SaharaReporters interview Soyinka

This month I am taking the liberty to repost Saharareporters interview with Professor Wole Soyinka. Enjoy!

SaharaReporters Interview Exclusive: Achebe A Celebrated Storyteller, But No Father Of African Literature, Says Soyinka

By SaharaReporters, New York


Also: Why He Wished Achebe Had Not Written His Last Book; What He Told Ojukwu Before The War; Genocide, And Other Issues



.Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has described Africa’s most well known novelist, Chinua Achebe, as a storyteller who earned global celebration, adding, however, that those describing Achebe as “the father of African literature” were ignorant.



In a wide-ranging interview with SaharaReporters, Soyinka paid tribute to the late novelist who died on March 21, 2013 at 82. Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for literature, also spoke on his personal relationship with Achebe and other Nigerian writers; his regrets about Achebe’s last book, There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra; and his attempt to talk the late Biafran leader, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, out of fighting a war. Soyinka also answered questions about Heinemann’s African Writers Series and scolded “clannish” and “opportunistic hagiographers” fixated on the fact that Achebe never won the Nobel Prize.



Below is the full text of the interview.



Question: Do you recall where or how you first learned about the death of Professor Chinua Achebe? And what was your first reaction?



Soyinka: Where I heard the news? I was on the road between Abeokuta and Lagos. Who called first – BBC or a Nigerian journalist? Can't recall now, since other calls followed fast and furious, while I was still trying to digest the news. My first reaction? Well, you know the boa constrictor – when it has just swallowed an abnormal morsel, it goes comatose, takes time off to digest. Today's global media appears indifferent to such a natural entitlement. You are expected to supply that instant response. So, if – as was the case – my first response was to be stunned, that swiftly changed to anger.



Now, why was I stunned? I suspect, mostly because I was to have been present at his last Chinua Achebe symposium just a few months earlier – together with Governor Fashola of Lagos. Something intervened and I was marooned in New York. When your last contact with someone, quite recent, is an event that centrally involves that person, you don’t expect him to embark on a permanent absence. Also, Chinua and I had been collaborating lately on one or two home crises. So, it was all supposed to be 'business as usual'. Most irrational expectations at one’s age but, that's human presumptuousness for you. So, stunned I was, primarily, then media enraged!



Question: Achebe was both a writer as well as editor for Heinemann’s African Writers Series. How would you evaluate his role in the popularization of African literature?



Soyinka: I must tell you that, at the beginning, I was very skeptical of the Heinemann's African Series. As a literary practitioner, my instinct tends towards a suspicion of “ghetto” classifications – which I did feel this was bound to be. When you run a regional venture, it becomes a junior relation to what exists. Sri Lankan literature should evolve and be recognized as literature of Sri Lanka, release after release, not entered as a series. You place the books on the market and let them take off from there. Otherwise there is the danger that you start hedging on standards. You feel compelled to bring out quantity, which might compromise on quality.



I refused to permit my works to appear in the series – to begin with. My debut took place while I was Gowon's guest in Kaduna prisons and permission to publish The Interpreters was granted in my absence. Exposure itself is not a bad thing, mind you. Accessibility. Making works available – that’s not altogether negative. Today, several scholars write their PhD theses on Onitsha Market literature. Both Chinua and Cyprian Ekwensi – not forgetting Henshaw and others – published with those enterprising houses. It was outside interests that classified them Onitsha Market Literature, not the publishers. They simply published.



All in all, the odds come down in favour of the series – which, by the way, did go through the primary phase of sloppy inclusiveness, then became more discriminating. Aig Higo – who presided some time after Chinua – himself admitted it.



Question: For any major writer, there’s the inevitable question of influence. In your view, what’s the nature of Achebe’s enduring influence and impact in African literature? And what do you foresee as his place in the canon of world literature?



Soyinka: Chinua's place in the canon of world literature? Wherever the art of the story-teller is celebrated, definitely assured.



Question: In interviews as well as in writing, Achebe brushed off the title of “father of African literature.” Yet, on his death, numerous media accounts, in Nigeria as well as elsewhere, described him as the father – even grandfather – of African literature. What do you think of that tag?



Soyinka: As you yourself have observed, Chinua himself repudiated such a tag – he did study literature after all, bagged a degree in the subject. So, it is a tag of either literary ignorance or “momentary exuberance” – ala [Nadine] Gordimer – to which we are all sometimes prone. Those who seriously believe or promote this must be asked: have you the sheerest acquaintance with the literatures of other African nations, in both indigenous and adopted colonial languages? What must the francophone, lusophone, Zulu, Xhosa, Ewe etc. etc. literary scholars and consumers think of those who persist in such a historic absurdity? It's as ridiculous as calling WS father of contemporary African drama! Or Mazisi Kunene father of African epic poetry. Or Kofi Awoonor father of African poetry. Education is lacking in most of those who pontificate.



As a short cut to such corrective, I recommend Tunde Okanlawon's scholarly tribute to Chinua in The Sun (Nigeria) of May 4th. After that, I hope those of us in the serious business of literature will be spared further embarrassment.



Let me just add that a number of foreign “African experts” have seized on this silliness with glee. It legitimizes their ignorance, their parlous knowledge, enables them to circumscribe, then adopt a patronizing approach to African literatures and creativity. Backed by centuries of their own recorded literary history, they assume the condescending posture of midwiving an infant entity. It is all rather depressing.



