the debate with Kenobi II
"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper" - Edmund Burke
DK,
My perspective on polemics in general has been largely guided by the above quote. When this is intra-platform, I take the "our" there to mean the two fencing (such debates being fencing and not mortal duels) as well as the collective. In the light of this discussion, I see little left for the nerves or the skills. For example, your last take moved from the beautiful prose of January 1, to the prosaic about pirates, buccaneers and vikings.... a lot of noise words but which add up to murmuring, my very good friend.
I do agree with you though, that we need to "close ranks", but not about their charade as you put it (they could tear themselves apart for all I care), but on what we are in agreement on and practical actions in this light for moving our great country forward.
For the records, my position has neither being Ribaduist nor anti-Ribaduist (even though his not being able to take the position of Kenya's own "Ribadu" -Githongo- who resigned when it was clear to him that his president-like Obj- was a thief, says a lot about opportunism) . Rather it has been to see beyond Ribaduism by situating it within its socio-historical context with evidence, right from my first take on this...as I pointed out again and which has not been vitiated. I
Reading Chidi's reference to Hegel helped formulate an analogy in my mind that probably simplifies the matter. Corruption exists as a "thing in itself" like "Civil society" in an Hegelian sense (you could take this further to Plato). CSOs are however constructs which can be so because they are organisations of that objectively existing civil society. Due to some subtleties of that construct even though you belong to NBA (an organisation of and in Civil Society) you do not see yourself as belonging to a CSO. Precisely the point here which Chom's and Emma's position attack in different ways. There is rampant corruption in Nigeria. But as well there was and is corruption as a construct (possible because of the actual presence of rampant corruption) which guided the 'discrimination' of Ribadu's selectivity. In short corruption and anti-corruption in this sense become strategies of deeper national and transnational power structures.
Corruption as the fetish that its construction as created and which its "fighting" is actually the worshipping of its graven imagery, is meant to weaken deeper and more fundamental confrontation (with the structures of power) that can eventually lead to social transformation. It is not surprising that "anti-corruption" thus replaces "pro-democracy" (even though we shout to the skies that what we have is civilian dictatorship and not democracy!), the same way "civil society organisations" and "ngos" replaced "mass democratic organisations" and "movements" in our lexicon.
I want to believe that in general the discussion has been useful, but right now it's adding little to sinews, nerves or skills and to many it seems, is beginning to sound like a broken LP. It has however thrown up a spirit of engagement which I hope we will also bring to bear on practical efforts as well, as some have tried to steer us back to e,g how a mechanism for enthroning the accountability of civil society reps in the dance of social dialogue with the state could be institutionalized.
I will be less interested in discourse on Ribadu and Ribaduism, on this serve at least, subsequently. But I can assure you that somehow or the other, I will find time (beyond the space of here; and it will be public) to pursue this misconception of corruption as the devil in Nigeria and not just one, -even if a major one- of the demons that serve the devil-power of a degenerate comprador class of elites' and their puppeteers in Brussels and Washington.
I do look forward to further enriching debates on other issues, in the course of our collectively seeking solutions and taking actions that will lead to our country's emancipation.
Baba Aye
--- On Sat, 1/3/09, OBI KENOBI
From: OBI KENOBI
Subject: Re: [FOIcoalition] Otive What Next As Per Ribadu? Attn: kenobi
To: FOIcoalition@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Saturday, January 3, 2009, 2:47 PM
--- On Sat, 1/3/09, Baba Aye
From: Baba Aye
Subject: Re: [FOIcoalition] Otive What Next As Per Ribadu? Attn: kenobi
To: FOIcoalition@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Saturday, January 3, 2009, 4:18 AM
I must say that I did enjoy the prose of your submission.
I will try to keep my take simple and straight forward, for the issues not to be lost in the boredom that my pedantic style might unwittingly evoke.
The thread that runs through my argument is one for situating persons, events and phenomena in historical context.
In this light I situated "Ribaduism" within the dynamics of the post-Washington consensus. I am not convinced that that is not the case
I find your hero = anachronism formulation quite fascinating really. It was that in your submission which elicited study on my part at each turn, as I searched to glean whatever could convince me of the correctness of that proposition; in vain. I think the converse is the case and will endeavour to set my views and why I think it is an important issue clearly in the course of the month through a newspaper's op -ed page, for a broader forum.
