Wednesday, November 30, 2011

USA Africa Dialogue Series - Getting to Zero: Let humanity march on against HIV/AIDS

Getting to Zero: Let humanity march on against HIV/AIDS

KAYODE KETEFE

Today, December 1st 2011, is a World AIDS Day. December 1st of every year is a date set apart by the World AIDS Campaign's Global Steering Committee in collaboration with United Nations to mark the march of humanity against the most dreaded and vicious diseases ever-recorded in the annals of man. Between 1981 when first cases of AIDS were first recorded and 2011, an estimated 40 million people, including a large percentage of children have succumbed to terrifying onslaught of AIDS worldwide.

The term "Getting to Zero" is the motto chosen to guide the vision of the global crusade against the scourge of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome from this year till 2015. The first motto chosen in 1988 when the first World AIDS Day was celebrated was "Communication" which underlines the imperative to spread the knowledge with a view to stemming the tide of the pandemic.

The campaign has since been sustained on various inter-related themes and this year, the WAD GS Committee flags off "Getting to Zero" campaign which runs till 2015.  This campaign means efforts would be geared globally towards ensuring there is Zero New HIV Infections, Zero Discrimination and Zero AIDS Related Deaths.

Since 1988, diverse activities in the forms of lectures, symposia and other forms of public enlightenment campaign have been held on World AIDS Day. The day also has also been witnessing memorials in honour of those who died of AIDS amidst other activities. 

Sadly, there has not been much progress made in our local parlance.

In Nigeria today, the proliferation of drug abuse, sexually-transmitted diseases, teenage pregnancy, booming sex trade, human trafficking, and poverty have collectively combined to check the momentum of the campaign.  Our society still reeks with ignorance; with level of awareness abysmally low.

What is meant by the level of awareness is not simply whether or not people have heard about HIV/AIDS, yes almost everybody has heard about it, but not many  have "informed awareness' on the matter. For example we have many people who still believe AIDS can be cured by drinking "prayer water" or chanting of incantation!

At national level, our fight against the scourge has not been systematic; the AIDS concerns have not been built into governmental decision making processes. There is no well-concerted national crusade to comprehensively tackle the menace on all fronts, thus, the sadistic virus keeps baring its lethal fang with terrifying consequences.

Furthermore, the callous culture of discrimination against the carriers has shown no sign of abatement. How many Nigerians have access to adequate HIV prevention, treatment, care and support?

Within the framework of the global theme, the professed focus for Nigeria this year is "Prevention of mother to child transmission" but illiteracy and poverty have hampered the optimal pursuit of this objective. 

To make the matter worse, our foreign partners are getting discouraged to synergize with us. Only recently, an international financing institution which donates fund globally to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, Global Funds, threaten to blacklist Nigeria by "suspending" or "terminating" any further aids to the country.

The reason was the alleged fraud involving some Nigerian non-governmental organisations to which the Global Funds had dispensed to a large projects funds. The Office of the Inspector General of Global Funds claimed to have discovered the fraud in a recent audit of 15 grants totalling US$474,519,260 disbursed between 2003 and 2009, which was meant to be employed in saving lives of innocent Nigerians.

The organisations that were allegedly involved in the fraudulent diversion of the funds ironically included the National Action Committee on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NACA) despite its vaunted Comprehensive National Strategic Framework on AIDS! 

Against NACA, the report states, "The National Action Committee on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria incurred extra-budgetary expenditures of $71,000 in addition to $679,000 as unretired expenditures"

The remaining organisations indicted are Yakubu Gowon Centre for International Co-operation, the Society for Family Health (SFH), the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), the Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH), the Christian Health Association of Nigeria (CHAN) and the CHAN-MEDIPHARM.

(A fuller report of the scandal involving these NGOs had been published in the Insight in the National Mirror newspaper of October 27, 2011)

Given the above scandal that seems to discredit both the private sector and government initiatives in fighting the global scourge, it is obvious that Nigeria does not only need to contend with AIDS virus, we need to fight the corruption virus as well. Should we allow the malevolent corruption virus to continue making alliance with the intractable AIDS virus to unleash the misanthropic holocaust on the nation? How sad that what is getting to Zero here is not AIDS, but the ethics of integrity, honesty and due process!

Be that as it may, let our people commemorate this special day with the rest of the world in synergetic rise against our common pathological enemy. Let us continue in the battle by propagating the informed awareness against AIDS; let us put on the red ribbon which is the symbol of solidarity with those living with AIDS -Let us unite to spread the message and not the virus!

 

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USA Africa Dialogue Series - 200$ for a prison poem

I was arrested for my lore
I was prosecutted for my Authorship
Jailed battered for my Naija land

This was not in my fictious mind
Nor is it the post Okigbo syndrom
I really was battered for a poem
Come to my page and hear the ill

You need to hear my story
I need to sponsor the book
Send me two hundred dollars
And I will tell you my Naija ills

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.

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Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Haba Professor Pius(PP)

Thanks for this brother Ken...a lot of information young writers like me need to learn from...I currently work at +basanjo University so his act with Idril is needed on what am composing on him. Ken you really goes to a large extent to reply Chidi much more like a dad to a son. I pray he understand. Peace
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile.

From: Kennedy Emetulu <kemetulu@yahoo.co.uk>
Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:28:29 +0000 (GMT)
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Haba Professor Pius(PP)

 
 
 
Chidi,
 
Your skills at misrepresentation is noted, but you of all people ought to know that you wouldn't be going anywhere with that with me. Here is a place of record and I have never and won't hesitate to push your words under your nose where necessary. In your case, it is necessary and I have done so. Indeed, I am now going to do so again, so you are clear about the futility and ill-advisedness of your present endeavours.
 
 
"This is getting more interesting. I talked about persecutions suffered by Hubert Ogunde and Eedris Abdulkarim because of what they said in their play and music, Kennedy "corrected" me that there were no persecutions, only that the play and music in question were banned(as if that is not persecution)." - Chidi
 
Your statement above is untrue, because not only that I didn't say there were no persecutions, my correction was based on your supposed correction of Pius. It is therefore important to revisit what Pius said and your supposed correction. This is what Pius said:
 
"..........No Nigerian writer has ever been persecuted because of a novel or a poem or any such thing. Not even Ken Saro Wiwa or Wole Soyinka have that history. Writers have been persecuted by the Nigerian state because of their political praxis. Never because of literature". – Pius
 
It's obvious from the above that Pius is talking strictly of writers and literature, but you took the liberty to extend it to artistes and neither Pius nor I took issue with that. But then, I took issue with what you said exactly as part of your effort at 'correcting' Pius in relation to the issue. First, here is exactly what you said about Ogunde:
 
Late Hubert Ogunde was severely persecuted in the early 1960s by the Tafawa Balewa and Akintola federal and regional governments for what he said in the play "Yoruba Ronu"Chidi (emphasis mine)
 
And here is what I said by way of correction:
 
"Yes, Ogunde's Yoruba Ronu was banned in Western Nigeria only for sometime, but it had great success elsewhere around the country. Ogunde was never arrested or interrogated. Whatever you call persecution was no more than that ban and it had nothing to do with the Tafawa Balewa government, even though we all know that the Akintola government in the West was in alliance with Balewa's party. If you have other facts to support your claim of him being persecuted in anyway apart from his play being banned in the West, let's have these".
 
So, I corrected you by pointing out the fact that there was no case of Ogunde being "severely persecuted". Banning his play for a short time in one part of the country is not severe persecution. In the context of our discussion as per Abani, Ogunde was not touched – he was not arrested, interrogated, hounded, imprisoned or inconvenienced in any way. You mentioned that Tafawa Belewa's government was part of those who "severely persecuted" him and again, I made clear from facts that he was never a subject of persecution by Balewa's government, neither was the ban on his play extended nationally where the Balewa government had jurisdiction. Finally, if we are to adopt Ogunde as a 'writer', even if not strictly in line with what Pius said, we again justify what Pius said, which is that no writer (in this case we include Ogunde for your convenience) has ever been persecuted because of a novel or poem or any such thing, but only for their political praxis. Ogunde's Yoruba Ronu was his intervention in the Western Regional Elections and the politics of the time (political praxis), which is exactly what Pius was talking about. So, my brother, the bare facts show that you were wrong and Pius was right, even if we extend the meaning of "writers" to cover Ogunde or the term "literature" to cover his work.
 
On Eedris Abdulkarim, this is what you said about him (again in supposed attempt to correct Pius, even though Pius's statement wasn't referring to people like him, as he wasn't referring to people like Ogunde – notwithstanding that he impliedly gave you the latitude to include them):
 
"Eedris Abdulkarim, a Nigerian contemporary musician complained of severe persecutions during the Obasanjo civil regime for what he sang in the music " Nigeria Jaga Jaga"".- Chidi (emphasis mine)
 
And, again, here is what I said by way of correction:
 
"I have met Eedris and had time to talk about what you are referring to above which was no more than Obasanjo taking umbrage at his description of Nigeria as "Jaga Jaja". In typical Obasanjo fashion, he abused Idris and said "Your papa and mama na him be jaga-jaga". Obasanjo banned the song on radio, but it was still being played in nightclubs. But it all ended comically. Obasanjo himself invited Eedris to play in the Tsunami Concert in Aso Rock and there was the rib-cracking story of Eedris asking one of his dancers, a midget called "One Kilo" to slap Obasanjo. The latter ended up only dragging Obasanjo's agbada and Eedris, having confirmed his 'courage' gave him full employment with his La Creme Records".
 