Question: Following Achebe’s death, you and J.P. Clarke released a joint statement. In it, you both wrote: “Of the ‘pioneer quartet’ of contemporary Nigerian literature, two voices have been silenced – one, of the poet Christopher Okigbo, and now, the novelist Chinua Achebe.” In your younger days as writers, would you say there was a sense among your circle of contemporaries – say, Okigbo, Achebe, Clarke, Flora Nwapa – of being engaged in a healthy rivalry for literary dominance? By the way, on the Internet, your joint statement was criticized for neglecting to mention any female writers – say, Flora Nwapa – as part of that pioneering group. Was that an oversight?



Soyinka: This question – the omission of Flora Nwapa, Mabel Segun (nee Imoukhuede) – and do include D.O. Fagunwa, Amos Tutuola, Cyprian Ekwensi, so it is not just a gender affair – is related to the foregoing, and is basically legitimate. JP and I were however paying a tribute to a colleague within a rather closed circle of interaction, of which these others were not members. Finally, and most relevantly, we are language users – this means we routinely apply its techniques. We knew what we were communicating when we placed “pioneer quartet” in – yes! – inverted commas. Some of the media may have removed them; others understood their significance and left them where they belonged.



Question: Did you and Achebe have the opportunity to discuss his last book, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, and its critical reception? What’s your own assessment of There Was a Country? Some critics charged that the book was unduly divisive and diminished Achebe’s image as a nationally beloved writer and intellectual. Should a writer suborn his witness to considerations of fame?



Soyinka: No, Chinua and I never discussed There was a Country. Matter of fact, that aborted visit I mentioned earlier would have been my opportunity to take him on with some friendly fire at that open forum, continuing at his home over a bottle or two, aided and abetted by Christie’s [editor’s note: Achebe’s wife, Professor Christie Achebe] cooking. A stupendous life companion by the way – Christie – deserves a statue erected to her for fortitude and care – on behalf of us all. More of that will emerge, I am sure, as the tributes pour in.



Unfortunately, that chance of a last encounter was missed, so I don't really wish to comment on the work at this point. It is however a book I wish he had never written – that is, not in the way it was. There are statements in that work that I wish he had never made.



The saddest part for me was that this work was bound to give joy to sterile literary aspirants like Adewale Maja-Pearce, whose self-published book – self-respecting publishers having rejected his trash – sought to create a “tragedy” out of the relationships among the earlier named “pioneer quartet” and, with meanness aforethought, rubbish them all – WS especially. Chinua got off the lightest. A compendium of outright impudent lies, fish market gossip, unanchored attributions, trendy drivel and name dropping, this is a ghetto tract that tries to pass itself up as a product of research, and has actually succeeded in fooling at least one respectable scholar. For this reason alone, there will be more said, in another place, on that hatchet mission of an inept hustler.



Question: One of the specific issues raised constantly in recent Nigerian public “debate” has to do with whether the Igbo were indeed victims of genocide. What are your thoughts on the question?



Soyinka: The reading of most Igbo over what happened before the Civil War was indeed accurate – yes, there was only one word for it – genocide. Once the war began however, atrocities were committed by both sides, and the records are clear on that. The Igbo got the worst of it, however. That fact is indisputable. The Asaba massacre is well documented, name by victim name, and General Gowon visited personally to apologize to the leaders. The Igbo must remember, however, that they were not militarily prepared for that war. I told Ojukwu this, point blank, when I visited Biafra. Sam Aluko also revealed that he did. A number of leaders outside Biafra warned the leadership of this plain fact. Bluff is no substitute for bullets.



Question: Your joint statement with Clarke balances the “sense of depletion” you felt over Achebe’s death with “consolation in the young generation of writers to whom the baton has been passed, those who have already creatively ensured that there is no break in the continuum of the literary vocation.” How much of the young Nigerian and African writers do you find the time to read?



Soyinka: Yes, I do read much of Nigerian/African literature – as much as my time permits. My motor vehicle in Nigeria is a mobile library of Nigerian publications – you know those horrendous traffic holdups – that's where I go through some of the latest. The temptation to toss some out of the car window after the first few pages or chapter is sometimes overwhelming. That sour note conceded – and as I have repeatedly crowed – that nation of ours can boast of that one virtue – it’s bursting with literary talent! And the women seem to be at the forefront.



Question: In the joint statement issued by J. P. Clarke and you following Achebe’s death, you stated: “For us, the loss of Chinua Achebe is, above all else, intensely personal. We have lost a brother, a colleague, a trailblazer and a doughty fighter.” There’s the impression in some quarters that Achebe, Clarke and you were virtual personal enemies. In the specific case of Achebe and you, there’s the misperception that your 1986 Nobel Prize in literature poisoned your personal relationship with a supposedly resentful Achebe. How would you describe your relationship with Achebe from the early days when you were both young writers in a world that was becoming aware of the fecund, protean phenomenon called African literature?



Soyinka: Now – all right - I feel a need to return to that question of yours – I have a feeling that I won’t be at ease with myself for having dodged it earlier – which was deliberate. If I don’t answer it, we shall all continue to be drenched in misdirected spittle. I’m referring to your question on the relationship between myself and other members of the “pioneer quartet” – JP Clark and Chinua specifically. At this stage in our lives, the surviving have a duty to smash the mouths of liars to begin with, then move to explain to those who have genuinely misread, who have failed to place incidents in their true perspective, or who simply forget that life is sometimes strange – rich but strange, and inundated with flux.



My first comment is that outsiders to literary life should be more humble and modest. They should begin by accepting that they were strangers to the ferment of the earlier sixties and seventies. It would be stupid to claim that it was all constantly harmonious, but outsiders should at least learn some humility and learn to deal with facts. Where, in any corner of the globe, do you find perfect models of creative harmony, completely devoid of friction? We all have our individual artistic temperaments as well as partisanships in creative directions. And we have strong opinions on the merits of the products of our occupation. But – “rivalry for domination,” to quote you – healthy or unhealthy? Now that is something that has been cooked up, ironically, by camp followers, the most recent of which is that ignoble character I’ve just mentioned, who was so desperate to prove the existence of such a thing that he even tried to rope JP’s wife into it, citing her as source for something I never uttered in my entire existence. I cannot think of a more unprincipled, despicable conduct. These empty, notoriety-hungry hangers-on and upstarts need to find relevance, so they concoct. No, I believe we were all too busy and self-centred – that is, focused on our individual creative grooves – to think ‘dominance’!



