Dr. Ndibe uncovers a potentially huge mistake by the Obama administration towards Nigeria

"One hopes that the Obama who went to Accra and spoke eloquently about Nigeria’s leadership crisis has not permitted himself to be led into the contradiction of prescribing IBB as the answer. Or even as a factor in finding the answer to Nigeria’s quagmire."



Is Obama romancing Babangida?

By Okey Ndibe

Last Wednesday, February 10, the Barack Obama administration made a move that’s likely to hurt its credibility among Nigerians. Johnnie Carson, the United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Robin Sanders, the US Ambassador to Nigeria, traveled to Minna to confer with former Nigerian dictator, Ibrahim Babangida, at his hilltop mansion.

That visit was, I suggest, a serious diplomatic gaffe – and one unworthy of the Obama administration.

That neither the American diplomats nor Babangida disclosed the subject of the meeting compounded the gravity of the misstep. For one, it raised speculation that the US government wanted to signal its tacit support for Babangida’s run for the presidency in next year’s elections. At the very least, the parley suggested that Obama’s team regards the retired general as an instrument for solving Nigeria’s myriad, and deep, political crises.

Either goal represents a serious lapse in judgment on the part of the Obama administration.

It would appear that Babangida covets the Nigerian presidency. Four years ago, he and his cohorts orchestrated what was tagged Project 007, implying that the former military head of state considered himself a shoo-in as President Olusegun Obasanjo’s successor. Nigerians, for understandable reasons, were disquieted by the prospect of another IBB presidency. Many heaved a sigh of relief when Obasanjo, for reasons hard to fathom, foiled Babangida’s ambition.

There’s no question: Babangida is one of the most enigmatic figures to have emerged in Nigerian politics. I have always found the man intriguing, but in a sad, even tragic sort of way. In 1986, on the first anniversary of the man’s rule, I wrote a column in the (now defunct) African Guardian in which I likened Babangida’s political style to the dribbling wizardry of Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona. That name, Maradona, stuck on Babangida and has become one of his more famous monikers. Evil genius, I understand, is a tag Babangida adopted. My argument, in baptizing IBB with Maradona in 1986, was that, while the soccer player dribbles in order to create scoring opportunities, Babangida dribbled as an end in itself. There was little or no sense of purpose to his statecraft.

In 1993, Babangida lost power in one of his costly, purposeless gambles. His annulment of the June 12 election, an act of supreme perfidy, precipitated his own political downfall. In characteristic fashion, he euphemized his fall from power as a decision to “step aside.”

Babangida introduced a structural adjustment program (SAP). The economy policy, as the propaganda went, was meant to endow Nigerians with the benefits of a free market economy. When Nigerians complained that the ostensible gains were elusive, Babangida counseled patience. But he and his cohorts were far from willing to be patient. As SAP sapped Nigeria’s poor and widened the blanket of misery, Babangida and his closest friends acquired mansions, private jets, and fat bank accounts. When he was done, IBB boasted a 50-room mansion and dizzying wealth.

Such a man has no business seeking to return to his country’s seat of power. Some of his acolytes have said that Babangida’s mission is to correct the mistakes he made the first time. Remediation is a nice concept, but he need not become president to make amends.

One hopes that the Obama who went to Accra and spoke eloquently about Nigeria’s leadership crisis has not permitted himself to be led into the contradiction of prescribing IBB as the answer. Or even as a factor in finding the answer to Nigeria’s quagmire.

Obama must guard against the Bill Clinton error. Even though former President Clinton is popular in Nigeria, many Nigerians are still appalled by his bizarre statement, in the heydays of Sani Abacha’s self-succession plan, that the US was open to recognizing the bespectacled dictator if he won an election. That statement came at a time when any neophyte knew that Abacha didn’t plan to hold a credible election.

In making such a public show of coddling Babangida, the Obama administration risked being perceived as wishing to forestall the ongoing mobilization of a progressive force to serve as a viable alternative to the grubby, visionless elements who have steered Nigeria to perilous waters.

If Washington doesn’t want to see a cataclysm befall Nigeria, with horrible consequences for Nigerians and the international community, then it must rethink its seeming courtship of the Babangidas of Nigeria.
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Sandy Banks on community-building

Dear friends,

If there is anything that humanity needs more than even sufficient nutrients for our bodies, it is: a sense of community. We just do not have that anywhere. Yet, we can have it.

With the incessant practice of outsiders invading urban neighborhoods and gentrifying homes, starting new businesses, and the like, at the expense of residents who have lived in the aforementioned neighborhoods for generations, it is refreshing to know that there remain places in our country where citizens still care about their communities, as opposed to simply taking the money from greedy “developers” and running away with those proceeds.

