Ojogbon Globalization

Africa Happening! Bits & Pieces

2012-02-01T05:01:00.000-08:00

The paper below was written on October 1, 2010

It is an attempt to conceptualize African Independence, its challenges,breakthroughs, contemplation on the future, particularly for Nigeria and the 16 other countriesthat were 50 in 2010. Artisticexplorations of these questions were done by three young Nigerian artists, Stephen Adéyemí Folárànmí, Gbóládé Omidìranand Elohor Urhiafe-Bobson, all graduates of the Fine Arts Programme, Obafemi Awolowo University, in the City of Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome, Ph.D.

Professor of Political Science, African and Women'sStudies

Brooklyn College, CUNY

“Africa is Happening! Africa has beenHappening! Africa will continue to Happen!” (Steering Committee, Modern Africa Group 2010)

Introduction

Thisexhibition kicks off the Africa Happening! series of events this fall. It features the work of Stephen Adéyemí Folárànmí and Gbóládé Omidìran, both graduatesof the Fine Arts Programme, Obafemi Awolowo University, in the City of Ile-Ife,Nigeria. Africa Happening! was born outof an effort to envision and plan a multi-university event around the theme of“Africa at 50: Looking Back, Looking Forward”. At the time, the idea was to bring as many New York City metropolitanarea colleges/universities and institutions together to plan joint events thatwould foreground celebrating 50 years of 17 African countries’ independence, as well as consider challenges andbreakthroughs experienced and ongoing issues. The discussion inthis essay reflects the discussion at the first meeting as well as my ownobservations. It embellishes on ourobjective of re-theorizing andre-conceptualizing the continent (Allan 2010).

The firstmeeting of the Modern Africa Group was in the Summer of 2010 at Baruch College,CUNY. It included faculty from BaruchCollege, Hunter College, Brooklyn College, all part of CUNY, as well as SetonHall University and Metropolitan College; alumni from the Graduate Program inPolitical Science at Brooklyn College, and newly minted Ph.D. from the HistoryProgram at St. John’s University. Therewere also a film-maker, a retired ambassador, independent scholars andactivists. After much discussion aboutthe theme, we agreed on the title: “Modern Africa: Turning Points,Promises, Challenges.” Subsequently,Columbia University’s African Studies Institute expressed interest inparticipation, as did faculty from Adelphi University, Central Connecticut StateUniversity, New Britain, and new Ph.D.s from University of Connecticut atStorrs. The members of the group also include faculty from Sarah LawrenceCollege, Bronxville.

The 17 AfricanCountries at the 50-year mark of Independence

Particularly important in thinkingabout Africa at this historical juncture is the record of the seventeen Africancountries that gained their independence from colonial rule in 1960. Below is a list of the 17 African countriesfor whom this year is the 50^th year of independence, with theirdates of independence, and the metropolitan country from which they gainedindependence, as well as their Human Development Index (HDI) rankings. HDI draws on the idea that "Humandevelopment is about putting people at the centre of development. It is aboutpeople realizing their potential, increasing their choices and enjoying thefreedom to lead lives they value" (UNDP 2010). When considered in light of what ought toconstitute development, and why we should question orthodox/conventionalunderstandings, the African predicament evokes a determination to contribute toenvisioning a better future for succeeding generations, and ought not togenerate despair.

1. Republic of Cameroon, 1 January 1960France HDI: #149, Score--.497

2. Republic of Togo, 27 April 1960France HDI: #142, Score--.512

3. Republic of Mali, 20 June 1960France HDI: #175, Score--.333

4. Republic of Senegal, 20 June 1960France HDI: #158, Score--.458

5. Democratic Republic of Madagascar, 26June 1960 France HDI: #147, Score--.499

6. Democratic Republic of the Congo(Kinshasa), 30 June 1960 Belgium HDI: #168, Score--.385

7. Democratic Republic of Somalia, 1 July1960 Britain (NO HDI figures)

8. Republic of Benin, 1 August 1960France HDI: #163, Score--.431

9. Republic of Niger, 3 August 1960France HDI: #178, Score--.281

10. Popular Democratic Republic of BurkinaFaso, 5 August 1960 France HDI: #176, Score--.317

11. Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, (IvoryCoast) 7 August 1960 France: HDI: #164, Score--.42

12. Republic of Chad, 11 August 1960France HDI: #174, Score--.341

13. Central African Republic 13 August1960 France HDI: #172, Score--.355

14. Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville),15 August 1960 France HDI: #142, Score--.512

15. Republic of Gabon, 17 August 1960France HDI: #124, Score--.635

16. Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1 October1960 Britain HDI: #159, Score--.453

17. Islamic Republic of Mauritania, 28November 1960 France HDI: #153, Score--.477 (UNDP 2010) (About.com n.d.)

Development andStructural Violence

In the Social Sciences and Humanities,one of the measures useful for evaluating change is development, and I wouldlike to contemplate the question of the extent to which Africa has developed inthe last 50 years. There are verycomplex and complicated statistical indicators devised to present thisinformation, and considering the Human Development Index for example, one findsthat Africa lags behind other world regions. But as I see it, development cannot be conceptualized in a vacuum. The emergence of the concept: “development”is also indicative of a determination of terms of engagement with formerlycolonized countries by their former colonizers. Essentially, shifting the discourse blithely from domination andexploitation to development ignores structural violence—the overwhelmingmilitary power and exploitative economic hold of the Global North on the GlobalSouth as the basis of the Global North’s dominance and the Global South’smarginalization (Galtung 1971, Rajagopal 1999). Any talk of development without structuralchange on a worldwide scale then seems to be an exercise in futility. However, conventional development discourserefuses to entertain structural systemic change and focuses on phenomenaproduced by warped structural relations. Also, development goes beyond figures that record and document GrossDomestic Product (GDP) but is more in line with Amartya Sen’s conceptualizationof development as freedom: Amartya Senexplains:

Development requires the removal ofmajor sources of unfreedom: poverty as well as tyranny, poor economicopportunities as well as systematic social deprivation, neglect of publicfacilities as well as intolerance or overactivity of repressive states… Developmenthas to be more concerned with enhancing the lives we lead and the freedoms weenjoy. Expanding the freedoms that we have reason to value not only makes ourlives richer and more unfettered, but also allows us to be fuller socialperson, exercising our own volitions and interacting with – and influencing –the world in which we live... The issue of inequality relates centrally to thedisputes over globalisation. A crucial question concerns the sharing of thepotential gains from globalisation, between rich and poor countries, andbetween different groups within a country (Sen 1999).

Sincethe Human Development Report tries to do what Sen suggests in terms ofmeasuring development, we can consider the fact that the countries that bringup the rear in the most Human Development Index (February 2010) are African. The very last of the countries is one of our17 that are 50 this year: TheSeychelles, which is not on the list of our 17 50-year old African countriesscored highest in Africa, at number 51, with a score of .821. Central African Republic is number 172, andit has a score of .355. Numbers 124-172are African, with scores ranging from Morocco’s .631 to Ethiopia’s number 171and a score of .367. If you knowanything about statistical trends, you probably suspect that the top 10countries with the highest HDI rankings are European and the US.

Focusing on the 50 year mark, it is legitimateto consider African independence from colonialism in a manner that is somewhatlimited to the experiences of the 17 countries listed above. This is not to underestimate the need forholistic analysis inclusive of all African countries but to acknowledge that 50is symbolic in human life as a time when most people begin to retrospectivelyconsider how they have lived their lives and make plans on how to correct oldmistakes and resolve to do better. Thisis particularly important if they have missed the 40 year mark where they haveendeavored not to be a proverbial “fool at 40, (who) is a fool forever”. So, what do we see in Africa? It is important at the 50 year mark toconsider the challenges and breakthroughs that the continent and its peopleshave encountered in the last fifty years (Eshetu 2010). To do so, the record of African countries inthe period after independence should be considered.

The Paradox of Ageand its Multidimensionality

It is a paradox that Africa is the world’soldest inhabited territory, and yet, in 2010, 17 African nation-states havebeen independent for only 50 years. Theirexperience of the possibilities of liberation from colonial rule is significantbecause they are the largest number to experience independence in any singleyear. Considering their experiencepresents a special opportunity for reflection on the nature, form and meaning ofAfrica’s journey since the end of formal European colonization. We also see this as a unique opportunity to encouragethe envisioning what ought to happen, using the medium of the fine arts. Due to the disparity in power between Africans and the Europeans who colonizedthem, the struggle against colonialism and imperialism was necessarilywaged piecemeal, evoking the theme: Bitsand Pieces. Independence too was grantedin Bits and Pieces, and the struggle for development proceeds in Bits andPieces.

On Bits and Pieces

Many struggles were waged, livesgiven, sacrifices made for emancipation from the explicit racializedsubordination of formal colonialism. However, “decolonization” was onlypartial and imperialism did not end with formal independence. What have 50 years of independence fromcolonialism meant for Africans? What were the key mistakes made afterinheriting the colonial state? What breakthroughs have been made? What challenges remain? “Bits and pieces” constitutes an attempt tocontemplate some of the possible answers to these questions.

“Bits and pieces” suggest fracture,splitting up and fragmentation, possibly from a catastrophic encounter. But the phrase also evokes multiple positive possibilities—collage,mosaic, quilt, appliqué, montage, tableau, pastiche, installation,juxtaposition, piecing together fragmented bits and pieces to make a beautifulcollage, a gorgeous mosaic, a magnificent quilt and imaginative appliquéthrough the application of human imagination to creating a new and differentwhole that is more than the sum total of its parts. It is a historical fact that the fracturingof the continent’s peoples and pre-colonial states into bits and pieces ofEuropean-created nation states resulted from the imperialistic designs of latecolonization that began with the Berlin West Africa conference (1884-1885) slicedand diced, distorted and torn asunder Africa by European powers around aconference table where there was no African presence, but aspiring world powerslike the United States of America had observer status. It is also an incontrovertible fact that somepre-existing states survived the assault. Ethiopia for example did not experience formal colonization, albeit thiswas not for lack of European design.

A Bits and Pieces conception that emergesout of the understanding that humans make history but not under circumstancesthat they create or control could also express the hope that Africans can puttogether the Bits and Pieces created through European imperialist design as agorgeous mosaic/beautiful quilt/magnificent installation/imaginative montage.

The ongoingdestructiveness of Colonialism

Colonialism is one of the primechallenges that the African continent has faced. But we should also be mindful that it was avery short period—approximately two generations on the average (Rathbone 2007). And although it would be much too ignorant tobegin Africa’s experience of modernity with the colonial era, it would also bevery wrong to totally dismiss colonialism as a watershed period in thecontinent’s history. Indeed, themissionaries and traders preceded the colonialists to the African continent,and according to Taiwo, modernity, expressed as the desire to “civilize”Africans through the introduction of Western education and Christianity camefirst from the missionaries (Barnes 2009), and thesemissionaries were not just Europeans, but also included African recaptives,freedmen, and converts who never left the continent (Taiwo, How Colonialism Preempted Modernity in Africa 2010).

In the late 19^th Century,colonialism was suddenly, forcibly, and unpredictably imposed on the Africancontinent in a catastrophic and phenomenal manner, that was the more shockinggiven the tremendous progress and far-reaching revolutions experienced in thefirst eight decades of the 19^th Century. As a matter of fact, A. Adu Boahen tells usthat

An overwhelming majority of the statesand polities of Africa were in full control of their own affairs anddestinies…and by 1880 was in a mood of optimism and seemed poised for a majorbreakthrough on all fronts. By 1880 oldAfrica appeared to be in its dying throes and a new and modern Africa wasemerging (Boahen 1987)

African Resistance against Imperialism and Colonialism

Africans resisted, and we all haveheard of the valiant efforts of Samori Toure, the Ndebele and Shona, the Nandiin Kenya, Chief Mandume of the Ovambo, the Sokoto Caliphate, the Ashanti, theBaoule of Cote d’Ivoire until 1911; the Igbo of Nigeria until about 1919; TheDyula of Senegal until the 1920s; the Dinka of Southern Sudan until 1927;Muhammad Abdille Hassan of Somaliland until 1920; the resistance of the Bedouinagainst Italian colonialism via a guerilla war until 1931; Algeria resistedFrench domination for 17 years from 1830 to etc. We also are familiar with the Ethiopianexception. In the end, so few Europeanswere able to maintain the jackboot of colonialism on the African continent, andit is a mark of the success of colonialism that the map of Africa that was drawnduring the Berlin conference of 1884-1885 remains very much reflected in theAfrica of today. It is also a mark ofits success that Europe quickly followed up with the Scramble, a move thatlegitimized the abstract map-drawing in Berlin through the trading of, anddickering over territories in London, Paris, Berlin and other European capitalsby European leaders who knew next to nothing about the continent; demonstrationof “effective occupation” and the process of brutal pacification (Meredith 2005). So little did the Europeans know in fact,that Lord Salisbury, British Prime Minister of the time said: “We have beengiving away mountains and rivers and lakes to each other, only hindered by thesmall impediment that we never knew exactly where they were” (Meredith 2005, 2).

We all know the problems created bythe arbitrary ways in which Europeans drew the African map, jumbling togethervarious ethno-linguistic groups while dividing others in an equally arbitrarymanner. Approximately 10,000 Africanpolities were converted into 40 European colonies and protectorates at the endof the Scramble for Africa. Throughtreaties and conquest, Europeans established their rule on the continent and itspeoples. The French made out likeproverbial bandits, with 3.75 million square miles of land, the British closelyfollowed with approximately 2 million square miles (Meredith 2005, 2). The first and second World Wars saw Africansused as cannon fodder in European wars, and the continent’s territoriesshuffled between victor and vanquished among the Europeans. Various Indirect Rule schemes were used tomaintain European domination over their colonial territories. African chiefs were co-opted or created wherethey did not exist. We all know thisstory very well. An unintendedconsequence of both wars was the radicalization of Africans and thesolidification of their resistance to European colonization.

Despite its coercive, racist,exploitative and traumatic nature, colonialism represented threat for someAfricans and opportunity shortsighted for others. One must indeed be shortsighted to sell one’sheritage for a veritable “mess of pottage” or a mere pittance. Its impact was far from homogeneous buthighly varied and uneven on men and women, different colonies, at differentpoints in time, as well as on the young and old (Rathbone 2007, 91). The European Scramble for Africa involvedsome countries that had successfully begun to trade with Africa since the 15^thand 16^th Centuries such as Portugal, Holland, Britain andFrance. Germany, Italy and King Leopoldof the Belgium joined the party. Spainalso tried to secure what little it could. But this was not the only scramble going on, Africans too scrambled forterritory, using the aphorism: “theenemy of my enemy is my friend” as rationale in choosing alliances. The grab whatever you can and “the devil takethe hindmost” rationalization for predatory behavior ensured that whatevergains were made were mere Bits and Pieces. For the kind of extraordinary gains to be made by Africans that couldhave had transformative effect in the era of colonization required a level ofunity of purpose and concerted action that could not be achieved given thecircumstances prevalent in those times.

The Invention of Africa

The invention of Africa is an ideaabout which VY Mudimbe and others have written extensively (Mudimbe 1993). Rather than engage in deep analysis of howthe invention began and thrived, I observe that the invention could not be saidto have begun during colonialism but it was helped along by the process. It is clear that the occupants of thecontinent did not consider themselves as “Africans” before the advent ofcolonialism, but beginning from the 15^th Century efforts of thePortuguese during the “age of discovery”, when the territory was dubbed thus,it was regarded as such. The forcible removaland enslavement of 12-20 million Africans and their transportation to Europeand later the new world from the 16^th to the 19^thCenturies, meant the fusion of the notion of racial inferiority withAfrican-ness in the European imagination. Literature, Politics, economic relations and popular culture contributedto the negative invention. So didEuropean-derived Christianity and its Hamitic theory. But even in the dreadful circumstancesproduced by slavery, people of African descent rejected the vilification of thecontinent and its peoples. Pan-Africanism is one of the expressions that demonstrated thisrejection. Ghana, Mali, Songhai, theGreat Zimbabwe, Egypt and other examples of what could be termed the “Africangenius” even in the acephalous communities of Africa, there are notablecontributions to human progress. Preciselybecause colonialism was so onerous, independence could be considered arevolution (Boahen 1987).

Independence

Africansstruggled for independence with valor and vigor. They had great aspirations for freedom andself determination politically, they sought economic development. by 1945, Liberia, Egypt, South Africa andEthiopia were free from colonial rule (Ethiopia free from Italian domination in1941). Egypt was a British protectorateand South Africa ruled by a white minority government. By mid 1950s, most of North Africa wasindependent. Algeria was theexception. By the mid 1960s, most otherAfrican countries were independent. ThePortuguese however hung on for dear life, and the peoples of the areas theycolonized fought long wars of national liberation.

Even in the countries whereindependence resulted from negotiated settlement, there was militant tradeunion action, demonstrated by general strikes and work stoppages, (Dakar, 1946;Mombasa, Dar es Salaam in 1947; French West Africa 1947-8). There was also a peasant rebellion inMadagascar in 1947, there was widespread urban uprising in Gold Coast in 1948to demand self government, leading to its grant in 1951, and demand for fullindependence; in Kenya, the Land and Freedom movement whose Kikuyu word for anoath taken by adult men but generalized as requirement for all members wasdistorted by the British into Mau Mau (Elkins 2005), had armed uprisingsfrom 1952-1956; Cameroon experienced the same in 1956-58; Algeria in1954-62). Of course, harsh colonial repressionwas the response to all this resistance.

Nationalist resistance againstcolonialism was fueled by a refusal to succumb to domination, and it wasmanifested in many different ways, which luckily, have also been carefullydocumented. While we have many lamentsof enduring African proclivities toward disunity, it is actually possible tosee the resistance by ethnic nationalities of the embrace of the states createdonly through European imprimatur as alien and unacceptable, in spite of theirseeming permanence. Anti-colonialresistance also yielded multiple defeats. Samori Toure was captured, he died in exile. Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh was deposed andsent to a near-thirty year exile. Lobengula of the Ndebele lost his life while escaping from the Maximguns of the British South Africa Company’s forces in 1894. Unfair taxation, use of forced labor, drivesto increase commodity production and anti-African economic policies werehallmarks of colonialism that left deep marks on the continent.

Seek ye first the political kingdom and all other thingsshall be added unto you –Kwame Nkrumah

Euphoriaand great optimism followed independence with high hopes of life more abundantfor all. The desire for quick advancement and to catch up with the global Northwas pervasive in all independent countries. As just one example, more schools and higher education institutions wereestablished. These include UniversityColleges in Ibadan and Legon in 1948. In1951, Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda had universities. More universities followed. These contributed to the development ofAfrican historiography and “the decolonization of the African past”. The challenge of elusive legitimacy forAfrican leaders meant that those who led independence movements did not last asleaders committed to the well-being of their people. Independence did not produce immediate uhuru thechallenge of unity versus diversity.

