the 'international support' debate: with OM

"Four things come not back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, time passed and the lost opportunity" (Omar Halif, 14th century philosopher)
Dear Osita,
I will be very brief after your last mail, subsequent to my response to Rot Fash's. I do think it would however be "disingenuous" to circumscribe any response whatsoever from me after some of your assertions below, based on that. The most I could do is to assume a non-polemical and summary stance in response.

I am glad you assert I seek to subscribe views to critique. The views I actually pass through the most severe of critique, if you must know, are actually mine. I believe that it is in the process of critique that knowledge is expanded. It is also not my brand of dialectics. It is a materialist Hegelian-Marxist brand actually.

I do take exception at your considering my approach 'pompous' though. I am sure that if it were not yours that we are talking of and you were asked to consider which approach is pompous: one that consciously states, that opinions are 'in my opinion', 'from my point of view' etc and one that comes out telling all and sundry that 'whether we like it or not', you would most likely agree with my, if the least of objectivity is to be included in deciding that the former tends less to the pompous. Even the issue of what the crux of our disagreement is reflects this difference in our approach. I said 'might' be, you describe it as 'is'...

To say I am not forthcoming with concrete suggestions, my good friend, is decidedly unfair, to say the very least. A cursory look at my contributions since joining this serve would contradict this assertion. It was in presenting concrete suggestions that I, Carol and Oyebisi took up the challenge of what would have been our FOIC meeting last June. In the build up towards March 21 as well, when in-puts were called for, I do remember that I was the fist to submit 'concrete suggestions' as in-puts to the triumvirate' s proposal (as against some other view that this came in late!). And I say this without the slightest twinge of immodesty, but as a statement of fact in response to your false assertion, please.

I never intended to respond to the questioning of my past activities evidence, for several reasons, summed up by Soyinka's response to Chinweizu et al that a tiger need not assert its tigritude. People might disagree with my approach, but I daresay that there is none, not one that we have had cause to work together at any of my stages of development who would raise such a question. I have and I still do, give my heart, my head, my limbs, my soul, and my all to that which I have given my life....the struggle for a better human society. I would however have pointed out an abridged evidence list of what I am doing, simply to have the moral authority for asking you for the same evidence you demand of me. But then, in the final analysis, all that still does not matter. In our lives as activists -a pathway, which of course starts and throughout involves, our personal decisions- every man and woman is left at some level to his or her conscience on how far, s/he walks her/his talk. The thing with my going on and on though is that, where and when we collectively decide to walk a path, then a right emerges for any one that is part of that decision to question just how much we are collectively walking it or not. In this light, I also remember very much your pointing out within the enthusiasm that drove us towards March 21 that 'doing nothing is not an option'. How on earth my screaming my lungs out that your assertion should be upheld now becomes a problem for you, I still do not understand.. .

This is where the issue of Nigerians standing up to be counted or not arises. People hardly ever spontaneously stand up to be counted without the driving force of organization. And even where and when they seem to without any clear-cut organization (as with the May 1989, anti-SAP revolt despite its virulence), this peters out like steam without a steam engine to convert it into a movement for social progress.

I do and will support any and every organised effort towards struggling for a better society. It is in this light for example that I am impressed by Don Kenobi's efforts in his own way and will endeavour to give it all the support I can even if only morally as I do with Sowore's SR and Sankara's NLF (in the same UK with you). My interventions on FOIC amount to less than 20% of my online interventions, most of which go beyond list serves and actions limited by the shorelines of Nigeria, because I do appreciate the internationalist dimensions of all struggle for social change, as a student of revolutionary history. The time and efforts I put into practical tasks though, dwarfs that for online engagements, while maintaining a rhythm with my academics with which I daresay I have thus far done our country and Afrika, proud in this programme.

I am not unaware that we are all beset with challenges of our different lives. I do think though, that be it to organize primarily on the ground or for 'international support', we need to make sacrifices.. ..particularly of our time, our energies and our resources. When we let opportunities pass by as we seem to be doing with March 21, even when we start again, we lose some extent of momentum, all other things being equal.

On a final note, I at times, consider the possibility of my engagements here seeming pedantic as you once pointed out, and do imply by allusions to 'encyclopedic' whatever. It is not my intention and if such thoughts do in any way impede, thinking together or working our walk together, I do sincerely apologize. I try to act on feedback of such possibilities without submitting my banner and right to it as well. On this March 21, going on about something to be done for example. I must say that I had thought I would response to yours and Rot Fash by March 21 (when it became exactly 2 months after), and then take a break from the serve, because I -and this is sincerely speaking from my heart- still can not understand how we could have yam, knife and stool and then keep making the same complaint of hunger we were making before having these, no matter how blunt the knife is or how little the yam is. I however got a personal email from a leading member of this serve and one whom I had engaged with polemically titled 'hello and support', raising questions on how we could still get this going on.This gave me hope that all is still not lost. And I will thus in my own way, continue with my 'redemption song'...if you will.

