Organising for Change: Look WITHIN & beyond FOI Listserve II
Dear Sina and Biola,
First I must say to Sina that time never gets on any person or revolutionary group's side. On the contrary, we have to get to the side of time. The old GG (as against the Darah we now know) spoke at a guest lecture we organized on the PAYCO platform in 1992. An analogy he used stuck in my mind. He considered the revolution as the biblical groom that five wise and five foolish maidens were waiting for. The five wise maidens represented a revolutionary movement's existence and readiness. The foolish ones whose oil had run out of course were the 'revolutionaries' full of lots of talk and little or no oil to last the night. How many times will we say all we need is to get organised more than ever only to repeat it again year in, year out?
And Biola, I not only pointed out our 'past failed efforts'. Any movement or revolutionary tradition without such is one that never really exists...The problem is not even just that of our continued current and consistently reinforced 'failed efforts'! As Iyayi rightly says quite often, 'madness is doing the same thing time and again and expecting a different result'. Is it just today that we will be x-raying what our problems were and were? I stumbled on a report by a Nigerian member of the CPGB, for that party in the fifties on the state of the Nigerian left: I was left with a chilling feeling when it dawned on me that the bulk of problems constituting 'failed efforts' then and now, remain largely the same...if any thing our own generation of socialists, progressives or whatever you choose to call it has regressed!
On the present debate, what actually is leading us to a 'case closed' position on March 21? Is it that we tried and failed or that we are submitting to failure without even trying?! Are we the only ones that can not give up on Nigeria? You say all the veterans are here and indeed a good number of them were neck-deep in the efforts towards and on March 21, and now that we are the ones claiming the impotence or frigidity of our other partners on the serve without entering the room, we feel that the best thing is to advertise a 'to thy tents or Israel'!
If you ask me, the situation is like asking comrades of SCAP, Pace setters and co, to leave the Great Ife union alone and enter their sole or united sectarian shells, strategizing amongst themselves to make whatever change because of the diversity of the students union, which like this serve is of course an all-comers thing. And while we are at it, unlike poles rather than repel each other attract each other. Genuine vanguard leadership exists only within a context beyond the vanguard, solely. Of course we must do tings outside this serve, but we must also do things within this serve and the March 21 stand. And if we are to do things as well outside or beyond this serve, it should not be in this sort of manner that presents to those not of us that we are separating our self-righteous selves when actually to all intents and purposes our demonstrated slack is the problem itself! (you could check out CA's response to your earlier posting in this same spirit, for an inkling on the possible demoralizing break of solidarity that such sectarian views and politics could throw up).
There are several platforms if we sincerely want to engage at all or more fronts. LASCO, ANSA...
I must confess that this whole issue leaves me perplexed as I can not but imagine how what one would think is obvious enough from a dialectical approach to theory and politics now seems so obfuscated. Of course though, that is my opinion, and I make bold to state and defend it.
The most important thing in my view is that no matter how much we talk of doing this now or later, if we continue this way we will get no where really fast as we have always been doing for half a century.
I would suggest that we engage what came out of March 21 first before it even makes sense to consider if this serve and that child of it should be discarded! At least it is not the presidential advisers and other 'all-comers' have you put it, that have made it impossible for us to even see the child in the first place before deciding if it is deserving of a name, talk less of giving it a name.
My regards,
Baba Aye
______________________________________________________________________________
From: shina loremikan
Date: Monday, May 11, 2009, 7:25 AM
Thank you our Abiola and ex Union pro.
You and our cc Sec have my vote. The issue is that there is time for everything . In other words there is time for action and inaction. No doubt time is getting more to our side for real action all we need is to get organise more than ever.
We will get there.
______________________________________________________________________________
From: abiola akiyode-afolabi
Date: Sunday, May 10, 2009, 4:44 PM
Dear Otive and Baba Aye,
Otive, I commend you greatly for your commitment to change and I salute your courage and steadfastness! I agree with your position below. You have just put the issues, I raised in my last email in a better perspective.
I propose that while the listserve discussion goes on, we need to plan independently for the transformation/ change,we are talking about, I agree with all what Aye said about past failed efforts, but we need to ask ourselves, why we failed in the past, before we can move forward and see if there are issues we can address or if it is about like minds and unlike minds or unlike poles repelling'?.