Froma 20-20 hindsight perspective, we can now excoriate the nationalists of old forseeking political independence first and failing to realize that economic independenceis equally important. However, the Yorùbáhave a saying that is germane to illuminating the dilemma of being “caughtbetween the devil and the deep blue sea” or facing a Hobson’s choice: Bí owó ènìyàn kò bá te èèkù àdá, kò leè béèrèikú t’ó pa baba rè, meaning: if you donot have the hilt of a sword in hand, you dare not investigate your father’sdeath. This in essence means that if ifone is not well equipped, it is difficult to meaningfully investigate andavenge an injustice. One may need to seethe decision to fight for political independence first and hope that economicliberation will follow in this light. Anaccurate reading of Fanon’s statement about the duty of each generation says asmuch, as I will indicate later.

Whileyesterday’s colonization was experienced as physical presence of imperialistson African soil, today’s colonization is pushed by international capital.

Dates are important. They compel reflection about trends, currents,processes. 50 is a watershed year that most human societies considersignificant, and African Historiography informs us that the first wave ofAfrican nationalism could be taken as stretching from the late 1930s, or onecould date it from the mid 1950s to mid-1960s. The independence movementfrom the 1960s to the 70s constitutes a second wave (Iweriebor 2010). The third wave came subsequently. Wecould also consider a Modern Africa that existed for 40-50 years. But weshould avoid the danger of conceding that African history is externallyinduced, since this plays into a racist assumption of intellectual thought thatAfrica is not autonomous. Africa is our continent first and foremost, but whilewe know this intellectually, the dilemma is that Africans tend to acceptothers’ definition in all instances. We should deliberately refrain fromgoing along with outsiders to downplay our continent’s contributions to humanexperience, knowledge and learning. Doingthis contributes to a “Bits & Pieces” conceptualization of thecontinent. This is done for example,when we decapitate North Africa from Africa and maintain that North Africa isArab. It is also done when we separate out Sub-Saharan Africa fromSouthern Africa. It is ourresponsibility to resist others’ attempts to define us and to define ourselvesin a positive manner.

Economicchallenges abound as another paradox of an Africa that is the richest continentin natural resources. Yet, there is nomystery about poverty, and the ingredients for self development are also not amystery. Serious societies put development at the forefront of theirstruggle but Africans have accepted colonial characterizations to definethemselves. Ideological backwardness leaves room to being ruled from theoutside. It is indicative of the failure of independence that Africansare being dictated to by non-African countries. It is tragic that endogenous development processes are ignored due tobeing ruled by the agenda of neoliberal ideology through the “assistance” ofWorld Bank and IMF advisors (Iweriebor 2010).

One of thetragic consequences of Africa’s economic downturn from the mid 1970s to thepresent is the infrastructural decay of the educational apparatus and flight ofthe intelligentsia to countries that are more economically buoyant both in thecontinent, and especially in Europe and North America. How do we revive declined African tertiaryinstitutions? (Fasehun 2010, Williams 2010) ExchangePrograms are a newly popular medium. Philanthropy flowing from the Global North is another avenue. For Africans in the old and new diaspora, awillingness to give both material and intellectual assistance is key (Rowser 2010, Hudson 2010). In this respect, remittances have become thenew buzz word, and many are understandably impressed by the size of thesefinancial flows and especially by their proportion as a percentage of GNP foreach African country. However, no amountof private philanthropic effort, and no manner of remittance has the capacityto take the role of a state in the economy. If this were not the case, states of the Global North would not havestepped in to offer stimulus packages to their people when the World EconomicMeltdown struck. Were it not so, thesestates would not engage in any economic planning or policymaking whatsoever. Philanthropy may have its place, but so doeseffective and thoughtful policymaking and close attentiveness to the interestsof citizens, primary of which is well-being in all respects. Instead, a disjointed Bits and Piecesstrategy is pursued that is ultimately damaging.

Someelements of Bits and Pieces are evoked when one considers some of thestrategies devised to solve African problems. For example, AfricanUnion (AU), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and UN effortsexist and there are many brilliant ideas that have been generated over theyears but there is little evidence of their implementation. Some of the problem is created by inadequate finance. An example is UNESCO’s 35 year effort to write an 8-volume history of Africafinished in 1999 but there was no interest to use these books in all Africancountries. Only in 2009 was a program funded by Libya to teach Africanhistory on a common platform. History and culture are foundational butthere are no takers yet to actualize the teaching of African history asconceived above. In addition, the AU has established many organizations,for example, African Academy of Languages in Bamako, Mali; Centre forTechnology, Lagos, Nigeria; Centre for Oral History and Tradition, Niamey,Niger. The AU is looking foropportunities to synergize with the Diaspora. AU has defined the Diasporaas its 6^th region due to the resources, finance, expertise andexperience that reside there. Some African American organizationsare already connected, e.g. World Africa Diaspora Union (WADU), which gottogether to work with AU. WADU however is dominated by African Americansand does not include other African Diasporas. The recent African Diasporais riddled by the same fissures, linguistic, regional, etc. (Williams 2010)

Some wonder how we can bring down thebarriers in the Diaspora and Africa, especially those created by colonialdependency and linkages. They wonderwhether people in the Diaspora can help to overcome the challenges. Buthow is this to be done? What does the Diaspora gain from thisrelationship? Many studies exist, some sponsored by the ECA, and it’s importantnot to work in a vacuum. There are many centers in Africa for avariety of subjects. The MDGs also incorporate several issues that havebeen with us as challenges. We should determine the issues we want toconcentrate on and make an impact. We should also think of how to buildsynergies that take into account what others are doing. We need tofurther reflect to pinpoint where, when, and what we would like to concentrateupon. One possible area is the educational system in Africa. In therating of universities worldwide, most of the top 500 in the world are in SouthAfrica. Association of African Universities in Accra documentedthis. What can be done to help? How do we get the Diaspora to collaboratein the transfer knowledge? (Williams 2010).

One answer is that rather than trying to doeverything—an overwhelming process under any circumstances, we should bespecific and garner theoretical foundations from what’s been said so far, andthen look to practical and pragmatic concerns. There are myths fromgeography, history, economics, about power and powerlessness, poverty andwealth. What is the point of intervention? We should pay attentionto the core issues and how to transform these compelling problems. SierraLeone is an example of a country that went from a promising state, especiallyconcerning human resources to becoming a basket case. In the academy, oneobserves also the decline of Africa as organizing principle, and rise of theDiaspora as a concept (Allan 2010).

African autonomous responses to economic crisis.

We also tend to ignore or be unaware of themultiple developments created and sponsored by Africans independently of thedominant external governments. However, thinking about the meaning andessence of independence requires that past activism of African countries shouldbe noted. The African Priority Program for Economic Recovery and Development(APPAERD) was developed to foreground an Africa agenda for development. It was distorted and the United Nations Program for African Development (UNPAD)was substituted. The Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) was also focused on prioritizingregional development. Its writing was led by Professor AdebayoAdedeji. Instead, the Structural Adjustment Program SAP was pushed by theWest. IMF and World Bank development experts on Africa recommended somebad programs that caused numerous problems and the reversal of development butthey neither apologized nor acknowledged their role in causing problems. Their emissaries see themselves as some kind of Ambassadors-at-Large who wouldrather liaise directly with Presidents and Prime Ministers rather than bureaucrats,and they have had the opportunity to do this. We should think of annualevents to focus on African challenges and bring policymakers and academicstogether (Fasehun 2010).

AsAfricans, we also must look forward. What lies in the future? Africansshould envision what they think should happen in the continent. We shouldstrategize about how to realize their aspirations and dreams in thefuture. Now, fifty years after “the Year of African Independence” we taketime to share, to learn and to educate, tomobilize and organize, in our own interest to create positive change for allAfricans. There is a need for increased awareness and attentivenessto the representation of Africa in the popular imagination with a view tocountering Anti-African representations (Steering Committee, Modern Africa Group 2010). Negative representation is also pervasive in politicalanalysis, and it is not a luxury for Africans to develop our capacity forpolitical analysis in order to not only challenge negativities but to producein a proactive way, our own autonomous analysis of our politics in a mannerthat enhances our independence from colonization. We should do this while imagining a betterpolitical future that is truly free of colonial domination. (Steering Committee, Modern Africa Group 2010).

Today, Globalization seems to becolonialism in a different garb, and Africa is still laboring under colonialistdomination of multinational capital and its proxies, often with the cooperationof states that are insufficiently responsive to the needs of their people. Many observers have also claimed that one orthe other of Africa’s post-colonial governments is more akin to its colonialprecursor than to the people with whom it shares common origin.

AsAfricans, we also need to realize that all is not lost. The artists in the “Bits & Pieces” exhibitionwere trained at the Obafemi Awolowo University, and they graduated during thedark days of Structural Adjustment. Theyare skilled, they are talented, they are hopeful, they are optimistic. One of them is here in the US, while tworemained at home. Both have become apart of shaping and preparing the youth for careers in the Fine Arts, one as aUniversity lecturer, and the other as a Studio Artist. The third trained as a teacher in ArtEducation. All three have pursued theirpassion and dreams and are practicing artists. All three, including the two who remained in Nigeria are successful professionalswhose work can be categorized as part of the avant garde in the corpus ofcontemporary African art. Their work isat once beautiful and thought provoking. It is decorative and inspirational. It is expressive as well as contemplative. They use manifold media in very imaginativecombinations. They give us hope thatthere is much to be excited about in Africa. They inspire us to know that there is a generation of Africans who valuethe culture and capture it in a manner that is visually arresting. While we should zero-in and look at what madeothers develop, we should also attend to how we can re-create ourselves toachieve our own dreams and aspirations. The fine arts are one means ofdoing this, particularly in an inspirational manner.

Genderequity, conceptualized as the norm of complementarity between men and women,was a part of pre-colonial African society. Our imagined future should therefore engage and foreground gender equity. Many of the works in this exhibition presentboth the male and female form, engaged in work, leisure, and the activities ofdaily life. We focus on practical andpragmatic concerns. There are myths from geography, history, economics,about power and powerlessness, poverty and wealth. We should payattention to the core issues that we must engage and imagine how to transform ourlives in a more positive direction.

The 21^stCentury can be seen as the New African Century. But while China’spresence in Africa is making the US more concerned about its Africa policy, we whohave always been engaged in envisioning African independence should take stockof what this means for the future (Brown 2010). What do the50 years mean?

Some meaningcan be derived from a readingof Fanon:

Each generation must discover itsmission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity. In the underdeveloped countries precedinggenerations have simultaneously resisted the insidious agenda of colonialismand paved the way for the emergence of the current struggles. Now that we are in the heat of combat we mustshed the habit of decrying the efforts of our forefathers or feigningincomprehension at their silence or passiveness. They fought as best they couldwith the weapons they possessed at the time, and if their struggle did notreverberate throughout the international arena, the reason should be attributednot so much to a lack of heroism but to a fundamentally different internationalsituation. More than one tribe had torebel, more than one peasant revolt had to be quelled, more than onedemonstration to be repressed, for us today to stand firm, certain of ourvictory. For us who are determined to break the back of colonialism, ourhistoric mission is to authorize every revolt, every desperate act, and everyattack aborted or drowned in blood (Fanon 1961).

According to Basil Davidson in anepilogue titled “African Destinies” in TheAfrican Genius, a book written in 1969,

In the end it will be a matter ofknowing how the civilization of the past can be remade by a new and boldvision. The Africans sorely need theirmodern revolution: profound and far reaching in creative stimulus, unleashingfresh energies, opening new freedoms. The world’s experience may help. But the structures that are needed will have to stand on their own soil. Perhaps this is only another way of sayingthat these new structures, as and when they emerged will be nourished by thevigour and resilience of native genius, by all the inheritance of self-respectand innovating confidence that has carried these peoples through past centuriesof change and cultural expansion (Davidson 1969).

Rather than engage in the easy exercise ofdenouncing past and present actors, we should consider what we are doing tochange Africa. Are we repeating the Africa is incapable discourse? It is the responsibility of every conscious element of every generation tocontribute to progress. We should mark major turning points and design acommon agenda and vision. What is lacking now is an Africa-thought outagenda for its own self-development and rallying forces around it. It ispart of our defeat that we coalesce around others’ agenda. We shouldreflect on the past and identify “where the rain began to beat us”, where weneed to go on. Superficially, all you hear about Africa isnegations. There are subjective perceptions that differ from objectivereality. Sierra Leone from the 19^th Century to the present isan example of painful nation building. We need to learn from our own history,but we don’t. Every society must go through defining moments. Thereis no mystery about solutions. Neither Afro pessimism nor Afro optimismis relevant; these are externally created concepts and are classical examplesof Western binary thought. African thought is different since it’smulti-linear and does not focus on the conflict of binary opposites. Whatis the objective reality in Africa? What is actually happening? Wecan look at the example of Nollywood: an example of African autonomouscapitalism for self-development. It belies everything said about Africaand Nigeria, and has become the third largest film industry in the world (Iweriebor 2010).

Conclusion

The Art exhibition, Africa Happening! Bits & Pieces shows us thatNollywood is by no means an isolated phenomenon. It also enables us to consider many of theissues germane to African independence via the lenses of artistic expression, featuring on the beautiful, challengingdiversity of Africa as well as continuity and change, from the imagination ofsome of the continent’s young artists. What we see in this exhibition is all the more exciting because theseartists were trained in the continent and their work is infused by theircultural knowledge and experiences.

Attemptsto solve problems in the African continent, particularly by the internationalcommunity and development experts reflect a dismissive attitude toward Africansand a valorization of non Africans, particularly in the quest for expertise,nanalysis, evaluation, explication of problems and proposal of solutions. Thus, where there are two similarly matchedpersons in all respects, including training, experience and expertise, oneAfrican and the other from the Global North, the Global Northerner is likely tobe privileged over the African as a source of knowledge, information, cuttingedge analysis, and insight. Where thetwo are African, the person with training in an institution located in theGlobal North is privileged, even if the subject matter is Africa. Where one of the two Africans is male and theother female, the male is likely to be considered more expert. Until the structural conditions that makesuch decisions routine are eradicated, and conventional power and genderconsiderations are rendered irrelevant, we would be doing serious disservice toall of humanity. More importantly,considered from the perspective of Africa’s 50-year independence, it is abouttime that its peoples took the lead in autonomously thinking about, or reallyre-thinking the solutions to its problems, and leading the efforts to implementpolicies to actualize the well-being of all. Thus far, independence is yet to yieldautonomy. When the nation states in thecontinent have encountered the normal problems such as ethnic, religious,communal and civil wars, and any number of challenges, the expert poolconsulted tends to blame the victims and abstract the African experience fromthe proper context—some experiences are human, even if they areundesirable. Human beings rarely learnthe lessons of history, and old mistakes are made over and again. Africans need to take the Bits and Pieces ofour history after colonialism and create objects of beauty that inspire us,encourage us, and make our lives better. This exhibition encourages us to consider these possibilities.

Present at the first meeting were:

Professor Tuzyline Jita Allan	Dr. Fahamisha Patricia Brown
Ms. Iman Drammeh	Ms. Amrotae Eshetu
Dr. Orobola Fasehun	Dr. Fredline M’Cormack-Hale
Ms. Nicole Hudson	Professor Ehiedu Iweriebor
Professor Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome	Dr. Candice Rowser
Gen. Ishola Williams (Rtd.)
Joining the efforts later, and helping to further conceptualize in the Steering Committee are:
Ms. Bosede Adenekan	Dr. Nkechinyelum Chioneso
Ms. Iman Drammeh	Ms. Nicole Hudson
Ms. Divine Muragijimana	Dr. Dolapo Niell
Dr. Chaka Uzondu

Dr.Lynda Day participated in some of the Steering Committee meetings and in hercapacity as Endowed Women’s Studies Chair, will organize some events in theSpring under the auspices of the Women’s Studies Program.

Othermembers of the group are:

Dr. Rashidah Ismaili AbuBakr	Bandele Adeyemi
Dr. Kwame Akonor	Dr. Ousseina Alidou
Dr. Melanie Bush	Dr. Roderick Bush
Dr. Yuusuf Caruso	Mr. Kunmi Demuren
Dr. Mary Dillard	Mr. Cervat Dargin
Dr. Darling	Dr. Orobola Fasehun
Ms. Nosarieme Garrick	Ms. Binta Hassan
Mr. Wuyi Jacobs	Dr. Aderemi Ogundiran
Ms. Khady Seck	Dr. Toks Sofola
Ms. Bukola Shonuga	Mr. Ekerete Udoh

We are grateful toProfessor Joseph Wilson, Director of the BrooklynCollege, Department of Political Science’s Graduate Center for WorkerEducation, for offering us the exhibition space at 25 Broadway, NY. This location in the Wall St. area, at theheart of the city’s financial district, and opposite the iconic bull sculpture makesit possible to have a central location. We also thank Professor JuanCarlos Mercado Dean of the City College Center for Worker Education, whograciously gave us an extension up to the end of the month of October for theexhibition. Finally, we thank AnnieLondon, Yoshi for their support and assistance.

Bibliography

About.com. "A Chronological List ofIndependence Dates for Africa." About.com: African History.http://africanhistory.about.com/library/timelines/blIndependenceTime.htm(accessed August 7, 2010).

Allan, Tuzyline. "First Meeting of the Modern AfricaGroup." New York, 2010.

Barnes, Andrew. Making Headway: The Introduction ofWestern Civilization in Colonial Northern Nigeria. Rochester, NY:University of Rochester Press, 2009.

Boahen, Adu. African Perspectives on Colonialism.Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987.

Brown, Fahamisha. "First Meeting of the Modern AfricaGroup ." New York, 2010.

Davidson, Basil. The African Genius. Oxford: JamesCurrey, 1969.

Elkins, Caroline. The Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Storyof Britain's Gulag in Kenya. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2005.

Eshetu, Amrotae. "First Meeting of the Modern AfricaGroup." New York, 2010.

Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York:Grove Press, 1961.

Fasehun, Orobola. "First Meeting of the Modern AfricaGroup." New York, 2010.

Folaranmi, Stephen A. Art is good. Ile-Ife: Self,2111.

Galtung, Johan. "A structural theory ofimperialism." Journal of Peace Research 8 (1971): 80-118.

Hudson, Nicole. "First Meeting of the Modern AfricaGroup." New York, 2010.

Iweriebor, Ehiedu. "First Meeting of the Modern AfricaGroup." New York, 2010.

Meredith, Martin. The Fate of Africa: A History of FiftyYears of Independence. New York: Public Affairs, 2005.

Mudimbe, V.Y. The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy,and the Order of Knowledge . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.

Rajagopal, Balakrishnan. "International Law and theDevelopment Encounter: Violence and Resistance at the Margins." 93RDAmerican Society of International Law Proceedings. 1999. 16.

Rathbone, Parker&. African History: A Very ShortIntroduction. NY: Oxford, 2007.

Rowser, Candice. "First Meeting of the Modern AfricaGroup." New York, 2010.

Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom . New York :Anchor Books, 1999.

Steering Committee, Modern Africa Group. "ConceptPaper." Brooklyn, NY, July 30, 2010.

Taiwo, Olufemi. How Colonialism Preempted Modernity inAfrica. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.

UNDP. "Economy Statistics > Human Development Index(most recent) by country." Nationmaster.com. February 2010.http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_hum_dev_ind-economy-human-development-index(accessed August 31, 2010).