However, communities must begin fighting for control of institutions like schools and police departments, so that young people (our future) will have a reason to sustain, instead of destroy our communities.

As a matter of fact, what is currently happening in Haiti can be very useful to both African Americans and Latinos, as long as people like the Clintons, Bushes, and their ilk are not allowed to continue marauding that small island nation.

At any rate, on the link below is a piece by one of North America’s foremost journalists, Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times. Enjoy!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks13-2010feb13,0,4128806,full.column
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National Black Theatre presents Black History Month Play Festival

"COME OUT AND JOIN US TO SEE THIS EXCITING SHOW. MS. RUBIN'S PORTRAYAL OF BILLIE HOLIDAY IS RIVETING. "









COME OUT AND JOIN US TO SEE THIS EXCITING SHOW.
MS. RUBIN'S PORTRAYAL OF BILLIE HOLIDAY IS RIVETING. THIS IS A MUST SEE PERFORMANCE.APPEARING FOR THREE DAYS ONLY AT DR. BARBARA ANN TEER'SNATIONAL BLACK THEATRE, 2031 FIFTH AVE @125 STGET

YOUR TICKETS NOW!!! 212-722-3800


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AN NYC EVENING WITH AVERY BROOKS - Valentine's Day 2010 !!!

"Among Mr. Brooks' musical accomplishments, are the title role in Anthony Davis' opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, the role of Cinque in the opera Tania and Temptations of St. Anthony, directed by Robert Wilson. He performed vocals and narration in the Pushkin Project, by world renowned jazz saxophonist, David Murray..."

When: February 14, 2010
Where: The Algonquin Hotel-Oak Room
59 West 44th Street (5th and 6th Avenues)

Produced By Jill Newman Productions

The Oak Room will present distinguished actor, musician, director, producer and educator, Avery Brooks, in concert Sunday evening February 14, 2010 at 7:30 and 10:30 pm. There is a $75 admission charge plus either a $30 food and beverage minimum or a $63 prix fixe Valentine's Day Dinner
Dinner seating is 7 pm.
Reservations: 212-419- 9331 or bmcgurn@algonquinhotel.com

Among Mr. Brooks' musical accomplishments, are the title role in Anthony Davis' opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, the role of Cinque in the opera Tania and Temptations of St. Anthony, directed by Robert Wilson. He performed vocals and narration in the Pushkin Project, by world renowned jazz saxophonist, David Murray.

In 2006, Brooks was the featured vocalist for the Black Rock Coalition's Tribute to Ray Charles, at Symphony Space. He has performed with Joseph Jarman, Butch Morris, Craig Harris, Lester Bowie, Henry Threadgill, Jon Hendricks, and recorded on James Spaulding's album "Legacy of Duke Ellington."

Mr. Brooks' extensive theatre roles include his recent portrayal of Willy Loman, in Death of A Salesman, the Oedipus Trilogy, and King Lear. He played the title role of Paul Robsen in the Philip Hayes Dean Play "Paul Robeson:, and Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? "

His film credits include American History, X, Fifteen Minutes and The Big Hit. Among the TV documentaries he has narrated are Mandela: A Man of Vision, Marian Anderson: A Passion for Faith and the award-winning The Musical Legacy of Roland Hayes. He starred as Hawk on the Warner Bros./ABC series, A Man Called Hawk, and co-starred as Hawk in Spenser: For Hire. He starred as Captain Sisko, in Paramount Studio's Star Trek series, Deep Space Nine.

For further information contact
Jill Newman Productions
email:http://us.mc1136.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=meszmusic@hotmail.com Read full post

Dr, Ndibe: Anambra Election brings new Hope

"Anambra put itself forward, in my view, as a pivot for the democratic renewal that Nigeria so sorely needs."





"Anambra’s “Verdict 2010” as lesson and revenge "

By Okey Ndibe

Last Saturday, voters in Anambra State came out in impressive numbers to elect a governor. The stakes were extremely high, and the obstacles formidable, but the people of Anambra did themselves great credit. After it was all over, incumbent Governor Peter Obi made history as the first two-term occupant of the Government House. And Anambra put itself forward, in my view, as a pivot for the democratic renewal that Nigeria so sorely needs.

It was a fitting and welcome transformation – a kind of revenge, in fact.

Anambra has been a victim of some of the most tragic and traumatizing schemes in Nigeria’s political history. It’s been a turf for the depraved antics of so-called political godfathers who exploited their connections to the seat of power in Abuja to make the state virtually ungovernable. It’s been run, and ruined, by the human disaster called Chinwoke Mbadinuju. This man, a genius at quoting scripture but less than adept at living it, holds the unflattering distinction of presiding over a year in which the state’s children didn’t go to school – because their striking teachers were not paid.

