on ngos and ngoism: discussion with John Dada
Dear John Dada,
Thanx for yours, from the penumbra of internet activism on this serve, or as you could put it the zone of 'lurkers' (lol)...who none the less are not any less concerned or in agony about the fate of our dear country than those of us that choose to be 'basket mouths', not just for the fun of it though!.I had come to the conclusions of broader concern on the serve than shows itself through debates here not from speculation but from off serve interactions with a number of persons, I never knew where on the serve, many of whom I never knew before, in diverse manners, especially during the debates when I was in Germany.
From the site link, you provided I must say it does seem, Fantsuam Foundation is bringing more than just tuwo and amala to some tables. Bringing happiness to hearts, hope to souls, does also make a the difference in situations of poverty, and stigmatization of persons living with HIV. Such function of civil society programmes aimed at ameliorating real social problems of real men, women and children, our communities which some NGO perform as service, is welcome.I would not say that such engagements by NGOs are necessarily distinct from the struggles over the 'bigger issues', as you put it. I think Oscar Romero captured the difference when he said: When I fed the poor they called me a Saint, when I asked why they are poor, they called me a Communist. The question is, can all such little drops of waters of feeding the poor, giving them hope and such small steps of the work of platforms like your foundation, lead in themselves to a coalescence, a flood of equity without an head-on confrontation of the question of why we are poor and seeking that question's solution in action? I really do doubt it.
In a discussion with a comrade also on this serve on the relationship between NGOs and ngoism, I likened the matter the matter to that between reforms and reformism. To doubt that reforms have any use for the cause of a more fundamental transformation of society would not only be foolish, this would tend towards nihilism. But reformism makes reforms seem the end all and be all, of the process of change. It however does not take a genius to see that the major turning points in history's forward march, especially where and when traditions of progress have become as opaque as we have with Nigeria, have always been striking qualitative leaps. Apart from what several people have pointed out about the priorities of some NGOists, including their lifestyles, commitment to accountability despite their seeking same from the state, questionable if any dynamic relations with the people they claim to represent and so on and so forth, ngoism in general submits the thrust of activities to interests beyond that of the people for change. It establishes its own techne, through a proposal-implementaion-evaluation- proposal cycle that makes it virtually impossible for thos droplets to ever amount to a tidal wave, on the steam of the dynamis of NGO-focus.
This reality of ngoism did not just happen. It was consciously constructed by Western powers in the days of the cold war (a good reading on this can be found in The Kremlin's Dilemma, can't remember the names of the two authors, but one is a British Lord: traces these roots to the 1975 -77 Conference on the Security of Europe, led amongst other things to the formation of the Czech Charter 77, as a wedge within the Iron Curtain)
The challenge, I believe, is to re-establish a tradition of opposition that places social change as against the routinization of proposal-inspired droplets-activities and mass action as against NGO-bureaucrats projects, at the heart of our work...even within NGOs. Our minimal goal of getting a genuine FOI Act enacted which brought us together here, not to talk of the broader mosaic of holistic change which I believe we are resolved on fighting for, might itself witness much more success than it has in the past one decade, with such post-NGOist strategizing.
Beyond it all, I would sum up, we need hearts full of commitment, hands quicker on the field than on the keyboard, minds that ask why the poor are poor and critique 'received' wisdom' as answers to these based on concrete analyses of our concrete realities and organisation with programme and strategy for change, which can be brought to be only through struggle.... since some, even if a small minority, benefit from the status quo and will defend it as best as they can.
My regards,
Baba Aye
_____________________________________________________________________________
From: John Dada
Date: Thursday, May 14, 2009, 4:17 PM
Sannu Baba Aye
Just to introduce myself as one of the lurkers on this list who also agonised with all the pre- and post Ekiti events, the 56 group etc.
I came back from the UK to put my own drop of turanchi into the ocean of solutions that activists and revolutionaries were putting forward. The turanchi started as an experiment but we seem to have found a few of the strategic pillars for our brand of work. We are working at putting tuwo and amala on the table of families in a rural corner of Nigeria, and I see you guys tackling the bigger causes of institutional dysfunctions at the top. I am writing to say, sannu da aiki, eku ise. more grease. If you know others who would like to try what we are doing at their own neck of the woods, may be the drop drop drop from these villages will coalesce and flood Naija with equity, one day?