—. "Human Development Report 2010." 20thAnniversary Edition. 2010. http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2010/(accessed August 31, 2010).

Williams, Ishola Gen (Rtd). "First Meeting of the ModernAfrica Group." New York, 2010.

Globalization And The Impact Of Dislocation And Population Movement On The Creative Process

2012-01-28T06:03:00.000-08:00

Thispaper was presented in a panel discussion in 2004, for a conference organizedby women writers of African descent, "YariYari Pamberi: Conference of Black Women Writers from all over the Globe"(October 12-16). The venue was New York University. I was invitedto participate by one of my aunties, Dr.Rashidah Ismaili AbuBakr. Iwas as usual, very much embroiled in the "busyness" of everyday life,but given that I love and respect Aunty Rashidah, I agreed--withtrepidation. Why trepidation? I am not what an old, good friendcalls a "Lit Crit", her shorthand for literary critic and creativewriter. The panel discussion was to center around "The culturalinteraction and adjustments of writers in exile and writers who have immigratedto other locations." I felt therefore obliged to channel"Lit Crit" type energy and write a short story. This is not atrue story but a pure fictional treatment derived from imaginative storytelling. Afterall, I listened to many stories while a child inNigeria.

I also felt ambivalent aboutdesignating myself an exile. In fact, I could only be considered aneconomic exile because the vagaries of the international political economy andthe effects it had on Nigeria had marooned me in the United States, making mewonder, can I go home anymore? Don't get me wrong, I am always travelingto Nigeria, so, I am not talking about going home in a literal sense. Mymusing is instead about whether or not home remains the same for asojourner.

This is a subject that I take up inmy contribution to the newly published book, West African Migrations: Transnationaland Global Pathways in a New Century. Edited by MojúbàolúOlúfúnkéOkome and OlufemiVaughan andpublished by Palgrave Macmillan. You can click on the following links to see the book on the Palgrave website inthe UK and the Macmillan website in the US respectively:

http://www.palgrave.com/Products/title.aspx?pid=537937

http://us.macmillan.com/westafricanmigrations/Moj%C3%BAb%C3%A0ol%C3%BAOl%C3%BAf%C3%BAnk%C3%A9Okome

Here's the table of contents forthose who don't want to bother to click on any links:

Chapter 1: West AfricanMigrations and Globalization: Introduction - Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome and OlufemiVaughan

Chapter 2: "You can’t gohome no more," Africans in America in the Age of Globalization - Mojúbàolú OlúfúnkéOkome

Chapter 3: TransnationalIdentity Formation as a Kaleidoscopic Process: Social Location, Geography, andthe Spirit of Critical Engagement - Samuel Zalanga

Chapter 4: What to Wear? Dressand Transnational African Identity - Elisha P. Renne

Chapter 5: InsurgentTransnational Conversations in Nigeria’s ‘Nollywood’ Cinema - Peyi Soyinka-Airewele

Chapter 6: Centripetal forces:Reconciling cosmopolitan lives and local loyalty in a Malian transnationalsocial field - BruceWhitehouse

Chapter 7: Towards an AfricanMuslim Globality: The Parading of Transnational Identities in Black America - Zain Abdullah

Chapter 8: African MigrantWorker Militancy in the Global North: Labor Contracting and Independent WorkerOrganizing in New York City - Immanuel Ness

Chapter 9: TransnationalMemories and Identity - Titilayo Ufomata

Chapter 10: ArrestedNationalism, Imposed Transnationalism and the African Literature Classroom: OneNigerian Writer’s Learning Curve - Pius Adesanmi

The cover image is by Stephen Adeyemi Folaranmi "Four Friends and Me", 2006, acrylic on canvas

My chapter's title: "You can’t gohome no more," Africans in America in the Age of Globalization"explores many of the issues considered in this attempt at fiction. I havea disclaimer: Nothing in the following story is to be taken as a factualrepresentation of the life of anyone, living or dead. It is purely theproduct of my imagination.

I began my presentationthus:

The topic of this panel immediatelybrings to my mind, the words of Psalm 137, reiterated in Boney M’s “By theRivers of Babylon”. By the Rivers of Babylon is a hymn of national mourning,according to a Jewish source from the evidence reproduced below. It isalso evident from reading the Psalm that this is an expression mourning, alament about exile. So like many other writers, I decided to use Babylonas a creative device to speak of the exile of Africans and the toll that theongoing diasporization could take.

The destruction of the state and theTemple and the exile to Babylonia (6th-5th centuries, B.C.E ) were traumaticexperiences that produced extensive literature expressing desires for revenge,stirrings of repentance, expressions of anguish and lament, and a yearning tobe reconciled with God and restored to the land of Judah. Outstanding in thisliterary outpouring is Psalm 137 (best known by its opening words "By therivers of Babylon"), a hymn of national mourning.

By the rivers of Babylon, there wesat, sat and wept, as we thought of Zion.

There on the willows we hung up ourlyres,

for our captors asked us there forsongs, our tormentors, for amusement,"Sing us one of the songs ofZion."How can we sing a song of the Lord on alien soil?If I forget you, OJerusalem, let my right hand wither;let my tongue stick to my palate if I ceaseto think of you,if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory even at my happiesthour.Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem's fall;howthey cried, "Strip her, strip her to her very foundations!"FairBabylon, you predator,a blessing on him who repays you in kind what you haveinflicted on us;a blessing on him who seizes your babiesand dashes them againstthe rocks.

Psalm 137 has been attributed byrabbinic sources to the prophet Jeremiah, placing him "at the rivers ofBabylon" either at the very beginning of the exile or at the very end;many modern scholars refute this view. In his scholarly article on Psalm 137,James Kugel discusses the complexity in pinpointing this poem's authorship andperiod of composition.[1]Severalscholars have claimed that the harp-playing weepers by the rivers of Babylonwere not an abstract personification, but the levitic singers, whom theircaptors forced to join the other exotic court orchestras that the Assyrian andBabylonian kings kept for entertainment. After the return from Babylon, theseorchestras served as the prototype for Temple music established in Jerusalem.Music as a sacred art and an artistic sacred act was gradually given its placein the organization of the Temple services, but not without a power strugglebetween the levites and the priests. It has been suggested that thedescriptions of the numbers and performance of the levitic singers may havebeen exaggerated so as to afford prestige for the levitic singers, and for thesame reason, the poem "By the waters of Babylon" may have beeninserted in the collection of Psalms.

WHY THEY CRIED AT THE RIVER

The midrash offers us anotherinsight: "Why did Israel see fit to weep along the rivers of Babylon? R.Yohanan said: The river Euphrates killed more people among the Israelites thanthe wicked Nebuchadnezzar had killed. For when Israel had been dwelling in theLand of Israel, they drank only rain water, running water and spring water;when they were exiled to Babylon they drank the water of the Euphrates, andmany of them died."[2]Writes Prof.Kugel: "This explanation, perhaps rooted in reality a well as biblicaltexts (see Jeremiah 3:18), connects the weeping in Babylon with that weeping'scause: there was where we sat down and wept because it was there, at the riverof Babylon, that more of us died than had died even at the hands ofNebuchadnezzar. It is to be noted that such a reading not only justified the emphatic'there,' but gives new meaning to the psalm's opening words 'al naharot bavel'meaning not so much 'by' or 'beside' Babylon's river as because of Babylon'srivers we sat down and wept, for they were the cause of our greatestsuffering."[3]

A Jewish reference can be found at: By theRivers of Babylon (Psalm 137) I: A Hymn of National Mourning

And a Biblical reference at: Psalm 137 :: King James Version (KJV)

There are also songs that give amelodious interpretation. Below are two versions, one by The Melodians and theother by Boney M.

RIVERS OFBABYLON by The Melodians

Boney MRivers of Babylon, 1978

And now I return to the topic athand: Globalization And The Impact Of Dislocation And Population MovementOn The Creative Process: The cultural interaction and adjustments of womenwriters in exile and writers who have immigrated to other locations.

Where do I begin? What do I say? Howcan I express it? What does it all mean? It was a New York Fall morning. It wasjust after rush hour on the number two line going uptown in Manhattan. A young,beautiful, well-dressed black woman came out of the train. The train sped off.She crossed to the opposite side of the tracks, looked toward the directionfrom which the train should come, saw a train speeding toward the station, andpromptly jumps onto the track in the path of the oncoming train. The trainscreeched to a stop inches from her. The driver jumps down. Hands reached downto the track and pulled her up. She looked dazed. Inside, she was disappointedbecause she had hoped to die. The train operator kept asking her, Why? Why? Whydid you do this? She remained mute. Finally, an ambulance arrived and she wasled away. She spent the next month at a psychiatric hospital. This young womanwas en route to the university where she was a Ph.D. student. She was marriedwith one child. She lived in a middle class suburb of New York City. She wasloved by her entire family. She had completed all the coursework for her degreeand was studying for the comprehensive exams. Her grades were well aboveaverage. What happened? What was wrong? What could possibly make a woman withsuch a promising future decide to do something so destructive? This was whatthe psychiatrist tried to tease out of her for the entire month that she was inthe hospital. By the time she left, neither the psychiatrist nor herself wasany wiser as to the whys and wherefores. She still regretted not having died.

The young woman was an Africanimmigrant that had been in the US for three years. She was deeply unhappy everysingle second of those three years because she felt like a fish out of water.It wasn’t the food and it wasn’t the people around her. It wasn’t the pressureof school work, as a matter of fact, that was a welcome relief. It waseverything. She constantly wondered, what am I doing here? She dearly longed toreturn home. For her husband who was very supportive and loving, how could theypossibly afford to pay for the airline ticket on their meager resources, whichwould be better spent paying for necessities like rent, food, clothing,childcare, school fees and transportation? Some patience, some perseverance,some more sacrifice, and they could finish school in flying colors and go backhome in style, having garnered the precious golden fleece like the heroes inone of those tales that were first recorded in ancient Greek mythology, talesof course, that as educated Africans, they knew better than their own ancestraltales that were passed down by word of mouth, a treasure trove of orature, butonly the truly educated could possibly know this, not the mis-educated productsof postcolonial African educational systems.

The young woman knew all this in herhead – home was something that had to wait. Much preparation and sacrifice wasstill to be endured. Her heart however, did not understand it. She wanted herfamily, a loving, supportive community that extended beyond the nuclear familyof husband, child and herself, a culture wherein she was understood andaccepted, contradictions and all. She wanted to go home. Being in America, theland of opportunities was for her, imprisonment, exile, misery personified. Hercreativity was stifled, although she still passed all exams. Her heart wasbroken. She had no support system to speak of, and lost the capacity toarticulate what the problem was. She turned within herself and began toconverse with herself. She even argued vociferously with herself. She could nolonger sleep well. She could no longer eat. She was tormented and conflicted.Her whole life up to this point had been consumed with getting a goodeducation. She had planned to become a tenured professor before she turnedthirty, and was determined to accomplish her goal. However, now, life had lostall meaning. All former purposeful actions had become irrelevant. She wasbroken.

Getting to the heart of what causedall the problems ended up taking up to two decades to sort out. In themeantime, our young immigrant woman graduated with her Ph.D., got a job rightaway, published books and articles, got tenured, became respected in her field.She also tried to commit suicide four times. She took years of thisanti-depressant or the other. She tried the talking cure. She prayed ferventlyto God to show her the purpose for her life. Why was she spared? What would ittake to be happy? She was now able to go home on visits. She noticed that sheanticipated the home-going passionately and felt elated and at peace while backat home, only to be deflated and miserable when she returned to "God’s owncountry". She realized that she was in Babylon and was stuck. She was acaptive in a strange land and could not possibly sing the Lord’s song asentertainment to those who held her in bondage. But how could this womanrationally be said to be in bondage? She was accomplished, gifted, talented,educated, liberated, the epitome of today’s hybridized global citizen.

What had brought our young woman toAmerica? She came for education, in search of the proverbial “golden fleece”.She chose this university because she bought into the hype about it being oneof the finest institutions of higher learning in the United States of America.Everyone was nice, but nobody was warm. She made no friends, but had plenty ofacquaintances. The professors were polite but not interested in mentoring her.This is what brought the first self doubt – she wanted to apply for afellowship. This is a classic "rivers of Babylon situation". How cana person be happy, fulfilled, and creative in a strange land? Creativitynecessarily demands centeredness, belongingness,

This necessarily brings up one oftoday’s most used buzzwords: globalization. Our young woman eventually figuredout sans therapists and psychiatrists that she was driven to come to America bythe powerful draw of globalization. She was kept there by globalization and sheself-liberated from globalization by re-connecting with her source, her origin,what makes her unique and special – mother Africa. The reconnection is notunproblematic, because going home, time and again, she discovered that it istrue what LouRawls and George Benson’s lyrics say: “you can’t go home no more, your pastis dead, dead and gone, they tore down the house where you were born.” Most ofthe things she longed for in her nostalgic desire for home had either losttheir appeal, or they’d changed irreversibly, and she was forced to figure outwhat exactly made home home. To bring things away from the personal to thegeneral, what is globalization, and how does it affect the creative process?

There are a few possible effects,but they cannot be homogenized. The effects are determined by a woman’s classand race, and possibly status. What does this mean? It’s possible forglobalization to cause not dislocation, but re-location. Some African women area part of the chosen few, those who are actively sought-after and recruited totake well-paying jobs and prominent leadership positions, and they can pick andchoose which opportunities to pursue. Other African women are not at this stageyet, but they are in training for becoming desired. Our young woman whoseabbreviated story I told left Africa in hopes of becoming prominent. Yet otherAfrican women can only hope to move, not anywhere in the world, but to someother African country and some of these are recruited too. Another group ofAfrican women would leave the continent “by any means necessary” and they arewilling preys for well-paid staff of multilateral organizations like the UnitedNations, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund as candidates for domesticservice. Another category of these same women are daily recruited into theinternational sex trade as trafficked persons. Yet another set are drugcouriers. There are also African women who are dislocated by war and conflictto become refugees in just about any country that would take them. One moregroup is imposed by those who flee from political oppression and persecution bythe state. They become exiles, and again, would go anywhere there is refuge.There are finally, African women who never leave home but are still dislocatedby globalization, a relentless economic force that changes the nature of homeand hearth, that causes both poverty and affluence, and if they are afflictedby the former effect, poverty, they are forced too, to survive “by any meansnecessary”, and they do, every living moment.

What are the effects ofglobalization on the creativity each of the seven categories of women? Thefirst, the desired category of women may very well jump into the global frayeagerly and land on their two feet and immediately begin to produce creativeworks of art, literature, and so forth. They don’t miss a beat. The danger forthem is that their creativity is bounded up by the demands of the job, thegrant, the workshop, the conference, the career. They produce, may be prolific,may be recognized worldwide, but should rightly lament and mourn. “by theRivers of Babylon” should be their theme song because they are studk in astrange land and must sing in response to the demands of those who carried themoff into captivity. Of course, these gifted and desired women are not knockeddown and dragged at gunpoint to take their important jobs. They’re insteadwooed and attracted, bound by silken cords to the oppressors’ realm. The “desiredin waiting” category of women could become successful and become what they wishfor. They could also run into problems as our beginning story so clearlyillustrates. The same possibilities await them as those for the successfulwomen.

Women who are forced to move toanother African country because they are not in the “A” class of the desiredmay experience the fate of the first group, but may not yet be able to morequickly find a niche that nurtures and rewards their creativity than if theyhad been pushed to the West. They may also find as Nigerians and other Africansdo in South Africa that they are resented and rebuffed. One possibility notraised thus far is that hostility and brutality can and do strengthen people.As the Yoruba say, “Adanilóró f’agbára kó ni,” that is: one’s tormentor teachesone to be strong. They may rise above the compulsions and hostilities thatmarginalize them and be creative in spite of and in response tomarginalization.

What are the possibilities for thosewho leave Africa “by any means necessary”? As some one else’s domestic servant,what happens to creativity? One could rise above adversity, realize one’s hopesand dreams and challenge all the stereotypes about what one’s ultimate hopesand dreams should be. This would be the experience of a minute minority. As asex worker, what are one’s possibilities? As a trafficked person, what arethey? There are some stories of "successful" sex workers who buildfabulous mansions in their villages or towns of origin and themselves becomeindependent madams who recruit other women into the trade. Yet others, andthese others are the majority, make no headway, succumb to sexually transmitteddiseases and all that this entails, and suffer all manner of indignity. Can they go home? Can even the "successful" sex worker gohome? What might that home be?

For a refugee, exile, and adislocated victim of globalization, what happens? The possibilities cannot bepredicted a priori. The only right starting point is as a first step, to resistoppression by refusing to entertain the tormentors, the oppressors, the brutaldominators by not singing the Lord’s song in a strange land. If they don’t singthe Lord’s in a strange land, are they thereby silenced? No! It is actuallysuccumbing to singing the Lord’s song in the strange land that is a desecrationbecause it would be a gratification of the desire of their oppressors forreducing sacred hymns of worship to songs for sheer entertainment. As suggestedby the very first reference to “The Rivers of Babylon in this paper, resistanceand fighting back are the right responses.

This means African women who aredislocated, re-located and moved from home must necessarily dig deep toexcavate and rehabilitate their connections with home. They can create supportsystems through making new friendships and forming new kinds of family thatdraw upon African indigenous systems of building family and friendship. Theymust build new institutions that foster and support creativity. They must bewilling to recognize, acknowledge and assist fellow exiles and write songs offreedom in the multiply possible forms that exist – poetry, prose, fiction,non-fiction, textbooks, monographs, paintings, protests, memoranda, arts,crafts. They must ensure that they make an impact on the world and effectchange. Since globalization is an inexorable process, they must use itsinnovations to project their voice and to build new transnational communitiesthat cannot be bound, cannot be controlled, constrained or curtailed by Babylon.This of course is easier said than done, but that being said, it is notimpossible. To connect with creativity in spite of being captive in Babylon isthe sweetest revenge. As our young woman’s story demonstrates, this is atreacherous path. As her story demonstrates, it is not an impossible path tosuccessfully traverse.

Governance, Politics and Women’s Participation in Politics: Implications for Current and Future Leadership by Nigerian Women

2012-01-27T02:59:00.000-08:00

Continued from January 26 blog

Respectfor good governance is not alien to Africans. This is also demonstrable historically. Again, I will use the example of the Yoruba who were so intolerant oftyranny and absolutism that they called upon tyrants to commit suicide bypresenting any such ruler with a calabash into which his/her head is expectedto be placed in short order. This is ofcourse, extreme and inhumane, but it may be boiled down to the essentialphilosophy of rejecting tyranny and absolutism, and thus, refashioned andre-cast as a fundamental commitment to good governance-the rule of law, dueprocess, etc., and made a fundamental part of our emergent democracy instead ofthe current situation when we speak democracy and act tyranny, or on the otherhand, we import any and everything that is faddish from the outside, with no considerationfo rmaking such institutions acceptable and understandable to our people. Many of our leaders, female or male, fail torealize that they must act in ways that enable them to capture the imaginationof the people, that they must sell themselves to the people instead of actingin subversion of the system by buying votes, rigging elections, stealing ballotboxes and using thugs to maim, intimidate and kill their opposition.