There was more: the brazen kidnap of former Governor Chris Ngige, a man smuggled into office by the ruling party and then hounded when he refused to surrender the treasury to his sponsors; the three-day spree of arson against public property carried out by thugs who may have been empowered by the highest authority; and the short-lived imposition of Andy Uba as governor.

With this history as background, and Nigeria’s current climate of uncertainty, so much rode on the Anambra election. Local and international pundits, deeply troubled by Nigeria’s penchant for fraudulent elections, tagged Anambra’s Verdict 2010 a veritable window into the shape of general elections to come in 2011. At a December 11, 2009 colloquium convened at Brown University by Professor Chinua Achebe, speaker after speaker was at pains to underscore the point that, as Anambra went last Saturday, so would Nigeria go next year. These speakers, Nigerians and foreigners alike, also warned that the country could ill afford the manipulation of the Anambra election, and may not survive another of the kind of electoral farce we got in 2007.

Bearing this onerous burden, Anambra made Nigerians proud. Anambra, the erstwhile headquarters of anarchy, has become a beacon of democratic hope for all Nigerians.

Last week’s election was, I stress, a truly Nigerian affair. By the same token, it was a triumph for all Nigerians, not just the residents of Anambra. I had never seen a state election that generated as much interest across the spectrum of Nigerians as that of Anambra. It was clear that Nigerians, and in some ways the world, paid attention to the election. It called up the best – the deeply patriotic – in many.

Let me illustrate. I signed up to participate in a project called Anambra Election iReporters. Initiated by Okwy Okeke, an energetic and passionate patriot, the project entailed monitoring the progress of last week’s election by phoning observers right there in the field – and then posting our findings on numerous websites. Mr. Okeke, who holds an MBA and works for a large American corporation, saw the project as one way that we could invest in the cause of credible elections.

Several of us, including Okeke, are from Anambra, but volunteers came from other parts of Nigeria. I rose at the crack of dawn on Saturday and immediately began to make calls to our contacts in Anambra – some of them lawyers sent by the Nigerian Bar Association to observe. What struck me was the number of participants in the exercise, in Anambra as well as abroad, who are not from Anambra. If you ever wondered whether pan-Nigerian collaboration was still viable, perish your doubt. From my small corner, I beheld the cooperative spirit that’s alive among Nigerians when the challenge is to reclaim their badly battered lives and commence the task of mending.

Given Nigeria’s long habituation to scams dressed in the garb of elections, it’s understandable if some are in a hurry to declare the days of rigged elections over. Nothing is farther from the reality. At any rate, to mistake what happened in Anambra as spelling the demise of electoral hanky panky is to both underestimate how impermeable our politicians can be and to risk slipping into complacency.

Complacency is a virus that Nigerians can’t afford now. Vigilance and a state of heightened alert, not a slackening off, are called for. This is a time to consolidate the gains from the Anambra election – and to think about how to vastly improve on them in 2011 and beyond.

We’d do well to remember that as many things went well in the Anambra election as went wrong. Two or three persons called or wrote to me waxing ecstatic about the electoral commission’s conduction. One trumpeted Maurice Iwu, the commission’s chairman, as a born-again champion of credible polls.

Not so fast, I retorted. What transpired in Anambra should not really be regarded as epitomizing superior performance by INEC. Nor should Nigerians hasten to canonize Iwu for overseeing an election in which the voice of the voters was permitted to prevail. Transparently free and fair elections are the right of Nigerians, not a privilege that Iwu may – according to his mood or whims – dole out to us or withhold.

There were indeed heroes in last week’s elections, but Iwu doesn’t make my list of them. In the 21st century, his electoral body failed to produce serialized ballots. Then its voter registers were, for the most part, an anthology of missing names.

The foremost heroes were the voters who, undeterred by past experiences of stolen mandates, came out in droves to vote. The images of determined voters, many of them waiting for hours in the sweltering heat before voting materials were produced, reflected a widening quest by Nigerians to reclaim their country from the calloused hands of its destroyers.

Then there were the troop of monitors, their eyes set on the proceedings, determined to keep everybody – police officers, polling officials, party partisans – honest. And then there were the officials who must have decided not to lend themselves as instruments for would-be riggers.

Some of the governorship candidates ran vibrant campaigns that managed to touch on such urgent matters as security, educational collapse, and festering joblessness. Those of them who agreed to take part and spar in a televised debate also deserve commendation for taking Nigerian politics in a salutary direction.

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Is Sarah Palin a Lousy Comedian or a "Retard"?

"If her vision and grasp of even the most basic issues - with or without cribnotes - were any lighter, you would have to tie a rock to her to keep her from floating away."

