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

When I saw the title of the piece entitled "Nigeria is a failed state" by one William Bangura, an Honourable Temne man from Sierra Leone, I thought to myself, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread!" I was reminded of this proverb that used to be a signature tune/ jingle on Radio Rivers 2 FM Stereo: " Man wae put  im hand inside where crocodile dae feast , dae look for trouble – palaver -  ee go get am!"

 I'm sure that  Sir William was  not wholly unaware  of the risks to be incurred  and that on the whole Nigerians and those who are very closely affiliated or related to Nigeria  could take offence  at such criticism and  that despite his credentials  as a  brave Temne warrior it could still be unwise of him to be so outright and stark in his criticism of Nigeria – the sleeping lion of Africa,  in a Nigerian- dominated forum. 

After all,  he must be aware of the Krio folk tale about how the baboon lost his tail ( When there was flood down here on earth, the eagle ( probably a Nigerian eagle) was  giving Mr. Baboon a lift –Baboon was hanging for dear life,  under Lord Eagle's powerful wings, but after a few days  up there in the air, Mr. Baboon started complaining that Lord Eagle's armpit  was smelling something terrible  - at which point,  Lord Eagle thought that it was time to teach the ingrate a lesson, and so let him drop ------all all all all the way  down, back to earth where the waters had considerably receded, and most unfortunately for Mr. Baboon who once upon a time had a tail that was longer than Mr. Monkey's, Mr. Baboon  - tail and all landed on the peak of a high mountain made of iron-stone and at the point of impact his tail was completely severed from his behind.  I'm sure Brer Bangura knows the song that begins, "Draw chain, draw chain, draw chain Babu draw chain"

He probably thought that he could get away with it by  prefacing what he had to say  with this cautionary  introduction :"Being a Pan Africanist I empathize with the families whose daughters have been kidnapped,,," etc  being a Pan-Africanist meaning, " We are all Africans"– but that doesn't work in Jamaica either, so it's obvious that  Sir William does not know that the Nigerians are like the Jahmaicans: the Jamaicans can levy all kinds of criticism of Jamaica, but that kind of irie privilege is not extended to non-Jamaican nationals – and even if they start the criticism,  it is ill-advised  that you join  the chorus, especially if you are from one of the smaller Caribbean islands, referred to by Jamaicans as " smallies" . I guess that from Mighty Nigeria's point of view, Sierra Leone is a smallie - and as I was telling my best Sierra Leonean friend here in Sweden the other day, when he told me that from 1^st January 2015 – all the ex- British West African colonies of ECOWAS  will be using the ECO currency, - I could only groaned, " Then Nigeria is going to buy us all up"...

If only Professor Soyinka had listed all the criteria and concrete details that qualify any state great or small, for the title of "failed state" but had not mentioned any country in particular then he would not be on the receiving end of the stick that's now being wielded by the ultra- nationalists who say that the holiness (by whatever definition) the pride and dignity of Nigeria is in inviolable and Nigeria cannot be relegated to failure, by word of mouth or pen alone. Here's a partial list: Failed states list 2014

I should just like to add that President Goodluck Jonathan is probably in the same position as President  Ahmad Tejan Kabbah  at the point when Amnesty International, Human Rights watch  and many other international organisations and  all sorts of  Governments had begged Alhaji Kabbah to stay the execution of 24 army officers -  a reliable source says that  President Kabbah was considering giving in to the world's appeal but the ECOMORG leaders had told him that if he did, they would leave  Sierra Leone and he would have to fight on his own. In a similar manner it's possible that President Goodluck Jonathan on the principle that half a loaf is better than no bread, could be considering the exchange of some Boko Haram prisoners for some of the kidnapped girls (those that their right hands possess) but the army has other ideas....

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....@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

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsub...@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.