Writers are human. I shudder to think how I must sometimes appear to others. JP remains as irrepressible, contumacious and irascible as he was during that creative ferment of the early sixties. Christopher was ebullient. Chinua mostly hid himself away in Lagos, intervening robustly in MBARI affairs with deceptive disinclination. Perception of Chinua, JP and I as ‘personal enemies’? The word “enemy” is strong and wrong. The Civil War split up a close-knit literary coterie, of which “the quartet” formed a self-conscious core. That war engendered a number of misapprehensions. Choices were made, some regrettable, and even thus admitted by those who made them. Look, I never considered General Gowon who put me in detention my enemy, even though at the time, I was undeniably bitter at the experience, the circumstances, at the man who authorized it, and contributing individuals – including Chief Tony Enahoro who read out a fabricated confession to a gathering of national and international media.



But the war did end. New wars (some undeclared) commenced. Chief Enahoro and I would later collaborate in a political initiative – though I never warmed up to him personally, I must confess. Gowon and I, by contrast, became good friends. He attended my birthday celebrations, presided at my most recent Nigerian award – the Obafemi Awolowo Leadership Prize. JP was present, with his wife, Ebun. What does that tell you? Before that, I had hosted them in my Abeokuta den on a near full-day visit. Would Achebe, if he had been able, and was in Nigeria, have joined us? Perhaps. But he certainly wouldn’t have been present at the Awolowo Award event. That is a different kettle of fish, a matter between him and Awolowo – which, however, Chinua did let degenerate into tribal charges.



Well then, this prospect that “my 1986 Nobel Prize in literature poisoned my personal relationship with a supposedly resentful Achebe” – I think I shouldn’t dodge that either. Even if that was true – which I do not accept – it surely has dissipated over time. For heaven’s sake, over twenty-five people have taken the prize since then! The problem remains with those vicarious laureates who feel personally deprived, and thus refuse to let go. Chinua’s death was an opportunity to prise open that scab all over again. But they’ve now gone too far with certain posturings and should be firmly called to order, and silenced – in the name of decency.



I refer to that incorrigible sect – no other word for it – some leaders of which threatened Buchi Emecheta early in her career – that she had no business engaging in the novel, since this was Chinua’s special preserve! Incredible? Buchi virtually flew to me for protection – read her own account of that traumatizing experience. It is a Nigerian disease. Nigerians need to be purged of a certain kind of arrogance of expectations, of demand, of self-attribution, of a spurious sense and assertion of entitlement. It goes beyond art and literature. It covers all aspects of interaction with others. Wherever you witness a case of ‘It’s MINE, and no other’s’, ‘it’s OURS, not theirs’, at various levels of vicarious ownership, such aggressive voices, ninety percent of the time, are bound to be Nigerians. This is a syndrome I have had cause to confront defensively with hundreds of Africans and non-Africans. It is what plagues Nigeria at the moment – it’s MY/OUR turn to rule, and if I/WE cannot, we shall lay waste the terrain. Truth is, predictably, part of the collateral damage on that terrain.



Yes, these are the ones who, to co-opt your phrasing, “diminished (and still diminish) Chinua’s image”. In the main, they are, ironically, his assiduous – but basically opportunistic – hagiographers – especially of a clannish, cabalistic temperament. Chinua – we have to be frank here – also did not help matters. He did make one rather unfortunate statement that brought down the hornet’s nest on his head, something like: “The fact that Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize does not make him the Asiwaju (Leader) of African literature”. I forget now what provoked that statement. Certainly it could not be traced to any such pretensions on my part. I only recollect that it was in the heat of some controversy – on a national issue, I think.



But let us place this in context. Spats between writers, artists, musicians, scientists, even architects and scientific innovators etc. are notorious. They are usually short-lived – though some have been known to last a life-time. This particular episode was at least twenty years ago. Unfortunately some of Chinua’s cohorts decided that they had a mission to prosecute a matter regarding which they lacked any vestige of understanding or competence or indeed any real interest. It is however a life crutch for them and they cannot let go.



What they are doing now – and I urge them to end it shame-facedly – is to confine Chinua’s achievement space into a bunker over which hangs an unlit lamp labeled “Nobel”. Is this what the literary enterprise is about? Was it the Nobel that spurred a young writer, stung by Eurocentric portrayal of African reality, to put pen to paper and produce Things Fall Apart? This conduct is gross disservice to Chinua Achebe and disrespectful of the life-engrossing occupation known as literature. How did creative valuation descend to such banality? Do these people know what they’re doing – they are inscribing Chinua’s epitaph in the negative mode of thwarted expectations. I find that disgusting.



China, with her vast population, history, culture – arts and literature – celebrated her first Nobel Prize in Literature only last year. Yet I have been teaching Chinese literature on and off – within Comparative literary studies – for over forty years. Am I being instructed now that those writers needed recognition by the Nobel for me to open such literary windows to my students? Do these strident, cacophonous Nigerians know how much literature – and of durable quality – radiates the world?



