Baba Aye's

"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 ...

Dear ATL, You could be right about the duality of possible uses of nationalism as an ideology. This is one reason why strictly nationalism or patriotism as ideologies can hardly ever lead to lasting social transformation. I have argued earlier on nationalism itself that without radical 'nationalists' coming to terms with the truism in Malcolm X's assertion that there really are two nations in each 'nation' (that of the masters and that of the enslaved; that of exploiter rich and that of the exploited poor; that of the minority elites and that of the immense majority of dispossessed) strategies they propose would always be deficient. It is in this light for example on a 'black nationalist' note for example that while I am pan-Africanist, I do not stand for an 'I am black and proud' unity of Africa and while I do stand for a new Nigeria, I have no illusion that it would be the same Nigeria an Abacha or Obasanjo had as their visions. I must also say, wi...

My dear Baba-Aye, I thank you for felicitating with me on this very important moment in my life. As is customary with our people, "ire akari"....The joy will spread around. I am greatly tempted to break my earlier promise in order to 'shed' more light on a few things, especially my position on the need for REVOLUTION in the land - which i hold tenaciously to as the panacea for the myriads of pervasive misgovernance and subterfuge in the Nation state- but i will NOT. NOT for wanting to abandon a lively debate and by extension, an opportunity to expand the rich discourse of charting a course for a progressive Nigeria, but I strongly believe as you do that this debate and many others(in the past) must be surbodinated to the more needful convergence of revolutionary ideas for a trully great Nation. Undoubtedly, i admire your doggedness and clarity of thought which are essential ingredients for inspiring others. Fare thee well, brother. Ol...

Dear Kenobi, Yes, action is good, in fact all turenchi without action would make pako eleja a dead end. But I would suggest we avoid the approach of the tortoise who had been in deep shit for two months and when being pulled out screamed 'hurry, hurry, this place stinks'. I do not think whoever has not tired over the last two months would tire now. The discussions of the 56, the earlier, submissions, by the first triumvirate, Chinedum, TA, Eugene, me, and even what you have put together below and any input from any other member of the serve as well, I would propose be taken into consideration by the Working Paper drafting committee as it commences its deliberations over the weekend. Personally, I would agree that the role of the NCNC in the struggle for our independence as a nation can not but be commended. The August 26, 1944 Glover Hall Conference summoned by the first organised generation of Great Nigerian students which gave birth to the NCNC (first then as the National C...

I must say above any other thing, I do agree with you, Sam and join you in calling on your two colleagues to join in and put together the Working Paper. You actually occupy the primary baton-changing position having served in the convening triumvirate and now being the only one of the earlier three in this next and immediate phase. With regards to the CDC triumvirate, I must say that, that is another thing entirely. I would have been of the opinion that communiques should be adopted at meetings and taken away by those in attendance. If for any reason, 'i's are to be dotted and 't's to be crossed it should not be more than days after the conference. The longer a communique's issuance is dated from the conference whose resolutions it embodies the more questions of legitimacy, mandate and relevance arise. That haven been said, I see no reason why Hilary and co should not now release it this week. While really, there might be lessons to learn from your excursion into th...