So, I corrected you by pointing out the fact that there was no case of Eedris complaining of "severe persecutions", because there was none. Banning his play for a short time on radio (which was effectively ineffectual) is not severe persecution. In the context of our discussion as per Abani, Eedris was not touched – he was not arrested, interrogated, hounded, imprisoned or inconvenienced in any way. Finally, if we are to adopt him as a 'writer', even if not strictly in line with what Pius said, we again would be justifying what he said, which is that no writer (in this case we include Eedris for your convenience) has ever been persecuted because of a novel or poem or any such thing, but only for their political praxis. Eedris's Nigeria Jaga Jaga was his intervention in the 2003 elections and a criticism of corruption and bad governance by the Obasanjo's government (political praxis), which is exactly what Pius was talking about. So, again, my brother, the bare facts show that you were wrong and Pius was right, even if we extend the meaning of "writers" to cover Eedris or the term "literature" to cover his work.
 
 
"He also revealed that the then President Obasanjo cursed Eedris in public because of the music. Kennedy, if a Nigerian leader show anger towards you in the presence of aides, security, contractors, hangers-on(thugs), captains of industries, etc, that is the mother of persecutions. Do you think any big organization in Nigeria would want to engage a musician who is known to be in the bad book of the President?" - Chidi
 
Here you are obviously scraping the barrel. Persecution is an active thing. In the context of our discussion about Chris Abani's conduct, a mere ban of an album or track does not register as equivalence. More crucially, the Head of State merely voicing disagreement with the content of a musician's song does not qualify as persecution until he deploys the instruments of state to physically antagonize such a musician. Obasanjo didn't. Instead, the controversy shot Eedris to the top of the charts, increased business for him and Obasanjo further 'rewarded' him by inviting him personally to perform in Aso Rock. That did not stop Eedris from robustly responding to the President's criticisms in his Letter to Mr President or paying a tribute to Obasanjo's wife, Stella on her death. There is nothing indicating that Eedris complained of "severe persecutions" neither did Obasanjo's subsequent actions indicate that.
 
 
"I also talked about Achebe arrested and interrogated because of what he wrote in his novel, again Kennedy "corrected" that Achebe went into hiding with his family and resurfaced when normalcy returned, not because of what he wrote in the novel. Obi Nwakanma came into the picture and talked about Achebe hiding because of the content of the novel, he also talked about the "D branch" which I understand is of the Police. I subscribed to that and you guys are saying that because I specifically mentioned "arrest", that I should not have subscribed to that post". - Chidi
 
Misrepresentation at its height! Who told you not to subscribe to Nwakanma's post? The question is you are adopting Nwakanma's post as a validation of your untruth; but in truth, it is, like my account, an exposure of your misrepresentation of the facts! I asked you, what did Nwakanma say in his piece on Achebe that I hadn't said earlier in response to you and in far much more detail? Was Professor Chinua Achebe arrested and interrogated immediately after the 1966 coup for what he wrote in the novel A Man Of The People, as you claim? The emphatic answer is a resounding "No!", so what the bloody point are you making? Of course, Achebe, like all prominent Igbo persons in Lagos at that time had to relocate to the East for fear of their lives, based on the unstable national conditions and the clear persecution of the Igbo in those days by those who just came to power. Or, as I asked you earlier, did every Igbo who relocated to the East in those times do so because they wrote Man of The People or any such thing?
 
 
"I may have wrongly used the word "arrest", but bottom line is that the novelist was sought for, for questioning on account of what he wrote in a novel. He may or may not have been arrested, but whether he was arrested or not is not the issue, the issue remains that he was hiding from security because of what he wrote (at least you guys seem to agree with that), this of course leads to the fact that the Nigerian establishment reads and takes notes of literary productions". - Chidi
 
Is this a round about admission that your attempt at correction Pius was a failure? See above to confirm that all this talk is based on false analysis and conclusion! No one is saying the Nigerian establishment does not read or take note of literary productions; what Pius is saying is that they will not usually arrest or persecute writers or such literary persons based on what they have written, because even though they have the PhDs and a litany of Professors working for them, they rarely can understand literary appreciation to the extent of getting the real message in these works in the literary sense (when Pius says the Nigerian state is illiterate, he meant illiterate in literature appreciation, not in the sense that operatives do not have degrees or haven't been to university). The Nigerian state, as Pius pointed out and as you or anyone has been unable to disprove, only arrests and imprisons writers for their political praxis, not solely for their literary work or message. The arrests and imprisonments of people like Soyinka and Saro-Wiwa confirm this.
 
At any rate, in the context to our discussion here, there's no use dancing on the edges of the core issue. If you have any example of any writer who has been ARRESTED and IMPRISONED in Nigeria solely for his/her art, not his/her politics (as claimed by the lying Abani), tell us now! Otherwise, just admit your incorrect corrections of Pius and move on! You should know that some of us are too long in the tooth to be befuddled by your intellectual abracadabra! Yes, run go your Motor Park and don't return until you are ready to engage here with the degree of intellectual honesty required.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.opara@yahoo.com>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 30 November 2011, 10:41
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Haba Professor Pius(PP)

Ikhide and Kennedy,
This is getting more interesting. I talked about persecutions suffered by Hubert Ogunde and Eedris Abdulkarim because of what they said in their play and music, Kennedy "corrected" me that there were no persecutions, only that the play and music in question were banned(as if that is not persecution). He also revealed that the then President Obasanjo cursed Eedris in public because of the music. Kennedy, if a Nigerian leader show anger towards you in the presence of aides, security, contractors, hangers-on(thugs), captains of industries, etc, that is the mother of persecutions. Do you think any big organization in Nigeria would want to engage a musician who is known to be in the bad book of the President?

I also talked about Achebe arrested and interrogated because of what he wrote in his novel, again Kennedy "corrected" that Achebe went into hiding with his family and resurfaced when normalcy returned, not because of what he wrote in the novel. Obi Nwakanma came into the picture and talked about Achebe hiding because of the content of the novel, he also talked about the "D branch" which I understand is of the Police. I subscribed to that and you guys are saying that because I specifically mentioned "arrest", that I should not have subscribed to that post.

I may have wrongly used the word "arrest", but bottom line is that the novelist was sought for, for questioning on account of what he wrote in a novel. He may or may not have been arrested, but whether he was arrested or not is not the issue, the issue remains that he was hiding from security because of what he wrote (at least you guys seem to agree with that), this of course leads to the fact that the Nigerian establishment reads and takes notes of literary productions.

Abeg I dey go do my Motor Park runs jare.

----Chidi

 

From: Kennedy Emetulu <kemetulu@yahoo.co.uk>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 11:53 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Haba Professor Pius(PP)

 
.
 
..
 
C'mon, Chidi! What are you on about? What has Mr Nwakanma said that I haven't said earlier and in more detail in response to you? Just in case you have forgotten, here is what you said in purportedly correcting Pius:
 
"Professor Chinua Achebe was arrested and interrogated immediately after the 1966 coup for what he wrote in the novel "A Man Of The People".Chidi
 
Now read it again and convince me that you and Nwakanma are saying the same thing? If you put yourself forward to correct someone, then be sure of your facts before excoriating them! From my account and Nwakanma's account, it turns out that Pius was right all along. You got your facts wrong! Achebe was never arrested or interrogated immediately after the 1966 coup as you claim! What we know is that there were stories that elements of those who planned the July 1966 coup thought he had knowledge of the coup in their ignorant assessment of his Man of the People. Achebe did not hang around to have a word with these people. In the national atmosphere of the time, like most Igbo persons in prominent position outside the East, he found his way to the safety of his hometown, Ogidi. Or was Achebe the only Igbo man that decided to find their way back East at the time? Did all the Igbo that poured into Igboland from far and near write Man of the People? Look, there is nothing in my account or Nwakanma's account that supports your claim. You got it wrong! Admit it and move on!
 
..
 
 
 
 

From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.opara@yahoo.com>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 29 November 2011, 9:48
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Haba Professor Pius(PP)

"Kennedy:
In 1966, Chinua Achebe's A Man of the People drove him into hiding. The coincidence with its public launch in the same week as the January 15 coup certainly had much to do with it, as with the close reading of a "prophetic" action in the novel which the folk in the D Branch thought too "prophetic" to be innocent. All said, to presume that "the Nigerian state is an illiterate state" is to project a most damning and asinine complex. As many of us who encountered some of the folk of the Nigerian State Security Services quickly found out in the normal course of our work in journalism in Lagos in the late 1980s and 1990s, these were some of the more highly educated Nigerians, recruited from all fields - Literature, Law, the Sciences, etc. They were not dumb. They read and they took note of all texts - from newspaper articles to books published in and out of Nigeria. Indeed, the requirement on local publishers to deposit copies of every book published in Nigeria in the National Library is not an act of arbitrary absent-mindedness. I had on one occasion, during one encounter in Lagos, to answer questions on exactly what I meant with a line in my poem on Fela - then still unpublished, and which surprisingly I had read only at an ANA gathering in Lagos. The "Nigerian state" reads; this you'll only find out but only when the occasion arises......"
--------Obi Nwakanma.

Do I need to say more? I must however state here that I am surprised at some of the replies to this post. Let me make two clarifications; this is not about Abani and certainly not intended as crucifixion of your dear PP. 
........Chidi.
 