Beginning with the premise that aconstitution need not be written to exist, it is also obvious that many Africanpeoples had constitutional rule before colonialism and in contradistinctionwith the present order where most people have no idea what the constitutionsays about ANYTHING, those unwritten constitutions were better known andunderstood by the people governed under those political systems. Does this call for equitable balance betweenmen and women imply that once we have a good constitution, a critical mass ofwomen in politics, respect for the rule of law and property rights, due processand the like, we have a nirvana on earth? Of course not. The rest of mytalk will focus on the implications of meaningful women’s participation forgood governance in Nigeria. But first,how do we get more women into office?

Therehave been many policy and numerous mechanisms and methods taught and otherwisedisseminated. According to experts, amixture of proportional-type representation and quotas (that may be temporary)have worked in other countries, including some in Africa. Given these challenges, the recommendations ontactics for women’s agency include public action, affirmative action inlegislative bodies, political party and electoral system reforms, action bywomen’s organization, the establishment of alliances, consultation with rolemodels and targeting young women. [i] Discussing the use of role models as astrategy, the argument is that the mass media plays a particularly crucialrole. There should be practical andconstant discourse by woman leaders and women’s lobbies and the news media todraw attention to women’s leadership as well as to ensure that there are newsreports on programs and initiatives to address gender imbalance.[ii] Some electoral systems are believed to bemore amenable to enabling women’s inclusion in the candidate lists thatpolitical parties draw up, and also enhance the possibility of electingwomen. Nordic countries and otherAfrican countries that have had significant increases in the number of electedwomen to the legislature depend on proportional representation[iii]rather than a first past the post type electoral system, as found in Nigeria.

AffirmativeAction is enshrined in the constitution of some countries, and combined withmethods that ensure that for each male candidate, a female candidate is alsopresented by a political party (zebra strategy in South Africa and 50-50strategy in some other countries). Uganda, Norway, India, and Seychelles are just a few of he countriesthat have used the Affirmative Action strategy, and all attest to itseffectiveness in guaranteeing an increase in the number of elected women. The chapter on gender justice in Nigeria’sconstitution recommended the achievement of a minimum of 30% of all politicalappointments, as advocated in the Beijing Platform for Action in order toredress the gender imbalances in the political systems of states members.[iv]

The desire to accomplish this goal of increased women’s politicalparticipation has made both proportional representation and quotas attractive and popular. There is nothing wrong in this. However, do increased numbers of women changethe tone, nature, and character of politics? Not necessarily. If we observethat past instances of women’s participation in governance did not benefitwomen as a group, we should be clear that this is not due to anythingpernicious about African culture but may be attributed to the isolated existence of these women in maledominant political structures. Indeed,some scholars base the recommendation of a 50/50 or 30% affirmative actionstrategy on this situation, and give as rationale for their recommendations,the need for a critical mass of women in politics, a situation that they expectto generate changes in policymaking and implementation in developing countrieswhere elected women represent women’s interests (Thomars, 91, Byrne, 97).

The Research on Women’s PoliticalParticipation in the 2007 Elections

Inour research report, we observe the following conclusions by scholars ofwomen’s participation in politics: For Lovenduskiand Pippa Norris, women parliamentarians in the UK are believed to introduce anew set of values “to issues affecting women’s equality in the workplace, home,and public sphere” (4).

Diane Sainsburyconsiders that since 45% of MPs in Sweden are women, there has been aredefinition of women’s issues “as a demand for gender equality,” leading tothe transformation of women’s issues from small, special minority issues to“major party issues.” Therefore, thereare now changed conditions for substantive women’s representation.

Gendered demandfor increased democracy produces the strategic conversion of political womenfrom a small minority within each party to majority of citizens. This is a potential boon for betterrepresentation (4).

Shettima tellsus that it is quite possible for women to be politically enfranchised and forthem to still suffer de facto disfranchisement through the use of unfairqualifying conditions, discriminatory administrative rules, and through themobilization of bias – where by virtue of the ability to set the agenda, menmonopolize power and exclude women from decision-making.

Bearingin mind the scholarly analysis above, it becomes important to answer thefollowing questions:

What does women’s political participation mean?
What happened in the precolonial period with regard to women’s political participation?
What happened in the postcolonial period? A diachronic analysis of six phases in Nigeria’s political history:

For ease ofanalysis, it is necessary to divide Nigerian history into the followingphases. However, this cannot be doneright now.

1950s to 1966 – Nigeria’s first republic and budding political participation in Western democratic institutions: Nationalism and the struggle for inclusion.
1966-1979 – Military rule
1979-1983 – 2^nd republic
1983-2000 – Military rule
2000-2007 – 3^rd republic
2003: first post-authoritarian election
2007: second post-authoritarian election + first civilian-to-civilian transition

The point ofdrawing upon Nigeria’s precolonial history as done previously is to underlineand foreground Nigerian women’s political participation as a historical andwell-documented fact. This beingsaid: it is important to stress thatcolonialism created a radical break in the sense that whatever political andsocial advantages women had under the old order were either eroded or totallyeliminated. Let me hasten to say thatmen were by no means better off, since they too were otherized, excluded frompower and emasculated. The process ofgaining the rights of citizenship under the new “modern” political system wasattended by the sweat, blood and tears of those that defied the newoverlords. As Frantz Fanon astutely putit: the colonial world was a Manichaeanworld, and while its Janus-faced state turned its kind, gentle and humane faceto the white colonial minority, its harsh, brutal and punitive face wasinclined toward the colonized African majority. Worse still, this was constructed as a “civilizing mission” and it is amarker of its success that the great majority of us postcolonial Nigerians arestill firm believers in the superiority of the West. We crave all things western – the clothes,language, education, culture, religion, name it…

AsNgugi wa Thiong’o put it, our minds have been colonized. Once again, Fanon is relevant. He told us that the colonial condition is a“Nervous Condition”. We still manifestelements of that selfsame nervousness today. We have little self confidence, no pride in our rich culture, nounderstanding of our place in history. Let me once again, quote Fanon – “Each generation must out ofrelative obscurity discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it.” What is the mission of this generation ofNigerians? What is the mission of this groupof women leaders? What grand narrativehave we constructed to give meaningto our existence? To what end? Now let us switch gears again. We ought to celebrate. As flawed as it is in its original design,Nigeria is now 47 years old. This is nota minor achievement. In three years,we’ll be fifty years old as a nation. Aswe celebrate, we should also ponder – what do we have to show for the 47years? What have we contributed thatwill stand the test of time? How willposterity remember us?

NDIand WRAPA undertook a study of women’s political participation in Nigeria. Our findings constitute part of the situationas seen by women from 12 states, two from each geopolitical zone. In the first place, the report demonstratesthat even in the difficult days of colonialism, Nigerian women forced thecolonial state to reckon with them. TheAba women’s war is legendary, although many of us still use the coloniallanguage and call it the “Aba riots”. The women in Abeokuta wre mobilized by Funmilayo Ransome Kuti to fightagainst the combined forces of Alake Ademola and British colonialgovernment. These women essentiallydemanded inclusion and participation where there was none.

Itis less well known that after the Abeokuta women’s Union was founded, again, byFunmilayo Ransome Kuti, a Nigerian Women’s Union was created which made thefollowing proclamation: This assemblyshall be known as the Federation of Nigerian Women’s Societies [FNWS], wherethe voice of all Nigerian women will be heard and known” Mrs. Ransome Kuti and Mrs. Margaret Ekpo werepart of the 400 women (who represented Nigerian women’s organizations in 15provinces) who participated in a “parliamentary” conference in 1953. the significance of this goes back to myprevious statement that those who do not learn the lesson of history are doomedto repeat it. I also find the sayingrelevant that history often replays itself, once as tragedy, and then asfarce. Although the NWU claimed to benon-political, it expressed distinctly political goals.

(1) Achievementof the franchise for women.

(2) Theabolition of electoral colleges

(3) Theallocation of a definite proportion of representation to women with women beingallowed to nominate their own representatives on the local council, whichshould not be headed by traditional rulers.[v]

In 1952, Elizabeth Adekogbe foundedthe Women’s Movement in Ibadan. Nigerianwomen also participated in most of the indigenous pressure groups and politicalparties formed in the nationalist era: the Nigerian National Democratic Party(NNDP), Action Group, National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), theNigerian Youth Movement (NYM). Prior tothis, Nigerian women formedwestern-style political pressure groups early in the 1900s. Indigenous women’s groups such as the LagosWomen’s Market Association, led by Madam Alimotu Pelewura, preceded thesewestern-style institutions.

TheLagos Women’s League, which was founded in 1901, and led by Mrs. CharlotteObasa, was an example of the modern pressure groups. Their trailblazing efforts were developed inthe 1940s when under the leadership of Mrs. Kofoworola Abayomi; the NigerianWomen’s Party was formed (on May 11, 1944). The formation of the Nigerian Women’s Party in 1944 was a reaction towomen’s marginalization in the male dominated political parties, which for Mrs.Oyinkan Abayomi others, had demonstrated that they were not interested inwomen’s issues and allowed for no women in their leadership.[vi] Similarly, Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome Kutifounded the Abeokuta Women’s Union (AWU) in 1949, and the organization becamethe Nigerian Women’s Union (NWU) later that year.

If we are determined to learn thelessons of history, we would know the goals and objectives of these women’sorganizations intimately, so that at the very least, we would not thing that weare reinventing the wheel, and we can calmly and deliberately build upon thelegacies of those who went before us. The larger lesson here, I think, is that we should always insist on ourrights, as I am happy that many of the women here gathered have done. When we insist on our rights, we should notonly do so gently, but loudly and contentiously if need be. I like Frederick Douglass’ saying: that power is never conceded. As women interested in political power, wemust always bear this in mind.

Howdoes one struggle loudly and contentiously for the inclusion of women in thisday and age? In the first place, byinsisting on government, political party and society’s commitment to creating acritical mass of women in elected and appointive positions. Negotiations, memorializing anddemonstrations should be undertaken to accomplish this agenda-settinginitiative. If anything should galvanizeand unite the women of Nigeria and compel them to cross party, ethnic,religious and class lines to fight for a common cause, this is as good an issueas one can find. However, once we demandincreased participation, what do we do with it? The question of whether or not elected women represent women and promotewomen’s interests is not a frivolous one. If women legislators purport to represent women, is this unfair to themale members of their constituencies? What policies devolve from this representation that positively impactsupon women as they live their lives? What is the impact of women in politics upon the poor and marginalized,whom I do not have to tell you are the majority of Nigerians? What relationship exists between women’sactivist organizations and elected and appointed women? What commitment has either group demonstratedto the well-being of Nigerians?

Thepoint I am making here is that if indeed women politicians and appointedofficials want to claim that they are different from our run of the millpoliticians in Nigeria they must proactively set an agenda that reinforces sucha political stance. This is importantfor many reasons. In the first place,many ordinary Nigerians are cynical and skeptical when it comes to governmentof any branch. They have experiencedmany atrocities and have come to expect more of the same, whether it be fromwomen or men. How do we inspire suchpeople to once again, have confidence in the government? To women already engaged in politics, I say: to the extent that we have had and still havewomen of honor and valor who have contributed so much to our politics, theirtrailblazing efforts should not have been in vain. They should have women dedicated to living bytheir example.

We should quickly go back to Adedejiand Ayo’s six principles of good governance:

1. Putting the people first/ENGENDERING POPULAR PARTICIPATION

If the people came first, they wouldnot be “marginalized, alienated, and excluded. The vulnerable and the impoverished, the uprooted and the ravaged,women, children and youth, the disabled and the aged, the poor and the urbanpoor …[would not be] treated as the ‘invisible’ informal sector,” that is: they would not be considered “economicallyand politically invisible, [since] a divided society where the less fortunate…are hurt, damaged, and discounted by public policies which jettison socialjustice and sacrifice the common good cannot lay claim to being a truedemocracy.” As well, government istotally meaningless if it’s not “rooted in the tradition and culture of thesociety so as to ensure community empowerment and development (2).

2. Insulation of the bureaucracy from partisan politics;

In essence, this is a call for rationaldecision making that derives from making decisions based on the merit of givenoptions, and with some thought to the development of the nation, rather thanbased on personal or sectional gain. Itgoes without saying then that the bureaucracy must be composed of “educated,[experienced], knowledgeable and skilled personnel.” Integrity, dedication, transparency, andaccountability are also important (238). As legislators, women must insist on the very highest standards forrecruitment of personnel into all levels of the executive branch. Since they demand the best from others, itgoes without saying that they too must be excellent in all respects.

3. Preserving the coherence and organic nature of localgovernment areas;

The design of the political structureis fundamentally important, and there is need to pay attention to “thetradition, culture and community solidarity of local government areas. The rationale for this is to better groundour democracy and ensure that they are rationally designed, efficient, and areserved by committed and dedicated personnel. This would reduce the apathetic response of the populace to politics aswell as reduce conflict.

4. Strict observance of the principles of fiscal responsibilityand accountability;

Internal generation of revenues are acrucial aspect of this requirement. Also, there should be no place for corruption and graft in governance

5. Encouragingand promoting innovation and inventiveness in grassroots governance;

In a federal system, there is no needfor total uniformity. Instead, we shouldtake seriously the motto: “unity indiversity” and also realize that “governance begins at the community, villageor town level (239). Development throughthe formulation of plans, mobilization and allocation of resources; andrepresentation, accountability and empowerment – meaning that the right(authorized) persons must take decisions, and they must do so in a transparent,rational manner, and by following due process. The participation of the people is also a crucial requirement, thus, thetraditions and culture are very important grounding or foundational elements toeffective governance that includes the grassroots. Since traditions and cultures may vary,there should be room for diversity. Thisfosters innovation and inventiveness (243-244).

6. Restitutingthe traditions of partnership in governance.

The focus here is to create aconnection between the people and their government by considering thechallenges of development and nation building as a collective effort to whichall can contribute (246). There is nouse in a system where the state apparatus is suspended above society anddisconnected from it. People should beable to bring their hopes, aspirations and dreams to the attention of thegovernment, and the government owes them the duty of responding in a rational,effective manner.

Finally,it is clear from the individual and collective experience of those heregathered that leadership is extraordinarily difficult but greatlyrewarding. This being the case, Nigerianwomen must engage past and present creatively and imaginatively to inform theirstruggle to gain power from a political system that is not necessarilycommitted to their advancement into meaningful public leadershippositions. They must realize thatwithout serving the common person, women and men included, they are notrealizing the promise of good governance in our move toward democratization inNigeria.

Resolution by 400 “parliamentarians”representing Nigerian women’s organizations in 15 provinces at a 2-dayconference organized by the Nigerian Women’s Union in Abeokuta (August 5-7,1953).[vii]

[i] Lina Hamadeh- Banerjee and Paul OQuist, pp. 4-13

[ii] ibid, p. 13

[iii] Karam, op cit., p. 23.

[iv] Jadesola Akande “Affirmative Action: Theory andPractices in Nigeria” in Affirmative Action Strategies: Perspectives andLessons from Around the Globe. CIRDDOC Nigeria 2003, p. 47.

[v] Ibid, p. 101

[vi] Margaret Strobel,African Women Signs, vol. 8 number 1, (Autumn 1982, pp. 109-131; Cheryl JohnsonOdim

[vii] Cheryl Johnson-Odim,Nina Emma Mba, For Women and the Nation: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti of Nigeria, p.101.

Governance, Politics and Women’s Participation in Politics: Implications for Current and Future Leadership by Nigerian Women, Part 1

2012-01-26T13:22:00.000-08:00

I almost decided to take a break today, just to celebrate the receipt of the advance copies of one of the two books co-edited with Olufemi Vaughan, Geoffrey Canada Professor at Bowdoin College, Maine. The book: Transnational Africa and Globalization. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. The project began many years ago. It's great to have brought it to fruition. The table of contents is as follows:

Chapter 1: TransnationalAfrica and Globalization: Introduction; Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome & Olufemi Vaughan
Chapter 2: Africa, Transnationalism& Globalization: An Overview; Olufemi Vaughan
Chapter 3: Black Internationalism andTransnational Africa; Rod Bush
Chapter 4: What About the Reciprocity?Pan-Africanism and the Promise of Global Development; Mora McLean
Chapter 5: Transnational Africa:Un-Pledging Allegiance: The US Nation Must Make the African Connection; Melanie E.L. Bush
Chapter 6: Pan-AfricanizingPhilanthropy: Toward a Social Theory of an Emerging Sector; Jackie Copeland-Carson
Chapter 7: 'I am the bridge between twoworlds': Transnational connections among Darfurians in Maine; Lacey A. Gale
Chapter 8: The Changing Face of AfricanChristianity: Reverse Mission in Transnational and Global Perspectives; Jacob K. Olupona
Chapter 9: Gendered Migrations: AfricanIdentities and Globalization; Anthonia C. Kalu
Chapter 10: A Matter of Habit:Unraveling the Teaching/Learning knot; Namulundah Florence
Chapter 11: Undocumented Labor Migrationfrom Morocco to Europe: An African Perspective; Moha Ennaji

The cover image is by Stephen Adeyemi Folaranmi "We All Gathered" soil on board. 2003.
See the book at the Macmillan site in the US Transnational Africa and Globalization, Edited By Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome and Olufemi Vaughan
and at the Palgrave site in the UK, http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=537974

Copies can also be found in most bookstores and their online websites, and very soon, in many libraries.

I made the presentation below at The Women’s Summit inObudu, October 2-6, 2007

Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science
Women’s Studies Coordinator

Brooklyn College, CUNY

Ifpolitics is defined in the popular imagination as the art or science ofdetermining who gets what, where, and when, or in more scholarly parlance, as“social relations involving authority and power, ” governance relates to thepraxis of government. In brief, it isabout governing. In much of its usage,the term is combined with an adjective – good, which implies that it could bedone well or badly. Good governancecould then be said to be expected in a well-ordered political system. According to Adedeji and Ayo in their book, People-CentredDemocracy in Nigeria? The Search forAlternative Systems of Governance at the Grassroots, the six principles ofgood governance are:

(i) Puttingthe people first;

(ii) Insulationof local government from partisan politics;

(iii) Preservingthe coherence and organic nature of local government areas

(iv) Strictobservance of the principles of fiscal responsibility and accountability;

(v) Encouragingand promoting innovation and inventiveness in grassroots governance; and

(vi) Restitutingthe traditions of partnership in central-local relations (235).

