Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - NIGERIA IS A FAILED COUNTRY

Prof., I can understand where you are coming from on this matter, and I do appreciate your concern too. However, not everyone is gifted with optimism, while most of those who have been optimistic in the past may also lose because of unfolding strange events in our dear country.
No matter how patriotic or pan-Africanist we are, or may claim to be, has anyone bothered to know how the parents of not just the missing girls, but also parents and relations of students who were slaughtered and burnt in their hostels feel?? The monstrous killings of students in their hostels took place at least three good times, What became of the cases??  Has anyone stopped to ask what patience or understanding one expects the spouses, parents, children of hundreds of victims of BH's bombings to exercise with a government that does not seem to have an answer or clue to what is going on in our bleeding and bloody country?? A country where government or its agents pay monetary ransoms to sea pirates and kidnappers; yet the security could not track the kidnappers and deal with them as appropriate. A country where its Federal Attorney was murdered right in his bedroom some years back, and till date no trace of the killers?? Have we forgotten that there was supposed to be an imposed curfew where the the over 200 girls were matched out of their hostels, and no security officers sighted them, or their trucks! The security personnel were probably asleep, while our Rome burns!

Our dear country where every house is a glorified Local Government (GLG): must provide its own portable water by borehole, electricity by power generating plant, security by hiring the "megad", and build its own roads too! When it comes to salary and emoluments, our political office holders are quick to make reference to America and Europe, and when it comes to RESPONSIBILITY, then they suddenly realize that they are not comparable. The Boston bombing took America only four days to uncover the culprits. A couple of months back it took America less than 12 hours to set free an American ship and her crew that the Somalian pirates "captured". The American debts may run into trillions of USD but its government is awake to its responsibilities one of which is security for its citizenry. Nigerian government is helpless now because a handful of people including some past rulers had stolen the country silly. Or ask the current and the past governments what they did or do with the huge sums of money voted for defense and security every year since 1979??

My dear Prof., you have every right to feel so patriotic that you become euphemistic in matters of plain, naked truth, no matter how it hurts. But let those who feel otherwise, and who feel that the country Nigeria is a huge JOKE be!

Ademola Dasylva ... feeling very, very sad and angry!

On Thu, May 8, 2014 at 12:01 AM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:

You would think that  the US, a country that is in debt to the tune of  17 trillion dollars, or

the Eurozone,  owing half of that,  would call themselves failed countries but

you don't hear that kind of language from their citizens or analysts.

 

Japan has a debt to GDP  ratio of over 200%. and a nuclear disaster that is unprecedented.

Nobody uses that kind of language in referring to that country. Instead  

Mr Abe Shinzo, the prime minister is globe trotting and basking in the glory of

Japanese nationalism. He is not wallowing in the swamp of self pity.

 

China may be the #1 in the world right now but  in some areas you need a mask

To go outdoors- given the high rate of pollution.

 

Columbia and Mexico have been having a really hard time fighting the drug lords.

Decapitated bodies line the streets of certain towns and villages-from time to time, but

the people and  government fight on. Living in the 21^st century has its challenges.

 

Boko Haram is comprised of   bandits and assassins,

misogynists, religious zealots,  ransom seekers, the dispossessed, mercenaries and refugees

from Libya, Chad and Mali, the rivals of Ahlul Sunna -   and much more-

and these categories are not exhaustive or  mutually

exclusive. The movement also has admirers, members  and supporters of the Taliban, Al-Qaida, al-Shabaab

and AQIM. No small thing.

 

These are the moments for level headed action, encouragement and courage, not despair,

cowardice and taunts.

 

Gloria Emeagwali

 

 

From:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kenneth harrow
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2014 5:40 PM
To:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - NIGERIA IS A FAILED COUNTRY

 

dear all
better not to think of this situation as being unique to nigeria
how many children were kidnapped, turned into sex slaves or child soldiers, for the lord's resistance army. also run by a religious crackpot.
and how many thousands and thousands of children were turned, also, into sex slaves or child soldiers in liberia and sierra leone, during their wars, in the drc, and actually its neighboring states, also during the fighting there? i don't know enough about the fighting in other places, like angola, sudan, or elsewhere, but i bet children were also impressed into the armies, and that girls were not spared.
what happened in nigeria is truly abominable, but not really unique.
what is to be done? i won't make big pronouncements, except to say that i do not believe the nation-state is the ideal political structure of our times. we are set one against the other as "citizens" of states willing to do anything to maintain power, and, increasingly, incapable of securing the safety of its own citizens.
i wish we'd come to agreements, more and more, about how to end abhorrent actions like this abduction and enslavement of these poor girls; adopt them as our own, and commit together to fighting groups that imagine they are justified by committing atrocities
ken

On 5/7/14 5:23 PM, John Mbaku wrote:

This is an unfair and perhaps, ill-informed, characterization of Nigeria and its problems with governance and economic growth and development. Even, highly developed countries with robust and matured institutions are struggling with radical religious groups, which are determined to destroy both people and property. It is true that it is the constitutional duty of a government to protect its citizens and Nigeria is no exception. However, any government, like that of Goodluck Jonathan, that reaches out to others (including governments) to seek assistance in resolving domestic problems, especially those that involve transnational terrorism, should not be mocked. 

 

The most important and critical issue at the moment is the safety and immediate release of these children. This should be the pre-occupation of not only Nigerians and their leaders, but that of all human beings. To use this unfortunate situation as a foundation from which to criticize Nigeria's government for its supposed incompetence is cruel, insensitive, and a disservice to the parents of these missing children.

 

There is no justification for this type of insensitivity! 

 

 

 

On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:

 

 

William Bangura:

 

I do not blame you for this gratuitous diatribe against our Nigeria.  The Yoruba say that when the rain falls, both pigeons and chickens are forced to huddle together.  There is this other (probably more apt) Yoruba idiom of smaller reverses taking advantage of a person when felled (socially?  medically?  economically?)  by giant ones....but let us skip that.

 

And there you have it.

 

 

Bolaji Aluko

 

On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 1:48 PM, william bangura <william.bangura17@gmail.com> wrote:

Being a Pan Africanist I empathize with the families whose daughters have been kidnapped by the Boko Haram whose actions are dastardly and should be condemned by all.

Though most Nigerians love to portray their country as the African "super-power" because of her population and natural resources, it is a failed state which can neither provide security for her citizens nor afford them vertical economic advancement.

After achieving independence in 1960 Nigeria became a republic in 1963. It is inexcusable thatwith her petro-dollars she cannot institute intelligence and security forces to safeguard her citizens and her borders.

There have been aspersions thrown in this forum at the colonialists and imperialists for the problems of the continent, but yesterday President Goodluck Jonathan of the Federal Republic of Nigeriawas on his hands and knees crawling to the British and the Americans to liberate those poor girls who did not demand to be born or reside in a feckless and corrupt country.

 

William Bangura

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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
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Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
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Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & Willard L. Eccles Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow
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michigan state university

department of english

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ph. 517 803 8839

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