From: Rex Marinus <rexmarinus@hotmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 1:35 AM
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Haba Professor Pius(PP)

Kennedy:
In 1966, Chinua Achebe's A Man of the People drove him into hiding. The coincidence with its public launch in the same week as the January 15 coup certainly had much to do with it, as with the close reading of a "prophetic" action in the novel which the folk in the D Branch thought too "prophetic" to be innocent. All said, to presume that "the Nigerian state is an illiterate state" is to project a most damning and asinine complex. As many of us who encountered some of the folk of the Nigerian State Security Services quickly found out in the normal course of our work in journalism in Lagos in the late 1980s and 1990s, these were some of the more highly educated Nigerians, recruited from all fields - Literature, Law, the Sciences, etc. They were not dumb. They read and they took note of all texts - from newspaper articles to books published in and out of Nigeria. Indeed, the requirement on local publishers to deposit copies of every book published in Nigeria in the National Library is not an act of arbitrary absent-mindedness. I had on one occassion, during one encounter in Lagos, to answer questions on exactly what I meant with a line in my poem on Fela - then still unpublished, and which surprisingly I had read only at an ANA gathering in Lagos. The "Nigerian state" reads; this you'll only find out but only when the occassion arises. By the way, this is not in defense of Abani. I worked at the saner side of Kirikiri, where the Canal flowed only beer, cognac, and such "blood" known only to salts:) So, even if he were there at the Dantesque or Darker side Kirikiri, I could not have met him nor did I hear of it,nor would swear even now that he was not there - either in his mind or in his body. The writer makes myth. Kabissa!
Obi Nwakanma


 _____________________ "If I don't learn to shut my mouth I'll soon go to hell, I, Okigbo, town-crier, together with my iron bell." --Christopher Okigbo
 
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:01:12 +0000
From: kemetulu@yahoo.co.uk
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Haba Professor Pius(PP)
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com

 
 
...
 

 

"dear all
would soyinka and achebe have been imprisoned if they hadn't already had reputations that put them in the national spotlight? or saro-wiwa? would he have been considered such a threat if he hadn't been able to mobilize international opinion?" – Kenneth Harrow
 
 
Prof, below is what Pius said about the above:
 
 
"..........No Nigerian writer has ever been persecuted because of a novel or a poem or any such thing. Not even Ken Saro Wiwa or Wole Soyinka have that history. Writers have been persecuted by the Nigerian state because of their political praxis. Never because of literature. The Nigerian state is an illiterate state. She does not read novels. She would be happier if Soyinka concentrated on writing plays and poems. He would be free to write those to his heart's content. She reacts to writers only when they make political noise, not when they write novels........."Pius Adesanmi
 
 
That is the fact. What you want us to do here in your question is conjecture; but we can make intelligent conjectures from the facts. First, clarification is that Achebe was never imprisoned. Soyinka was, but only because of his politics.
 
I'm sure you've heard the story of those imprisonments and all the legends associated with them – how Soyinka hijacked a radio station at gunpoint in 1965 to demand the cancellation of the rigged elections in the West; how he was arrested and later freed by Justice Kayode Esho; how in 1967, he was arrested by the Gowon government and put in solitary confinement for actively trying to broker peace between Biafra and Nigeria. Before then, he was lauded and sponsored by the state as a writer; but once he began to get into active politics and activism, they arrested and imprisoned him. Achebe, as I said, was not imprisoned; but it was the suspicion that he knew of a military coup (because of the uncannily prophetic novel he wrote before then) that made him a person of interest at a time his ethnic group and men of his stature in the army and Civil Service were being hounded and killed by a state controlled by those opposed to his ethnic group.
 
Saro-Wiwa was a writer also feted and sponsored by the state. His plays were broadcast on national television controlled by the state and he himself, early in his career served in government as a Commissioner in Rivers State and also as a member of a quango created by the Babangida government. But once he took the political road of championing the cause of his ethnic group against the dominant and predatory state in a fierce political battle, they came for him.
 
Of course, all of them had international reputations as good writers before their brush with politics and the state; but it was their political involvement that got them bigger visibility internationally, because what this did was to awaken the international literary and political establishment to their plight as writers being persecuted for their politics. The lines became merged and the rest is history.
 
It is that type of history that Chris Abani is manufacturing to get the credibility of people like the Soyinkas, the Saro-Wiwas and the Achebes. He didn't go through the suffering these people went through for their politics and their art (as both became merged once the state came calling), but he felt by lying that he went through that and prop up these lies with his work of art, he would achieve their status. Well, it would seem he has, if we accept the fraudulently contrived encomiums coming his way. But we are not about to let him get away with it. If his promoters in the West think they can impose his false history on us, they have another think coming. Nigerian literature has never had a fraudulent figurehead. Chris Abani will be purged of his lies and made to walk the plank!
 
 
 
….
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

From: kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, 28 November 2011, 21:17
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Haba Professor Pius(PP)

dear all
would soyinka and achebe have been imprisoned if they hadn't already had reputations that put them in the national spotlight? or saro-wiwa? would he have been considered such a threat if he hadn't been able to mobilize international opinion?
ken

On 11/28/11 2:49 PM, Pius Adesanmi wrote:
Chidi:
 
Thanks for that detail on Achebe. Correction taken in good faith. But you must admit that starting a new thread with my name and very nearly killing a mosquito with a laser-guided intercontinental balistic missile in the process could make your enemies accuse you of diversion. Although I will defend you if they do but your enemies could come out saying that you are using corner-corner sense to divert attention from the real issues, having been unable to satisfactorily explain to, say, Kennedy and Moses, why you took the unbelievable position you took in the thread that you are now trying to hide under a bushel. Anyway sha, I intend to now start claiming that Buka Sukar Dimka got his coup inspiration from the first poem that I ever wrote and I was put on death row until I escaped to Canada via France. Chances are I will get some dumb institutional do-gooders in America to invest in the story and reward me plenty plenty. If my lies eventually catch up with me, shebi I can always count on my brother, Chidi, whose love for me passeth all understanding? Abi no be so?
 
Pius
 


From: Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.opara@yahoo.com>
To: USA Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, 28 November 2011, 5:46
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Haba Professor Pius(PP)

"..........No Nigerian writer has ever been persecuted because of a novel or a poem or any such thing. Not even Ken Saro Wiwa or Wole Soyinka have that history. Writers have been persecuted by the Nigerian state because of their political praxis. Never because of literature. The Nigerian state is an illiterate state. She does not read novels. She would be happier if Soyinka concentrated on writing plays and poems. He would be free to write those to his heart's content. She reacts to writers only when they make political noise, not when they write novels........."
.....Professor Pius(PP)

Haba PP,
Professor Chinua Achebe was arrested and interrogated immediately after the 1966 coup for what he wrote in the novel "A Man Of The People".

Late Hubert Ogunde was severely persecuted in the early 1960s by the Tafawa Balewa and Akintola federal and regional governments for what he said in the play "Yoruba Ronu"

Eedris Abdulkarim, a Nigerian contemporary musician complained of severe persecutions during the Obasanjo civil regime for what he sang in the music "Nigeria Jaga Jaga".

In activism, there is no clear boundary between Politics and Literature. If Okey Ndibe, an activist who uses Literature as his primary platform can be taken hostage in a Gestapo-style operation at the Lagos International Airport by the Goodluck Jonathan regime goons, the credibility of your comment above then seems doubtful to me.

There are of course many uncelebrated cases in contemporary Nigeria, like your spouse and children being denied certain benefits they should ordinarily been entitled to by a state government in a state you have lived in for more than two decades and a government official pretending to be a friend, calling and advising you "to cooperate for the sake of your family", and you know very well that you write poems and that you have no other "
political praxis".

PP, your views carry some weight, so, make you no dey yan dis kin yan.
.......Chidi
 
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--  kenneth w. harrow  distinguished professor of english michigan state university department of english east lansing, mi 48824-1036 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu
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USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: [Leonenet] Abdul Karim Bangura's Recent Wikipedia Entries

Yes, Karmoh Sagba, my position was and still remains that while Internet sources are valuable, they are no substitute for scholarly books and journals simple because many of the former are not professionally refereed. But still, the Internet is widely used and we must not ignore its value in disseminating knowledge. The more our intellectual giants utilize it, the better it will become.
 
For my take on how the Internet has emerged to be such a greatly utilized research tool, see my following essays on Islam and the Internet:
 
(1) "A Survey of Islam on the Internet." Renaissance: A Monthly Islamic Journal,  November 2004.
 
(2) "Islam and the Internet: A Systematic Assessment." Renaissance: A Monthly Islamic Journal, June 2005.
 
Karmoh Sagba, you are conflating my reservations with me not utilizing the Internet. In so many words, your argument is illogical.
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: 11/30/2011 10:30:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Leonenet] Abdul Karim Bangura's Recent Wikipedia Entries

Doc,
For once I have to say that I dont believe you have been doing this as long as you claim. I remember very well, and I do have all my archive of  10,500 Leonenet emails, when you and I used to argue on the value and validity of internet data as a reliable research tool. You were the most skeptical and disser of information from the internet.
 
You used to advcate the value of book research over internet research. If you disagree I will take my time to search some of those arguments. That's probably why you are always quick toreference books for most of your arguments. If you have now come fully on board for the value of internet information sources, then GOOD! but you were a skeptic for a long long time.
 
