These two observations lie at the root of my reflections in this piece.

    First of all, let me highlight a few of indications of progressive undercurrents in what otherwise looks like a massive endorsement of the Republicans’ conservative politics and policies in the 2014 midterms. Some of these are in fact very pertinent to the state of affairs in the rest of the world, especially in our country and our continent. In this respect, perhaps the single most remarkable feature of these recent American midterm elections is the fact that everywhere in the country in which it was contested as a ballot initiative, an increase in mandatory minimum wage won by huge majorities. This victory for instituting a mandatory minimum wage was all the more remarkable in that it took place in even the “reddest” and most conservative states in the country. This rousing electoral victory for poor and average American working families should be seen against the background of the fact that – again in every part of the country – exit polls of voters indicated that most Americans believe that the American economy is massively rigged to favor the super-rich that constitute less than 2% of the population.

    To readers who might think that I am placing so much emphasis on these “hidden” aspects of the 2014 midterm American elections only because I tend to see “talakawas” in every part of the world, my response is that if Americans, since the economic crash of 2008, have been speaking of an ever-widening gap between the few super-rich and the rest of the populace, I can only concur with them, based in part on the evidence of what I see with my own eyes and what I read in mainstream American news media. In this respect, one particularly pertinent thing that I read in virtually all the major news outlets in America is the fact that while these recent elections are by far the costliest in American electoral history, it so happens that these elections also recorded the lowest voter turnout in recent memory. Here are the specifics: the total amount spent was around $3.7 billion and it was financed by 0.2% of America’s population of 316 million; the percentage of registered voters that participated in the elections was about 34%. This is a staggering feature of American democracy at the present moment: electoral victories are being “bought” by lesser and lesser percentages of the population; but this is happening because voter apathy is getting higher and higher. This is why, in his first post-election press conference, Barrack Obama stated that he clearly hears both the verdict of the one-third who did vote in the elections and the verdict of the two-thirds of the electorate who did not vote.

    It is instructive to compare the voter turnout figure of 34% in these recent American midterm elections with the figure of close to 85% of registered voters that participated in the referendum on Scotland’s continued membership of the United Kingdom in September. In our own part of the world, the Ekiti State governorship election recorded voter apathy of immense proportions last April. Thus, voter apathy is not a constant and invariant aspect of 21st century democracy in our world. In the first epigraph to this essay, I make an allusion to one of my favorite aphorisms from Chinua Achebe’s writings: where one thing stands, another thing will stand beside it. I must add here that I have never thought that Achebe intended in that adage for us to think that the thing that stands beside another thing does so complacently, lost in confusion or perplexity. Rather, in nature and society, one thing stands beside another as a corrective, an alternative, an indication other choices and directions. The tidal wave of Republican victory in the 2014 midterm elections will be repeated only if the two-thirds continue to stand lamely and ineffectually beside the one-third that is bought and tied up by big capital. American domestic affairs are remarkably similar to the domestic affairs of most of the nations of the planet precisely because in most of the regions and nations of the planet, nearly everyone is in the shadow of big capital. What sets America apart from most of the rest of the world is the fact that its foreign interests and affairs are unlike the foreign affairs and interests of most of the other nations of the world. The Republicans know this and know it well; and they exploit this knowledge to the fullest extent possible. One of the most notable aspects of Obama’s presidency has been the attempt to align and bring closer together American domestic and foreign affairs and interests. He and the Democrats will never succeed in this attempt unless and until they make the idle and complacent two-thirds struggle powerfully against the bought and delivered one-third of the American electorate.

    An atheist obsessed with preaching the gospel of the non-existence of God

    When, about four and half decades ago I stopped being a Christian and a religionist, one of the things I decided was that I would never seriously concern myself with questions concerning the existence and non-existence of God. This decision was at first rather subconscious; when people tried to draw me into discussion of the issue, I would simply avoid it without any comment. But by the time that I entered into my forties, the decision became something of a guiding ethical principle of my mental and psychic life. As a consequence, I made a solemn promise to myself that as far as religious beliefs and practices were concerned, I would never strive to change any person’s belief in the existence of God and neither would I make it my business to shore up any person’s unbelief in God’s existence. The issues involved in this resolution are very complex and perhaps in future essays in this column, I may take them up.

    I make this observation against the background of a response to the recent series in this column on “religion and science, faith and rationality” from one Gilbert Alabi Diche that was titled “Jeyifo, religion and science” and was published last Sunday in this paper on page 15. Before sending this response to the Editor of The Nation on Sunday for publication, Mr. Diche had sent me two long emails in which he argued passionately that I was being too soft, too accommodating to religion in my series. In particular, Mr. Diche argued in his emails to me that I should have kept belief in God completely out of and separate from science and the scientific ethos. In my one response to his two emails, I told Mr. Diche that I had no interest whatsoever in being drawn into the controversy over the existence or non-existence of God. I went further to inform him that the essential difference for me between human beings was not whether one believed or did not believe in God; the essential difference was between those who used either their belief or unbelief in the service of the human community or against the public good.