John Dada
Fantsuam Foundation
www.fantsuam. org
Thanx for yours, from the penumbra of internet activism on this serve, or as you could put it the zone of 'lurkers' (lol)...who none the less are not any less concerned or in agony about the fate of our dear country than those of us that choose to be 'basket mouths', not just for the fun of it though!.I had come to the conclusions of broader concern on the serve than shows itself through debates here not from speculation but from off serve interactions with a number of persons, I never knew where on the serve, many of whom I never knew before, in diverse manners, especially during the debates when I was in Germany.
From the site link, you provided I must say it does seem, Fantsuam Foundation is bringing more than just tuwo and amala to some tables. Bringing happiness to hearts, hope to souls, does also make a the difference in situations of poverty, and stigmatization of persons living with HIV. Such function of civil society programmes aimed at ameliorating real social problems of real men, women and children, our communities which some NGO perform as service, is welcome.I would not say that such engagements by NGOs are necessarily distinct from the struggles over the 'bigger issues', as you put it. I think Oscar Romero captured the difference when he said: When I fed the poor they called me a Saint, when I asked why they are poor, they called me a Communist. The question is, can all such little drops of waters of feeding the poor, giving them hope and such small steps of the work of platforms like your foundation, lead in themselves to a coalescence, a flood of equity without an head-on confrontation of the question of why we are poor and seeking that question's solution in action? I really do doubt it.
In a discussion with a comrade also on this serve on the relationship between NGOs and ngoism, I likened the matter the matter to that between reforms and reformism. To doubt that reforms have any use for the cause of a more fundamental transformation of society would not only be foolish, this would tend towards nihilism. But reformism makes reforms seem the end all and be all, of the process of change. It however does not take a genius to see that the major turning points in history's forward march, especially where and when traditions of progress have become as opaque as we have with Nigeria, have always been striking qualitative leaps. Apart from what several people have pointed out about the priorities of some NGOists, including their lifestyles, commitment to accountability despite their seeking same from the state, questionable if any dynamic relations with the people they claim to represent and so on and so forth, ngoism in general submits the thrust of activities to interests beyond that of the people for change. It establishes its own techne, through a proposal-implementaion-evaluation- proposal cycle that makes it virtually impossible for thos droplets to ever amount to a tidal wave, on the steam of the dynamis of NGO-focus.
This reality of ngoism did not just happen. It was consciously constructed by Western powers in the days of the cold war (a good reading on this can be found in The Kremlin's Dilemma, can't remember the names of the two authors, but one is a British Lord: traces these roots to the 1975 -77 Conference on the Security of Europe, led amongst other things to the formation of the Czech Charter 77, as a wedge within the Iron Curtain)
The challenge, I believe, is to re-establish a tradition of opposition that places social change as against the routinization of proposal-inspired droplets-activities and mass action as against NGO-bureaucrats projects, at the heart of our work...even within NGOs. Our minimal goal of getting a genuine FOI Act enacted which brought us together here, not to talk of the broader mosaic of holistic change which I believe we are resolved on fighting for, might itself witness much more success than it has in the past one decade, with such post-NGOist strategizing.
Beyond it all, I would sum up, we need hearts full of commitment, hands quicker on the field than on the keyboard, minds that ask why the poor are poor and critique 'received' wisdom' as answers to these based on concrete analyses of our concrete realities and organisation with programme and strategy for change, which can be brought to be only through struggle.... since some, even if a small minority, benefit from the status quo and will defend it as best as they can.
My regards,
Baba Aye
_____________________________________________________________________________
From: John Dada
Date: Thursday, May 14, 2009, 4:17 PM
Sannu Baba Aye
Just to introduce myself as one of the lurkers on this list who also agonised with all the pre- and post Ekiti events, the 56 group etc.
I came back from the UK to put my own drop of turanchi into the ocean of solutions that activists and revolutionaries were putting forward. The turanchi started as an experiment but we seem to have found a few of the strategic pillars for our brand of work. We are working at putting tuwo and amala on the table of families in a rural corner of Nigeria, and I see you guys tackling the bigger causes of institutional dysfunctions at the top. I am writing to say, sannu da aiki, eku ise. more grease. If you know others who would like to try what we are doing at their own neck of the woods, may be the drop drop drop from these villages will coalesce and flood Naija with equity, one day?
John Dada
Fantsuam Foundation
www.fantsuam. org
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