  Toegondoe Sagbah,  FAT / IDOF
         Fighting Against Tribalism
           In Defence Of Fairness

From: Abdul Karim Bangura <theai@earthlink.net>
To: "USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com" <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: leonenet <leonenet@lists.umbc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 10:06 PM
Subject: [Leonenet] Abdul Karim Bangura's Recent Wikipedia Entries

Abdul Karim Bangura's Recent Wikipedia Entries

As the Internet emerged to be the first and most popular choice for research---i.e. before most of us hit the libraries, archives, etc., I have over the years contributed entries to Wikipedia and other Internet media, first under pseudonyms and now my name. My purpose is threefold:

(1) I subscribe to the ideology that knowledge should be shared by the masses, not just reserved for the educated elite who will read our books and journals.

(2) Afrikan ideas and great thinkers will be better known by non-Afrikans, and even many Afrikans, through these very expansive media.

(3) The media allow for quick suggestive evaluations.

The following are my most recent Wikipedia entries. Please make improvements on them.

(1) Bangura's Vulture Paradigm:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangura%27s_Vulture_Paradigm

(2) Diop's Intercultural Relations Methodology:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diop%E2%80%99s_Intercultural_Relations_Methodology

(3) Diop's Theory of the Restoration of African Historical Consciousness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diop%E2%80%99s_Theory_of_the_Restoration_of_African_Historical_Consciousness

Thanks a heap in advance for your good help.

In Peace Always,
Karim/.






USA Africa Dialogue Series - Kentucky church votes to ban interracial couples

* Associated Press
* guardian.co.uk<http://www.guardian.co.uk/>, Wednesday 30 November 2011 22.00 EST

Kentucky church votes to ban interracial couples

The Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church voted on the resolution, which says the church 'does not condone interracial marriage

A tiny church in rural Kentucky<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/kentucky> has voted to ban interracial couples from joining its congregation, pitting members against each other in an argument over race.

Members at the Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church in Kentucky voted on Sunday on the resolution, which says the church "does not condone interracial marriage."

The church member who crafted the resolution, Melvin Thompson, said he is not racist and called the matter an "internal affair."

"I am not racist. I will tell you that. I am not prejudiced against any race of people, have never in my lifetime spoke evil about a race," said Thompson, the church's former pastor who stepped down earlier this year.

"That's what this is being portrayed as, but it is not."

Church secretary Dean Harville disagreed - he says the resolution came after his daughter visited the church this summer with her boyfriend from Africa.

Stella Harville and Ticha Chikuni, now her fiance, visited the church in June and Chikuni sang a song for the congregation. The two had visited the church before.

Dean Harville, the church's secretary, said he was counting the church offering after a service in early August when he was approached by Thompson, who told him Harville's daughter and her boyfriend were no longer allowed to sing at the church.

"If he's not racist, what is this?" Harville said of Thompson.

The vote by members last Sunday was 9-6, Harville said. It was taken after the service, which about 35 to 40 people attended. Harville said many people left or declined to vote.

The resolution says anyone is welcome to attend services, but interracial couples could not become members or be "used in worship services or other church functions."

Stella Harville, a 24-year-old graduate student at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana, called the vote "hurtful."

"I think part of me is still in shock and trying to process what's been going on the past few days," she said. "I really hope they overturn this."

The church's pastor, Stacy Stepp, said on Wednesday that he was against the resolution. Stepp said the denomination's regional conference will begin working on resolving the issue this weekend.

The National Association of Free Will Baptists in Tennessee has no official position on interracial marriage for its 2,400 churches worldwide, executive secretary Keith Burden said. The denomination believes the Bible is inerrant and local churches have autonomy over decision-making.

"It's been a non-issue with us," Burden said, adding that many interracial couples attend Free Will Baptist churches. He said the Pike County church acted on its own. Burden said the association can move to strip the local church of its affiliation with the national denomination if it's not resolved.

"Hopefully it is corrected quickly," Burden said.

* Printable version<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/01/kentucky-church-bans-interracial-couples/print>

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Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: [edo-nationality] Re: [NaijaPolitics] Fwd: Yoruba Affairs - Femi Kusa' s, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes an unflatte ring exposé on Late Alex Ibru

 
 
 
Laolu,
Did you say I'm not raising any new issues? Perhaps, I'm not; but my object was never to raise any new issues. My purpose is to discuss the issue at hand in all its possible ramifications. Specifically, as regards my last post (to which this response of yours relates), I posted it as a response to your claim that the "revelations" in Kusa's piece "add value somewhere, somehow", because it's information now disseminated that otherwise would have remained concealed. You have returned to pursue the same theme in your last post; so, pardon me, because I've still got reasons to respond to you. It would be important you understand this before you bow out of this exchange, as you wish.
Please, note that mere accusation against someone already dead cannot on its own, without corroboration, constitute information for public benefit. Also, delivered at the time of death, it is rather repulsive, not beneficial to the public. I mean, what information did Kusa give in his piece that is so important, that he couldn't wait, but must have it delivered rudely and intrudingly into the family and national mourning of a widely-acclaimed and genuinely great Nigerian (despite his flaws)? Even if other citizens were to come out and say indeed the dead man was all Kusa says he was, it still would amount to nothing, because the dead man has not been given the opportunity to defend himself against Kusa's charge or any possible charge by any other person. For thirteen years, Kusa had the unfettered opportunity to speak, he didn't. Now, upon his death, he suddenly commandeers his column in the Nation, put aside what he was working and manically delved into the business of publicly disgracing a dead man! How useful is that 'information' coming from one person, the sole accuser of the dead man? You keep saying if this or if that, but there are really no ifs, because the point-blank truth is that days after writing this, no one has come out to support Kusa or corroborate his story, not even Lade Bonuola or Olatunji Dare, persons he painted rosily in his account! Why?
I find your agreement with Ogbuagu Anikwe on the fact that Kusa had nothing good to say about Ibru contradictory. I mean, wasn't that the whole point of the criticism we have against him and against which you are defending him on the basis of his right to free speech, to express a grudge as information and to generally spew out what you've termed "pent-up repulsion", even if it means doing so as the man's body is yet to be put in the ground? Why are you now raising the question of timing when that is exactly the question Farooq and I had raised and which you found irrelevant where Kusa's free speech was supposedly at stake?
However, of all the things you've said so far, the worst for me is this whole story of Kusa's fear of harm as a possible excuse for not speaking out earlier. That is pathetic, Laolu! I mean, isn't that a further attack on Ibru's character? This man who dedicated his life to philanthropy and ecumenism was going to harm Femi Kusa? Okay, Laolu, you have to come clean here. I know Femi Kusa is a mentor of yours as one of those who showed you the ropes early as a reporter and this you have publicly acknowledged before now. So, tell us, did he tell you he was scared of harm from Ibru? Did he tell you that was why he couldn't speak before his death? You may not know Ibru closely enough, even as publisher; but does the man strike you in anyway as someone likely to strike fear into Kusa? Is there anything in Kusa's piece that faintly indicates that he was speaking now only because he feared harm from the man when alive? Isn't it obvious from the writing that everything he said about Ibru, he said them boldly without hint of fear? If he was afraid of harm, is that fear gone now simply because Alex Ibru is dead when we know that the influence and connections of the large Ibru clan remain? Please, Laolu, do not raise such a possibility. There is no basis whatsoever for it. When you did earlier, I ignored it, because I thought it was a slip on your side. I still see no basis for it now, because Femi Kusa did not raise it as an excuse in his piece and has not raised it after. 
Finally, don't worry about what I bet or don't bet on. It's a bet, isn't it? Let's see the fool and heartless fellow that will come out and say they support Kusa for speaking now about Ibru the way he did. Let's see. Yes, when you see such a fellow (amongst the actors of the time), call my attention to it. For now, I stand by what I've stated, because if Kusa has decent friends, that is exactly what they will be telling him. Or is he not mortal? Is he not fallible?
 
 
 
 
 

From: laolu akande <akandeoj@yahoo.com>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, 1 December 2011, 0:00
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: [edo-nationality] Re: [NaijaPolitics] Fwd: Yoruba Affairs - Femi Kusa' s, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes an unflatte ring exposé on Late Alex Ibru

 
 
Thanks a lot.
 
But you are not really raising any new issues, dear Ken.
 
To say however that the information is "sick information," is again, to be carried away.
 
The information may have come out distatefully, but you know being a reporter yourself that the way the information comes out (especially in the courts of public opinion) is not as critical as the value of the information itself. Not so much about the messenger, but the message.
 
That is why we need corroboration if the information is to be a solid part of history. If it turns out as the truth, no amount of name-calling the information, can detract from it. But if is is merely the effusions of a repulsed former associate, that also would be eventually proven.
 
Look, dear good people, The Guardian and its history is too significant for the truth not to come out eventually, one way or the other.
 
However I agree with Ogbuagu Anikwe who raised the question : how come Kusa had nothing good to say about Ibru?
 
That is a very instructive one, that agrees with what I had said in my first post that Kusa had pent-up repulsion and annoyance! For whatever it is worth, Ibru has given Nigeria its foremost newspaper to day and that cannot be taken away from him.
 
I have raised the question of Kusa's timing and the question is still on the floor-i would personally have spoken much earlier at least at some point to the man's face, or at the very least, perhaps, wait for the body to be interred. But some views have been expressed as to the man's reluctance to speak out earlier including fear of harm.
 