While Adedeji and Ayo focusspecifically on local government, their analysis and conclusions are applicableto governance at any level. One justneeds to replace “local government” with “government.” Similarly, Gani Fawehinmi tells us in hisarticle titled: “Imperatives of goodgovernance and the rule of law,” that governance is virtually meaninglessunless it is directed at ensuring the welfare of the populace as a response tothe needs of the common woman/man. WhileFawehinmi like most Nigerian scholars, uses gender biased language that favorsthe male dominant ethos of current Nigerian socio-political analysis, hisobservations are cogent, and I will take the liberty of quoting him atlength:

Good governance to the man on the street means that theaffairs of state are conducted in such a manner as to give happiness andsecurity to the people. The expectationof the man on the street in this respect corresponds to or tallies with theconstitutional requirement that the primary purpose of government is securityand welfare of the people. But there canbe no welfare where:

a) The man in the street cannot find employment.

b) The man in the street cannot have access to good education.

c) The man in the street is denied good health delivery system.

d) The man in the street cannot be housed.

e) The man in the street is denied good infrastructures (sic)(rail, road, waterway and other essential things for his business and other needs).

f) The man in the street is thrown into darkness and there isno power for his business and other needs.

g) The man in the street does not enjoy National Minimum Wageand when he is out of employment,

h) The man in the street cannot have employment benefits

i) The man in the street when he is weak as a result of oldage, cannot get old age care.

j) The manin the street is not allowed to determine who should govern him and to makethose in governance accountable to him

k) The man in the street is inhibited by no locus standi in acourt of law to question other acts of mis-governance.

l) The man in the street wants stability in the prices ofpetroleum products.

m) The man in the street is not safe even in the street

Thewelfare of the proverbial man in the street can only be guaranteed bygovernment that cares about employment, health, education, infrastructure,unemployment benefits, good housing, cheap and nutritious food, nationalminimum living wage, old age care, pension, gratuity, security of life andproperty, free and fair election, transparency in the conduct of affairs ofstate and access by all to justice in a court of law.[i]

As a long term observer of the Nigerian political system,one cannot help but see the applicability of realist analysis of internationalpolitics to Nigerian politics. Theinternational system is conceptualized by classical realists as an anarchicalsystem, a self-help system where in the absence of government, states givepriority to the imperative of survival. In this system, might is right, states compete in order to at least,survive, and at best, thrive. Cooperation is still a possibility in a realist international system,but it derives from the enlightened self-interest of the actors within thesystem. This seems to be a gooddescription of Nigerian politics. Ourpolitics is gladiatorial, and sometimes approaches Hobbes’ war of all againstall. Self help thrives and actorsscramble to predominate, one against the other. Good governance is left in the dust. Perplexed citizens become cynical about the very survival of thenation.

Toquickly bring women’s participation into the mix, again, in the popularimagination, this is about increasing the numbers of women that engage thepolitical system there are six fundamental principles of good …governanceenhancing the quality of their interaction. There are of course, a myriad of ways in which political participationcan be gauged – voting and all the activities that could possibly beencompassed under the umbrella of civil society – forming and joiningassociations, pressure groups, lobbies, writing memoranda that challenge orlaud government policy, protests, demonstrations, public enlightenmentcampaigns, popular mobilization, etc.

Women’spolitical participation involves all of the above, but relates too to the depthand breadth of democracy in a political system. In this presentation, I will concentrate on women’s representation inthe political system as elected officials in the executive and legislativebranches of government and also somewhat touch upon their appointments intoofficial political positions. Accordingto Anne Philips, the arguments for women’s political participation can begrouped into four categories

(1) Successfulwomen politicians are role models

(2) In orderto have equity and justice between men and women, women’s numbers as electedrepresentatives must match their share of the population.

(3) If womenare not represented, some of their interests would be overlooked in thepolitical system.

(4) Genuinedemocracy implies matching participation with representation (Bauer andBritton, 3).

In essence, it is “patently andgrotesquely unfair”

(a) If men are to monopolize representation

(b) Ifthe composition of representation is changed, democracy is enhanced and increased, and

(c) Women’sneeds, interests and concerns are more adequately addressed. There is more argumentation over whetherincreases in the number of elected women would create positive role models.

What differencedoes increased women’s political participation make? This is the most important question at thecrux of most discussions about increasing women’s participation. There is a need to differentiate between descriptive/demographicrepresentation, which concerns feminine presence in politics, and substantive/strategicrepresentation, which concerns feminist activism. Even descriptive/demographic/femininerepresentation is important because:

(1) Exclusionof any group denies society of the benefits of their talents.

(2) Theunrepresented have special perspectives which if denied, impoverishes thepublic debate.

(3) Ifthey have different policy priorities, their non-inclusion is both a lack ofrepresentation and non-representativeness of the priorities of the legislature(Maitland & Taylor, 1997). Oneshould not make too much of the difference between descriptive and substantiverepresentation. The latter can beconsidered a continuation of the former in the move toward institutionaltransformation (Goetz & Hassim).

Another crucialquestion: Are there specifically women’sissues or interests? Both of thesequestions have been answered in the affirmative by some scholars and experts(and we document this in the research report produced after the study onwomen’s political participation). Theproblem with most scholarly research however is that there are few to noefforts to offer rationalizations that draw upon African indigenous thought,basically due to the tendency to believe that democracy is a Westernphenomenon. However, contrary to much ofthe analysis out there, not only is there robust evidence of democracy inAfrica’s precolonial history, but there is also a justification for women’spolitical participation to be drawn from philosophies of life in many Africanethnic groups where the idea of the complementarity of males and females isbelieved to be crucial for social harmony, well-being, and productivity. Instead of drawing and building upon suchpositive examples of progressive and humanistic sociopolitical relations, wehave mostly come to accept the negative portrayals of African culture asregressive and ideologically barren, and tend to

a. Lookto the West,

b. Studiouslyavoid the evidentiary record of history

c. Ignorantlyaccept male dominance and discrimination against women as the norm.

This accountsfor the curious situation where many experts flat out reject any kind of notionthat women played any important roles or wielded any power in Africanhistory. Confronted with the evidencethat some women indeed, had executive, legislative, or judicial power as partof the institutional design within their polities, the knee-jerk reaction isthat these women were exceptions rather than the rule, they were aristocratic,they were not committed to women’s empowerment, women’s situations did notimprove during their tenure. Africanstend to write off their own history as irrelevant to either their present orfuture, and struggle, each to outdo the other, in demonizing and excoriatingtheir forebears and kin as barbaric, ignorant and cruel. Instead, we tend to fall over one another tostudy and imbibe what we perceive to be the cutting edge trends of Westerncivilization, conveniently forgetting that we were brutally pacified,colonized, and prior to this, enslaved and always exploited by the West, andthat such exploitation continues today. If Africa is written off as irrelevant to the mainstream of worldaffairs by the West, one can understand the rationale from the perspective ofthe West which seeks to dominate Africa by denying in the first place that ithad any history prior to its contact with the West, and then, condemning itsculture as barbaric and retrogressive, and finally, convincing its peoplethrough “education” and Christianization that these are immutable facts. Once a people are convinced that they areworthless and have contributed nothing much to world advancement, colonizationthrough physical presence and compellence through the imposition of physicalprivation becomes unnecessary. They willpolice themselves better than you ever could. This is how I see the situation in Africa today.

You must now be wondering: why is she haranguing us? What is the relevance of this to women’spolitical participation? In brief, therelevance is that if we refuse to learn the lessons of history, we are bound torepeat it. Specifically, we cannot makeany progress, whether it is in politics in general, or in relation to women’spolitical participation and empowerment in particular, if we do not begin froma contextualized reading and application of our history that celebrates ourworthwhile contributions while criticizing and rejecting the negativeaspects. As we also seek to draw uponthe progressive elements of Western political structures and institutions, weshould do so with an eye to history. Inbrief, women’s political participation is not alien to indigenous Africanculture, neither is good governance. Alook to history demonstrates this. Torestrict ourselves to Nigeria, we have, thanks to the path-breaking work ofProfessor Bolanle Awe, Jadesola Akande, Nina Emma Mba and others, evidence ofthe institutionalized power of women in the public sphere. The truth is that there are still examples ofwomen rulers in Nigeria.

The truth is that there are stillwomen traditional rulers in contemporary Nigeria. However, since they are traditional rulers,we tend to write them off as irrelevant, especially since they have sincecolonial times, been denuded of much other than ceremonial aspects of theirpowers, and have since that time, been subject to the power of the modernstate. As mentioned previously, manyreject these examples outright as irrelevant for reasons stated before. Are they truly irrelevant or is thereanything that they could possibly contribute to our inquiry on women’spolitical participation? No one canargue with the fact that compared with the modern state, traditional politicalinstitutions in Nigeria have been domesticated and made into toothlessbulldogs. Has this always been the case? When such powers were exercised inprecolonial times, were they ubiquitously or overwhelmingly punitive andunjust? When the political structuresthat accompanied these institutions held sway, were they engaged in goodgovernance? What can we borrow fromthese systems, structures and institutions that could be added to therepertoire of innovations that we are so familiar with from the workshops,conferences and courses that we attend?

AsI said before, complementarity and balance are central to the ethos andphilosophy of African societies. Tobring such an ethos and philosophy up to date, gender imbalance would beunacceptable. We see elements of this inthe shared leadership of males and females in some of Nigeria’s ethnic groups,in various Yoruba polities where a woman must crown the Oba, in the enduring institutionslike Iyalode, where women hold and exercise power. I want us to focus both on the exercise ofpower and inclusiveness. Both of theseprinciples imply women’s participation as well as the equitable access topositions of power. Was there a strictinsistence on parity and total equality for women in these systems? No. Isthis a sufficient reason for us to reject them? No. we can begin from theprinciple that for there to be social balance and equity, men and women must berepresented in numbers that are commensurate with their size in the generalpopulation. Understanding and drawingupon our history in a contextualized manner means that we can

a. refute both at home and abroad, argumentsthat gender sensitivity is alien to African culture.

b. Look at the discourse on women’spolitical participation as resonating with essential parts of our culture thathave been lost due to the vagaries of history.

c. Embrace both our culture and that fromthe West as part of what makes us all a part of a common humanity.

d. Even learn these elements of our cultureand tell the world about it in demonstration of the fact that Africa too hassomething worthwhile to teach the world.

TO BE CONTINUED....

[i]Gani Fawehinmi “Imperatives of good governanceand the rule of law,” Being excerpts from a speech delivered by Chief GaniFawehinmi, (SAN) at the annual luncheon/mid year meeting of the board offellows of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, FSPolitics, Financial Standard, Monday, July 2, 2007,p. 68.

Do we want to be SAPped Again? Part 2

2012-01-25T08:57:00.000-08:00

Continued from yesterday, Monday, January 24, 2012 . The piece below is a draft of a paperpublished as: “The Dividends of Democracy: The Nigeria Experience” inOlayiwola Abegunrin and Olusoji Akomolafe, Eds. Nigeria in Global Politics: Twentieth Century and Beyond (NovaPublishers, 2006). I belatedly realized that thereferences were not included yesterday. They are to be found at the endof this posting. To reiterate, much of this is old history. I thinkit is still relevant as food for thought.

...

Theexchange attracted the attention of Dr. Enodien, a management consultant who isresident in Lagos. He wrote a commentary in one of Nigeria's leadingnewspapers that once again brought up the question of the dividends ofdemocracy. The aforementioned politician was seen as acting absurdly whenhe pointed to achievements and strides made in the area of opening up thepolitical arena. The attribution of this much needed development to thebenevolence of the government was considered unacceptable. Peoplenaturally expect the increased freedom of speech, its benefits may not bereadily subject to quantification, but the expectation that such a benefit ofdemocracy would devolve to Nigerians under today's democratic dispensation doesnot preclude the expectation that the politicians would keep promises madeabout economic growth and visible improvements in people's lives. Thecommentator asked the right question. He asked a question that is centralto all the discussion about the dividends of democracy when he asserted:"But people would welcome answers from whoever is in a position to shedlight on this discourse because if the performance evaluation of this or indeedany government cannot be based on a periodic scrutiny of the generatedsocio-economic indicators, on what basis then should its achievements beevaluated?"

Reading the commentary further also gives an indication of the source of thegeneralized frustration that most Nigerians feel. Most ordinary peopleare becoming disillusioned precisely because they see with the evidence oftheir own senses that politicians are living "high on the hog" whilethey take a "may the devil take the hindmost" stance toward ordinaryNigerians whose hopes and aspirations, particularly as they relate to theenjoyment of the positive dividends of democracy are yet to be realized. Every ordinary Nigerian was disgusted when the first task that Nigerianlegislators undertook was to ensure that their nests were feathered abundantlyby increasing their salaries, allowances, and other perquisites ofoffice. There is a perception that the politicians in general weretotally oblivious of, and had deliberately shielded themselves from thesuffering of the people. There is an additional perception that thegovernment wants to use statistical data in a fraudulent manner that for thisanalyst, indicative of "the apparent abandonment of modern managementtechnique had been responsible for the stunted development of Nigeria in thepast."

Most Nigerians have a longer memory than the politicians give them creditfor. They remember that military regimes of the past act like today'spoliticians, who also happen to be liberally sprinkled with old militaryofficers, when they justify their violent take over of government by tellingthe people that they undertook this extreme measure for reasons of nationalinterest, to guarantee national survival, to clean up a polluted politicalarena from the corrupt legacy of the old regime, and to end the country'seconomic woes. Even when people were inclined to question the military,there was a lack of the freedoms that are guaranteed and integral todemocracies. Questioning the government under military rule could well betaken as tantamount to mounting a frontal attack on the state. Dr.Enodien is partly right. The military "got away with their unverifiableclaims only because some gullible Nigerians and military apologistsdeliberately endorsed the claims of the military without any recourse to factsand figures. . . . it is because the time-honoured and universallyaccepted system of evaluating the social, economic and political performance atany point in time was lacking, that the military rulers had the false sense oflegitimacy. It is also because we did not use statistical data to support theirclaims that enabled the military not only to prolong their stay in office butalso thrived under the illusion that they were performing well becausethey did not have to defend their achievements or lack of it by reference toauthentic statistical data." Another story in the Guardian, thistime an interview by Adeleke Adeseri with "Ayodele Olowofoyeku, thefinancial secretary of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Osun State"reveals the persistence of the messiah complex by personalities who cast theirparticipation in politics in the mold of rescuing the country from imminent ruin. "Olowofoyeku is the son of Chief Babatunji Olowofoyeku (SAN), formerAttorney General of the Western Region in the First Republic and the firstchairman of Ilesa Central Local Council."

Q: WHAT is the deacon doing in politics?

A: Over the years, I noticed that most of us just sit down andcomplain about the political situation in our home towns, and the country ingeneral. I came to realise that nobody really has a right to complain. If youknow you can make a difference, offer yourself for service. Well, it is morelike I was made a deacon couple of months back but I have become a born againChristian about fours [sic] years ago. My desperation to go into politics wasmore of divine call than anything else in the sense that I had a personal revelationthat I should go and sit down and begin to look at it. Being a deacon in thechurch does not have anything to do with my personal ambition; it is more tosee the triumph of Alliance for Democracy (AD) in Osun State.

While Olowofoyeku also explains his participation in terms of being the mostqualified candidate for the job because he had practical experience, theinstances that he enumerated concerned fund raising and organizing mediapromotion for political candidates. His statement above also clearlydraws on another tendency in Nigerian politics -- people who considerthemselves to be "born again" Christians present themselves asresponding to their calling by a higher authority. They expect people totrust them because of their proclaimed moral superiority to others. President Obasanjo himself has used the same arguments. The form thatChristianity has taken in contemporary Nigeria is that it manifests elements ofsalesmanship and multi-level proselytization. Many want the automaticacceptance of the goods they purvey, and ease their way into people'sconsciousness and or pockets by claiming to be the bearers of one messianicmessage or another. Divine callings proliferate, as do revelations from ahigher authority that a given individual should lead. Those that competewith such an individual then seem to be saboteurs against none other than thehighest authority. Ambition then fuses very nicely with the desires ofthe almighty.

To return to Enodien's article, he fails to acknowledge that quiescenceis not analogous to the recognition of authority, or the conferment oflegitimacy. Most people were scared to death. Democracy is assumedto make a difference. The people are supposed to have dialogues,conversations, and other sundry communication with their government. This isprecisely why the press feels entitled to ask the questions on every Nigerianmind. When politicians refuse to answer such questions because they feelthat the people ought to be grateful for the ability to speak freely, theycompletely miss the boat on the essence of democracy and good governance. The right to speak may very well be meaningless when considered in light of notso visible restraints on the freedom of expression. Further, thepoliticians themselves set the baseline expectations by which they are nowjudged. If we immediately juxtapose the commentary with anotherOlowofoyeku answer, one sees a clear example of the kind of pronouncements thatmake the electorate expect that the election of one politician or another wouldbring an experience of life more abundant to all. Ayodele Olowofoyekuaspires to be a 2003 governorship candidate in Osun State in the same issue ofthe Guardian, I quote extensively from the interview below: The firstquestion asked is about the level of rancor and political conflict amongpoliticians.

Q: If you become the chief executive, how will you prevent such wrangling?

A: You see, people are bound to have their intentions, action plans andother things. I believe in governance that will be responsive to the people. Ibelieve that, as a governor, democracy is all about working for the people. Andthere is bound to be conflict, definitely, but I know that majority of theconflicts arise from the fact that lot of people feel marginalised and feelcheated because quite a number of people that have become governor seem to haveforgotten that they are representatives of the people. It seems they think thatbecause they are in governance, governance is their own ideals, and their own idealsalone. When you feel the pulse of your state, you know what the people want;what direction to take and not just to feel the impulse of few people.Democracy is about numbers, but you find out that after the election, after theelection of a particular official into power, governance now becomes by fewpeople. If only other people's ideals are sought I am sure that therewill be less conflict and I know that if I come into governance, [sic] thatwill be approached from the time to time.

One of the ways in which one can see the influence of globalization on Nigerianpolitics is to consider a few paragraphs of an article that addresses theconflictual situation between Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim and GovernorSam Egwu in Ebonyi State. Each of the Senate President and Governorare in a different faction of the People's Democratic Party, each faction froma different zone in the state. The two men clashed over the allocation ofoffices, a disagreement that disintegrated to the alleged use of thugs by theGovernor to intimidate the supporters of the Senate President's faction. According to a news report by Thisday Online, the crux of the problem isthe following:

In many states, dominant factions of the party perfected plans to register onlytheir loyalists as card-carrying party members. Remember that it is onlycardcarrying party members that will vote in delegates at ward congresses. A11other levels of elections for nominations are by elected delegates. An attemptby the Ebonyi dominant faction of the PDP to play this joker ran into stormywaters owing to the vigilance of the state's Abuja group. The governor sent anarmy of supporters who stormed the PDP Hq in Abuja, inflicted injuries on partyofficials on duty and hijacked the party registration materials.