On the police: you miss the whole point. I do not have cause to seek "cheap populo" from the police. Beyond the issue of context which I made clear earlier, a blanket view of sebi na police could prove counter-productive. Police men and women, some of which could have collected N20, the day before at road blocks have, anonymously and at times at the risk of their jobs been allies. I talk from my experiences and thus avoid alienating such through blanket concepts of "police".
I do not find any "nit-picking" with my view on the law of average. My earlier position I believe suffices. By the way, I was referring to The Enemy Called Average by one of Pearle's protege and not suggesting that N.V Pearle formulated a law on "smartness".
While you do have a right to your view on revolutionaries and their views, I find your take on Cuba and Fidel to be unfair to say the least. Was the Cuban health system or educational system built on slogans? Besides "thinking" is only one of many things involved in taking a country beyond euphoria of any kind. I doubt if China could have done any better if its land mass and population where those of Cuba...or if it had faced a blockade and terror attacks as Cuba has for the half a century of its liberation.
I hope I managed to "keep it short and simple"....& of course; less boring.
My regards,
BA
Baba Aye
--- On Thu, 1/1/09, OBI KENOBI
From: OBI KENOBI
Subject: Re: [FOIcoalition] Otive What Next As Per Ribadu? Attn: kenobi
To: FOIcoalition@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Thursday, January 1, 2009, 4:02 PM
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2009.
I seriously think revolutionaries should have a cause, think clearly, and see the larger picture. We have had too many rebels without a cause - who clutter the ether and hoodwink the people with tired sleepy and bombastic populist jingles. You hero Castro (as noted in a subsequent mail you sent) who came to power 50 years ago today, has been known to make speeches which have lasted for 5 hours and beyond! I've always thought - if he spent the time he used to stitch those speeches together wisely - thinking clearly, and seeing the larger picture, he might have outdone the Chinese in moving his country beyond the Euphoria of Socialism. Castro should stand as a warning to those who confuse sloganeering with ‘vision-eering’…… Or those who in the words of I.E Akaraiwe (my eternal Principal who loved playing with words) “have INITIATIVE but lack FINISH-ATIVE”
I also think that it is time for clear thinking Nigerians to speak up. Especially those from humble backgrounds, who have tried to emulate the decency they found growing up, who have not partaken in "killing their country daily in installments" by a "....a meaningless rudderless greed which had dislocated [people] from the place where life had placed them and from where they were meant to have been described and refined and led to that point where they might have found all which they sought…. Such greed it was which destroyed nations and civilizations. Awash with resources they neither earned nor deserved, they perished daily at their own hands. They made their country die for them. They killed their country daily in installments"
ANACHRONISM: You probably need to finish with the New Year celebrations as learning and winebibbing tries the soul. A hero is an anachronism. This is precisely what makes him a hero. In today's world, of political correctness, and an abundance of social conscience, William Wilberforce WOULD not be a hero. (Neither would Jim Hines who won in the Mexico Olympics the 100 m gold medal in 9.95s which was a world record at the time).
Coming today to tell me someone was privy to knowledge that William Wilberforce was a drunk, or a closet Nazi, or that he sat in Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years, or that he tried to blackmail the Prime minister of England, or that he ‘pals around with terrorist’ or that he (Wilberforce) even was an Imam.... simply has nothing to do with the fact that: With nothing to guide him, in addition to his frailty as a man, he thought clearly on the foggiest of nights and saw the light (or lighthouse - the larger picture if you will) and brought his ship in!
Ribadu brought his ship in. Take it or leave it. Pound your fists on the concrete dock in anger or anguish! He brought his ship in.
History is replete with examples of fatally flawed individuals who somehow manage to bring their ships in: Winston Churchill was a drunk! At the time he was called to lead, with England on the brink of catastrophe, he rose to the plate and woke his nation up! Murtala Muhammed committed atrocities in Asaba (1.5 miles from my village) on becoming Head of state he gave a whole row of houses built with ill-gotten wealth back to the government.