Fear friends,

The totally hilarious piece on the link below deserves perusal, if for no other reason than to have a good laugh. . Cheers!
>
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/02/08/2010-02-08_sarah_believe_me_you_have_delusions_of_grandeur.html
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Elmer Smith and Djata Bumpus share some ideas about current Economic Issues

"Bruce pointed out something that I didn’t have space for or the time To confirm. He says that American textile manufacturers have been flocking to Haiti for the past Five to 10 years to produce apparel using workers that they pay less than subsistence wages... "

Dear friends,

We've been hearing from government officials a lot about "stimulus" packages and the whole bit in resurrecting the economy. On the link below, is a piece from Elmer Smith of the Philadelphia Daily News.

Elm and I are longtime and very dear friends - not simply colleagues. Therefore, we frequently share ideas about a variety of social topics. When the aforementioned piece on the link below was published the other day, there were some ideas, because of space consideration, he had to leave out. However, I thought it necessary to share this brief exchange with the readers of this blog, having his permission to do so, of course. After the link, our comments follow.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http: /www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20100202_Elmer_Smith__Tax_credits_won_t_help_small_business_end_the_recession.html
*************************************
From: Djata Bumpus
To: Smith, Elmer L.:
Re: Tax credits won't work...

Yo Bro’,

That’s a very good piece, Elm. You and Bruce both made some great points.

However, an important point that neither you or Crawley mentioned is: We need quality employment that allows people to have an interest in the work that they do and the company itself. A pizza parlor chain owner is just a greedy bastard. Plain and simple. After all, what does it do for the community other than create low-paying jobs and gall stones for the customers? Those are the kind of punks that Wharton deliberately turns out.

We need workers’ cooperatives, for example. They already exist, to a small extent, in some progressive communities.

Another dear friend of mine has one such enterprise that fixes cars. That’s something the community needs – again, NOT PIZZAS.

Cheers!

Djata

RE: Tax credits won't work...‏
From: Smith, Elmer L.
To: Djata Bumpus

The real frontier is to produce what we call “good jobs”; they pay a minimum of $32,000 - which Is what it cost to provide even a modicum of food and shelter and a small savings for a family Of four, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor. That sounds low to me. But when you consider that the greatest job growth is in jobs that pay half that, you can see the dangerous trend and the need for at least that.

Bruce pointed out something that I didn’t have space for or the time To confirm. He says that American textile manufacturers have been flocking to Haiti for the past Five to 10 years to produce apparel using workers that they pay less than subsistence wages. You’re right about Wharton and any number of these “business" schools. But the real culprits for me are guys who are going right from Wharton into major exploitations like the one Bruce describes in Haiti, or in call centers in India and Pakistan and everywhere else where American companies are exporting their manufacturing and even service jobs. It’s ugly out here my brother.

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Book review by Dr. Okey Ndibe

"This is the way that a book review is supposed to be written."

Dear friends,

On the link below is a very concise review of the great Chinua Achebe's brandnew work called The Education of a British-Protected Child

I remember, back in the mid-Nineties, about a book review that I had written. the response by Dr. Ndibe who at the time was the Editor-inchief for the, unfortunately, now-defunct African World, an international magazine that was the literary descendant of Chinua Achebe's groundbreaking publication series called Pan-African Commentary. Ndibe commented, "This is the way that a review is supposed to be written." I now must reciprocate. Enjoy!

G Djata Bumpus
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7664f670-06e0-11df-b058-00144feabdc0.html
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Jen Armstrong says, "Watch out cheaters!"

"The days of a woman's accepting a scarlet letter and slinking away in shame from her married lover are over."



Dear friends,

The recent high-profile break-ip of President Obama's buddy and ecpmnomic adviser, Charles Phillips, has drawn some attention due to the very public display of anger by the jilted lover.

On the link below, as usual, Philadelphia's 2009 Print Journalist of the Year, the always onpoint Jen Armstrong shares some ideas with us about this whole fiasco. Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/features/20100126_Jenice_Armstrong__Watch_out__cheaters.html
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Dr. Ndibe on upcoming Nigerian elections

"If the Anambra election can be manipulated with little or no resistance, then 2011 will similarly be a rigger’s bonanza."

Anambra and Nigeria’s burden

By Okey Ndibe
(okeyndibe@gmail.com)

In eleven days – February 6 – Anambra voters will go to the polls to (attempt to) elect the state’s governor for the next four years. They have a full field of candidates to choose from, and they certainly have a hard task discerning the wheat from the chaff.

The election, by every measure, is a profoundly significant contest. There’s no question in my mind that Nigeria’s deeply entrenched anti-democratic forces will seek, yet again, to thwart the popular will. Will they succeed in their sick mission? Will Nigerians awake on February 7 to realize that the hijackers of power had plied their trade once again, and imposed a candidate the people did not elect? And if so, what are the likely consequences?