    Apparently, Mr. Diche was not satisfied with my response to his private emails to me and for this reason, he went public and had his rejoinder published last week. Fair enough; that is his right. But he has no right to completely and willfully distort the things I had stated in my series. As a matter of fact, it is extremely damaging to his arguments to resort to deliberate distortions and fabrications of the things I had stated in my series, things that can be very easily shown to be deliberate inventions or fabrications. In most of these fabrications, parts of sentences from diverse parts of the series are brought together through ellipsis to make new sentences or assertions that were not there in my series. The most egregious of these can be found where Mr. Diche writes in his rejoinder last Sunday: “Jeyifo also claims that ‘All Nobel laureates in the sciences … also believe in God’. This is a blatant lie”. This is simply beyond belief because there is no such sentence in any of the three articles in my series on religion and science. As I ponder the reason why Mr. Diche HAD to invent this and other fabrications in his rejoinder, I wonder whether or not he has not metamorphosed into the thing about religion that he so passionately opposes: the human transmitter of the gospel of an avatar that has taken complete control of his rationality, this being the deity of unbelief in the existence of God.

     

    Biodun Jeyifo

    bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu

  • Firm unveils American wines

    A FIRM American Wine Depot Limited has unveiled some quality wines manufactured by Bronco Wine Company, California, United States in Lagos.

    The wines include a brand range of Coastal Ridge Hill and Douglas Hill. The former are Cabernet Sauvignon (red), Melot (red), white Zinfandel (Rose) and Riesling (white). The latter are Cabernet Sauvignon(red), Shiraz (red), Chardonnay (white) and Sparkling wine Brut (champagne).

    According to the firm’s Managing Director, Kayode Olomada, ‘’Customers demand over the years for high quality American wine has been on the rise and American Wine Depot Limited is positioned to satisfy this need.”

    He said the wines are good for health, relaxation and refreshment.

    He said the wines, which are sold in 65 countries, are specially produced for high class hotels, shops/stores and not just for across the counter sale.

    He said: ‘’Bronco Wine Company has become a major wine source to the California wine industry and is recognised as the fourth largest winery in the United States. Its quest for quality begins with vineyard development and continues to grow into areas, such as premium bulk wine contracts, research and development, brand development, marketing and distribution.’’

    Olomada said there were plans to start the production of the wines in Nigeria in two years to create employment for Nigerians.

    At the activation were the Commercial Attachee, United States’ Mission to Nigeria, Janelle Santerre Weyek, who described the wines as good. She said taking the wine made her feel at home, noting that they are one of her favourites. She also said it is the responsibility of her office to ensure that Nigeriansd have a good business relationship with Americans

  • IBBU, American agency train mental health facilitators

    Concerned by the increasing rate of depression and suicide attempts among youths, the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University  (IBBU), Lapai, in collaboration with an American-based National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), has commenced the training of mental health facilitators.

    The Vice-Chancellor of the university Prof Ibrahim Adamu Kolo on Monday said insecurity and other socio-economic challenges in the country have heightened the number of depression casualties, hence the need to train mental health facilitators in the country.

    He stated that the training of mental health facilitators which was the first of its kind in West Africa would attempt to solve mental problems through counseling.

    Kolo lamented the dearth of experts in the country explaining for the high rate of people who indulged in suicide activities.

    The case, Kolo stressed, has been worsened by lack of specialists in Mental Health as well as training facilitator that will handle depressions associated with various occurrences being witnessed daily in the country.

    Kolo hinted that two universities and IBBU were chosen from Nigeria for the training of the facilitators but others have not shown sufficient interest, hence the choice of IBBU by the American base agency.

    He said participants were drawn among professionals, including counsellors, disaster and risk managers from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA),

    The guest speaker Dr.  Charles Igwuegbulam, said statistics have shown that there are 150 million people with one form of mental health problems across the world with most of them from developing nations.

  • AMAZING – How Americans now crave Yoruba language

    AMAZING – How Americans now crave Yoruba language

    The language is studied in 47 American varsities, says UI don

    While there is no incentive for the promotion of Yoruba language and more and more native speakers of the language are losing their native tongues, American government and its citizens are ironically spending huge resources and time to gain both fluency and immersion in the languages and cultures which the natives are ditching. Assistant Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF reports.