ON FERVOUR FOR RIBADU, You don't get it. My fervor is for my country. But I also know that the most vital resources a nation has is its HUMAN RESOURCES. I assume Ribadu is a Nigerian (I have never met him and if you ask me he looks like a Tutsi - I hear Tutsi’s are Fulani’s by the way….) – therefore he is one of our most vital resources. Why? Because he wants to make a difference…. What I hear from you and all that that despise Ribadu (though unspoken), is this: “Nigeria is beyond redemption so why be so stupid as to stick your neck out for her!” Which is why to see someone who believes still that a difference could be made is exciting! Today is the 114th anniversary of the birth of another anti-corruption Czar John Edgar Hoover: here is some information about him: “throughout his career and after his death he became an increasingly controversial figure. His many critics assert that he abused his power and exceeded the jurisdiction of
the FBI.[1] He is known to have used the FBI to harass political dissenters and activists, to have amassed secret files on political leaders[2] and to have used illegal methods to collect evidence.[3] It is because of Hoover's long and controversial reign that FBI directors are now limited to 10-year terms.[4]”http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ J._Edgar_ Hoover
There is an obviously similarity of opinion here between critics of Hoover and those of Ribadu. Hoover Served as FBI director from 1935 to 1972 and served 5 Presidents – most of whom reviled him! Did they have the power to fire him? Why did they not? Was it because they were afraid of him? Was Truman Less afraid of Field Marshal Douglas MacArthur whom he fired? I do not know. But they say the best answers are the simplest ones sometimes. I would hazard a guess that they left him there because Aptitude is a dozen for a dime (We probably have more perfectly useless PhD’s than any other country in the world!) but Attitude? Where can you buy that? This is why I become agitated when I see Nigeria laying to waste once again one of its promising human resource. You call that hero-worship that’s fine.
Going to Kuru or NIPSS was not the problem. It was a master stroke – because if you say his methods lack finesse, you probably are right which means he needs to be trained but after Kuru, he should have been reinstated at the EFCC!
Back to J Edgar Hoover. How was he rewarded?
• In 1950, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded Hoover an honorary knighthood in the Order of the British Empire. This entitled him to the postnominal letters KBE, but not to the use of the title "Sir".
• In 1955, Hoover received the National Security Medal from President Eisenhower.[ 38]
• In 1966, he received the Distinguished Service Award from President Lyndon B. Johnson for his service as director of the FBI.
• The FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, is named the J. Edgar Hoover Building after him.
• On Hoover's death, Congress voted its permission for his body to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda, an honor that, at the time, had been accorded to twenty-one other Americans.[20] http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ J._Edgar_ Hoover
What we are saying is that in the whole of America, there were no Dr. Otive’s who ‘knew the truth about’ J Edgar Hoover. King George IV, Eisenhower, LBJ, and Congress were too ‘un-smart’ to figure out they were honoring the wrong man!
Nigerian Police:
I cannot denigrate the Nigerian police. Nobody can. They do it quite well already without any help. Your comments on that is what we used to call cheap populo in high school: You are accused of this when you suffer fools gladly in order to win their support. We need to move beyond that.
On Norman Vincent Pearle’s theory of ‘Smart’
I doubt if Dr. Pearle would suggest that if you put a bunch of smart guys and dames in a room; they would come up with a stupid result! The first thing smart people do is own up if the task assigned to them is beyond their ken. That goes without saying. I try to practice précis when I write so nit-picking things here and there is not very helpful in a debate such as this.
Conclusion:
As a nation, we need to draw closer. I think we should change our national anthem to something which reflects our current march! Something that will inspire… I read a brilliant article written by Ike Akaraiwe on this about ten years ago…. In the mean time, I leave you with the St Francis Prayer:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Don Kenobi
1/1/2009.
DK,
My perspective on polemics in general has been largely guided by the above quote. When this is intra-platform, I take the "our" there to mean the two fencing (such debates being fencing and not mortal duels) as well as the collective. In the light of this discussion, I see little left for the nerves or the skills. For example, your last take moved from the beautiful prose of January 1, to the prosaic about pirates, buccaneers and vikings.... a lot of noise words but which add up to murmuring, my very good friend.