My opening sentence speaks, advisedly, about the electorate “attempting” to elect a new governor. Nigeria’s electoral history has been marked by such honest attempts marred by massive rigging abetted by the police, security agents and electoral officials. That practice has brought Nigeria’s by-name-only democracy to the brink of utter collapse. Time and time again, voters’ efforts to hold up their part of the bargain by going – under rain or shine – to cast votes have been sabotaged by those who prefer stealing power to licitly earning it.

Are there any grounds, speaking objectively, to expect that things would be different in Anambra this time around?

The answer is yes and no.

Let’s dwell, first, on the yes. Umaru Yar’Adua’s apparent incapacitation and likely absence from the country strike me as holding out hope for a credible election in Anambra. Despite his posturing as an agent of electoral reform, Mr. Yar’Adua has earned a reputation as a ruthless, shameless apostle of hijacked elections.

His record as far as electoral probity is concerned is, to be sure, a wretched one. Yes, he’s talked electoral reform, as he’s talked “rule of law,” but he’s been a hypocrite on both issues. In fact, it’s impossible to reconcile his words and his actions on the two fronts.

A comatose steward at Aso Rock, Mr. Yar’Adua has been content to slumber at moments of national crises that called for stellar leadership. But he’s woken up and risen to every partisan occasion when his party sought to re-steal a governorship election – in such places as Kogi, Adamawa, and Ekiti.

It is no secret that Mr. Yar’Adua and his wife, Turai, played key roles in the still questionable decision to hand the PDP’s governorship ticket to Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the immediate past governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Were Yar’Adua in operation, there’s no question he’d try to put pressure on the malleable leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to call the election for Mr. Soludo, regardless of how the people of Anambra think about the matter.

The subtraction of the Yar’Adua factor and threat bodes well for the Anambra election. Goodluck Jonathan, Yar’Adua’s deputy, is in a too precarious position to mount decisive on the electoral body. And without strong covert pressure being brought to bear on INEC, it’s unlikely that the Nigerian police as well as other security agents and the military would be marshaled to choreograph the election for the PDP candidate.

In effect, Mr. Soludo must strive to win on his own steam.


Nigerians are aware, as never before, of the cost of letting politicians (and especially mediocre, unscrupulous ones) to usurp power. Since Anambra will give us the best preview of the shape of elections to come in 2011, one foresees less tolerance of rigged elections.

Incidentally, the fear is that – precisely because the stakes are so high, not only for Anambra but also for Nigeria as a whole – the merchants of stolen mandates will make heavy investments in Anambra. If the Anambra election can be manipulated with little or no resistance, then 2011 will similarly be a rigger’s bonanza.
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Elmer Smith on Haitian "looters" and Baby Doc

"Even more outrageous is the idea that a police force in a town with no real law will shoot to kill to protect property from starving people. "


Dear friends,

With television images of the "looting" going on in Haiti, it's easy to miss the real looters of that small island nation who now are pretending to be "donors".

On the link below, my dear friend and brother Elmer Smith of the Philadelphia Daily News delivers a brilliant analysis that reminds us of the real thieves in this whole miserable scenario. Check it out!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20100122_Elmer_Smith__There_are__quot_looters_quot__-_and_then_there_s_Baby_Doc.html
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What about Haitian "economic development"?

"Genuine economic development is human. In others words, it is not the amount of trinkets and baubles that people produce or even the dollars that they earn that represents growth."

Dear friends,

I saw the article on the link below on a friend's Facebook post. The article was written by Nicholas Kristof, a veteran columnist of the New York Times. Kristof concentrates his work on non-Europeans; I guess because he thinks that he knows what's best for us.

Nevertheless, the aforementioned article is vintage Nicholas Kristof. His answer to Haitian economic development is to create a bunch of sweatshops. This, of course, came after he hinted at the historical exploitation of Haitians, beginning with the French.

Genuine economic development is human. In others words, it is not the amount of trinkets and baubles that people produce or even the dollars that they earn that represents growth. Rather, it is the ability for people to socially reproduce themselves, as a population group, through time, choosing their own direction in life, on their own terms.

Moreover, it’s people like Kristof who argue that slavery was actually good for Africans. Still, we have sweatshops right here in this country. What kind of future lies ahead for those caught up in that cycle of poverty and despair? After all, the people who own the sweatshops and so forth also own the politicians. Let’s keep it real.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/opinion/21kristof.html
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Danny Glover interviewed about Haiti

"Is the militarization of this earthquake relief effort all about 'security', as I heard one retired US Army general explain on televiion? Let's look down the road as well., while the world is engaged in cleaning up this severely stricken island nation"

Dear friends,

Is the militarization of this earthquake relief effort all about "security", as I heard one retired US Army general explain on televiion? Let's look down the road as well., while the world is engaged in cleaning up this severely stricken nation.