Let me add this teacher complaint: far too many Nigerians – students of literature most perniciously – are being programmed to have no other comparative literary structure lodged in their mental scope than WS vs. CA. Such crass limitation is being pitted against the knowledgeable who, often wearily, but obedient to sheer intellectual doggedness, feel that they owe a duty to stop the march of confident ignorance. For me personally, it is galling to have everything reduced to the Nigerian enclave where, to make matters even more acute, there are supposedly only those two. It makes me squirm. I teach the damned subject – literature – after all. I do know something about it.



So let me now speak as a teacher. It is high time these illiterates were openly instructed that Achebe and Soyinka inhabit different literary planets, each in its own orbit. If you really seek to encounter – and dialogue with – Chinua Achebe in his rightful orbit, then move out of the Nigerian entrapment and explore those circuits coursed by the likes of Hemingway. Or Maryse Conde. Or Salman Rushdie. Think Edouard Glissant. Think Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Think Earl Lovelace. Think Jose Saramago. Think Bessie Head. Think Syl Cheney-Coker, Yambo Ouologuem, Nadine Gordimer. Think Patrick Chamoiseau. Think Toni Morrison. Think Hamidou Kane. Think Shahrnush Parsipur. Think Tahar Ben Jelloun. Think Naguib Mahfouz – and so on and on along those orbits in the galaxy of fiction writers. In the meantime, let us quit this indecent exercise of fatuous plaints, including raising hopes, even now, with talk of “posthumous” conferment, when you know damned well that the Nobel committee does not indulge in such tradition. It has gone beyond ‘sickening’. It is obscene and irreverent. It desecrates memory. The nation can do without these hyper-active jingoists. Can you believe the kind of letters I receive? Here is one beauty – let me quote:







“I told these people, leave it to Wole Soyinka - he will do what is right. We hear Ben Okri, Nuruddin Farah, even Chimamanda Adichie are being nominated. This is mind-boggling. Who are they? Chinua can still be awarded the prize, even posthumously. We know you will intervene to put those upstarts in their place. I’ve assured people you will do what is right.”



Alfred Nobel regretted that his invention, dynamite, was converted to degrading use, hence his creation of the Nobel Prize, as the humanist counter to the destructive power of his genius. If he thought that dynamite was eviscerating in its effects, he should try some of the gut-wrenching concoctions of Nigerian pontificators. Please, let these people know that I am not even a member of Alfred’s Academy that decides such matters. As a ‘club member,’ however, I can nominate, and it is no business of literary ignoramuses whom, if any, I do nominate. My literary tastes are eclectic, sustainable, and unapologetic. Fortunately, thousands of such nominations – from simply partisan to impeccably informed – pour in annually from all corners of the globe to that cold corner of the world called Sweden. Humiliating as this must be for many who carry that disfiguring hunch, the national ego, on their backs, Nigeria is not the centre of the Swedish electors’ world, nor of the African continent, nor of the black world, nor of the rest of the world for that matter. In fact, right now, Nigeria is not the centre of anything but global chagrin.



Chinua is entitled to better than being escorted to his grave with that monotonous, hypocritical aria of deprivation’s lament, orchestrated by those who, as we say in my part of the world, “dye their mourning weeds a deeper indigo than those of the bereaved”. He deserves his peace. Me too! And right now, not posthumously.



It is not all bleakness and aggravation however – I have probably given that impression, but the stridency of cluelessness, sometimes willful, has reached the heights of impiety. Vicarious appropriation is undignified, and it runs counter to the national pride it ostensibly promotes. Other voices are being drowned, or placed in a false position, who value and express the sensibilities between, respect the subtle threads that sustain, writers, even in their different orbits. My parting tribute to Chinua will therefore take the form of the long poem I wrote to him when he turned seventy, after my participation in the celebrations at Bard College. I plan for it to be published on the day of his funeral – my way of taunting death, by pursuing that cultural, creative, even political communion that unites all writers with a decided vision of the possible – and even beyond the grave.

PDP’s Control of Abuja Federal High Court and the Rule of Impunity

“What I fear most is power with impunity. I fear abuse of power, and the power to abuse.”

 -Isabel Allende


Every time an extra judicial overreach by a sitting judge occurs in Nigeria, everyone waits with bated breath for reactions from those saddled with management of the third estate of the realm in vain. The silence of the top echelons of the judiciary in Nigeria is often baffling. It is now a norm that whenever the Chairman of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) seeks to remove any executive members of the party, federal or states, he simply arrange for faceless members of the party to go to the Federal High Court, obtain a temporary injunction and pronto such orders fait accompli. The people affected by such orders are usually those at logger heads with the presidency either on policy issues (sans Governor Amaechi on Sovereign Funds) or enmeshed in party politics (sans former Governor Oyinlola). The chairman of the party usually finds it too easy to comply with such orders while it deliberately ignores other orders against his factions of the party.

There has been little or no discipline within the judiciary in Nigeria hence impunity reigns without end. Even when judicial officers are punished it was never swift and immediate, it usually occurs years after the judicial officers would have retired to enjoy the fruits of his/her illegalities. Nigeria judiciary used to be among the best in Africa. Even at the height of military rule and during the Second Republic when dictatorship rues the day, the Nigerian judiciary shown like a bright star in the midst of darkness. In cases such as Adigun vs. AG of Oyo State (1984), the Supreme Court lambasted a state government that excuted an accused whose appeal has not been exhausted. In Government of Lagos State vs. Ojukwu (1986), the Supreme Court deplores the use of forcible ejectment to obtain possession and excoriated military government for executive recklessness. In Garba v. Federal Civil Service Commission (1988) it directed the Babangida military government to respect due process. In cases such as Fawehinmi v. Akilu (1987) it emphasized access to justice and ability of private citizen to prosecute criminals where the government declines to prosecute. In Ariori vs. Elemo (1988) it upholds respect for due process. It is sad and saddening indeed that the judiciary in our present dispensation is now, more or less, an appendage of the government in Aso rock and an extension of PDP executive committee.