I do agree with you though, that we need to "close ranks", but not about their charade as you put it (they could tear themselves apart for all I care), but on what we are in agreement on and practical actions in this light for moving our great country forward.
For the records, my position has neither being Ribaduist nor anti-Ribaduist (even though his not being able to take the position of Kenya's own "Ribadu" -Githongo- who resigned when it was clear to him that his president-like Obj- was a thief, says a lot about opportunism) . Rather it has been to see beyond Ribaduism by situating it within its socio-historical context with evidence, right from my first take on this...as I pointed out again and which has not been vitiated. I
Reading Chidi's reference to Hegel helped formulate an analogy in my mind that probably simplifies the matter. Corruption exists as a "thing in itself" like "Civil society" in an Hegelian sense (you could take this further to Plato). CSOs are however constructs which can be so because they are organisations of that objectively existing civil society. Due to some subtleties of that construct even though you belong to NBA (an organisation of and in Civil Society) you do not see yourself as belonging to a CSO. Precisely the point here which Chom's and Emma's position attack in different ways. There is rampant corruption in Nigeria. But as well there was and is corruption as a construct (possible because of the actual presence of rampant corruption) which guided the 'discrimination' of Ribadu's selectivity. In short corruption and anti-corruption in this sense become strategies of deeper national and transnational power structures.
Corruption as the fetish that its construction as created and which its "fighting" is actually the worshipping of its graven imagery, is meant to weaken deeper and more fundamental confrontation (with the structures of power) that can eventually lead to social transformation. It is not surprising that "anti-corruption" thus replaces "pro-democracy" (even though we shout to the skies that what we have is civilian dictatorship and not democracy!), the same way "civil society organisations" and "ngos" replaced "mass democratic organisations" and "movements" in our lexicon.
I want to believe that in general the discussion has been useful, but right now it's adding little to sinews, nerves or skills and to many it seems, is beginning to sound like a broken LP. It has however thrown up a spirit of engagement which I hope we will also bring to bear on practical efforts as well, as some have tried to steer us back to e,g how a mechanism for enthroning the accountability of civil society reps in the dance of social dialogue with the state could be institutionalized.
I will be less interested in discourse on Ribadu and Ribaduism, on this serve at least, subsequently. But I can assure you that somehow or the other, I will find time (beyond the space of here; and it will be public) to pursue this misconception of corruption as the devil in Nigeria and not just one, -even if a major one- of the demons that serve the devil-power of a degenerate comprador class of elites' and their puppeteers in Brussels and Washington.
I do look forward to further enriching debates on other issues, in the course of our collectively seeking solutions and taking actions that will lead to our country's emancipation.
Baba AyeZimmer 10, Heckershauser Str., 19A
D34127, Kassel, Germany
+49-1628714379
babaaye.blog. co.uk (titbits of my life, sort of)
solidarityandstrugg le.blogspot. com (on theory and practice)
Skype name: iron1lion
Skype name: iron1lion
"if you are the big tree, we are the small axe, ready to cut you down"
- Bob Marley
"We will no longer hear your command, we'll seize the control from your hands
we will fan the flames of our anger and pain....Amandla, Ngawethu"
- UB 40
- Bob Marley
"We will no longer hear your command, we'll seize the control from your hands
we will fan the flames of our anger and pain....Amandla, Ngawethu"
- UB 40
--- On Sat, 1/3/09, OBI KENOBI
From: OBI KENOBI
Subject: Re: [FOIcoalition] Otive What Next As Per Ribadu? Attn: kenobi
To: FOIcoalition@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Saturday, January 3, 2009, 2:47 PM
Baba Aye,
Let us close ranks and call for this charade to stop.
+++
ps
The biblical children of Israel loved the idea of 'going back to Israel' otherwise they would not have left Egypt. In that sense we all love Nigeria. Unquestionably. Even those who call Ribadu and criminal and Obasanjo the crook of the century. And those who know why Ribadu should be vilified and not commended.
My concern is that murmuring delays our arrival. It cost the children of Israel 40 years in that instance. They murmured and asked for a king, murmured against the kings they received.... murmured against the 30 year old Nazarene.... got him arrested and eventually committed what I term judicial murder against him. It was a story of murmuring and ingratitude. ....