After receiving an e-mail about the prorressive activism of many Americans both here and on the island nation of Haiti, I thought that I should share it on this blog. The 15 minutes-long video on the link below shows the hard-working artist/activist Danny Glover getting some things done. Please check it out!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/19/actor_and_activist_danny_glover_on
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Elm Smith gives us a personal view of Haiti as a veteran journalist

This was Port au Prince before the earthquake of 2010, before the hurricanes of 2008, just after the unintended cruelty of a U.S.-backed embargo helped to starve thousands of Haitians for their own good."

Dear friends,

On the link below, the incomparable Elmer Smith of the Philadelphia Daily News puts this whole Haitian disaster in perspective, based upon his personal experience with a land that has been afflicted by both social and natural turmoil countless times. What's next?

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/elmer_smith/20100115_Elmer_Smith__Only_latest_disaster_for_poor_Haiti.html
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Dr. Ndibe Shows Connection between Nigeria and Haiti through History

"In a move that did great credit to its revolutionary credentials, Haiti became the first nation in the world to recognize the legitimacy of the Biafran cause – and to extend diplomatic recognition to the embattled Biafrans. "



"Haiti’s tragedy, Biafran memories"

by Okey Ndibe

Exactly a week ago, Haiti was struck by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that reduced much of that misfortunate nation to a colossal ruin. The quake’s epicenter was a mere 16 miles offshore on the western side of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s heavily populated capital.

Earthquakes are hardly ever innocuous; but this one was particularly catastrophic. Its proximity to the capital – home to more than three million people – proved disastrous. As I write, Haitian authorities were estimating that 140,000 had perished from the devastating quake. That toll is, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rightly stated, is of biblical proportions. The prognosis is even more dreadful. Some experts predict that many of the tens of thousands officially listed as missing, as well as many of the critically wounded, will explode the casualty figures.

To see the horror of Haiti is to come to terms to a modern-day apocalypse. For me, it was especially harrowing to look at images of children and the elderly with mangled limbs, gashed heads and swollen faces.

When a natural tragedy strikes on this scale, it’s almost as if the living, in their forlorn despair, begrudge the dead the joys of a grave. Except that most of the Haitian dead were not buried, but abandoned on the streets. I was brought to tears when television cameras panned streets strewn with decomposing bodies. Nigerians have fashioned a unique obituary style where each deceased person is “called to heavenly glory.” Glory was not a word that came to mind when one saw the cadavers that littered the streets of Port-au-Prince.

And yet, Haitians, who in 1804 became the first black-run nation ever to achieve independence, have a lot of glory in their past. Two figures from their revolutionary history, Toussaint l’Ouverture and Jean Jacques Dessalines, are venerable heroes not only for Haitians but also for all people of African descent. These two warriors took on and ultimately vanquished the better-armed forces of Napoleonic France. Though Toussaint was tricked by the French, captured, and transported to France where he died in 1803, his collaborator, Jacque Dessalines, lived to become Haiti’s first leader.

Thanks in large part to meddling by France and, more recently, the US, Haiti has fallen short of its revolutionary aspirations. The American media habitually announce, with something approaching glee, that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Haitians are a much-beleaguered people. Eighty percent of the populace lives on less than $2 a day. In recent times, the island nation has been buffeted by hurricanes and widespread hunger that forced desperate people to eat mud.

That specter will become worse in the aftermath of the earthquake. About ten percent of the homes in Port-au-Prince, a hilly city with wide swathes of ghettoes, were destroyed by the quake and its aftershocks. That means that more than 300,000 inhabitants face the grim certainty of prolonged homelessness in a city whose infrastructure, rudimentary to begin with, is now decimated.

It’s in the nature of natural disasters to be blind in their fury and destruction. This earthquake did not discriminate between rich and poor, old and young, the powerful and the feeble. It shook the Presidential palace to its foundations and leveled the Parliament. The offices of the United Nations were wrecked, more than twenty members of the organization’s staff were confirmed dead, and (at the time of this writing) scores more were still trapped in a pile of rubble. Hotels, churches, and hospitals were also laid to ruin.

With a calamity that touched every sector, the task of providing medical care to the legions of the wounded and getting food to the displaced, drifting masses was bound to be difficult. Even though the US, China, Canada and a plethora of relief agencies responded quickly with shipment of food, water and medicines, Haiti’s battered roads frustrated efforts to immediately reach the victims of the earthquake. Four days after the quake, the vast majority of Haitians were yet to receive succor. Doubtless, many of the dead would have survived had help got to them sooner.

A tragic occurrence like an earthquake offers a measure both of our human fickleness and vulnerability as well as our heroism, staying power, and resilience. The Haitian people, great in the past, will – there’s no question – find a way to rise from their current nightmare.