There is no doubt that the PDP has succeeded in larding every judicial positions in the country with its appointees who are sometimes “no nothing” card carrying loyalist members of the party, and their wives. What we now have as judiciary in Nigeria is an hollow shade of what we used to know. The days of Kayode Esho, Chukwudifu Oputa, Mohammed Uwais is long gone. Those who are now in authority can’t even sit at the body of benchers without taking directives on what to do from Aso rock. The fact that the former president of the Court of Appeal reinstatement remains in limbo even after the highest body charged with running the judiciary met and reinstated him speaks to this subservient status of the judiciary in Nigeria. Those who should stand up to speak up are too satiated with the crumbs of the office that they will rather look the other way. Affairs of political party, the Supreme Court once ruled is totally within their domain and ought not to be an issue that concerns the court, and yet courts in the land ignore such lofty precedents and choose to entertain frivolous law suit meant to take sides in dispute that is entirely within the confines of the political party, while serious issues remain in limbo. A court that does not have enough bailiff or sheriffs to enforce his own judgment is a toothless bulldog.

The Supreme Court of today is known more for prevarications and speaking with both sides of the mouth than clear and convincing judgment and directives to lower court. No decision is final in Nigeria, if the Supreme Court rules against you, all you need do is go to Aso rock and seek out a powerful man willing to play for the pay and pronto another injunction will issue side stepping the ones against you. In this way, the rich always get “justice” in Nigeria. They do, because they can pay for it. The general masses of people who had to wait in line for justice are the ones suffering from the dysfunction in our judicial system. It is sad and embarrassing. Femi Falana, the Gani Fawehinmi of our time, in an interview recently with Channels Television sounds a note of caution to his colleagues in the privileged Senior Advocate of Nigeria (by the way, how can a country governed by constitution runs its court with privileged lawyers?), by decrying the evil perpetrated by delay of justice and preferential treatment of rich parties before the courts of law in Nigeria. He warned that such evils will soon consume the nation in a conflagration and yet no one listens to him.

A country where an ex-governor obtained a perpetual injunction against investigation of his corrupt activities in government is a dangerous land. Now imagine that the wife of that same governor now sits at the highest court in the land, by virtue of a rapid promotion through the system orchestrated by successive PDP government! We are indeed in trouble in Nigeria. You then wonder why there is so much angst in the land; you wonder why MEND declared war on the nation that seeks to pay it to lay down arms. Impunity breeds more impunity until the whole land is consumed in impunity. This is why the president’s pardon of Alamiesigha matters little. He could have easily obtained perpetual injunction against his extradition to the UK. Ooops! He did that already!

While all this was going on, the poor and the dispossessed suffered hardship from power drunk law enforcement officials who used to call themselves Nigeria Police Force. A police force so benign in brute force and power that the rule of law dare not stop it from impunity. One of such sad story is typified by the incarceration of Mr. Egbeyemi Boluwaduro, who spends six years in prison on trumped-up charges. He was tried in a magistrate court by a police officer who never went to law school and barely completes West African School Certificate. My little brother success in getting in getting him released from Ilesha Maximum Prison was published in Sunday Punch Newspaper on March 13, 2011. The story brought to focus the sad situation where non-lawyers, without any regard to constitutional principles, are often authorized to prosecute criminal cases in Nigeria with severe consequences on rights of citizens, even while those who stole billion of dollars easily obtain perpetual injunction against criminal prosecution.

Who will save Nigeria from reckless impunity of its rulers and ruling class. As Simon Wiesenthal enthused, “When history looks back, I want people to know that the Nazis could not kill millions of people with impunity”. The Nigerian ruling and moneyed class may end up killing more people than the Nazis ever did while the whole world looks on.

Of palm wine, shrine, oath and family coup by Palmwine Drinkers Party of Nigeria stalwarts

Below is a draft of a piece I was writing in 2003 before something happened and I couldn't continue. The truth therein is still as true today as then, given the crisis PDP is plunging our country. I wish I had finished the piece then:

“On the role of AIG Rapheal Ige, Ngige noted that he saw Ige at about 2.30pm at the residence of Uba in Enugu drinking palmwine and wearing mufti on the Tuesday preceding his arrest last Thursday.
According to him, "as I came out of the residence of Uba, I noticed the official vehicle of the AIG and I asked Uba if the AIG was there. He replied yes and I asked why he didn't allow me to greet him and he told me that the AIG was in another sitting room. I went to see him and both of them saw me off to my car."

-This Day Newspapers 20/07/03

Only in Nigeria will you watch politicians do a macabre dance with gusto! Only in Nigeria will you see politicians (albeit one under investigations for corruption, murder et al) hobnob with senior police officer with reckless abandon. Tell me what should an assistant inspector general of police be doing at the residence of Uba wearing mufti, drinking palmwine at 2.30 pm on a working day. Arresting palmy? Your guess is as good as mine. Do we need to look far in searching for the low productivity? Nigeria is in a vice grip. The grip of politicians who are high on palm wine.

Excerpts from my upcoming Book: Over the Mountain & the Hills

Life is like a mountain, the masses of people are at the bottom, the few who distinguish themselves are at the top. Masses run from ascending, the few bold ones runs to the peak at great expense. The outstanding few who will stand at the apogee will endure hardship, forsake many life pleasures and summons something deep within them that is higher than the mountain before them to enable them reach the zenith.