The situation was serious enough that the Senate President needed policeprotection in order to visit the state. Four people were killed by thepolice in the melee that accompanied his visit. In making arecommendation for more circumspect behavior and an increased amount ofcivility among the country's politicians, the former Special Assistant toPresident Shehu Shagari, and current Director of the Lagos Business School, andthe Chairman of the Information Technology firm, Leapfrog Venture Partners, Dr.Pat Utomi is right. There is no excuse for thuggery and the intimidationof opponents in Nigerian politics. These are some of the things thatwreaked havoc with Nigerian politics in the past, even under the Shagariadministration. However, in order to make his point, Utomi drawsparallels between Nigeria and the US. For him, politicians "need todiscover is that if they work together, and put down this petty devil calledpride, they will be the greater, not the lesser for it. If they haveconsciences and a sense of history they should, forthwith, cease and desistfrom acts that take civility away from public life. Perhaps they can learn fromcontemporary experience in which Bill Clinton became governor, lost the nextelection, reclaimed the gubernatorial chair at another election, and went on tobecome president of the United States. All things tend to work together untogood." I could say 'there we go again' in the manner candidate RonaldReagan taunted the incumbent President Jimmy Carter back in 1980. But thatwould be a cheap shot and the future being threatened by such gross disorderlyconduct is far too important to subject to cheapshots." Utomi's commentary points to the pervasive reach andinfluence of globalization on Nigeria's politics. The personalities thatare held up as examples are United States of America's former presidents. The language used contains contemporary American slangs. However, thearticle follows an enduring stream in Nigerian political analysis. Nationalist politicians during the colonial era did not call for an end tocolonial rule in a manner that self-confidently declared that Nigerians weredeserving of being treated as citizens, and not as subjects of Britain. What differs today is that the instantaneous nature of global communication hasguaranteed that all of us feel as though we are right on the scene when news ismade. Thus, it is to be expected that there will be more comparisons ofNigeria to those countries that are believed to be leaders in the worldtoday. My critique of the Utomi piece is that while he is absolutelyright to condemn political violence and lack of decorum in politics, we do notnecessarily need to draw upon the experience of the United States to understandthat political violence is "beyond the pale." At this point inour existence as Nigerians, we can find enough rationale that is based onindigenous philosophies that eschew violence and combat to the death when wemake political or social commentary.

The Enodien article brings up another point. Under a democratic system ofgovernment, the people should be able to evaluate the performance of thegovernment on the basis of quantifiable variables that give an indication ofthe changes in their life chances. This can be done in a somewhat limitedway by considering the socio-economic indicators. The press is alsoentitled to bring the concerns of the public to the fore and to insist onpublic answers. To demand this is to engage in furthering the cause ofdemocracy. It is in essence, to foster increased political openness andto also provide the public with much needed information, facts and figures thatenable them to assess for themselves, the extent to which the circumstances ofthe country's economic health have changed.
The Olowofoyeku article also speaks to the issue of the nature ofdemocracy. In answering a question about the chaotic nature of politicsin Osun state as follows, Olowofoyeku rightly indicates that divergentperspectives do not necessarily point to a lack of democracy, instead,politicians ought to cultivate a greater degree of tolerance for suchdivergence, and a willingness to negotiate mutually acceptable solutions.Another article in the same issue of Guardian speaks to the nature of democracythus: "This is a democracy and politicians are servants, not lords. Thethriving of competing ideas and contending personalities is at the heart of thedemocratic process being a preferred way of governance. All is not lost inEbonyi. We all make mistakes. Once the people and not egos move to centrestage, reconciliation and concord will follow. To persist as things are now isto beguile the nobility of the human spirit. In Ebonyi as elsewhere inthe country, the weak traditions of democratic culture enthrones an "onhyeka ibe ya" - who is the greater man syndrome.

Q: Before we go to Osun State, let us look at the South-west generally.Would you say things are normal?
A: Well, I think with the way things are really going on now, I will saythat democracy is at work. Well, what I found out really is that democracy doesnot offer complete solution because we all have different character; we allhave ideals. And we all believe that there are different solutions to the sameproblem. The beauty of democracy is that we all have divergent opinions and atthe end of the day we come to agree on a very common solution. So, definitely,all the factionalisation you see, there is [sic] bound to be divergentopinions; it is an evidence that democracy is at work.

Q: What is you chance of winning the gubernatorial election in OsunState as the present governor and likewise his deputy may contest for the samepost?
One thing to realise really is that democracy in Yorubland [sic] is not aboutname, it is about the character of the individual concerned. Definitely, I knowthat my own selling point is going to be my character, not the governmentalmachinery I have to use and all that. I know that we are going to have primaryelections and the primary elections are going to be fair. So, at the end of theday, we are going to face each other in the primary elections. So, if Iwin, I know that, definitely, the deputy governor will be reliable and I knowthat the governor himself will support me and if either one of them wins I havealways supported them and I will continue to support them as I did in thepast.The importance of the answers above cannot be overstated. Democracydoes not imply the existence of a zombie-like homogeneity to all perspectives,ideas and opinions. For it to work well, all participants have to agreeto give up short run gains for long-term benefits. The next questionshows that the economic questions are linked inextricably with the social andpolitical.
Q: Specifically, let us look at Osun State, there are problems on ground,but let us look at the social problems first.
A: What I noticed basically is what I have always called capital fight[sic]. We need foreign investors to come into the State. But besides theforeign capital itself, when you look at the whole scenario, it means that youneed to keep the capital you have in that state, situate the state fordevelopment and also get some form of external capital. But what happensin Osun State is that the only income, apart from federal allocated revenue thatcomes monthly, is from taxation. We (Osun State) don't really have any othersource of revenue that comes in monthly. And then the revenue for the state,the larger percentage of it, is being used to pay the salary of workers. Andthe funny thing about the peculiar situation in Osun State is that a largerpercentage of Osun State indigenes live outside Osun State. Unless we develop asystem where Osun State revenue stays in the state and foreign capital orexternal capital still comes to Osun State, we will not be able to improve. Theplight of the people and the level of poverty will keep on increasing day byday.
Q: You must have plans to uplift Osun State, can we have some of the plans?
A: Basically, they are free health services, free education, ruralintegration and employment for all. But what I intend to do is to break downthose four cardinal programmes. You will notice that we have not been able toachieve much in all these areas because of funding as of now. But definitely,we will improve the situation in all these four cardinal programmes. Then,another issue really is the fact that I do not believe that I have allknowledge and wisdom because it is impossible for one man to know all. I, if Iget elected, will take into consideration that there are professionals andknowledgeable people in all the different aspects of life and all the differentparts of the state. So, what I intend to do is to put together a veryformidable team of the best intellectuals in all areas of governance and take theiradvice.

It is clear from the questions and answers above that both the journalist andfuture gubernatorial candidate are aware of the proliferation of social andeconomic problems and their seeming intractability. Olowofoyekuenumerates some of the economic problems -- capital flight, dearth of foreigncapital investment, inadequacy of revenue, the tensions between indigeneity andresidence in the generation and allocation of revenue, and poverty. Likeall astute Nigerian politicians, he promises to give his prompt attention tothese problems and to solve them as soon as he gets into office. MostNigerians tend to look at these promises as mere ploys to get votes. Theyhave heard it all in the past, including the promise of free education andhealth care, rural integration, and full employment. However, when peoplecall for the dividends of democracy, they are expressing a hope that democraticgovernment would prove to be more honest and accountable than the regimes ofthe past. It is a hope also that the pains of past mismanagementefficiency and brutality have taught politicians a lesson in commitment.Olowofoyeku is right. Technocratic recruitment is crucial. It isnecessary to assemble a team of skilled and experienced bureaucrats that wouldidentify the problems, proffer solutions and implement policies aspromised.

Using the case of Ebonyi State, another article by Pat Utomi describes thesituation graphically:
What is stoking the fire of madness in the states? To my mind the very firstculprit is the failure of our politicians to discover the key to longevity inpublic life--creatively giving sacrificial service to the people. Nigerians areso easy to please and so undemanding on their leaders. Even with so much moremoney available to the states, many saw very little real improvements in thequality of life of citizens, except, of course, public office holders who havebeen buying up property abroad.Had many of those now seeing enemies in everyimaginable potential challenger spent their first two years in office inpassionate quest for creative ways of growing the quality of life of thepeople, there would be nothing to fear. The usual excuse of 'no money' is thebiggest advertisement for the inadequacy of many of our public office holders.Yes, money is very important but it pales in significance to the creative andcommitted mind with a passion for service to the citizen. Those who onlymodestly pursue such tracks no doubt will find that if it is their interest toseek re-election, they will not have much to worry about regardingchallengers.

Instead, those who have given little service have staked ourgubernatorial seats as birthright and disposed themselves to accumulating fromthe public treasury so they can match all-comers naira for naira in thequest to buy the voters conscience in a monetised process ofelectioneering. What about the Sam Egwu and Anyim Pius Anyimconfrontation. What sadness? Sam and Anyim are big men in many senses, theirphysical size, what used to be large hearts, strong profession of faith etc.Somehow they have allowed pride and pretty prejudice to reduce them inLilliputian proportions to being seen as small men. The quest to apportionblame is fruitless. Both need to recognise that they have done disservice to theirown people who are the biggest losers from their inability to see profit forthe people, in their working in harmony to promote the common good.
Many of the people that I interviewed also expressed a deep-seated anxietyabout the level of political conflict in Nigeria. Again, the media wasnot only aware of such anxiety, but it explored the variety of dimensions ofconflict were manifested in Nigeria's burgeoning democracy. As with OsunState, so with Ebonyi, where a conflict of gladiator-like proportions isshaping up. Again, Pat Utomi described the situation as follows:

THE state of siege is palpable. Most states are now war zones. What's amiss? Governors who were off on ego trips and Owambe parties are runningscared in the onset of 2003 paranoia. Any gathering of which they are not apart is seen as threats that must be disrupted by any extra legal meansavailable. Also a problem in the heartlands of Nigeria is a zero-sum mentalityin which political competition is increasingly do or die. Most tragic of thegenre is the Anyim-Egwu face-off. Are we inviting a step back into a historywhose end seemed to have come some time past?

Conclusion
Now to the relevance of Bob Marley's song, "Guiltyness" Woeto the downpressor, they reap the bread of sorrow, Woe to the downpressor, theyreap the bread of sad tomorrow. . . This is a song that thepolitical elite in today's Nigeria should pay heed to. I am sure many ofthem are also familiar with the lyrics of Fela Anikulapo's songs. Peopleare calling for positive dividends of democracy. There is just so muchthat they can bear. The politicians also should remember that theypromised that these dividends were at hand, but they got into office and beganto practice all manner of chicanery. If they "downpress" thecommon people, they will surely "reap the bread of sorrow" as well as"the bread of sad tomorrow." Democratization is a process, butit can only move forward with a great deal of commitment on the part of all concerned. Nigeria's political class thus far has not carried its weight. It is theduty of the citizens in a democratic polity to continue to "put their feetto the fire" by demanding that the business of accountable government isgiven the priority of place, rather than the politics of violence, thuggery and"man pass man."

It is exciting to embark on the journey towarddemocratization, particularly in a country like Nigeria where there have beenso many years of authoritarianism and military dictatorship. The peoplethat hanker after the dividends of democracy are on the right track. Ifauthoritarianism and dictatorship are responsible for leading Nigeria down theroad to ruin, democratization is expected to have the opposite, positiveeffect. In addition, the appetite for positive dividends of democracy iswhetted by cold and calculating politicians who in an effort to gain access tothe helm of the state, declare their undying devotion to serving the interestsof the people, only to gain power and become oblivious unfeeling gluttons whofeed fat at the trough that the public resources of Nigeria have become. This is probably why Jean Francois Bayart characterized African politics as"The Politics of the Belly," and why Chinua Achebe identifiedthe villain in Nigerian politics as the leadership. I see the pointin Bayart and Achebe's diagnosis. They are indeed wise men. Ihowever hasten to caution that the problem is not just the problem ofleadership, or of mere gluttony, or even that of the horse that Nigerians havebeaten almost to death, "The Nigerian Character." Rather,Nigeria's problem is a structural one. It sis a problem that arises fromthe manner in which the country interacts with the global political andeconomic systems. This is a problem that was present from the verybeginning of Nigeria's engagement with the global system - an engagement thatwas marked by trade, the slave trade, "the legitimate trade," voyagesof "exploration" and "discovery" of places and peoples thatwere aware of their own existence by various adventurers, a mad scramble,brutal "pacification" amalgamation, colonization, nationalism,independence, and now, the development of a full-fledged neo-colony where"the more things change, the more they remain the same." Lookcarefully at Nigeria. You'll find that its politics much resembles thatof its African neighbors, majority of Latin American and Asian countries aswell as countries in the Caribbean. If one attributes the problem ofthese countries to the failure of leadership, what in essence we are saying isthat our problems stem from a lack of character, that somehow, our collectivenature differs from those of people in countries that have developed. Isubmit that this is a mistake. The problem is structural because theearlier developers ran amok and perpetrated exploitation of massive proportionsto stoke and power the engines of their development. When they leftNigeria, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, they left neocolonieswhere the color of the leadership changed, but the nature of governanceremained the same. In many neocolonies, the façade of democracy rapidlyfell apart. Dictatorship, authoritarianism, and massive, colonial-typeexploitation ensued. This is because the only people that can take powerin political transitions tended to be those that past rulers can livewith. So it was with Nigeria. The country is still paying the pricetoday of being condemned to concentrate on its comparative advantage by

1. selling primary commodities (which may be minerals, unrefined gemstones, oragricultural commodities,)
2. depending on one or a few of such commodities for its foreign exchange andincome,
3. having incremental to no economic growth because economic growth seems to beperpetually elusive,
4. having an over-centralized system of government which means that there isalways a bitter struggle for political power, because this remains the best wayto make money,
5. having increasing levels of social strife that may be manifested as:
a. a class war of poor against the rich
b. banditry and armed robbery
c. pervasiveness of a sex-trade industry
d. widespread corruption
e. anomie and hopelessness for those who remain oppressed like Frantz Fanon's"Wretched of the Earth"

Am I saying that there will be no change in Nigeria? No. I amsaying that Nigeria must manipulate its comparative advantage in order to grabthe benefits offered by the constantly changing global economy. This isnot a task that can be achieved only with good leadership. It is not aproblem that will be solved by transforming "The Nigerian Character,"whatever it is. Rather, it is a problem that will only be solved throughcareful, deliberate planning, the components of this planning would soundelementary and simple to most sophisticated people. I recommend that thepeople be given the dividends of democracy - good education, politicalstability, economic growth, excellent social services, etc. Are these thingsthat will be accomplished very soon? No. Should people demandthem? Yes. I also submit that the people are not stupid. Ifthey see that the leadership does not treat public resources like a free gravytrain, they would be more willing to make the sacrifices that belt-tighteningentails.

What concrete things can Nigeria, Nigerians, and friends of Nigeria do? In the first place, we must encourage the development of a state that takescharge of economic planning in a manner that resembles the South Korean examplebefore it became a "Tiger." We must bear in mind that SouthKorea at the time was not a democracy. Are we ready to sacrificedemocracy at the altar of economic development? The government of Nigeriamust also engage in strategic economic planning which may mean that someinvestors may need to be repelled, while others are attracted, depending on theobjectives of national interest. There is also the need to combineinternal and external investment as engines of economic growth, therefore,there must be as much energy devoted to making the environment attractive todomestic capital, as is lavished upon foreign investors. What we shouldalso bear in mind is that this does not mean that all Nigerians willautomatically be better off. The majority will still be poor in the longrun. Is this a cost we are willing to bear? The state needs tounderstand that it is accountable to the people, and thus, it must stop actingwith impunity. It must take on the responsibility for ensuring thewelfare of ordinary Nigerians, particularly when it comes to defending themagainst unscrupulous multinational investors who care nothing about theenvironment, and the people, for example, the oil companies in the NigerDelta. People must have the security of having guraranteed civil andpolitical liberties which means that groups and individuals that demand anational conference for example, are not treated like "voices in thewilderness." If there is no desire to belong to the polity, we willbe working at cross purposes. A house divided against itself cannotstand. There must be the rule of law and equal protection of the laws aswell as non-discrimination on the basis of sex, religion, ethnicity, orclass. If this is combined with Judicial independence and a unity oflaws, or a unified legal system, there ought to be no cases as we've had in theNorth of Nigeria where women are condemned to death by stoning. Ofcourse, there ought to be checks and balances against abuse of authority,fiscal probity, which means that public funds will not be treated as theprivate reserves of those in government. There also ought to be selflessleadership. Given the state of Nigeria today, this is a long shot. It is important for the government to ensure that we have secure propertyrights in Nigeria. However, this effort should not only be focused atguarantees for individuals, but for communities. Having such securitydoes not necessary guarantee that we have equitable distribution ofwealth. Nigerian Immigrants also can play a key role as investors,advisors, technical experts, and ought to keep in close touch with Nigerianpolitics, and maintain close social and economic ties. When we visit, weought not to think of ourselves as outsiders, we ought not to have an arrogantattitude that assumes that the reason why the dividends of democracy are notrealized is because all Nigerians are stupid. We should endeavor to makephilanthropic outreach as individuals and organizations to assist wherever wesee the need. Will the government of Nigeria welcome ourintervention? Not necessarily. Should we give up? No. Thereis no reason why Nigerians abroad should not have the right to vote. We shouldall support the movement to make this a reality. Immigrants in the US canalso play the part of informal ambassadors that campaign for pro-Nigeria USforeign policy.

Nigeria is lucky. It is endowed with a hugepopulation, numerous valuable natural resources, fertile land, and not too manynatural disasters. With determination and coordination, these goals canbe achieved. The other side of this equation is the global political andeconomic system. The rules of the game in the system are stacked againstthe powerless. Nigeria, ladies and gentlemen, is one of thepowerless. These rules also must change. However, powerfulpeople are not in the habit of handing over the reins of power to thepowerless. The powerless acting alone cannot do but so much. Thus, thepowerless must unite and push or force a change in the rules. Whatrules?

1. Protectionism in countries like the United States against even the modestagricultural exports of countries like Nigeria.
2. Reduction of the debt overhang or the forgiveness of the debt of developingcountries.
3. The preference for free, rather than fair trade.
4. The proliferation of small arms, land mines and other military materiel fromdeveloped countries to developing nations.
5. Interference in wars among neighbors in a manner that causes escalation.
6. Support for dictatorial regimes for strategic reasons.

What I'm describing, ladies and gentlemen, is Utopia. To achieve a newglobal system that respects all these conditions, we would have to forego thecurrent liberal international order which supports the maintenance of thestatus quo. The world would have to become a place where swords arebeaten into ploughshares, a place where we'll all promise to "study war nomore." Because the world will no change so rapidly, whateverinterventions that are made on the domestic front will only yield modestgains.

There is also the possibility of unintendedconsequences, and through sheer luck and tenacity, Nigeria may yet betransformed into a leading country both politically and economicallysooner rather than later. If this sounds like the ramblings of a dreamer,I exhort you, dare to dream! Thank you.