The earthquake is an opportunity for other peoples and nations to demonstrate the depth of their fellow feeling and generosity – and to offer a hand to their besieged Haitian brethren. Many nations and individuals rose, admirably, to the challenge.

Sadly, to one’s profound shame, the Nigerian government failed to stir much less show continental leadership in the face of Haiti’s peril. Nigeria’s invisibility during the darkest time for the people of Haiti betrays a monumental lack of a sense of history among those running (that is to say, more aptly, ruining) the country.

Last week, author Chinua Achebe issued a statement that must have been a veiled rebuke as well as a cry from the heart. He pleaded with Nigeria and South Africa “to more vigorously join the international community – particularly the remarkable and admirable example of the United States and the European Union – and provide much needed funds and other forms of aid to the people of Haiti for disaster relief.”

Achebe’s plea has a particular resonance at this time, the 40th anniversary of the formal end of the Biafran war. In a move that did great credit to its revolutionary credentials, Haiti became the first nation in the world to recognize the legitimacy of the Biafran cause – and to extend diplomatic recognition to the embattled Biafrans.

With the Nigerian idea in disarray, that Haitian position strikes one today as highly discerned. A Nigerian that doesn’t respond to the travail of the Haitian people is a construct of fundamental questioning.
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20 minutes-long video of Randall Robinson interview on Haitian Situation

"George Bush ordered the invasion of the sovereign nation of Haiti, in 2004. The duly-elected president and his wife were taken from their home and forcibly brought to another country (South Africa) - not allowing them to return, even to this day."

Dear friends,

The 20 minutes-long video on the link below is a brilliant assessment of what the disaster that just occurred in Haiti means for the future of a people that have been subjected to alien marauders, ever since they freed themselves from slavery by the French in 1804 , all the way up to modern times.

Worse yet, George Bush ordered the invasion of the sovereign nation of Haiti, in 2004. The duly-elected president and his wife were taken from their home and forcibly brought to another country (South Africa) - not allowing them to return, even to this day. With the whole world watching, will the Obama administration finally end this oppression and exploitation?

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/15/bush_was_responsible_for_destroying_haitian
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More on US attacks against Haiti's democractically-elected Government

http://www.haitiaction.net/HFTH/hfth1.html
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"Teddy Bear" Passes

"Back in those days, the ladies called him "Teddy Bear", as he held "women only" concerts, across the country, where many in the audiences took off their panties and threw them at him while he sang on stage.”




Dear friends,

Philadelphia is known for many things, both great and far-from-great. However, few places can boast of the music legends who have either come from or through that town. Teddy Pendergrass was a Philadelphia legend. He lived and died that way.

During the early-Eighties, Teddy's former employer the late Harold Melvin and myself were buddies. Of course, this was long after Pendergrass had established Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes as a premier R & B group.

In any case, I remember those days during and after the senseless "accident" that caused Teddy to briefly disappear from the music scene.

Initially, it was forecast that he wouldn't live very long. As fate would have it, I can only imagine that medical professionals were pleasantly surprised that he showed them to be wrong. Meanwhile, and unfortunately, for some time now, Philadelphia has had the highest incidence of cancer amongst its citizenry than any of the other large cities in our country. That's what got Teddy colon cancer - not complications from the auto accident that he was in over 25 years ago. And so goes one of his hits with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, "Bad Luck".

On the link below is a short chronology of his life. Back in those days, the ladies called him "Teddy Bear", as he held "women only" concerts, across the country, where many in the audiences took off their panties and threw them at him as he sang on stage. He was "The Man" in those days, for sure.

So long! - “Teddy Bear”.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20100114_Singer_Teddy_Pendergrass_dies_at_59.html

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Dr. Ndibe says, "Obama wrong on Nigeria"

"The title of this column, which sets out to make a subtle differentiation between Nigeria and Nigerians, is carefully chosen..."





"Obama wrong on Nigerians"

By Okey Ndibe

The title of this column, which sets out to make a subtle differentiation between Nigeria and Nigerians, is carefully chosen.

President Barack Obama has every reason to be dismayed with the Nigerian state, and specifically with the misbegotten lot who pass for the country’s leadership. Nobody is more ashamed of the mediocrities presiding over Nigeria’s affairs than enlightened Nigerians. The absence of even a credible pretence to a legitimate leadership in Abuja is a source of embarrassment and great pain for Nigerians. The Nigerian daily, Next, scooped last week that Umaru Yar’Adua, who has occupied space in Aso Rock since May, 2007, was brain dead. A brain dead “leader” pretty much sums up Nigeria’s tragic story.

Nigeria’s leadership gap must gall the first person of African descent to occupy the US presidency. And especially at a time when the US just managed, by sheer luck verging on a miracle, to escape a heinous plot orchestrated to inflict maximum psychological damage on Americans and the world. Had Farouk Abdulmuttalab and his al Qaeda sponsors realized their dastardly designs, they would have sent tremors down the spine of America and its allies around the world.