... And that is my concern.
We all love Nigeria. But let us not lengthen the journey unnecessarily by murmuring against everything. Discernment is very important. Look backwards and see the journey we have been through. From Tafawa Balewa, to Ironsi, to Gowon, to Murtala Muhammad to Obasanjo to Shagari, to Buhari, to Babangida to Abacha to Abdusalam to Obasanjo to the present. Someone obviously is holding the fire patiently waiting for us to find the way…. to get it right. For long shall we keep them waiting while we squabble and perambulate?
Murmuring against what you have because you think you deserve better and throwing away what you have because of that, will only lengthen your journey. There is a proverb in Chinua Achebe’s No longer at ease which warns us against challenging our ‘Chi’ to a fight because our stomachs are filled…..
We complained about Babangida’s profligacy, Abdulsalam’s do-nothingness, Abacha’s bloody mindedness, Obasanjo’s criminality, now we complain the Yar Adua is asleep on the wheel (I’ve done it myself – when the go-slow is really horrendous, I recline my seat and take a nap but not before cursing Peter Odili who could have dualized Woji Road….)
Conclusion.
I personally think we should be more cognizant of each other’s difficulties and not punish the man who tries - for no other reason that he tried. Organizations which do this end up in the garbage heap. Organizations are far more nimble than Nations - thus the fate of nations and cultures which destroy their human resources for filthy lucre or sacrifice them for a mess of pottage is better imagined…(Look at Congo, Lumumba destroyed, Zimbabwe, Nkomo destroyed, the USSR (and Nigeria), Everyone destroyed... .)
I would take my own advice and criticize the government on this issue less if it gave me half a chance to believe! That it has not been hijacked by buccaneers (and pirates) - which makes all this analogy more interesting….
Obasanjo/Ribadu can be likened to sailors who brought their ships in: All rusted dented and beat-up, with bullet marks all over. Large holes on the starboard caused by cannons shot by pursuing pirates…. the crew half starved, no diesel for their engines so they had to tie their blankets together to make a sail….. No electricity so they all slept on the deck at night…..….
.....And though they brought their ship in, the people, who gathered at the dock to welcome them on seeing the state of the ship, murmured and asked for their trial and dismissal. No one bothered to consider that below deck the entire bullion was intact.
Worse still, celebrations are held when other sailors returned with their ships in pristine condition but without bullion! People shrugging and saying: “Dem try. If no be those pirates..”
Let us close ranks and call for this charade to stop. If Ribadu has failed, let him go back to EFCC to repeat (Like dunces do). It will win this government untold goodwill and set the matter straight in its commitment to fighting corruption.
The real problem is: If Ribadu goes back; he will not fight corruption again. The damage has been irretrievably done.... generations to come will remember Ribadu and stick their necks right back into their shells. And this is at the root of the anger of the 'Ribaduists' as you say....
A sad legacy to leave behind. I hope the president see through some of the sycophancy behind the calls for Ribadu's head. An ill wind blows no one any good.
K
--- On Sat, 1/3/09, Baba Aye
Subject: Re: [FOIcoalition] Otive What Next As Per Ribadu? Attn: kenobi
To: FOIcoalition@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Saturday, January 3, 2009, 4:18 AM
I must say that I did enjoy the prose of your submission.
I will try to keep my take simple and straight forward, for the issues not to be lost in the boredom that my pedantic style might unwittingly evoke.
The thread that runs through my argument is one for situating persons, events and phenomena in historical context.
In this light I situated "Ribaduism" within the dynamics of the post-Washington consensus. I am not convinced that that is not the case
I find your hero = anachronism formulation quite fascinating really. It was that in your submission which elicited study on my part at each turn, as I searched to glean whatever could convince me of the correctness of that proposition; in vain. I think the converse is the case and will endeavour to set my views and why I think it is an important issue clearly in the course of the month through a newspaper's op -ed page, for a broader forum.