Finally: you better don't bet on it that no one else will speak out one way or the other on this matter, or that Kusa is now being harangued behind the scenes. Ken, you really dont know that o!
 
At this point, permit me to sign off on this topic all together!
 
Regards,
 
Akande

From: Kennedy Emetulu <kemetulu@yahoo.co.uk>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 3:34 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: [edo-nationality] Re: [NaijaPolitics] Fwd: Yoruba Affairs - Femi Kusa' s, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes an unflatte ring exposé on Late Alex Ibru

 
 
 
..
 
Laolu,
 
There is a way to release information, which is why we have good and bad PR. This one is even far much more than mere PR; it is a moral question about empathy, decency, loyalty and selflessness. On all counts, Kusa failed.
 
From his own account, Ibru plucked him from a dead end job at Daily Times. I have no doubt that he was not the sole candidate fit for the role of an Assistant Editor Ibru gave him upon coming to The Guardian; but it is a measure of the trust and respect Ibru had for him that he rose to be a Director in The Guardian and its Editor-in-Chief. He worked there with Ibru (and he needlessly emphasised this by saying he didn't "work for" him) for 17 years. The all-powerful Ibru never once came out in public to lambaste the man for leaving The Guardian in the acrimonious circumstances he left neither did he in the 13 years since he left before his death publicly take him to task. He did not set his attack dogs in the press after him nor antagonise him in any way.
 
Then Ibru dies, what do we get? Femi Kusa prancing around, dancing on his grave with "information"! Who needs this type of sick information? You think if it's true, it's only Mr Kusa that has this information? How many people amongst those involved at the time still alive do you see falling over themselves to publicly support Kusa? If anything, I can bet my bottom dollar that a lot of them would be calling him up to tell him he got it wrong! Why don't they come out to tell us that what Femi Kusa is saying is true and that they support his approach of releasing the information now?
 
To be honest, the information, even if it's true in all particulars is useless. I see nothing he has said that tells me why The Guardian lost its original spark nor do I buy his reasoning over the Abacha affair. Indeed, it is an exhibition of naivety or mischief to assume that Abacha was going to hide his cudgel if the "Inside Aso Rock" publication by Kingsley Osadolor didn't happen. It is total tosh to question the direction of The Guardian when he was no equity owner at any level, but a mere employee. If he so values his magic touch, why didn't he replicate this at the defunct Comet or now at the Nation where he keeps a column and where he published this attack on Ibru?
 
Let's not deceive ourselves. Mr Kusa is out here on a limb, which is why no one amongst the principal characters of the era is lining up to support him. He has let his bitterness get the better of him. Does he think all those he worked with at The Guardian think of him as a saint? In fact, he himself stated in his piece that there was "jubilation" at The Guardian upon Ibru's dissolution of the board! I mean, I know of people who worked and still work in The Guardian who think of him as a "tribalist"; I know of people who call him "duplicitous"; I know of people who say he's "vindictive". But I really do not care about their view, because I do not judge people by hearsay. As far as I'm concerned, if that is what they feel about him, they should tell him to his face or publish whatever uncomplimentary things they know about him while he's still alive, so he can have an opportunity of responding. It isn't an opportunity he's given Ibru or Akporugo; but it's the only fair thing. We don't need his type of useless information. As I said elsewhere, decency wears no disguise!
 
 
 
..
 
 
 
 
 

 
From: Olaolu Akande <akandeoj@yahoo.com>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 30 November 2011, 13:13
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: [edo-nationality] Re: [NaijaPolitics] Fwd: Yoruba Affairs - Femi Kusa' s, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes an unflatte ring exposé on Late Alex Ibru


Say what we like, information is disseminated that otherwise was concealed.
And regardless of the legitimate questions about its decency and timing, it's revelations add value, somewhere, somehow.

All said: Rest in peace, Publisher!

Akande

Sent from my iPad

On Nov 29, 2011, at 5:29 PM, Kennedy Emetulu <kemetulu@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

 
...
 
Mr Adepoju,
 
I'm not sure exactly why you forwarded these posts by CUE and Austen Oghuma; but if I were to hazard a guess, it would be either to support your view and counter what Farooq and I have been saying or it would be just to show that others have a different view from us. Both reasons are legitimate, but none of these posts (including Laolu Akande's) has addressed or pooh-poohed the point Farooq and I have made about Femi Kusa's piece.
 
The point we have made is simply that Femi Kusa had all the time in the world before now to say the things he has said here against Ibru, whether or not they are true, before Ibru's death. We are not saying he has no right to voice his opinion; but there is a time for everything. He's chosen the wrong time and in the process showed himself to be small-minded, petty, inconsiderate, vindictive and selfish. If he'd waited a year from now to say it or write a book about his Guardian experience expressing these same thoughts, it would have been better. Not that Ibru would be waking up at that time to defend himself or give a response; but at least it would have showed consideration for his loved ones mourning him now. Femi Kusa making himself an issue at the time of Ibru's death, because of his disagreement with the deceased, does not make him look great. It's killed the validity of whatever point he has to make and reduced him in the eyes of decent and reasonable people. He can still redeem himself by apologising to the Ibru family. He does not have to retract what he had said, but he should admit that it is bad judgment on his part to choose this occasion to publish it, thus giving the unintended impression that he wants to rudely intrude in their mourning.
 
 
 
...
 
 
 
 
 

From: toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 29 November 2011, 14:20
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: [edo-nationality] Re: [NaijaPolitics] Fwd: Yoruba Affairs - Femi Kusa' s, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes an unflatte ring exposé on Late Alex Ibru



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <edosomwanlaw@gmail.com>
Date: 29 November 2011 13:46
Subject: [edo-nationality] Re:
People,
All great people have their minuses. The reason for the greatness could only be that their pluses far outweighed these minuses. Alexander, Napoleon, Henry VIII, Montgomery, Mao; you name them, they had them. Its not different with Alex Ibru. He was a visionary shrewd enough to have created an icon for Nigeria's print journalism by harnessing the best available materials - technical and otherwise including Femi Kusa and other sharp minds. Truly Kusa beside Macebuh and the galaxy of journalism's stars that he recruited for the Guardian project probably wasn't as celebrated and acclaimed as he became under the auspices of The Guardian. Ibru had the right to effect his vision in any way he saw fit and I think he did a great job of it as indeed his vision became the flagship of Nigeria's print media.
Kusa also had a right to be disgruntled about the way Ibru ran his newspapers. So? But he I suspect, would deep inside him be grateful to Ibru for affording him a higher pedestal never before seen in Nigerian journalism to have better shown his mettle and taken his reputation to heights he couldn't take it before his stint at The Guardian - Flagship.
After all said, I see no reason why Kusa should be excoriated for spilling his bile on Ibru albeit posthumously because there are always lessons to be learned from people's tales (even uncharitable ones) in businesses that are still a mystery to folks. While journalism is an old trade in Nigeria, it has never been successfully practised as a business before The Guardian! Rupert Murdoch's The News Of The World that recently closed over the Phone Hacking scandal was reputed to have run for about or over a century but Nigeria is like either a graveyard for dead journals or tabloids or a poor hospital for ailing ones. For those who see Kusa's tales on Ibru as uncharitable, many might be surprised on how many hard-nosed entrepreneurs who read it may want to lift a thing or two from them on how to kick ass and make business run right!
Alex Ibru was a great man regardless. Rest in peace
CUE
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
From: toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:31:34 +0000
Subject: Re: [NaijaPolitics] Fwd: Yoruba Affairs - Femi Kusa' s, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes an unflatte ring exposé on Late Alex Ibru

 
I wish Femi Kusa could develop this into a comprehensive and complete book on The Guardian Newspapers.
Austen Oghuma


On 29 November 2011 07:30, toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com> wrote:


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Austen Oghuma <aoghuma@yahoo.com>
Date: 29 November 2011 05:11
Subject: Re: [NaijaPolitics] Fwd: Yoruba Affairs - Femi Kusa's, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes an unflattering exposé on Late Alex Ibru
To: "NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com" <NaijaPolitics@yahoogroups.com>


 
All,

I wish Femi Kusa could develop this into a comprehensive and complete book on The Guardian Newspapers. Part of the story that circulated was that Alex Ibru spent a lot of money in setting up the newspaper. Even after all the equipment were in place, no one had the technical production details to roll it out until he was told of Ladi Bonuola who was at the time still with the Daily Times. It took Bonuola no time to produce what is arguably the flagship of Nigeria's print media.
For those who feel it was too revealing and as such disrespectful, they should understand that Ibru's management style was not different from a typical Nigerian business enterprise. Ibru, however, gave a voice to independent journalism and every publisher that came after him tried to emulate him and possibly to replicate his success. There were backroom politics. It is not different from any other business. 
There may be bitterness in Kusa's tone but he recounted his personal experience. Nigeria needs these types of detailed information as part of a process to transform our society. No one can claim to be a saint, so why don't we read about the intrigues that were also part of the man's life.   