Endnotes

1. FrederickDouglass, "The Significance of Emancipation in the West Indies."Speech, Canandaigua, New York, August 3, 1857; collected in pamphlet by author.In The Frederick Douglass Papers. Series One: Speeches, Debates, andInterviews. Volume 3: 1855-63. Edited by John W. Blassingame. New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, p. 204. 1985 from http://www.publiceye.org/buildingequality/Quotes/Frederick_Douglass.htm

2. Bob Marley“Guiltiness” 1977

3. See TerryWaya Photo Archives” http://www.gisters.com/profiles/terry_photo.shtml and http://www.gisters.com/profiles/terry_story.shtml for somephotographs of the birthday bash. For more information on Terry Waya,also see http://www.gisters.com/profiles/terry_waya.html, andhttp://www.gisters.com/profiles/terry_story.shtml. For some newsanalysis on the birthday bash, see Olusegun Adeniyi "The Owambe Hall ofShame"
http://www.thisdayonline.com/archive/2001/07/05/20010705ext01.html;Akin Taiwo "The Unknown Quantity,"http://www.transsahara.com/Columnists/Taiwo_Unknown%20Quantity.htm. Inorder to get a sense of Mr. Waya's reach as a power broker, see SamuelFamakinwa and Nneoma Ukeje-Eloagu, "Obasanjo Rejects NITEL'S NewBoard," Terry Waya was one of the new members of the Board. Others wereAlhaji Bello Alkali, Mr. Adeleke Oyelade, Mr. Henry Oyailo Abebe, Mrs. HalitaAliyu and Muhammed Lawan Bello. http://www.ndeya.net/29netilnewboard.htm A new Board was laterapproved, including Waya. According to Balancing Act News Update,"The Nigerian Federal government has approved the appointment of a newBoard of Directors to replace the technical board of the NigerianTelecommunications Limited (NITEL). The new 14-member Board, which is headed byMark Odu also has as member, Terry Waya, a London-based Nigerianbusinessman.Others on the board are Ganiyu O. Adegbuji (Managing Director),Suleiman M. Sani (Executive Director, Domestic Network Communications, NITEL),Emmanuel C. Omeara (Executive Director, Long Distance Communications, NITEL),D.O. Daramola (Executive Director, Mobile Communications, NITEL).Also appointedto the Board are Bello Alkali, Adeleke Oyelade, Garba Muhammed Noma, HenryOyailo Abebe, Halita Aliyu, Muhammed Lawan Bello and Hassan Usman DeputyDirector (Bureau of Public Enterprises).The new Board is made up of mostlymembers of the dissolved technical board. Seehttp://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/back/balancing-act_119.html.

"Foran update on the Waya "phenomenon,"see Tunji Bello "Terry Waya'sSelf Advertisement" The New Republic http://www.thisdayonline.com/archive/2002/03/18/20020318ext03.html

4. TimtinikoEnodien "Pray, On What Then?" Guardian Sunday Sept. 9 2001

5. Ibid

6. Ibid

7. AdelekeAdeseri "Why Osun Needs A New Hand" Guardian September 9, 2001

8. Deaconhere refers to Olowofoyeku.

9. ibid.

10. Note thatwhile the Olowofoyeku article is referred to here, it is not for the purposesof singling out one individual, but to point to the ubiquity of a trend. Ibid

11. JerryNjoku "Understanding Anyim/Egwu Feud" Thisday Onlinehttp://www.thisdayonline.com/archive/2001/09/09/20010909com02.html; alsosee Tunji Bello, "Pius Anyim's Hypocrisy" This Day(Lagos) August 19, 2002 http://allafrica.com/stories/200208190448.html

12. Pat Utomi"On Decorum In Public Life" Guardian September 9, 2001

13. Ibid

14. Timiniko Enodien,“Pray On…” op cit.

15. Pat Utomi,“On Decorum…” op cit.

16. ibid.

17. ibid.

18. ibid.

19. “NIGERIA Debt Treatment” October 20, 2005 http://www.clubdeparis.org/sections/traitements/nigeria-20051020/viewLanguage/en;Isa, Sanusi “Debt Relief: FG to Pay Paris Club $6bn From Excess Crude Revenue” DailyTrust (August 10, 2005 http://allafrica.com/stories/200508100045.html;Omoh, Gabriel, “IMF Team in Nigeria, Holds Talks on Debt Relief” Vanguard Online. Posted to the Web: Thursday, August 11, 2005http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/headline/f111082005.html;“Nigeria to get $18bn debt relief” BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4637395

20. JeanFrancois Bayart, The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly. New York: Longman, 1993.

21. ChinuaAchebe The Trouble with Nigeria Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann,1983.

22. FrantzFanon The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 1968

Do we want to be SAPped Again? Learning the lessons of history

2012-01-24T06:05:00.000-08:00

Before we get to the questionof whether or not we want to be SAPped again, I'd like you to know that theNigeria National Project is being covered by Nigerian media. Click on thelinks below to read about it.

1.. Laolu Akande,Guardian (Nigeria) Tuesday, January 24, 2012
How to move Nigeria forward, by Osundare, others http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74854:how-to-move-nigeria-forward-by-osundare-others-&catid=1:national&Itemid=559

2. Nigeria VillageSquare

Osundare, Ajasin, Falola,others Call for National conference

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/empowered-newswire/osundare-ajasin-falola-others-call-for-national-conference.html

4. Premium Times (Nigeria) Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Osundare, Ajasin, Falola, other eminent Nigerians call fornational conference

‘Nigeria’sexistence is threatened’

5. Vanguard (Nigeria) Tuesday, January 24, 2012

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/01/boko-haram-nigeria-under-security-threat-osundare-others-warn/

6. Osundare, Ajasin,Falola, Others All For National Conference • Say Jonathan Is “Inarticulate”About Boko Haram Posted: January 24, 2012 - 13:40

http://saharareporters.com/news-page/osundare-ajasin-falola-others-all-national-conference-%E2%80%A2-say-jonathan-%E2%80%9Cinarticulate%E2%80%9D-about-

Given that what is ongoing inNigerian political economy is more of the same embrace of the StructuralAdjustment Program (SAP), as dictated by the World Bank and IMF, today Idecided to share one of my past writings on Nigeria's political economy. I will serialize it here. The piece below is a draft of a paper publishedas: “The Dividends of Democracy: The Nigeria Experience” in OlayiwolaAbegunrin and Olusoji Akomolafe, Eds. Nigeriain Global Politics: Twentieth Century and Beyond (Nova Publishers,2006). Bear in mind that this paper was written years ago. Much haschanged. My mother died last year. Nigeria is currently roiled bypost-petroleum subsidy removal wahala, and Boko Haram is on the rampage,causing deep anxiety, fear and trepidation.

My question of whether we wantto be SAPped again has to do with the fact that SAP was said to have rent/tornthe social fabric in Nigeria. It inflicted great economic pain. Itintensified the brain drain and created what the World Bank itself called"the lost decade"

Some earlier work is tobe found in my book:

ASapped Democracy: The Political Economy of the Structural AdjustmentProgram and the Democratic Transition in Nigeria, 1983‑1993; (Baltimore, MD: University Press ofAmerica, 1997).

and in

“State and Civil Society inNigeria in the Era of the Structural Adjustment Program, 1986-1993." West Africa Review, vol. 1:1. http://www.westafricareview.com/war/vol1.1/okomee.html.

You can read the paper citedimmediately above at: http://www.dawodu.com/sap1.htm

The Dividends of Democracy: AnExploration into Nigeria's political economy in the 21st Century.

Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome, Ph.D.

Professor of Political Science

Brooklyn College, CUNY

"Let me give you a word ofthe philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human libertyshows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born ofearnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, andfor the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or itdoes nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who professto favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops withoutplowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They wantthe ocean without the awful roar of its many waters."

"This struggle may be amoral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical,but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It neverdid and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to andyou have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will beimposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with eitherwords or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by theendurance of those whom they oppress. In the light of these ideas, Negroes willbe hunted at the North, and held and flogged at the South so long as theysubmit to those devilish outrages, and make no resistance, either moral orphysical. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they mustcertainly pay for all they get. If we ever get free from the oppressions andwrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor,by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives ofothers."

Frederick Douglass, 1857

Woe to the downpressor, theyreap the bread of sorrow,

Woe to the downpressor, theyreap the bread of sad tomorrow. . . (Bob Marley & The Wailers,Guiltiness)

Introduction

The title of this paperwas originally the following: "Nigeria: Globalization, Democratization andDevelopment." The title of this paper has to be modified inlight of my firsthand experience with Nigeria's political economy. As areturned immigrant scholar in Nigeria in the summer of 2001, I felt like bothan insider and outsider. I observed much and recorded much of suchobservations. I spoke with many, and empathized. However, I had anexit option that many of my subjects did not have. I could return to workto earn "hard currency" that gave me options that many of the peoplethat I encountered did not have. I study Nigeria's political economy fora living, and thus differ from many other immigrants who have an exitoption.

In the first place, I am adis/relocated Nigerian who lives and works in the New York City, USA. Iam also a woman, a mother of two boys that accompanied me on my researchtrip. All three of my sisters, my mother, and approximately 99% of myhuge extended family continue to live and work in Nigeria. I also had theadditional benefit of seeing things from the perspective of my children. For my teenage son who was en route to his first year in college after thesummer ended, this was a return to a Nigeria where he spent every summer forthe first ten years of his life. Now eighteen, when we prepared to leaveNew York, he looked forward to going to Nigeria but also had forgotten much ofwhat the experience was like, except that there was lots of family. Hewondered how much of what he remembered would remain the same. As a youngadult, he also was privy to many long conversations and arguments on Nigerianpolitics that I have had over the years with my fellow compatriots, someexiled, some marooned, yet others volubly and palpably glad to have"escaped" from "dead-end" Nigeria to a land where thepossibilities were seemingly endless. He was familiar with dark musingsabout official and garden-variety armed robbery. He had heard discussionsof the "Maradona" and "evil genius" of Nigerian politics,the military "president", Babangida. He knew about the Abachadictatorship and attempts to perpetuate both the former and latterregimes. He constantly heard about SAP. He heard complaints ofpeople who claimed to be perpetually besieged by innumerable family members andfriends that wanted financial assistance, stipends, even sponsorship forAmerican citizenship. He knew about Nigerian drug couriers that arearrested at the various US airports for transporting heroin into thecountry. He also knew from reports that we heard for the six months or sobefore leaving that armed robbery was on the rise. This was not just amatter of hearsay, one family member had been shot in the leg while waiting forthe gate to his house to be open. Just before we left, we heard that otherfamily members were attacked by armed robbers and their house was cleanedout. One of his concerns was whether it was really safe to go toNigeria. He took his cue from me, and decided that if it was okay by meto go, it must really be okay. My six year old son also considered this tobe a return trip. After all, he claimed, he had been in Nigeria when hewas five months old. The three of us boarded the South Africa Airwaysplane sort of on a fact-finding mission. Each of us had differentquestions, but all were desirous of finding out what Nigeria was about at thispoint in time.

For me, the defining issuequickly became "the dividends of democracy". Remember I'd goneto Nigeria to research into the interaction between globalization and politicaland economic development. To properly answer the questions that were uppermostin my mind, I had to take the pulse of Nigeria's politics and itseconomy. I had to determine the extent to which the global affects thelocal and vice versa. Indeed, turning on the television for the talkshows on politics and reading the newspapers, engaging friends and family andresearch subjects in discussions on current events yielded much fruit on allthe concerns that were uppermost in my mind. The news media was ubiquitousin its constant declamation on the dividends of democracy.

According to various and sundryexperts, these dividends were few and far between. Inflation wassky-high. The cost of living was prohibitive. Roads were bad. Access to health care was an intractable problem for most. Potable water,reliable electricity supply, even reliable assurance that one's meager incomewould be regularly replenished by a paycheck as and when due was at best, anelusive proposition. Add to this the insecurity of life and limb due tothe predatory activities of highly educated, but unemployed and underemployeduniversity students or graduates, some of whom had turned to armed robbery intheir desperation, some to be able to keep up with the high flying Joneses whothrew money around like so much garbage or sand, and the universities thatstill remained more closed than they were open, the university professors whohad been driven to pursue multiple means of guaranteeing their livelihood,while at the same time holding on to their day job, but performing associatedtasks as though teaching and research were the less important parts of theiremployment. Bear in mind that the cost of loans was also prohibitively high,that urban life was hyper-crowded and chaotic, and you would begin to scratchthe surface of the problems that frustrate ordinary Nigerians. Whenpeople are asked what their experience of democracy has been, theyunequivocally answer that they are yet to enjoy its dividends. Were thedividends accessible, they argue, the roads would be good, all the lacks wouldbe satisfied or fulfilled, the coming elections in 2003 would not cause anxietyabout violence, dislocations, etc.

Yet, this would be anincomplete story if it is focused solely on the deprivations. The wholenotion of "keeping up with the Joneses" implies that there areJoneses to keep up with, that there are some who are doing better than most,some for whom the dividends of democracy have arrived. They are thecomfortable, the affluent, the creme de la creme of Nigerian society. They have either newly "arrived" nouveau riche, or they arecomfortable, and have been for a few generations. Their forebears mayactually have benefited from the dividends of colonialism, nationalism, pastdemocracy, authoritarianism, or dictatorship. For these, if there is apaycheck, it is regular, guaranteed, substantial, and supported by variousperquisites of office. Some of these Nigerians are the "bigboys" and "big girls" that populate the new tabloids. Theydeal in contracts, they are power brokers. They can, like Terry Waya,throw a birthday bash to end all birthday bashes in London, England, invite over one hundred of their closest friends whose names are among the"Who's Who" in Nigerian politics and in the business world. That the party was the event of the moment was clear while I was in Nigeriabecause it was covered extensively by tabloids such as the National Encomium,Ovation, City People. It was also covered by all major news media. It even attracted the attention of President Obasanjo who was extremely criticalof the high profile nature of this private celebration that seemed to have beengiven an official stamp due to the presence of so many of those that he dubbedthe "Owambe" governors. One could see the point of thePresident. Many ordinary people were groaning under the weight ofeconomic devastation and Nigeria was pushing the powers that be within theinternational financial system for debt forgiveness, or at least, debtrelief. For many who were already cynical about giving any kind of breaksto a country that is thickly populated by "money miss roads" such asWaya, Nigeria needed no breaks, only a dose of good old common sense. Inthe parlance of International Political Economists, what Nigeria needs is notdebt relief but decision makers with the skill to identify what the rightpolicy mix is, and the will to implement such policies in the face ofopposition by reactionary vested interests. The measures involved wouldprobably involve purging the decision-making and policy circles of the influenceof these rent seeking elites. Venal elites like Waya who have run amokwould probably lose their automatic access to the corridors of powers. His foreign benefactors would be shut out/down, his "good friends"who consider him to be the man to know when you want to get things done wouldclose up shop and get real jobs. One does not need a degree in rocketscience to know that this is impossible. Many current and pendingpoliticians are beholden to Waya and his godfathers, and they said as much intheir speeches at his birthday party. For critics/advisers/analysts whocall for an injection of good sense into economic policy making, the problemand solution are clear. When you are an indebted country in thecontemporary global system, your options are the following: renegotiate yourdebt, but be prepared to fulfil certain conditions.

Do not:

… have an overvalued currency

… give any subsidies

… have extravagant socialpolicies like full and free education at all levels, healthcare for all

… have budget deficits

… have big government

… have protectionist policies.

Instead, do

… devalue your currency

… maintain policies of fiscaland budgetary probity by balancing your budget

… operate according to rules ofcomparative advantage by producing and exporting the primary commodities thatyour advantage dictate

… cut back the size of thestate by privatizing what were formerly state owned enterprises, concentrate onprimary rather than tertiary education

… open your markets to importsto stimulate economic efficiency

… make your domestic economyattractive to foreign investors by removing barriers to entry like too manyrules, slow decision making on pressing commercial issues, poor governance,protection of domestic producers who are not as efficient as their foreigncounterparts/competitors

… establish good institutionsthat guarantee the rule of law, protect property rights

… decentralize government tobring it closer to the people.

If these measures, howeverpainful are put into place, the dividends of democracy would grow and thepopulation would gain in the long run.

The scholars/analystsforget one basic fact that pain is hard to bear. Further, they forgetthat pain that goes on for too long is bound to yield multiple bitterfruits. Finally, they forget that the dividends of democracy can beidentified by both scholars and ordinary people alike. If people findthat they are unable to identify them, they become at best, restive. Atworst, explosions can be expected. However, there are also serious discussionsabout the dividends of democracy in Nigeria that go beyond the quantifiablebread and butter issues. People want transparency in governance. They want fairness, justice, the rule of law, institutions that protect anddefend their rights. Although they want jobs, they also want a governmentthat protects and defends their interests prior to doing likewise formultinational corporations under the impetus of creating a favorable atmospherefor foreign investment. They want a sovereign government that does notsell the heritage of future generations off for a mere "mess ofpottage" as in the defense relationship with a powerful country where thesaid country "trains" soldiers in peacekeeping operations in returnfor spending about $1 million annually. Many Nigerians realize that whatthey must look forward to are the rules of "trickle down economics"if they are fully subscribed to the ideals of the market system as presented bythe scholars/analysts that advice that market based democracy is the way togo. They reject such analysis, and act in a manner that is true to theirinterest in a universe where they have limited power. For each set ofactors, the desirable action is different. This is why we have such anunmanageable system in Nigeria today. This paper takes this as a startingpoint in exploring the excitement and enigma of Nigeria at the beginning of the21st Century.

Demands for the dividends ofdemocracy do not emerge in a vacuum. For this reason, people feel dupedwhen there are no dividends to be found. The politicians that won thelast elections themselves set up the baseline expectations that while theNigerian economy was in the doldrums when they took over, they would makequantifiable and progressive changes in the economic situation inNigeria. While it is to be expected that politicians would want to sweepthe pronouncements that made the expectations rational under the rug, peoplewho believed them were quite unwilling to be duped. Therefore, throughthe press, they demand some reckoning. This is one reason why oneof the chieftains of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) was questioned by ajournalist in the following vein in September 2000:When the new administrationtook over power in 1999, the rate of interest for prime borrowers was between12 and 15 per cent, it is now 30 and 35 per cent; the growth rate of GrossDomestic Product (GDP) was 2.4 per cent, it is now negative; the naira thencould be exchanged at the rate of N88 to 1 US Dollar, it is now N134 to 1 USD;inflation rate stood at 13 per cent then, it is now 26 per cent; unemploymentrate then was...."

Of course, the journalist wascut off by the uncomfortable politician. Nigeria is not the only placewhere politicians prefer such statements to be remembered only when they wantto take credit for a thriving economy. Naturally, the embarrassedchieftain responded true to type when he said the following: "... youcannot base the performance and achievement of the present government on merenumbers...."

To be continued...

Nigeria’s corporate existence is threatened - Osundare, Ajasin, Falola, others

2012-01-23T15:48:00.000-08:00

PRESS RELEASE

Nigeria’s corporateexistence is threatened - Osundare, Ajasin, Falola, others

A group of Nigerians under the aegis ofCommittee for Concerned Nigerians, which includes acclaimed poet, ProfessorNiyi Osundare, son of the late leader of the National Democratic Coalition(NADECO), Mr. Tokunbo Ajasin, and US-based Nigerian professors,Professor Amina Mama, Professor Toyin Falola, and Professor Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome, hasstated that Nigeria’s corporate existence as one country is threatened.

The group, which includes over 60Nigerians both at home and abroad, has therefore called for the convocation ofa national conference to resolve the “fundamental crisis” in Nigeria and saveNigeria from “imminent collapse”.

Describing its members as “joint stakeholdersin the Nigerian project”, the Committee for Concerned Nigerians stated that“The government of President Goodluck Jonathan, by its simplistic and haughtyresponses to the true wishes of (Nigerians) … has lost a golden opportunity toalign itself with the people whose mandate it claims to hold.”