On the police: you miss the whole point. I do not have cause to seek "cheap populo" from the police. Beyond the issue of context which I made clear earlier, a blanket view of sebi na police could prove counter-productive. Police men and women, some of which could have collected N20, the day before at road blocks have, anonymously and at times at the risk of their jobs been allies. I talk from my experiences and thus avoid alienating such through blanket concepts of "police".
I do not find any "nit-picking" with my view on the law of average. My earlier position I believe suffices. By the way, I was referring to The Enemy Called Average by one of Pearle's protege and not suggesting that N.V Pearle formulated a law on "smartness".
While you do have a right to your view on revolutionaries and their views, I find your take on Cuba and Fidel to be unfair to say the least. Was the Cuban health system or educational system built on slogans? Besides "thinking" is only one of many things involved in taking a country beyond euphoria of any kind. I doubt if China could have done any better if its land mass and population where those of Cuba...or if it had faced a blockade and terror attacks as Cuba has for the half a century of its liberation.
I hope I managed to "keep it short and simple"....& of course; less boring.
My regards,
BA
Baba AyeZimmer 10, Heckershauser Str,19A
D34127, Kassel, Germany
+49-1628714379
babaaye.blog. co.uk (titbits of my life, sort of)
solidarityandstrugg le.blogspot. com (on theory and practice)
Skype name: iron1lion
Skype name: iron1lion
"if you are the big tree, we are the small axe, ready to cut you down"
- Bob Marley
"We will no longer hear your command, we'll seize the control from your hands
we will fan the flames of our anger and pain....Amandla, Ngawethu"
- UB 40
- Bob Marley
"We will no longer hear your command, we'll seize the control from your hands
we will fan the flames of our anger and pain....Amandla, Ngawethu"
- UB 40
--- On Thu, 1/1/09, OBI KENOBI
From: OBI KENOBI
Subject: Re: [FOIcoalition] Otive What Next As Per Ribadu? Attn: kenobi
To: FOIcoalition@ yahoogroups. com
Date: Thursday, January 1, 2009, 4:02 PM
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2009.
I seriously think revolutionaries should have a cause, think clearly, and see the larger picture. We have had too many rebels without a cause - who clutter the ether and hoodwink the people with tired sleepy and bombastic populist jingles. You hero Castro (as noted in a subsequent mail you sent) who came to power 50 years ago today, has been known to make speeches which have lasted for 5 hours and beyond! I've always thought - if he spent the time he used to stitch those speeches together wisely - thinking clearly, and seeing the larger picture, he might have outdone the Chinese in moving his country beyond the Euphoria of Socialism. Castro should stand as a warning to those who confuse sloganeering with ‘vision-eering’…… Or those who in the words of I.E Akaraiwe (my eternal Principal who loved playing with words) “have INITIATIVE but lack FINISH-ATIVE”
I also think that it is time for clear thinking Nigerians to speak up. Especially those from humble backgrounds, who have tried to emulate the decency they found growing up, who have not partaken in "killing their country daily in installments" by a "....a meaningless rudderless greed which had dislocated [people] from the place where life had placed them and from where they were meant to have been described and refined and led to that point where they might have found all which they sought…. Such greed it was which destroyed nations and civilizations. Awash with resources they neither earned nor deserved, they perished daily at their own hands. They made their country die for them. They killed their country daily in installments"
ANACHRONISM: You probably need to finish with the New Year celebrations as learning and winebibbing tries the soul. A hero is an anachronism. This is precisely what makes him a hero. In today's world, of political correctness, and an abundance of social conscience, William Wilberforce WOULD not be a hero. (Neither would Jim Hines who won in the Mexico Olympics the 100 m gold medal in 9.95s which was a world record at the time).
Coming today to tell me someone was privy to knowledge that William Wilberforce was a drunk, or a closet Nazi, or that he sat in Jeremiah Wright's church for 20 years, or that he tried to blackmail the Prime minister of England, or that he ‘pals around with terrorist’ or that he (Wilberforce) even was an Imam.... simply has nothing to do with the fact that: With nothing to guide him, in addition to his frailty as a man, he thought clearly on the foggiest of nights and saw the light (or lighthouse - the larger picture if you will) and brought his ship in!
Ribadu brought his ship in. Take it or leave it. Pound your fists on the concrete dock in anger or anguish! He brought his ship in.