Austen Oghuma
 

From: toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com>
To: naijapolitics@yahoogroups.com; naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com; naijaelections <naijaelections@yahoogroups.com>; nigerianworldforum <NIgerianWorldForum@yahoogroups.com>; "NigerianID@yahoogroups.com" <nigerianid@yahoogroups.com>; ngpolitics@googlegroups.com; Naija Business Naija Business <NaijaBusiness@yahoogroups.com>; Edo-nationality <edo-nationality@yahoogroups.com>; Edo Global <Edo_Global@yahoogroups.com>; abolo <tonbole@yahoo.com>; Tony Abolo <abolotony2@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 12:02 AM
Subject: [NaijaPolitics] Fwd: Yoruba Affairs - Femi Kusa's, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes an unflattering exposé on Late Alex Ibru

 


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Toyin Falola <toyin.falola@mail.utexas.edu>
Date: 27 November 2011 22:22
Subject: Yoruba Affairs - Femi Kusa's, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes an unflattering exposé on Late Alex Ibru
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com, yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com


 

Femi Kusa departs from our tendency to sanctify the dead. Please see below for his take on how Alex Ibru ran The Guardian. It was published in The Nation of 24 November.

Alexander Uruemu IbruŠ Publisher, The Guardian
By Femi Kusa 24/11/2011 16:45:00
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I WAS some way through the conclusion of the series on eye problems when Mr George Akintobi informed me of breaking newsŠ Alex Ibru was gone!. A few minutes later, the editor of a newspaper telephoned me for comments. I was numb, and apologised that I wasn't in the mood for comments. He apologised and called off. My mind had been set on the breaking news on Dr. Contreras, the central figure in a book on how he had been healing HIV and cancer patients with coconut oil, yes coconut oil. This is the same doctor the American Medical Association hounded out of the United States to Mexico for healing cancer with laterile. I planned to quickly break this news, especially as Dr. Contreras is now the toast of American media, the same medical stone once rejected, and then wrap it up with possible healing for eye problems in homeopathic cell salts. Well, all of that will now have to come next week. What breaking news could be bigger than Alex Uruemu Ibru, I reasoned. As the numbness disappeared, I remembered the man who told me he made all the money he needed in his life at 27. I remembered the young man who told his big brother, Olorogun Michael Ibru, he wanted to buy a Rolls Royce. I remembered he told me Olorogun thought he was too young to own a Royce. How would his brothers take it, having no Rolls? Alex said he asked Olorogun if it was alright if he bought his and theirs. Olorogun thought that was impossible, and gave his blessing. Alex bought five Rolls in one day, one for each of his brothers, himself and Olorogun!. At his home in Chelsea, England, he showed me his custom-made car which was much bigger than a Rolls Royce, and I told him he would be stoned on the roads of Lagos if he drove it there. He said, even in England, policemen saluted him in it.
That was the Alex Ibru I worked with, not worked for, between 1983 and 1999. There's a huge difference between working with and working for. When you work for, you are a slave, you may be owned. By 1977, I had known no one owned anything, not even his or her life, children, wife or husband, even property. Working with, you work for yourself, working as if the company belongs to you, one day expecting the reward not from the employer, but from the application for personal ends of the inner heat you have generated working in love, and not out of the enslaving compulsion of duty.
Alexander Uruene Ibru founded The Guardian newspaper in 1983 at a time many journalists of conscience were fed up with manipulations of the The Daily Times, then the leading newspaper, by the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Umaru Dikko was leading our editor, Martin Iroabuchi, by the nose. One of the directors could take your secretary on a trip abroad without any notice and you dared not raise a finger against her. Martin often demanded that headlines be submitted to complete strangers to the organisation for vetting. The News Editor, Felix Odiari, had links to Moshood Kasimawo Abiola (MKO). Bamanga Tukur had his own insiders. If you didn't belong to any NPN clique, you were thought to belong to Chief Obafemi Awolowo's Unity Party of Nigeria, diminished in status and castrated as it were. Lade Bonuola was put down, and sent to work under a former subordinate. So, the coming of The Guardian was a professionally rejuvenating experience. This is not the time to tell the story of The Guardian. I am even one of the least competent to tell it, although I gave to it 17 years of my most creative and adventurous years.
Until a few years before my departure from The Guardian, I deliberately avoided direct dealings with Mr. Ibru. I was at various times Assistant Editor, Editor, Executive Director/Editor and Director of Publications/ Editor-in-chief. I was, and still is, a systems man. I'd rather report to the Publisher/Chairman, Alex Ibru, through my boss, Lade Bonuola. My job was to generate editorial and business ideas which would make The Guardian first choice newspaper in the market, and I think I did that to the best of my abilities. But Mr. Ibru always sought to work past the bosses, and the difficulties he had with me in that regard would make him conclude Bonuola and Kusa were two inseperable sides of a hardy coin, contrary to the reality of both of us being diametrically apposite people in many respects.
Many people saw Mr. Ibru as shrewd and unfeeling when he would be expected to lavish his money on his workers. Such people had no business instincts. Alex Ibru would spend working capital on nothing but the business. I didn't see his riches, let alone think of them or desire his crumbs. To me, he was just a human spirit privileged in this earth life to be entrusted with resources of Creation for the welfare of creatures of the Most High God. If he didn't use them the way he was meant to, that was a matter between him and his Maker. This concept of wealth, which he and I often discussed, led him to coin the slogan, "God's Money", which many staff of The Guardian often heard from him any time he had to square up against rippers of the company, sometimes ruthlessly. In this regard, he meant they were stealing from the Creator and it was his duty, as custodian, to stop them. I remember him dispatching Kingsley Osadolor to Zimbabwe in pursuit of a circulation clerk who fled from Warri or Ughelli when he was found out. His connections in the government of Zimbabwe paid off. I had no problem with "God's Money". I was brought up to be content with the little I had and to loathe subsistence on the crumbs from another man's table, whether freely given or stolen. Thus, I had to sell ice block, vegetable, chewing stick, palm oil, coconut and egg and raise pigs to keep my family going during General Sanni Abacha's proscription of The Guardian for one year. Alex had thought suffering would break our spirit to the point that we would beg Abacha for our lives.
So shrewd was Mr. Ibru as a businessman at the time I became editor of The Guardian that my salary was not topped to reflect the new office and extra workload until one year after when the company grudgingly made a token addition with only about three months arrears. The company simply said it had no money. I was not alone. Eluem Emeka Izeze, now Managing Director, was appointed editor of the Sunday title and Mitchell Obi was appointed editor of the afternoon title, Guardian Express. I earned Mr. Ibru's respect because I did not seek to make the company spend on me money it said was not available for spending. I asked Mr. Ibru if he would let me have a say in the budget of the newsroom if income in the following year exceeded his target, and he agreed, believing it was impossible, given the trends. He had just had a rumpus with Dr. Stanley Macebuh over the company's commercial viability. Many people thought we should bury our pride and accept obituary advertisements to earn four pages of advertisements every day to make us viable. I raised no objection, but looked beyond this scenario I had been tutored spiritually that competition and covetousness were the major causes of crises in man's affairs. Trying to take the obituary market from either The Daily Times or the burgeoning National Concord would exhaust us, we would not hit the target and Mr. Ibru would be impatient, if not angrier than he was with Dr. Macebuh. The sky was broad enough for all birds to fly in and not collide. Why not discover and nurture your own market? I had been studying the Columbia University Journalism Review and the Washington Journalism Review for trends in American and European newspapering which helped them survive the onslaught on radio and television. I saw that these newspapers were abandoning age