I must also, clarify, the unspoken, but quite palpable in yours, related to the above. Not only do I not think I have all the answers, I have as well learnt from debates I have engaged in here. Two that I have come to so much appreciate have been, John Onyeauku's introduction to Peter Ekeh and the challenge of Agbonkpolor' s which I followed up and have subsequently been an active member of the Post-Keynesian Study Group since February (I was not unfamiliar with that strand of thinking which I also do not agree with, as evidenced for example in my 'Socio-economic dynamics of Nigeria and NEPAD' published as a chapter in NEPAD The Journey so far, a few years back, but realised that a lot of development in it post-Joan Robinson required analyzing).

Now, I think I am probably getting too lengthy again and leaving the issue of discourse? I do apologise. I think above all, the issue of 'international support' or any other, the most important thing is our establishing some basis for working (as against just talking, do note please), together, without surrendering our different and even at times contending ideological heritages. It is in this spirit, that I have written this response hoping that there will be less sad days for our land.

In this light, I think Omar Halif's quote which I started with above, is quite noteworthy.. ...we have had so many lost opportunities. Could we, despite our differences, start more concretely with seizing the opportunities, within Nigeria and internationally to lead to that re-birth of our dearly beloved land Nigeria?

With heart-felt regards,

Baba Aye


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LOL, Osita....

anyway, I do not have time right now, sincerely. My peasantry comrades will be here in about ten minutes for us to begin our journey.

We'll see when I'm back. And on my intended response, it was neither or threat, nor would it be in any thing but in good faith....to us all and what we stand for.

Sincerely warm regards,

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Baba, I patiently read your brilliant but rather lengthy response to Rotimi and was very alarmed by your threat towards the end to respond to me, knowing you in equal measure, in due course! If I withdraw my contentious comments, will you save us, or me, from further encyclopedia on this issue? I would have thought you have made your point with characteristic eloquence and pomp. However, you seem to imply that Obama will invariably follow the foreign policy path of his predecessors. That will not be 'change' let alone change we can believe in.
Osita
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Baba, it is rather disingenuous for your to claim that the crux of our difference is 'which comes first'. No, it is not. You took issues with my assertion, and yes it is my opinion, that this junta cannot be dislodged without international support. I never suggested that we should fold our hands and wait for an international miracle. In fact I made it quite clear that 'Nigerians will stand up to be counted'. You keep going on about the need to do 'something' and are very quick to subject every views and suggestions to your pompous brand of dialectic, but you are hardly forthcoming with concrete actions to be taken or evidence of what you have done or are presently doing. On the issue at hand, by all means let there be a million man march in Abuja to force the govt to effect true electoral reform, but I can't see why such efforts cannot be complemented by a campaign for international pressure, particularly by those of us in the Diaspora. A simple a sanction as an international travel ban against this junta and their families will leave Yaradua with no avenue for the treatment of his 'cold' and 'malaria', and bring home the idiocy and utter wickedness in stealing public funds that should be used to build world class schools and hospitals for all and using the money to buy these basic services overseas for a privileged few. Osita

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From: Baba Aye
Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 16:58

Dear Osita,
Here you have actually presented a position much more like that which I uphold. The only addition and which might be at the crux of our difference on the issue is which comes first? This is definitely not a chicken and egg issue...international support came only in the wake of a groundswell of action on the ground there. That is the exact reason why it is support. There is a Yoruba axiom which could be translated as :'it is the child who stretches out his/her arms, that is carried'.

The issue here is, which body is on ground working towards a situation that would make the so-called international community feel inclined to render its support? Its not because the situation in Georgia or Ukraine was worse (in terms of rigging, violence, etc) than in Nigeria, quite on the contrary. So, evidence shows that it is not how bad the elites of a country Nigeria or otherwise runs its business that makes international support emerge. What did was the contestation of the power of the ruling parties by emergent alternative powers that mobilized the masses within this land.

Nzeribe is an enigma I have had cause to study. A statement he made during the Abacha days when he was asked why once again he was supporting such elements was that except there were 'compelling circumstances' nothing could make a dictatorship vanish. Of course 'international support' could add up within the calculus of such 'compelling circumstances' ...but definitely not as its denominator!

The question is despite all our turenche, what are we doing to build the denominator for such 'compelling circumstances' which could lead to the change we need in today's Nigeria?
WHAT?

Baba Aye
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Baba

I wonder what further empirical evidence you require. The mere fact that you can send criticial emails from Brazil without fear of an SSS visit shows that you enjoy 'international support'. I can go on and on.

The PDP controls all institutions in Nigeria: the Police, INEC, the courts (that are supposed to be the last hope of the common man) etc. That places severe restraint on what the opposition can achieve internally. Do you think SaharaReporters would still be in operation if they worked in Nigeria?