History is replete with examples of fatally flawed individuals who somehow manage to bring their ships in: Winston Churchill was a drunk! At the time he was called to lead, with England on the brink of catastrophe, he rose to the plate and woke his nation up! Murtala Muhammed committed atrocities in Asaba (1.5 miles from my village) on becoming Head of state he gave a whole row of houses built with ill-gotten wealth back to the government.
ON FERVOUR FOR RIBADU, You don't get it. My fervor is for my country. But I also know that the most vital resources a nation has is its HUMAN RESOURCES. I assume Ribadu is a Nigerian (I have never met him and if you ask me he looks like a Tutsi - I hear Tutsi’s are Fulani’s by the way….) – therefore he is one of our most vital resources. Why? Because he wants to make a difference…. What I hear from you and all that that despise Ribadu (though unspoken), is this: “Nigeria is beyond redemption so why be so stupid as to stick your neck out for her!” Which is why to see someone who believes still that a difference could be made is exciting! Today is the 114th anniversary of the birth of another anti-corruption Czar John Edgar Hoover: here is some information about him: “throughout his career and after his death he became an increasingly controversial figure. His many critics assert that he abused his power and exceeded the jurisdiction of
the FBI.[1] He is known to have used the FBI to harass political dissenters and activists, to have amassed secret files on political leaders[2] and to have used illegal methods to collect evidence.[3] It is because of Hoover's long and controversial reign that FBI directors are now limited to 10-year terms.[4]”http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ J._Edgar_ Hoover
There is an obviously similarity of opinion here between critics of Hoover and those of Ribadu. Hoover Served as FBI director from 1935 to 1972 and served 5 Presidents – most of whom reviled him! Did they have the power to fire him? Why did they not? Was it because they were afraid of him? Was Truman Less afraid of Field Marshal Douglas MacArthur whom he fired? I do not know. But they say the best answers are the simplest ones sometimes. I would hazard a guess that they left him there because Aptitude is a dozen for a dime (We probably have more perfectly useless PhD’s than any other country in the world!) but Attitude? Where can you buy that? This is why I become agitated when I see Nigeria laying to waste once again one of its promising human resource. You call that hero-worship that’s fine.
Going to Kuru or NIPSS was not the problem. It was a master stroke – because if you say his methods lack finesse, you probably are right which means he needs to be trained but after Kuru, he should have been reinstated at the EFCC!
Back to J Edgar Hoover. How was he rewarded?
• In 1950, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded Hoover an honorary knighthood in the Order of the British Empire. This entitled him to the postnominal letters KBE, but not to the use of the title "Sir".
• In 1955, Hoover received the National Security Medal from President Eisenhower.[ 38]
• In 1966, he received the Distinguished Service Award from President Lyndon B. Johnson for his service as director of the FBI.
• The FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, is named the J. Edgar Hoover Building after him.
• On Hoover's death, Congress voted its permission for his body to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda, an honor that, at the time, had been accorded to twenty-one other Americans.[20] http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ J._Edgar_ Hoover
What we are saying is that in the whole of America, there were no Dr. Otive’s who ‘knew the truth about’ J Edgar Hoover. King George IV, Eisenhower, LBJ, and Congress were too ‘un-smart’ to figure out they were honoring the wrong man!
Nigerian Police:
I cannot denigrate the Nigerian police. Nobody can. They do it quite well already without any help. Your comments on that is what we used to call cheap populo in high school: You are accused of this when you suffer fools gladly in order to win their support. We need to move beyond that.
On Norman Vincent Pearle’s theory of ‘Smart’
I doubt if Dr. Pearle would suggest that if you put a bunch of smart guys and dames in a room; they would come up with a stupid result! The first thing smart people do is own up if the task assigned to them is beyond their ken. That goes without saying. I try to practice précis when I write so nit-picking things here and there is not very helpful in a debate such as this.
Conclusion:
As a nation, we need to draw closer. I think we should change our national anthem to something which reflects our current march! Something that will inspire… I read a brilliant article written by Ike Akaraiwe on this about ten years ago…. In the mean time, I leave you with the St Francis Prayer:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Don Kenobi
1/1/2009.
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