I wrote the above paragraph on a doodle note on my Ipad long before the thought of writing this book crossed my mind. At least until late one Friday afternoon, in the dark of winter, when one of the support staff at the public law firm where I worked in the Pacific Northwest, noticed me lugged around tomes of books on rock climbing tapped me on the shoulder and inquire what I intend to do with all those books on a subject I had hardly exhibit any interest in before then. I was a bit nonplussed but then I looked up and explained to her that each time I look back at my life I felt like someone climbing an insurmountable mountains. She looked at me deadpanned, turned around and walked silently away. She came back a couple of hours later, and quietly asked me if I am serious about what I said earlier and I answered in the affirmative. I then asked her why she walked away without letting me explain what I meant to say. She said she thought I had probably overheard her talk about her own life as she had always felt her own life had been a series of difficult and insurmountable challenges with little or no training or skills on how to navigate its many contours and jagged edges drives her crazy.

I immediately sat up from my desk with rapt attention. I had planned to write this book to reflect my experiences and challenges in life climbing life’s many “Rocky Mountains” and troubles. The thought of someone else having the same experience immediately peaked my interest and confirmed to me that this is indeed a book I needed to write. I had been studying mountains, hills and rocks in history and Scriptures; as well as learning about the many courageous people who dared to climb them. This book is an attempt to share my experience navigating life’s many mountainous travails, as well as my studies of scriptures and history, with the hope that many will read it and find some of my suggestions helpful in their own journey.

There are many who believes that no personal experience is necessarily replicable and that each and every one of us has to experience life mountainous challenges in our own unique way. John Muir, the Scottish-born American author of the widely read book on adventures in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California was once quoted to have said, “I have a low opinion of books; they are but piles of stones set up to show coming travelers where other minds have been or at best signal smokes to call attention. No amount of word-making will ever make a single soul to know these mountains.” I am however convinced that while this may be true of mountains, we still learn from each other, as we are all pilgrims of the vertical.

The task is also not necessarily meant to enable us know the mountains but to conquer it and emerge victorious in the journey of life. Knowledge, after all is a powerful tool in driving away fear and ignorance. As Don Mellor was famously quoted to have said in the book Pilgrims of the Vertical, every mountain sojourners and travelers often “read the same news and editorials, climbers across the country share the same information, if not the same values.” In fact, as we often heard people say “experience is learning from our mistakes and wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others who had gone before us”.

Many give up on life challenges often because they look at it as insurmountable. Some gave up looking for the compass they need to navigate life. Some make it to the bottom of the mountain, raise up their heads to look at the top and then throw up their hands dejectedly walking away with sullen faces; choosing to dwell in the low lands than face life difficult challenges. Some even summoned enough courage to ascend the mountain and midway tumbles down, crashing back to earth as soon as they suffered a bit of a setback. I write not as someone who had attained or reach the pinnacle of my own life mountainous challenges but as someone who is determined to continue the journey to the zenith using the experience, skills and discoveries made so far on my way.

I am convinced I am not alone in this quest and many will come away from this book delighted to find the mental attitude to surmount their challenges. While others find it to be a confirmation of what they already know.

My approach is to look at life mountainous challenges from the totality of my relationship with others, as well as my experience as an African and as a naturalized American. No one can lay claim to a magic formulae that will cure all of man’s life challenges and I do not posit to have all the answers, what I do know is where to search for answers. My search for answers had inevitably led me to the source and creator of all things.

There is no doubt that man’s greatest ignorance is lack of knowledge about his own source and potentials. When we discover our source we would surely be on our way to fulfill our potentials; as our source will direct us to the manuals he prescribed for us. I am convinced that some of the unique attitudes or qualities require of a good rock or mountain climbers is uniquely relevant to our life challenges. Attitudes such as vision, passion, initiative, teamwork, innovation, persistence, discipline, focus, time management, confidence, positive disposition, patience, peace and compassion will be explore in this book so that we can all discover how to cultivate them in our life.

This book is dedicated to helping millions of people who seems stuck at the foot of the mountain when the peak beckons them. It will help you discover again your true potentials and equip you with the mental attitude to start ascending that height you thought is out of reach for you. As I reiterated earlier, wisdom is learning from other people’s mistakes and challenges, so get ready to learn from others who had gone before you.

An Analysis of Nigeria's Super Eagles Superlative Performance Against Cote d' voire

I yield this page to Professor Onwumechili. His analysis of the Nigerian team in the African Nations Cup match between Nigeria and Cote d'ivoire is spot on! Please read on.

As we all know, Nigeria went into the Ivory Coast game as the underdog. Ivory Coast is the No. 1 ranked African team and their galaxy of stars playing in the best clubs in Europe were clearly, on paper, expected to overwhelm a rebuilding Nigerian team that had few recognizable players.


When the Nigerian coach Stephen Keshi claimed that he had a game plan for the Ivoreins few believed him because it is not just about having a game plan but the question is do you have the players to execute such a plan against a perceived superior opponent. What we saw on Sunday was the coach’s game plan designed to take advantage of weak spots in the Ivorein team and the self-belief of the Nigerian players that victory was indeed possible.

HOW NIGERIA PLAYED

Nigeria played a tight formation, still using its 4-3-3, but leaving few gaps between the midfield and the defense and thus limiting passing channels for their opponents. This did not always work as Drogba’s running behind the defense proved problematic a few times when he was not cut out by the offside trap. Nigeria used its variation of passes between the short possession play and the long balls exploring behind the Ivory Coast defense that was designed to take advantage of the pace of Nigerian forwards. Early on, however, the long balls that have been helpful in some of the previous games failed to work for two major reasons. First, the surface was slick with the rain which caused the ball to skid slightly and secondly, the surface with the rains slowed the ability of the forwards to get to the ball. Thus, several long balls went unutilized forcing the team to switch away from the long balls after half an hour or so. The possession short passes worked, however, as Nigeria surprisingly dominated the Ivoreins in this phase with well over 50% of the possession in the opening half. Importantly, we also saw Nigeria’s creative use of the set pieces with Ideye being the target on the weak side of the defense on several of Moses’ free kick. Though Ideye failed to score he proved a handful as Ivory Coast struggled to defend this.