    IT was early in the day, but the young lads were already thirsty to sip from an array of the menu that formed the business of the day. From the exultant mood boldly etched on their faces, it is obvious that they had all kept the date jealously in their diaries. They were all tenth graders, drawn from public schools in Dane Country, Madison, Wisconsin, United States (US), all eager to gain from a week-long event to make them more knowledgeable about other cultures. That was July 28, 2011, and the event, a yearly ritual, was to let students have a sip of the languages, foods and cultures of the Yoruba, Swahili, Chinese, French and Russian. This reporter, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) at the time, who was recruited to lead the enthusiastic teenagers on a walk through the fringes of Yoruba cultural mores and folklores, was filled with amazement by the time the curtain was drawn, as these American kids were happily reciting some Yoruba folkloric songs, which some of them recorded to enrich their mementoes.

    The above event is not by happenstance. Every summer, it is the ritual for the Language Institute at the UW-Madison to assemble some select American pupils with the aim of introducing them to other cultures and concomitant educational utility therein. Although the essence of the weeklong summer carnival is to catch them young as far as deepening the interest of impressionable Americans in cultures and languages from other climes is concerned, at more formal levels, there are plans specifically designed to give impetus to students who wish to further explore their curiosity in the study of African languages, especially Yoruba.

    Luckily, many of those pupils who have sipped from the summer initiative do later move up in life to enroll in undergraduate programmes in universities in the states and its environs. Thanks to the requirement that makes every American college undergraduate to gain proficiency in at least one international language (second language) before being certified worthy in learning and character; there exists a cooperative agreement between the University of Ibadan (UI), Oyo State, and the American Council for International Education (ACIE), Washington DC, US. Enacted in 2009, the agreement is planned to give fillip to the desire of American students who wish to pursue their interest in other cultures another notch, especially in Yoruba language and culture. And the product of that agreement is the Yoruba Language Flagship Programme (YLFP), which gave birth to the Yoruba Language Centre (YLC), operating since 2010 as a non-degree awarding unit at the University of Ibadan.

    So, every year, American students travel down to the University of Ibadan for immersion in Yoruba language and culture, made possible by the exchange programme.

    Essentially, the YLC renders services in Yoruba language acquisition and capacity building, among other things. It achieves this by running a specialised summer, semester, and academic programme of study in Yoruba language and culture for both undergraduate and graduate students from American universities, training them in Yoruba from the novice to superior level of proficiency, with emphasis on interpersonal communication skills- speaking, reading, listening and writing. That is where the good tiding lies; for some of YLC’s alumni, after gaining proficiency in Yoruba language, are now literally stealing headlines anywhere they go. Kevin Barry, otherwise known as Kayode Oyinbo, is one of such new enthusiasts of Yoruba language and culture. So is Cara Harshman, known as Titilayo Oyinbo.

    The duet, who derive their Nigerian nicknames because of their uncanny ability to speak the Yoruba language without code-switching, are so proficient and fluent in Yoruba that a conversation with any of them is bound to leave many a native speaker green with envy. And all the immersion in the language is through their participation in the exchange programme at the University of Ibadan in 2010, aided of course, by previous course offering in the language at the U-Madison, their alma mater.

    Currently, 10 students from first-rate American universities are completing the Yoruba studies at the University of Ibadan. But of the five Americans that benefited from the exchange programme when it started three years ago, Kayode, who plays the African talking drum and bata, has become a Yoruba language ambassador who is enjoying a rising profile, having visited Nigeria a number of times since then. On June 19 this year, Kayode took members of the Lagos State House of Assembly and guests by surprise when he addressed them in undiluted Yoruba, urging them to ensure that legislative business is conducted in Yoruba, not English.

    Anytime the young American jets into the country, he hobnobs with Nigerian celebrities and top-notch politicians. Recently, he played one of the lead roles in You or I, a film by ace actor and producer Saidi Balogun film, which takes a look at marriage from the perspectives of what makes or mars it. The cast of You or I is entirely Caucasian, with the exception of Balogun. Aside Barry (Kayode), other Caucasians in the film are Elizabeth Croydon and Shira Oyive.

    Like Kayode, Titilayo is another passionate Yoruba language enthusiast. Anytime any opportunity presents itself, she encourages native speakers not to ditch their language. In her productions, some of which are posted on YouTube, she constantly uses her journalistic skill to condemn the code-switching that has become the order of the day among Yoruba native speakers who live in the city.

    Titilayo, in an article entitled ‘The beginning of the end’, said: “As the fateful day the Oyinbos will leave Nigeria draws nearer and nearer, the number of send forth parties gets higher and higher. Our Yoruba Flagship Center hosted a party for us on Wednesday. The party was a typical Yoruba function with a high table with distinguished guests, lots of prayers and people who spoke on forever about the importance of speaking Yoruba. Kayode and I gave short speeches in Yoruba and the five of us even sang a song that went : O digba, O dabo; Ki Olorin sho pade o; Ka rira pe layo; Ka maa ma sunkun ara wa.