We cannot give up on Nigeria, we have no where else to go, so we must make it work.We have all the veterans on this list serve, we need to organise outside of the listserve, we need to do something and we need to do this now!
abiola
First I must say to Sina that time never gets on any person or revolutionary group's side. On the contrary, we have to get to the side of time. The old GG (as against the Darah we now know) spoke at a guest lecture we organized on the PAYCO platform in 1992. An analogy he used stuck in my mind. He considered the revolution as the biblical groom that five wise and five foolish maidens were waiting for. The five wise maidens represented a revolutionary movement's existence and readiness. The foolish ones whose oil had run out of course were the 'revolutionaries' full of lots of talk and little or no oil to last the night. How many times will we say all we need is to get organised more than ever only to repeat it again year in, year out?
And Biola, I not only pointed out our 'past failed efforts'. Any movement or revolutionary tradition without such is one that never really exists...The problem is not even just that of our continued current and consistently reinforced 'failed efforts'! As Iyayi rightly says quite often, 'madness is doing the same thing time and again and expecting a different result'. Is it just today that we will be x-raying what our problems were and were? I stumbled on a report by a Nigerian member of the CPGB, for that party in the fifties on the state of the Nigerian left: I was left with a chilling feeling when it dawned on me that the bulk of problems constituting 'failed efforts' then and now, remain largely the same...if any thing our own generation of socialists, progressives or whatever you choose to call it has regressed!
On the present debate, what actually is leading us to a 'case closed' position on March 21? Is it that we tried and failed or that we are submitting to failure without even trying?! Are we the only ones that can not give up on Nigeria? You say all the veterans are here and indeed a good number of them were neck-deep in the efforts towards and on March 21, and now that we are the ones claiming the impotence or frigidity of our other partners on the serve without entering the room, we feel that the best thing is to advertise a 'to thy tents or Israel'!
If you ask me, the situation is like asking comrades of SCAP, Pace setters and co, to leave the Great Ife union alone and enter their sole or united sectarian shells, strategizing amongst themselves to make whatever change because of the diversity of the students union, which like this serve is of course an all-comers thing. And while we are at it, unlike poles rather than repel each other attract each other. Genuine vanguard leadership exists only within a context beyond the vanguard, solely. Of course we must do tings outside this serve, but we must also do things within this serve and the March 21 stand. And if we are to do things as well outside or beyond this serve, it should not be in this sort of manner that presents to those not of us that we are separating our self-righteous selves when actually to all intents and purposes our demonstrated slack is the problem itself! (you could check out CA's response to your earlier posting in this same spirit, for an inkling on the possible demoralizing break of solidarity that such sectarian views and politics could throw up).
There are several platforms if we sincerely want to engage at all or more fronts. LASCO, ANSA...
I must confess that this whole issue leaves me perplexed as I can not but imagine how what one would think is obvious enough from a dialectical approach to theory and politics now seems so obfuscated. Of course though, that is my opinion, and I make bold to state and defend it.
The most important thing in my view is that no matter how much we talk of doing this now or later, if we continue this way we will get no where really fast as we have always been doing for half a century.
I would suggest that we engage what came out of March 21 first before it even makes sense to consider if this serve and that child of it should be discarded! At least it is not the presidential advisers and other 'all-comers' have you put it, that have made it impossible for us to even see the child in the first place before deciding if it is deserving of a name, talk less of giving it a name.
My regards,
Baba Aye
______________________________________________________________________________
From: shina loremikan
Date: Monday, May 11, 2009, 7:25 AM
Thank you our Abiola and ex Union pro.
You and our cc Sec have my vote. The issue is that there is time for everything . In other words there is time for action and inaction. No doubt time is getting more to our side for real action all we need is to get organise more than ever.
We will get there.
______________________________________________________________________________
From: abiola akiyode-afolabi
Date: Sunday, May 10, 2009, 4:44 PM
Dear Otive and Baba Aye,
Otive, I commend you greatly for your commitment to change and I salute your courage and steadfastness! I agree with your position below. You have just put the issues, I raised in my last email in a better perspective.
I propose that while the listserve discussion goes on, we need to plan independently for the transformation/ change,we are talking about, I agree with all what Aye said about past failed efforts, but we need to ask ourselves, why we failed in the past, before we can move forward and see if there are issues we can address or if it is about like minds and unlike minds or unlike poles repelling'?.
We cannot give up on Nigeria, we have no where else to go, so we must make it work.We have all the veterans on this list serve, we need to organise outside of the listserve, we need to do something and we need to do this now!
abiola
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