old aloofness and connecting to society and the business class to create editorial/business niches for themselves which made every day of the week brandable as a product such as, say, Maggi or Milo. That was not being done in Nigerian newspapers. They all pursed, like a herd, public news, creating no variety or niches. I cannot detail here the many tortuous steps and sleepness nights it took to brand Monday as a PROPERTY day in The Guardian. My respect and grateful thanks for its success, like that of many other days of the week, Tuesday in particular, go to Mrs. Harriet Lawrence, Architect Paul Okunlola, Mr. Raheem Adedoyin, Mr. Jide Ogundele, Mr. Dele Babatunde and the likes of them who stoutly withstood acrimonious personal attacks from the rigid advertising department. Emeka Izeze was to replicate this idea with a Section for computers and information technology on the Sunday title which he edited. We made good money by the standards of those days. Mr. Ibru permitted three pay rises in one year. We bought 42 plots of land at Isheri from OPIC for staff who had spent five years with the company, and five hectares for the GNL to build a Guardian staff village. Had The Guardian flame been permitted to burn on, perhaps we would have had a more buoyant paper than The Guardian is today. Ethnic and religious jingoists detrailed the train after taking Alex Ibru hostage. Gen. Abacha also made a mince meat of it.
Mr. Ibru in my view exposed The Guardian to Abacha's danger. Perhaps unknown to Alex Ibru, Abacha wanted a formidable newspaper such as The Guardian to back his venture to sweep away Gen. Ibrahim Babangida contrived Interim National Government (ING) of Ernest Shonekan. I remember vividly an emergency meeting of the caucus of the Editorial Board to which Mr. Ibru summoned four of usŠ Lade Bonuola. Femi Kusa, Dr. Tunji Dare and Andy Akporugo. Akporugo was a "yes" man any day, and employed fear for top editorial people to keep Alex Ibru tightly under his armpit. He always asked in the newsroom if anyone had seen a Yoruba company in which an Urhobo man was managing director. One day, he and Bonuola almost came to blows at an editorial board meeting. Akporugo once told Tunji Dare Mr. Ibru had sent him to ask Tunji to resign one of his two powerful appointmentsŠ Chairman, Editorial Board, and Executive Director of Guardian Newspaper Ltd (GNL). Dr. Dare was lucky he discussed the matter with Lade Bonuola, then, I believe, GNL MD. Mr. Bonuola asked Dr. Dare two simple questions: Are your appointments not Board appointments, and has the Board met over such a question? Dr. Dare thanked Bonuola and went his way. Had Alex Ibru always played on level field, would such a confusionist have arisen in our ranks? Lest I derail, at that said emergency meeting, Alex Ibru said he had learned Abacha wanted to take over government the following day, and asked for an editorial opinion to be published hours before the general struck, telling him not to dare it. The editorial was published in the morning as requested, and in the 4.0'clock news Alex Ibru's name was mentioned on national radio as having been appointed Minister of Internal Affairs! Dr. Dare was to say afterwards that, from the manner Mr. Ibru spoke to him at a diplomatic party one or two days before that emergency meeting, it was clear the publisher was privy to his appointment, and may have accepted it!
My next shocking experience with Alex Ibru was to come - He freely went into politics. I recall suggesting to him at the Editorial Board meeting he attended to say he was going, that he should resign from GNL Board so as not to drag The Guardian along. He humbly did. But he would love us to come to Abuja to "brainstorm" with him. I do not know if anyone agreed. Without my knowledge, he got my deputy, Kingsley Osadolor, to go to Abuja. And the resultant copy, INSIDE ASO ROCK, which Mr Osadolar did not clear with me before publication, perhaps because the matter was beyond me anyway, led to Abacha's proscription of The Guardian.
Mr Ibru failed to take personal responsibility for this event. He would rather see the proscription as caused by the pro-democracy stance of the newspaper. It was even speculated that he was toying with the idea of neutralising Yoruba elements in senior positions to re-assure Abacha he had ridden the paper of his enemies. Before then, he called a meeting to demand the directors and editors go to Abuja to beg Abacha to re-open The Guardian. Abacha had been under international pressure to let go. But he was seeking a local explanation for the reopening. The Punch, too was under lock and key. The journalists at The Punch voted not to go, and they didn't. Alex Ibru scooped the editors of The Guardian to his side. At a Board meeting to resolve the disagreement of Lade Bonuola, Mr Ibru asked him rather roughly and crudely to resign his office as Managing Director if he would not go. The question was: does one bow one's spirit before evil for the sake of bread and butter!. Lade Bonuola looked Alex Ibru straight in the eyes, and resigned his appointment as Managing Director of The Guardian.
Alex Ibru didn't expect it. Silence fell. The fighter that he was, Alex Ibru turned to me and appointed me Managing Director of The Guardian. It took me by surprise. I had expected he would find a way to mend fences with Bonuola. Alex Ibru should have known I am not a man who, for a pot of porridge, hacks down the man above to inherit his estate. It was one of those occasions in my life when my brimming spirit gave no room to the intellect. I rejected the offer and said, having rejected it, it was only honourable for me to resign my appointment as Director of Publications/Editor-in-Chief. It is that man whose faith in God has not become conviction in Him who fears the morrow and goes for the crumbs. My resignation generated uproar. Mr Ibru was shouting and sweating. He called me an ingrate, said he made me editor against the wishes of Macebuh and others. I replied that I didn't beg to be editor, or know of any intrigues he swept away for me. In any case, didn't I justify my appointment? Didn't the company become profitable in the first year of my editorship of the newspaper? Dr. Tuji Dare, Sully Abu and Eddy Madunagu did not attend the meeting, wishing to be identified as having even contemplated the idea, and having resigned their Board appointments hitherto. Mr Ososami, a director and childhood friend of Alex Ibru, brokered peace, advising we went for lunch during which rioting emotions would have calmed. We did. During lunch time, Alex Ibru was saved by Nicholas Iduwe, the director who managed printing aspects, from taking a rash decision that may have drowned The Guardian. Ibru told Iduwe he would call the bluff and make Andy Akporugo Managing Director. Iduwe screamed, and told Alex many reasons why he should not. He suggested instead that he mend fences with Bonuola. Alex Ibru saw reason through his anger, and agreed. But he made a bad unmanagerial mistake in telling Akporugo what Iduwe had said of him. Akporugo was angry, and waited for an opportunity to punish Iduwe. Iduwe and Alex Ibru soon had a disagreement. Ibru wanted directors of The Guardian to adjudicate. Bonuola declined on the grounds that the matter was private, not corporate enough to warrant our attention. Alex Ibru angrily transferred the inquisition to the directors of Federal Palace Hotel, a sister company of which he, also, was chairman. Those directors nailed Iduwe, calling for his retirement. Alex Ibru brought the "judgment" back to Bonuola, asking him to implement it. Bonuola declined again. Alex Ibru then got Mr Oritshani, Admin Controller to do the dirty job. The man did! Alex was determined to break this intransigence. But he didn't have the opportunity before his shooting. It was nevertheless on his mind, and, using Akporugo, it was one of his first acts on returning from exile in England. He dissolved the Board which had faithfully held the fort for him, turned directors into Consultants who were to only advise their juniors who were immediately upgraded as new helmsmen of the company. It was a way of telling the old guard that if they had any sense of shame, it was time to go. Some of us did.
There was jubilation in The Guardian. But I do not think it took long before the new helmsmen experience Mr Ibru. It is not my place to try to know what went on after my departure. I haven't set foot on the grounds of The Guardian since my exit about 13 years ago. A dog doesn't return to its vomit, it is said. But suffice it to say Mr Alex Ibru's departure would have as much profound effects on the company as his presence. The challenge before the new managers should be to turn it into a real institution, one with checks and balances, not the one that looks like one on the outside but is not within the perimeter fencing.
The best bet may be for the family to make it a PUBLIC TRUST as Alex Ibru so often dreamed. Maiden, the widow, should learn to be wary of all the do-gooder sympathisers. I send her and the Ibru brothers and sisters heart-felt wishes for inner strength to go through this season.
Bye, Alex.