    “An incredible cultural troupe from Ibadan performed astonishing bata dances and Kayode joined in with his own Yoruba drums. People told us a local television station broadcast the party on TV but unfortunately-like all of my prior television appearances here- I never catch them.

    “The send forth parties still continue in a non-formal setting with us and our Nigerian friends. Saying goodbye is a long process here because I am bombarded with questions from random people such as: ‘Will you take me back to your country with you?’ ‘When are you coming back?’ The prior question I get almost everyday. I have started giving responses like ‘No, because I am not a customs official and cannot give you a visa,’ or ‘I can take you if you can fit in my luggage.’ And to the latter question, I simply say ‘Mi i ni pe’/‘I will not be long’.”

    Another Occidental boost for Yoruba language is from the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Through an initiative called Foreign Language Teaching Assistants, young speakers of Yoruba and Hausa languages who have educational background in English or language arts are recruited as teaching assistants to teach their languages and cultures to American students in the US universities and colleges. Olugboyega Adebanjo, lead translator, XML Language Services Limited, says this is a testimony to the immense value of Nigerian languages as veritable export commodities.

    “If there are no Nigerian goods to be exported, and there are no Nigerian innovations to sell to the world, our languages and cultures can be our economic exchange with the Occident and the Orient,” he added.

    Over the years, scores of young but talented Nigerians have used this scheme as springboard for greater educational achievements, serving as teaching assistants and all the concomitant benefits of tuition waiver and so on that come with it to climb higher education ladders.

    One of them is Kazeem Kehinde Sanuth, who left Nigeria some years ago to teach Yoruba language and culture. Now a doctoral student in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) at the UW-Madison, Kazeem still teaches Yoruba every summer at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Asked about the prospects awaiting the Yoruba language, he enthuses that the sky is not even the limit, adding that Americans will always value the richness and cultural values imbued in the language.

    Besides recruiting young minds to teach the language, Yoruba, among over 2,000 African languages, is one of the most widely learnt as a second language in Europe and America. The long list of top American universities and colleges that run ambitious, full-fledged programme in Yoruba language and culture include: Harvard University, Stanford University, Cornel University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Massachusetts, Indiana University in Bloomington, Ohio State University, Michigan State University, Ohio University, University of California at Berkeley, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Florida, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Howard University, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, among others.

    Ironically, as Yoruba language is winning converts in droves abroad, its native speakers are fast ditching it. As if speaking in mother tongue is a plague that needs to be avoided, many parents have stopped talking to their children and wards in their mother tongue, ignorantly believing that it is both primitive and uncivilised for their children not to be able to speak good English, thus allowing the language to rank in the category of endangered languages compiled by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). And going by the findings of a survey conducted two years ago in Nigeria’s six geo-political zones by a team of linguists led by Prof. Ahmed Amfani, more and more Nigerian parents are not handing over their languages to their children, for an average of 25 percent of Nigerian children of nursery and primary school ages do not speak their parents’ languages.

    To worsen the situation, a recent directive from the National Education Research Council (NERC) is like an arrow that further pierced into the heart of indigenous languages, including Yoruba. In 2012, NERC, citing the need to drastically reduce the number of subjects students offer, ruled that indigenous languages should be removed from the list of compulsory subjects offered at the secondary school level. This, says Prof. Akinwumi Isola, poses a serious challenge for the continued survival of the mother tongue in the Nigerian schools.

    Does the trend signal the near demise of Yoruba language? Not all experts share such pessimism. While insisting that Yoruba language will not die, Prof. Kola Owolabi of the University of Ibadan concludes that the language will only relocate abroad.

    “Let us analyse the way the language is being taught and learnt in Nigeria and United States. I was told reliably that American universities studying Yoruba are up to 47. Now let us come to Yoruba land. How many federal institutions in Yoruba land are studying Yoruba as a subject? And if they are studying Yoruba as a subject, how many students do they have there? How many private universities in Yoruba land are studying Yoruba as a subject? So, you can see that the language is getting relocated to that place, whereas people here don’t pay attention to it at all. Yoruba language is dying daily because everybody is learning how to speak English. People abroad are concentrating on how to speak your language for you. So, the language will not die. In the next 50 to 100 years, those who speak the language natively will have gone, may be it may be limited to the countryside. By that time, Yoruba language will have been so entrenched in the US such that in 50 to 100 years’ time, it will have become a household study there,” he said.

    Sadly, the import of this trend is that Americans will have gained so much fluency and mastery of Yoruba language that they will not just be communicating in it, they will also be sending experts to train and teach the natives what is supposedly their mother tongue!