The group added that “even though theyare provoked by, and react to, different aspects of the national crises, boththe terrorism of the Boko Haram group and the gallant efforts bythe masses and the civil society against the increase in the pump price of oil,are manifestations of a perilous incoherence in the structural composition ofNigeria and the manner in which the country has been, and is being,administered.”

While stating that President Jonathan has been rendered“inarticulate” by the incessant terrorist attacks perpetrated by the BokoHaram, the group added that these attacks, and the protests, raise“questions on the corporate existence of the country.” Osundare and othersadvised that this should compel Nigerians and the government to address thequestion of “Which Way Nigeria.”

The group, which described its members as “joint stakeholders inthe Nigerian project”, condemned the “glaring incompetence, corruption and lackof vision” of the Jonathan administration, adding that the government’sshortcomings constitute a threat to the continued existence of Nigeria as acorporate entity.

“In spite of the promises that have been made by the presenteconomic managers, the Nigerian masses and the withered middle class willcontinue to experience a life of unrelenting misery unless a new path thatencourages a fundamental and holistic restructuring of our national life,including economic and political structures, is stated immediately.”

The group which includes scholars, writers, activists, and others,both young and old and from every part of Nigeria, criticized the imposition ofwhat it called “mere postulations of development economics which are notinterrogated through nationalists analyses of local circumstances andhistorical conditions”, while condemning the tendency of Nigerian government totake “instructions from Washington D.C. or London and other Western capitals.”

The Committee called on Nigerians both at home and abroad tocontinue to struggle and work together in various ways to ensure that Nigeriadoes not become another Somalia or Sudan or go through the recent experiencesof Sierra Leone and Liberia, through the convocation of a National Conference.

Others who signed the statement include Ms. Funmi Iyanda, a popular broadcaster, Dr. Dalhatu Umaru, Dr. Ogaga Ifowodo, Titi Omo-Ettu,the President, Association Of Telecommunications Companies Of Nigeria (ATCON), Professor SegunGbadegesin of Howard University, Professor Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome, Professor Olufemi Vaughan, Dr. OmofolaboAjayi-Soyinka, Dr. Chika Unigwe, a writer, Professor Moradewun Adejunmobi, Dr.Victor Isumonah of the University of Ibadan, Professor W. Alade Fawole of theObafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Mr. Chido Onumah, Dr. Wale Adebanwi, Dr. PiusAdesanmi, Dr. Farooq Kperogi, Dr. Hussaini Jibrin, Professor Tunde Bewaji, Mr.Laolu Akande, Mr. Chido Onumah, Dr. Ebenezer Obadare, Dr. Nduka Otiono, Mr.Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, Mr. Dipo Famakinwa, the Secretary of the Governing councilof the Yoruba Academy, Dr. Muoyo Okome, Dr. Ike Anya, Mr. AderemiOjikutu, Dr. Baba Adam, Mr. Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo, Dr. Bunmi Aborisade and manyothers.

You can read the full statement at:

This House Must Not Fall! Statement By Committee of Concerned Nigerians

Also, Please spread the word to your friends and family so they know what's going on.You can just forward the sample letter below.

Spreading the word is critical, but please only pass this message along tothose who know you -- spam hurts our campaign.

Thanks for your support.

Here's a sample message to send to your friends:

Subject: This House Must Not Fall! By Committee of Concerned Nigerians

The recent massuprising against the so-called “removal” of subsidy on petroleum products bythe Federal Government headed by President Goodluck Jonathan has again broughtto fore critical questions about the crisis of governance in Nigeria and theway Nigeria is constituted or structured. We the undersigned are convincedthat, in spite of the ending of the protests and the industrial action throughthe compromise between the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC)-Trade Union Congress(TUC), on the one hand, and the Federal Government, on the other, fundamentalquestions raised by the civil uprising remain unresolved. They must not beconveniently swept under the carpet.

Please read the full statement by visiting the online petitionsite at: iPetitions: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/this-house-must-not-fall-statement-by-committee/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/this-house-must-not-fall-statement-by-committee/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%2BFriend

We would also appreciate it if you could put this on facebook, twitter, andother social media.

Professor Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome, Brooklyn College, CUNY,New York, US

Professor Femi Vaughan, Geoffrey Canada Professor of AfricanaStudies & History, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, USA

Dr. Pius Adesanmi, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

Dr. Wale Adebanwi, University of California-Davis, USA.

Sign this petitionand spread the word.

Thanks!

Beyond Boko Haram: The Nigerian Body Politic

2012-01-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

Kano was subjected to devastating bombings yesterday, January 22, 2012 http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/news/34020-boko-haram-scores-feared-dead-in-kano-multiple-explosions.html. Given my decision to wade into and weigh in on Nigerian politics publicly, I got some feedback from people who question my integrity and consider me a publicity seeking charlatan. For the record, I am not in the least interested in publicity and my integrity matters to me. I am not for sale and have never been. I decided to come out of my comfort zone to engage Nigerian politics because I love my country and want it to reach its full potential.

Some people have contacted me to say that I don't care about the Boko Haram inflicted fatalities, the most recent in Kano. For the record, I am distraught that there is this loss of lives and wanton destruction. I am appalled. I am saddened. I pray that God will take control of Nigeria and let cooler heads prevail. I pray for the families, friends, acquaintances and loved ones of those whose lives were lost as a result of this and the other bombings, that God grants them the fortitude and gives them all they need to weather this devastating storm. On a personal level, I also have family and friends in Kano. Some of them have been victims of past violence in the city. I am not a casual and heartless bystander. But doesn't everyone say that? The people who know me know that I don't bandy words around just for the sake of talking. And anyway, this is not about me but about Nigeria and the well-being of its people. I encourage all Nigerians to engage our democratic system and struggle for both its survival and for the betterment of the lives of all of us.

This statement below expresses some of my thinking on the Nigerian Body politic and at the end, asks Nigerians to sign a petition. The petition is only a first step, as the statement says.

This House MustNot Fall!

By Committee of ConcernedNigerians

The recent mass uprising against the so-called“removal” of subsidy on petroleum products by the Federal Government headed byPresident Goodluck Jonathan has again brought to fore critical questions aboutthe crisis of governance in Nigeria and the way Nigeria is constituted orstructured. We the undersigned are convinced that, in spite of the ending ofthe protests and the industrial action through the compromise between theNigerian Labour Congress (NLC)-Trade Union Congress (TUC), on the one hand, andthe Federal Government, on the other, fundamental questions raised by the civiluprising remain unresolved. They must not be conveniently swept under thecarpet.

We are persuaded that what was displayed on thestreets and by the interventions of Nigerians at home and abroad in the week ofthe protests, was not merely a response to the insensitive and ill-advisedincrease in the price of petroleum products - particularly petrol, whose priceper litre was increased from N65 to N140. This national uprising was anexpression of the deep frustration of the Nigerian people.

We believe that at the core of this “withdrawal ofsubsidy” regime, is the persistence of a contentious relationship between nationaland international forces organised around the failed logic of neo-liberalism,that have pulverised our national economy, destroyed every surviving nationalinstitution of growth and development, reversed the gains of our localindustries, crushed the strength, vitality and steady growth of our educationalinstitutions, and smashed every process and institution of social services andsocial provisioning that had hitherto ensured the survival of Nigerians.

The historical and structural conditions that ledNigeria to the circumstances described above and the failure of the ascendantneo-liberal policies, whose purveyors have remained consistently ignorant ofthe reality and the specificities of the Nigerian environment, while displayingcondensed disdain for local knowledge and the political economy of the fiscalcrisis, are evident in the condescension and appalling obliviousness recentlydisplayed by the external and local “experts” who have attempted to define the“real issues” in the course of the current debate.

In the current circumstances, the truth that we allknow is that Nigeria is broke. The 2012 budget - even if it were to be operatedon the basis of the N140 per litre of petrol - would still be a deficit budget.However, the country is not broke by accident; it is broke by design. Through asystematic and sustained process of unprecedented corruption, inefficiency andlack of vision, the nation’s coffers have been systematically looted directly and indirectly by those incharge of public administration.

Whether through a regime of self-provisioning -- fromthe federal through the state to the local government levels – by means ofwhich public officers, particularly in the executive and legislative arms ofgovernment, have converted public resources into their private entitlements, orthrough a pattern of graft and unconscionable looting which is graduallyreturning a nation that was supposed to have settled its external debts only afew years back into the comity of debtor nations, Nigeria’s stupendous oilresources have become even insufficient to match the ravenous appetites of ourrulers. This is why, as witnessed since the General Ibrahim Babangida era, andas poignantly demonstrated many times during the President Olusegun Obasanjo era,those in power have had to regularly remove a perpetual “subsidy” frompetroleum prices. Creeping but consistent inability of economicallymarginalized Nigerians to make ends meet constituted a part of the backdrop ofthe ferment witnessed in the streets recently.

Therefore, we are compelled to insist that if those inpower and their allied forces assume that they have won the battle by thenegotiated agreement which fixed the price of petrol at N97, they have missedboth the symbolic significance and the practical import of the heroic actionsrecently displayed by Nigerians. The industrial action and mass protests havebeen terminated for now, but the fundamental social, economic and politicalquestions that they raised remain salient and continue to constitute a threatto, not only the survival of democratic rule in Nigeria, but also to thecorporate existence of the nation.

As the unending rash of terrorist attacks by Boko Haram shows, there is an underlyingstructural predicament which this government can only ignore at its peril. Thefact that Boko Haram continues toridicule the nation’s security apparatuses, and has rendered President Jonathaninarticulate about its sources and strength, constitutes an indication of theurgent need to rethink the bases of the social contract between the state andcitizens in Nigeria.

However, even though they are provoked by, and reactto, different aspects of the national crises, both the terrorism of the Boko Haram group and the gallant effortsby the masses and the civil society against the increase in the pump price ofoil, are manifestations of a perilous incoherence in the structural compositionof Nigeria and the manner in which the country has been, and is being,administered. The different forms of questions raised on the corporateexistence of the country in the context of the two, should compel everypatriotic formation in Nigeria to join the task of responding to thesechallenges and constructing the conditions and institutions through which thesefundamental questions can be addressed so as to save Nigeria from an imminentcollapse. The question therefore is: Which Way Nigeria?

Against this backdrop, we the undersigned, as jointstakeholders in the Nigerian project, convinced about our moral responsibilityto join the debate to save Nigeria, persuaded that the nation is headed for theprecipice unless it takes a different course, and influenced by our implicittrust in the manifest destiny of our country, Nigeria, to be a great andindivisible nation, do make the following declarations:

1. That, through acombination of past actions and inactions and the glaring incompetence,corruption and lack of vision of the current government, Nigeria faces direcrises which threaten her continued existence as a corporate entity;

2. That, in spiteof the promises that have been made by the present economic managers, theNigerian masses and the withered middle class will continue to experience alife of unrelenting misery unless a new path that encourages a fundamental andholistic restructuring of our national life, including the economic andpolitical structures, is started immediately;

3. That thepolitical (structural) questions raised by the totality of the challenges facedunder this government call for concerted actions beyond mere postulations ofdevelopment economics which are not interrogated through nationalistic analysesof our local circumstances and historical conditions;

4. That, despitethe multiplicity of the challenges and the formidability of the obstacles,Nigeria possesses the human and natural resources (particularly the former,both at home and in the Diaspora) to confront and surmount our national criseswithout taking instructions from Washington D.C. or London and other Westerncapitals;

5. That thepassion, energies and frustrations let loose on the streets in the recent pastcan be harnessed and deployed in the service of reconstructing andreconstituting the country in a way that Nigeria can become a place of prideagain for all Nigerians;

6. That thegovernment of President Goodluck Jonathan has by its simplistic and haughtyresponses to the true wishes of our people for effective and efficientgovernance, for a government that is truly concerned about alleviating theharrowing and devastating poverty that is evident all over the country, for aunited country whose diversity is a strength rather than a weakness, foregalitarian rule, and for a country that can be restructured in a way that itstarts to function well and function for all, has lost a golden opportunity toalign itself with the people whose mandate it claims to hold.

In light of theforegoing and based on our conviction that “What is to be Done” about Nigeriais an on-going, inclusive and expansive project, we call on the people ofNigeria and all patriotic forces to:

1. Continuenetworking and join hands to immediately begin a process that must lead to theconvocation of a national conference. This conference must end in acomprehensive restructuring of the federation such that it would prevent Nigeriafrom experiencing what was experienced in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeriabetween 1967 and 1970, or is being experienced in Somalia and the DemocraticRepublic of the Congo.

2. To utilize thishistoric moment when the Nigerian people have clearly spoken, calling fordevelopment and democracy, as a time to fully commit ourselves to justice,progress, and stability in our country.

3. Continue toencourage Nigerian citizens to actively participate in the political processthrough peaceful and non-violent means. We believe that only through aconsistently active and constructive engagement in the Nigerian democraticprocess – both electoral and non-electoral – can we begin to harness theenormous human potential of Nigerian citizens at home and abroad. We call onthe Nigerian authorities to ensure that Nigerians are secure to exercise theirdemocratic rights in a peaceful and non-violent manner without intimidation andviolence from the state.

4. For theavoidance of doubt, whether those in power recognise this or not, Nigeria facesenormous national crises which threaten to consume not only the government, butalso the nation. Violently extracting, collecting or gathering resources tosustain the largely inefficient, unproductive and thoroughly incompetentfederal and state governments that we have now, constitutes cosmetic andunsustainable paths to national survival.

We hope thatthis intervention will encourage other Nigerians to continue to think carefullyand act meticulously to address the grave challenges that confront our country.We intend to continue this debate and engage in high-level deliberations withNigerians, home and abroad, on the future of the country and the convocation,at the earliest possible time, of a national conference to discuss our collectivefuture as a people.

Please visit the following online campaign, at iPetitions: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/this-house-must-not-fall-statement-by-committee/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/this-house-must-not-fall-statement-by-committee/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%2BFriend

Professor Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome, Brooklyn College, CUNY, New York,US

Professor Femi Vaughan, Geoffrey Canada Professorof Africana Studies & History, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, USA

Dr. Pius Adesanmi, Carleton University, Ottawa,Canada.

Dr. Wale Adebanwi, University ofCalifornia-Davis, USA.

Incidentally, I tweeted on the Kano tragedies yesterday. I'm new to this. But because I realize that many people believe in tweeting, and my son, who's more plugged in recommends that I do so, I have begun. So, I will see you all on tweeter. Yesterday, I was also interviewed by Wuyi Jacobs on Afrobeat Radio http://afrobeatradio.net/ WBAI 99.5 FM NY. The program streamed live online at www.wbai.org,

You can click on the following link to listen: http://archive.wbai.org/

The subject was as you see, Boko Haram and the bombing. If I was good at tweeting I would have done as my son said, and tweeted it. But I'm not. I'll soon learn though. Here below, you'll find Wuyi's intro.

INTRO:

The Wave of violence allegedly masterminded by the fundamentalist Islamist group Boko Haram continues in Northern Nigeria. In what is being described as the deadliest attack yet, up to 162 people have been reported killed today Saturday Jan 21, 2012 by media sources in Kano.

A BBC reporter in Kano said he had counted 150 bodies in the mortuary of the city's main hospital. Today’s took place in the ancient city of Kano, Nigeria's second largest city. Over 30 coordinated explosions reportedly shook Kano, targeting mostly government offices and police stations.

According to the BBC, a Boko Haram spokesman, Abul Qaqa, told journalists that it had carried out the attacks because the authorities had refused to release group members arrested in Kano.

It will be recalled that on Thursday Jan 5, 20 people were killed in Mubi in Adamawa state as gunmen opened fire in a town hall where members of the Christian Igbo group were meeting. The group has staged numerous attacks in northern and central areas of the country in recent months killing dozens of people, including one such attack on Christmas Day on a catholic church near the capital, Abuja, in which 37 people were killed. In Bayelsa

More than 500 people were killed by the group in 2011. President Jonathan, who is a Christian, has vowed to crack down on the group, however, Christian groups have accused him of not doing enough to protect them. The President declared a state of emergency in several regions of the country including Yobe and Borno states in the North East, Plateau state in central Nigeria and Niger state in the West.

Explosions were also reported today in the president’s home state of Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta region of the Southern Nigeria.

We had intended to start today’s segment on Nigeria on the fuel subsidy removal earlier in the month which led to a 3 day national general strike which started on Monday January 9th. The strikes ended after 3 days, and after the government rescinded the removal of the subsidy.

Latest developments in Nigeria makes it imperative to begin today’s conversation on the security situation in Nigeria.

You may recall my conversation on these matters with Mr. Jahman Anikulapo, the Editor of leading Nigerian newspaper The Guardian on Sunday two weeks ago. Today we continue our discussion on the underling factors leading to the Boko Haram bombings in the Northern Nigeria, as well as its implications for Nigeria, and Nigeria’s economic and political instability for the in the wider West African region.

Joining me from Brooklyn, NY is Prof Mojubaolu Okome of Brooklyn College. Prof Okome is an International Political Economist whose regional specialization is the African continent. She is a Professor of Political Science and past Women's Studies Program Director at Brooklyn College. Prof Okome is author of several books including “A sapped democracy: the political economy of the Structural Adjustment Program and the democratic transition in Nigeria, 1983-1995, and co-editor of critical journals Ìrìnkèrindò: a Journal of African Migration which can found at www.africamigration.com & until 2010, Jenda, www.jendajournal.com

I am editing another book that should be published later this year: State Fragility and the Contradictions of self organization in Nigeria. Palgrave Macmillan is the publisher for the book. There will be at least two chapters that address the Boko Haram phenomenon. There also will be chapters on other aspects of Nigerian political economy.

It's great that two books that I coedited are new on the market. Below is information on some of the places where they are available.

West African Migrations: Transnational and Global Pathways in a New Century Edited By Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome and Olufemi Vaughan Palgrave Macmillan

Hardcover                    :
Transnational Africa and Globalization
Edited By Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome and Olufemi Vaughan Palgrave Macmillan
http://us.macmillan.com/transnationalafricaandglobalization/Moj%C3%BAb%C3%A0ol%C3%BAOl%C3%BAf%C3%BAnk%C3%A9Okome

Transnational Africa and Globalization
Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome and Olufemi Vaughan (Editors)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/transnational-africa-and-globalization-mojubaolu-olufunke-okome/1104036739

and

West African Migrations: Transnational and Global Pathways in a New Century
Mojubaolu Olufunke Okome and Olufemi Vaughan (Editors)
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/west-african-migrations-mojubaolu-olufunke-okome/1104036738

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UK
Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome and Olufemi Vaughan, Editors (2012) Transnational Africa and Globalization    Palgrave Macmillan

and

Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome and Olufemi Vaughan Editors (2012) West African Migrations Transnational and Global Pathways in a New Century, Palgrave Macmillan
http://www.palgrave.com/products/results.aspx?Type=BS&a=&i=&SC=okome

____________________________________________________________
EUROPE
http://www.easons.com/display.asp?ISB=9780230338678
http://www.easons.com/display.asp?ISB=9780230338661