--  
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222  (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com/
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
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England, he showed me his custom-made car which was much bigger than a Rolls Royce, and I told him he would be stoned on the roads of Lagos if he drove it there. He said, even in England, policemen saluted him in it.
That was the Alex Ibru I worked with, not worked for, between 1983 and 1999. There's a huge difference between working with and working for. When you work for, you are a slave, you may be owned. By 1977, I had known no one owned anything, not even his or her life, children, wife or husband, even property. Working with, you work for yourself, working as if the company belongs to you, one day expecting the reward not from the employer, but from the application for personal ends of the inner heat you have generated working in love, and not out of the enslaving compulsion of duty.
Alexander Uruene Ibru founded The Guardian newspaper in 1983 at a time many journalists of conscience were fed up with manipulations of the The Daily Times, then the leading newspaper, by the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). Umaru Dikko was leading our editor, Martin Iroabuchi, by the nose. One of the directors could take your secretary on a trip abroad without any notice and you dared not raise a finger against her. Martin often demanded that headlines be submitted to complete strangers to the organisation for vetting. The News Editor, Felix Odiari, had links to Moshood Kasimawo Abiola (MKO). Bamanga Tukur had his own insiders. If you didn't belong to any NPN clique, you were thought to belong to Chief Obafemi Awolowo's Unity Party of Nigeria, diminished in status and castrated as it were. Lade Bonuola was put down, and sent to work under a former subordinate. So, the coming of The Guardian was a professionally rejuvenating experience. This is not the time to tell the story of The Guardian. I am even one of the least competent to tell it, although I gave to it 17 years of my most creative and adventurous years.
Until a few years before my departure from The Guardian, I deliberately avoided direct dealings with Mr. Ibru. I was at various times Assistant Editor, Editor, Executive Director/Editor and Director of Publications/ Editor-in-chief. I was, and still is, a systems man. I'd rather report to the Publisher/Chairman, Alex Ibru, through my boss, Lade Bonuola. My job was to generate editorial and business ideas which would make The Guardian first choice newspaper in the market, and I think I did that to the best of my abilities. But Mr. Ibru always sought to work past the bosses, and the difficulties he had with me in that regard would make him conclude Bonuola and Kusa were two inseperable sides of a hardy coin, contrary to the reality of both of us being diametrically apposite people in many respects.
Many people saw Mr. Ibru as shrewd and unfeeling when he would be expected to lavish his money on his workers. Such people had no business instincts. Alex Ibru would spend working capital on nothing but the business. I didn't see his riches, let alone think of them or desire his crumbs. To me, he was just a human spirit privileged in this earth life to be entrusted with resources of Creation for the welfare of creatures of the Most High God. If he didn't use them the way he was meant to, that was a matter between him and his Maker. This concept of wealth, which he and I often discussed, led him to coin the slogan, "God's Money", which many staff of The Guardian often heard from him any time he had to square up against rippers of the company, sometimes ruthlessly. In this regard, he meant they were stealing from the Creator and it was his duty, as custodian, to stop them. I remember him dispatching Kingsley Osadolor to Zimbabwe in pursuit of a circulation clerk who fled from Warri or Ughelli when he was found out. His connections in the government of Zimbabwe paid off. I had no problem with "God's Money". I was brought up to be content with the little I had and to loathe subsistence on the crumbs from another man's table, whether freely given or stolen. Thus, I had to sell ice block, vegetable, chewing stick, palm oil, coconut and egg and raise pigs to keep my family going during General Sanni Abacha's proscription of The Guardian for one year. Alex had thought suffering would break our spirit to the point that we would beg Abacha for our lives.
So shrewd was Mr. Ibru as a businessman at the time I became editor of The Guardian that my salary was not topped to reflect the new office and extra workload until one year after when the company grudgingly made a token addition with only about three months arrears. The company simply said it had no money. I was not alone. Eluem Emeka Izeze, now Managing Director, was appointed editor of the Sunday title and Mitchell Obi was appointed editor of the afternoon title, Guardian Express. I earned Mr. Ibru's respect because I did not seek to make the company spend on me money it said was not available for spending. I asked Mr. Ibru if he would let me have a say in the budget of the newsroom if income in the following year exceeded his target, and he agreed, believing it was impossible, given the trends. He had just had a rumpus with Dr. Stanley Macebuh over the company's commercial viability. Many people thought we should bury our pride and accept obituary advertisements to earn four pages of advertisements every day to make us viable. I raised no objection, but looked beyond this scenario I had been tutored spiritually that competition and covetousness were the major causes of crises in man's affairs. Trying to take the obituary market from either The Daily Times or the burgeoning National Concord would exhaust us, we would not hit the target and Mr. Ibru would be impatient, if not angrier than he was with Dr. Macebuh. The sky was broad enough for all birds to fly in and not collide. Why not discover and nurture your own market? I had been studying the Columbia University Journalism Review and the Washington Journalism Review for trends in American and European newspapering which helped them survive the onslaught on radio and television. I saw that these newspapers were abandoning age old aloofness and connecting to society and the business class to create editorial/business niches for themselves which made every day of the week brandable as a product such as, say, Maggi or Milo. That was not being done in Nigerian newspapers. They all pursed, like a herd, public news, creating no variety or niches. I cannot detail here the many tortuous steps and sleepness nights it took to brand Monday as a PROPERTY day in The Guardian. My respect and grateful thanks for its success, like that of many other days of the week, Tuesday in particular, go to Mrs. Harriet Lawrence, Architect Paul Okunlola, Mr. Raheem Adedoyin, Mr. Jide Ogundele, Mr. Dele Babatunde and the likes of them who stoutly withstood acrimonious personal attacks from the rigid advertising department. Emeka Izeze was to replicate this idea with a Section for computers and information technology on the Sunday title which he edited. We made good money by the standards of those days. Mr. Ibru permitted three pay rises in one year. We bought 42 plots of land at Isheri from OPIC for staff who had spent five years with the company, and five hectares for the GNL to build a Guardian staff village. Had The Guardian flame been permitted to burn on, perhaps we would have had a more buoyant paper than The Guardian is today. Ethnic and religious jingoists detrailed the train after taking Alex Ibru hostage. Gen. Abacha also made a mince meat of it.
Mr. Ibru in my view exposed The Guardian to Abacha's danger. Perhaps unknown to Alex Ibru, Abacha wanted a formidable newspaper such as The Guardian to back his venture to sweep away Gen. Ibrahim Babangida contrived Interim National Government (ING) of Ernest Shonekan. I remember vividly an emergency meeting of the caucus of the Editorial Board to which Mr. Ibru summoned four of usŠ Lade Bonuola. Femi Kusa, Dr. Tunji Dare and Andy Akporugo. Akporugo was a "yes" man any day, and employed fear for top editorial people to keep Alex Ibru tightly under his armpit. He always asked in the newsroom if anyone had seen a Yoruba company in which an Urhobo man was managing director. One day, he and Bonuola almost came to blows at an editorial board meeting. Akporugo once told Tunji Dare Mr. Ibru had sent him to ask Tunji to resign one of his two powerful appointmentsŠ Chairman, Editorial Board, and Executive Director of Guardian Newspaper Ltd (GNL). Dr. Dare was lucky he discussed the matter with Lade Bonuola, then, I believe, GNL MD. Mr. Bonuola asked Dr. Dare two simple questions: Are your appointments not Board appointments, and has the Board met over such a question? Dr. Dare thanked Bonuola and went his way. Had Alex Ibru always played on level field, would such a confusionist have arisen in our ranks? Lest I derail, at that said emergency meeting, Alex Ibru said he had learned Abacha wanted to take over government the following day, and asked for an editorial opinion to be published hours before the general struck, telling him not to dare it. The editorial was published in the morning as requested, and in the 4.0'clock news Alex Ibru's name was mentioned on national radio as having been appointed Minister of Internal Affairs! Dr. Dare was to say afterwards that, from the manner Mr. Ibru spoke to him at a diplomatic party one or two days before that emergency meeting, it was clear the publisher was privy to his appointment, and may have accepted it!
My next shocking experience with Alex Ibru was to come - He freely went into politics. I recall suggesting to him at the Editorial Board meeting he attended to say he was going, that he should resign from GNL Board so as not to drag The Guardian along. He humbly did. But he would love us to come to Abuja to "brainstorm" with him. I do not know if anyone agreed. Without my knowledge, he got my deputy, Kingsley Osadolor, to go to Abuja. And the resultant copy, INSIDE ASO ROCK, which Mr Osadolar did not clear with me before publication, perhaps because the matter was beyond me anyway, led to Abacha's proscription of The Guardian.
Mr Ibru failed to take personal responsibility for this event. He would rather see the proscription as caused by the pro-democracy stance of the newspaper. It was even speculated that he was toying with the idea of neutralising Yoruba elements in senior positions to re-assure Abacha he had ridden the paper of his enemies. Before then, he called a meeting to demand the directors and editors go to Abuja to beg Abacha to re-open The Guardian. Abacha had been under international pressure to let go. But he was seeking a local explanation for the reopening. The Punch, too was under lock and key. The journalists at The Punch voted not to go, and they didn't. Alex Ibru scooped the editors of The Guardian to his side. At a Board meeting to resolve the disagreement of Lade Bonuola, Mr Ibru asked him rather roughly and crudely to resign his office as Managing Director if he would not go. The question was: does one bow one's spirit before evil for the sake of bread and butter!. Lade Bonuola looked Alex Ibru straight in the eyes, and resigned his appointment as Managing Director of The Guardian.
Alex Ibru didn't expect it. Silence fell. The fighter that he was, Alex Ibru turned to me and appointed me Managing Director of The Guardian. It took me by surprise. I had expected he would find a way to mend fences with Bonuola. Alex Ibru should have known I am not a man who, for a pot of porridge, hacks down the man above to inherit his estate. It was one of those occasions in my life when my brimming spirit gave no room to the intellect. I rejected the offer and said, having rejected it, it was only honourable for me to resign my appointment as Director of Publications/Editor-in-Chief. It is that man whose faith in God has not become conviction in Him who fears the morrow and goes for the crumbs. My resignation generated uproar. Mr Ibru was shouting and sweating. He called me an ingrate, said he made me editor against the wishes of Macebuh and others. I replied that I didn't beg to be editor, or know of any intrigues he swept away for me. In any case, didn't I justify my appointment? Didn't the company become profitable in the first year of my editorship of the newspaper? Dr. Tuji Dare, Sully Abu and Eddy Madunagu did not attend the meeting, wishing to be identified as having even contemplated the idea, and having resigned their Board appointments hitherto. Mr Ososami, a director and childhood friend of Alex Ibru, brokered peace, advising we went for lunch during which rioting emotions would have calmed. We did. During lunch time, Alex Ibru was saved by Nicholas Iduwe, the director who managed printing aspects, from taking a rash decision that may have drowned The Guardian. Ibru told Iduwe he would call the bluff and make Andy Akporugo Managing Director. Iduwe screamed, and told Alex many reasons why he should not. He suggested instead that he mend fences with Bonuola. Alex Ibru saw reason through his anger, and agreed. But he made a bad unmanagerial mistake in telling Akporugo what Iduwe had said of him. Akporugo was angry, and waited for an opportunity to punish Iduwe. Iduwe and Alex Ibru soon had a disagreement. Ibru wanted directors of The Guardian to adjudicate. Bonuola declined on the grounds that the matter was private, not corporate enough to warrant our attention. Alex Ibru angrily transferred the inquisition to the directors of Federal Palace Hotel, a sister company of which he, also, was chairman. Those directors nailed Iduwe, calling for his retirement. Alex Ibru brought the "judgment" back to Bonuola, asking him to implement it. Bonuola declined again. Alex Ibru then got Mr Oritshani, Admin Controller to do the dirty job. The man did! Alex was determined to break this intransigence. But he didn't have the opportunity before his shooting. It was nevertheless on his mind, and, using Akporugo, it was one of his first acts on returning from exile in England. He dissolved the Board which had faithfully held the fort for him, turned directors into Consultants who were to only advise their juniors who were immediately upgraded as new helmsmen of the company. It was a way of telling the old guard that if they had any sense of shame, it was time to go. Some of us did.
There was jubilation in The Guardian. But I do not think it took long before the new helmsmen experience Mr Ibru. It is not my place to try to know what went on after my departure. I haven't set foot on the grounds of The Guardian since my exit about 13 years ago. A dog doesn't return to its vomit, it is said. But suffice it to say Mr Alex Ibru's departure would have as much profound effects on the company as his presence. The challenge before the new managers should be to turn it into a real institution, one with checks and balances, not the one that looks like one on the outside but is not within the perimeter fencing.
The best bet may be for the family to make it a PUBLIC TRUST as Alex Ibru so often dreamed. Maiden, the widow, should learn to be wary of all the do-gooder sympathisers. I send her and the Ibru brothers and sisters heart-felt wishes for inner strength to go through this season.
Bye, Alex.


--  
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222  (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com/
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
--
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