If we're going to succeed in 2011, we have to be frank about what can be achieved in 2 years and what cannot.

Osita
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Dear Osita
On yours below, please:
The mere fact that you can send critical emails from Brazil without fear of an SSS visit shows that you enjoy 'international support'. I can go on and on.

The 'mere fact' you allude to has nothing whatsoever to do with international support, but rather technological advancement. And you might wish to know that I have sent some more critical emails while in Nigeria on one hand and that on the other,some 'critical emails' by persons in developed capitalist countries have as well incurred state repression as with the bundestrojan project in Grmany for example. You mix up issues and with this singular example do not even start to make any validation of empirical evidence, talk less of going 'on and on'!

The PDP controls all institutions in Nigeria: the Police, INEC, the courts (that are supposed to be the last hope of the common man) etc.

The degenerate ruling elites in Nigeria (of which yes, its PDP incarnation holds sway, but not in an absolute sense) arguably, control 'all (I believe here; state) institutions in Nigeria'. But this formulation fails to take cognizance of the reality of life that even these institutions are sites of contestation! . With the police for example, the police strikes some six years back show flaw lines and cracks that more serious progressive forces would have guilt on. INEC, SIEC and co, are broader than these structures par se. They use workers and other citizens that are part of us at the polls. And besides as the Nwosu and more recently Ayoka dramas show us, are there not contentions within them? And with the courts....if things were as simplicita as you a lawyer put it, Adams and Mimiko would not be Governors today nor would there have been an Ekiti re-run for the country's political elites to once more show their utter hopelessness.

I would think a more 'nuanced analysis' (apologies, Otive) of concrete realities would be of greater benefit for out formulation of strategies of engagement.

Do you think SaharaReporters would still be in operation if they worked in Nigeria?

You actually miss the point here! Sahara Reporters does work in Nigeria! Where and how does it get a whole lot of the pictures and stories it uses? I do agree that its base is in the US, but to then say it does not work in Nigeria is like saying Unilever does not exist in Nigeria since its base is in the UK!. The point here is about understanding the multilayered reality of life (particularly in this age of globalization) and consequently the networking of forces that goes into the efforts of the struggle for social transformation.

And quite akin to the above is the fact that that can't seem to even hear the music despite its loudness can hardly dance to its rhythm. Is Sowore, the only radical person from Nigeria in the diaspora where such projects could be executed devoid of 'our' own Yar'Adua's brand of 'rule of law'? Sowore is not even trained as a journalist! Yet do we not have trained radical journalist (of course I do not here assert that they are all necessarily not doing anything) that could have used such spaces outside? There are many 'Marxist' and 'revolutionary' Nigerian emigres; how many of them have done what 'Man Show' is doing with SR?

The ruth of the matter, if you must know, is that Sowore did even more dangerous things than he is doing now, in the cause of defending what he stands for, while in Nigeria. I am proud to say he is one of those that to use Agbonkpolor' s words were 'my students'. And right from Henry Carr, where he was Chair and I used to fondly call him the 'anarcho-democrat in our League', he has never looked back in throwing his hat into the ring! What is the lesson from this, you might ask? It is very unlikely that even if 'international solidarity' comes (particularly and of course it involves this too: in the form of lucre!), people who have and only continue to talk without acting would do anything useful with it! It is actually much more likely that such would initiate internal struggles of ki lo ba de aluta! (i.e. wetin e come with struggle, or gbemu, or so do be or to NGO GBALAMU!). Quite unlike, your futuristic assertion which you can not provide any convincing evidence for, our past shows the evidence of what happened to Women In Nigeria, Campaign for Democracy, etc....in the wake of 'international support'.

In conclusion for now at least, I agree with you in a sense that:
If we're going to succeed in 2011, we have to be frank about what can be achieved in 2 years and what cannot
But the problem in my opinion is that what we frankly determine as achievable or not in 2years are not written in concrete. Lenin, did for example frankly point out in August 1917 that while the structures and processes of revolution should be deepened, it was very unlikely that the Russian revolution would go beyond the stage it was then for several years...barely two months later, came the 'ten days that shook the world' and which despite any angle one could look at it from, established the 'short twentieth century' (apologies to Hobsbawn). What lesson can we draw from this? While being frank about what he perceived as objective limitations, because the Bolsheviks, kept building and mobilizing, their lamps had oil in them when the bride groom came.
If as of today, we start something or at least seemed to start something two days less than two months ago, and nothing so far, while time ticks away towards barely two years away, then despite whatever words our mouths utter, our actions themselves speak louder about our being merely frank by half and our being at least a cause, if not the cause of our accursedness and neither the elites acting true to type or the mythological djinni of 'international support' should be held responsible.
Chikena!
Baba Aye