The major change in Keshi’s game plan that we rarely saw in the previous games was the decision to shoot at goal from distance. It is clear that this was the new wrinkle designed solely for this game because the crew saw Barry’s goalkeeping as a weakness. That Victor Moses shot from as far as 25 or 30 yards out after only nine minutes of play underlined this focus.

Defensively, Nigeria was solid. The most important tactics was closing down the gap between defense and midfield which nullified the pace of Kalou and Gervinho that was so evident in previous Ivory Coast games. Then late in the game, Nigeria killed off any Ivory Coast chance of coming back by not only possessing the ball and delaying the game (This was the issue in the Burkina Faso game) but for the second game running the coaches introduced Yobo in the center of the defense switching to a 5-4-1 to protect the lead.

Concerns

In my opinion, there remain a few concerns with this team. There are concentration lapses. One led to a goal but there were a few others. The Ivory Coast goal was surprising with lax marking in the box that left Tiote completely free to connect with a header at the back end of the defense. Another occurred in the 85th minute when Lacina Traore was left free to bring down a ball deep in the six yard box and it was only Mikel’s alertness to slip the ball away that preserved the 2-1 lead.

My tuppence
Professor Onwuemechilli

* this piece was first posted on the popular Nigerian Soccer fans board: Cybereagles and it is reproduced here with permission.

The Imperial CBN Governor and his Assault on the “Pesky” Constitution

“The higher the rank, the more necessary it is that boldness should be accompanied by a reflective mind . . . for with increase in rank it becomes always a matter less of self-sacrifice and more a matter of the preservation of others, and the good of the whole.” - Karl von Clausewitz


For those of us who fought to drive the military out of governance in Nigeria, it was a rude awakening when we woke up to the news that the current Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, recently called for the ban of Arewa Consultative Forum, Ohanaeze, Afenifere, Jamatul Nasril Islam (JNI) and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). I do not want any reader of this piece to think that I have any admiration for these organizations, in fact I detest their stand on the unity of Nigeria; but I will defend to my grave, their right to express themselves and freely associate. Many will recalled that during the inglorious Babangida regime banning associations that the state view as too confrontational is a directive principle of state policy. We may have driven military rule from office, but as is sadly self evident, it will take a lot to drive them out of Nigerian psyche!

The irony of a well educated, Oxford trained, governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank calls for banning ethno-religious associations at a conference organized by a so called Northern Reawakening Forum (NRF) is lost only on him. I bet he never gave too much thought to the name on the invitation card when he received it. And I want to clearly state here that I am not saying his motive for calling for the ban is not lofty, at least if as he claimed, it is to defend the unity of the country; but I just believe a ban of those organizations is too anti-democratic and surely sound militaristic. After all, it was not too long ago that many in the southern part of the country decried his attempt to restrict donations of CBN money to indigenous northern victims of disaster and terrorism without any commensurate donations to those from the South. (He later gave a tepid donation to families of victims from the south once the press pointed out the lopsidedness).

But that is actually not the reason why everyone should excoriate him for this latest gambit. The more important reason is in defense of that little document with great ideas, called the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. That a Central Bank of Nigeria could be so ignorant of the basic tenet of our constitution is baffling indeed. Section 38, subsection 1 of the 1999 Constitution specifically provides that “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”

At the said conference, Sanusi seems to hang his call on ban of ethno-religious organizations on the fact that these organizations are more political than religious or cultural. Section 40 of the Constitution states that

“Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union or any other association for the protection of his interests:

Provided that the provisions of this section shall not derogate from the powers conferred by this Constitution on the Independent National Electoral Commission with respect to political parties to which that Commission does not accord recognition”

It is clear from the provisions of this section that nothing gives associations which are political in nature or by conduct from existence as long as they do not derogate from the powers conferred on INEC. The constitution do not in any way prescribed banning of associations which appears political in nature. In fact as long as they do not seek to contest any elective positions they do not come under INEC supervisions. Many political associations that are not registered with INEC exist all over Nigeria. The Save Nigeria Group, to mention but one of such organization, literarily saved Nigeria from a self inflicted constitutional crisis recently. I am sure Sanusi is not calling for such organizations to be ban, his call for the ban of Arewa Consultative Forum, Ohanaeze, Afenifere, Jamatul Nasril Islam (JNI) and Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) could only be explained by his dislike of the way they express themselves. As they say in America, his objections to them are speech based and therefore an affront on the Constitution. Governor Sanusi may not like these associations, in fact, I found many of these associations discomforting to put it mildly but there is nothing you or I could do about it. The earlier we start to understand that constitutional rights cover those we like and those we dislike the better for us and our own freedom. As one French writer once said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” What we can do is to organize our own associations that will take them on, rather than call for them to be banned

I think it was Voltaire who said that ” Not only is it extremely cruel to persecute in this brief life those who do not think the way we do, but I do not know if it might be too presumptuous to declare their eternal damnation.” It is high time Sanusi Lamido Sanusi take a crash course on Nigerian Constitution. We all know he is a scion of the royal family and the imperial majesty of his lineage may sometimes make him think less of those mortal who do not have similar blue blood in them. Sadly, I am sure Sanusi is not the only Nigerian government official or politicians who have little or no knowledge of our Constitution, and the earlier we make an understanding of our constitution a litmus test to holding elective office in Nigeria the better for us.

Nigeria on the Brink: A Nation that Negotiates with Terrorist will Deal with Kidnappers

“We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy....” –Martin Luther King Jr. "Beyond Vietnam"

There is a scourge loose in Nigeria, this scourge is aided and abetted by an incompetent State headed by some of the most educated elites that ever ruled our land. I wrote elsewhere that there is nothing wrong with Nigerian that can’t be cured with what is right with the country. But sometimes the level of incompetence in Nigeria truly beggars belief. Administering a state in this century is definitely not rocket science but the current Nigerian leadership in Aso rock may have turned their ineptitude to an art. The entire apparatus of administration in Nigeria is farcical in appearance and reality. Every step of the regime in Abuja seems to be steep in colossal failure. Even they themselves know it but they would rather live in denial so they could continue to milk the country dry while the entire state apparatus of governance goes to the dog.


The Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration (GEJA) may go down in history as perhaps the most incompetent in terms of application of the massive resources available to it and its sheer incompetence in the administration of same. We are almost four years into GEJA effective control of the levers of powers in Nigeria and one cannot point to any positive achievements of this administration in any strata of Nigerian’s society. This is a government that comes loaded with so much promise and yet abysmally succeeded in frittering away every opportunity to advance Nigeria in the comity of nations. The carcasses of its missteps are everywhere to behold; name it, power generations and distributions, road constructions, infrastructural developments, oil subsidy imbroglio, failed banks, stock and financial management meltdown and most important of all inept security management. Yes, I readily agreed that some of the problems may have been caused by forces beyond the reach of the administration but then consider the inept response GEJA has made to address some of the problems.

It is not as if the administration is short of funds or hampered by inability to borrow funds. In fact under GEJA, the “Federal Government has borrowed a total of N2.57tn… The Federal Government’s debt profile rose from N4.18tn as of June 30, 2010 to N6.75tn as of June 30, 2012, ” as we learnt recently from Punch Newspapers. From the moment Jonathan was sworn in as the elected president on May 29, 2011 to June 30, 2012, the debt profile of the country rose by 61.48 percent: within 2 years!

It is not as if we have massive infrastructures to point to as fruits of all these expenses, we’ve got zilch! Zero! Nada! To the contrary, more people in Nigeria are mired in poverty at this time than at any other time in the history of our country. According to a report by Nigerian Bureau of Statistics widely publicized by BBC in February 2012, the number of Nigerians living in poverty rose from 54.7 % in 2004 to 60.9% in 2010 and is still growing. I agreed that the same report shows the Nigerian economy grew exponentially during the same period. The truth however lies in between. Most of the economic gains we had went to a very select few at the top echelon of the country. These are politicians and their contractors who can afford to send their wives to Western Hospital and their children to well heeled universities abroad. The saddest part of the saga is that despite the huge windfall we are getting from high oil price and increased production, GEJA has saddled this country with more debt than any other administration in the history of the country albeit with little or nothing to show for it. GEJA currently plans to borrow N633.85 billion from domestic debt market in 2013. What they intends to use the borrowed money to do remains illusory. In 2012 alone, GEJA earmarked N560 billion for domestic debt servicing. When you consider the fact that some of the politicians running our government owned some of the banks we are borrowing from one will see the inevitable conflict of interest. In fact, the irony of a coordinating minister of the economy who championed the nation’s exit from foreign debt between 2004 and 2006 but who now leads the charge to send the country to a future laden with debt is not lost on anyone.

The saddest part, is that there are hardly any feel good story coming out of Nigeria since GEJA got the reins of governance. Increased terrorism in the northern part of the country ensures that half of the country will remain on lock down for a long period of time, even though the government spends more money on intelligence and security than tertiary education. The lack of viable opposition ensures that our National Assembly remains at best toothless bulldogs, if not a substantial contributor to the national malaise. Our financial sector is in doldrums, the power sector that would have provided an elixir has been hijacked by powerful interest in the ruling People’s Democratic Party. Impunity reigns supreme in Nigeria. If politicians steal millions from the coffers without any prosecution, it will surely instill in terrorist and kidnappers that they could get away with nefarious acts.

What these breed is an increased state of lawlessness. Whenever and wherever people lost hope in their government the result is what we are seeing now, increased brigandage, kidnapping, brazen acts of terrorism, and brutalization of innocent citizens. Someone once said that “a society is judged by how well it cares for those in the dawn of life, the children. By how well it cares for those in the twilight of life, the elderly. And by how well it cares for those on the edge of life; the poor, the sick and the disabled.” You can pick up any Nigerian news daily and find news on how someone somewhere brutalized Nigerian children, the elderly, poor, disabled and the sick. You do not even need to look far; the fact that a nonagenarian mother of our Coordinating Minister on the Economy could be brazenly kidnapped in daily light and her family had to pay ransom to rescue her speaks volume on the ineptness of our security agencies. The fact that the president’s own wife and brother had to be flown abroad for emergency hospital services speaks to that ineptness too. What is more, majority of the children of our government officials in Nigeria attends schools abroad!

Of course, I expect some folks reading this piece will say that government cannot fix all the problems that ails our nation. Well, what have they fixed lately? And is it too much to ask that police patrol the street of our nation to keep people save without demanding bribe? After all, as Edmund Burke once argued, representative government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants and men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom. Effective leadership as Peter Drucker once said is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes. It is high time our mainstream media start holding GEJA to task for the inanities of its realm. The sideshow about the fall out between President Jonathan and his godfather, retired General Obasanjo, should not merit the front page of any well meaning newspaper in our country. Let’s focus on the million dollar contracts GEJA and the OBJ administration before it awarded with little or nothing to show for it. Who got these contracts? Why are we borrowing money to put our great grandchildren in perpetual slavery to creditors? Let’s save our country from a disastrous future.