President Obama stood to pay a huge political price if the Delta flight had exploded over Detroit, as the foiled bomber had planned. A calamity on that colossal scale would have poured fuel into extreme rightwing charges – anchored by former Vice President Dick Cheney – that Obama was not only unserious about combating terrorism, but was, in fact, cozying up to rabid groups out to destroy America.

To his credit, Obama recognizes that the war against terrorists is far more complex than the George W. Bush crowd allowed. Obama has steered the war away from the Bush mindset that often came close to pillorying Islam – and which emphasized extravagant displays of firepower.

For all its pyrotechnic moments, the Bush approach made little progress in its mission to cripple terrorists. In some ways, in fact, Bush’s anti-terrorism doctrine, with its binary focus, its us-versus-them template may well have fertilized al Qaeda’s radicalization and recruitment of otherwise moderate, educated and liberal Muslims.

Obama was right to chart a different course. Far from abandoning the option of force, he merely rejected the abuse of that response. He reckoned that force ought not to be deployed where diplomacy had better prospects to promote dialogue and establish a sense of shared values or common interests.

My fear is that, in the wake of the aborted bombing by Abdulmuttalab, the Obama administration has moved too hastily to tar Nigerians. If there was an occasion when the sins of one depraved young Nigerian should not be visited on other Nigerians, this was it.

One point has been made again and again, but it bears belaboring. Abdulmuttalab’s odyssey as a terrorist had very little, if anything, to do with Nigeria. By all accounts, he fell under al Qaeda’s spell in the UK and was trained and equipped for his deadly mission in Yemen. Nigeria came into the picture of his plot at all only because he passed through a Nigerian airport en route.

And here’s another fact to consider: the moment the young terrorist’s father got an inkling that his son had fallen among zealots intent on wreaking havoc on the US, the man told US authorities what he knew. That the young man was able to board a US-bound flight sporting his lethal underwear bespeaks a profound failure on the part of an extensive network of US intelligence.

Obama has admitted that American intelligence did worse than fumble the ball; it did not even come close to having its eye on the ball. Even so, President Obama has balked at suggestions that he fire one or more custodians of intelligence. His argument is that the failure was a systemic one, not a matter of personnel laxity.

Perhaps that’s the right call. But it’s baffling that an Obama who has chosen to be magnanimous towards inept officers and intelligence agencies has signed off on a policy that amounts to grave injustice to Nigerians. Everything considered, there’s neither logic nor justice in portraying Nigeria as an address to watch for terrorists when Britain and Saudi Arabia are not on the list.

Shock, disgust and disbelief defined Nigerians’ collective reaction on learning that Farouk Abdulmuttalab, the would-be Christmas day bomber, was a Nigerian. Until the enterprising saharareporters.com produced the first photo of Farouk, and identified his father, many Nigerians were certain that he was an impostor who had somehow traveled under the cover of a Nigerian passport.

Nigeria has had a long and ugly history of outbreaks of religious violence – on the domestic front. Adherents of some extremist or fringe Islamic group often trigger these sprees of sectarian bloodletting by launching unprovoked attacks on Christians and other perceived “infidels.”

On the whole, the Nigerian state has a shameful record of confronting these homegrown zealots. It has often deployed mere words of warning, even exhortations of moderation, to these bloodhounds. It’s hardly come down hard on these killers in God’s name, nor has it mounted serious prosecution of arrested fanatical thugs. Official apathy to episodes of religious mayhem has served to encourage their recurrence.

In fact, the frequency and gruesomeness of such attacks seemed to wane only when the victims, figuring out that the Nigerian government lacked the will and muscle to protect them, learned to arm themselves and repel their assailants.

If Nigerians pose any serious threat to Americans, it’s likely to be Americans visiting Nigeria. A Nigerian transporting mass violence to America is extremely rare.

That’s why Nigerians regard Abdulmuttalab, rightly, as both a fluke and a “non-Nigerian” threat. He’s Nigerian by birth, sure. But he is, fundamentally, a hired-in-Britain, trained-in-Yemen al Qaeda operative. Nigeria had little or no role in his logistical preparation for the mission of death he undertook. He does not in any way represent an emerging trend in Nigeria. One concurs with the conclusion of a friend who speculated that, had Farouk lived in Nigeria, he might have menaced Nigerian “unbelievers,” but he would never have taken up explosives against the US.

Perhaps, as some Nigerians suspect, the Obama administration has chosen to exploit the terrifying circumstances of December 25 as an opportunity to further underscore Nigeria’s pariah status. If that’s the idea, it’s a sad mistake and the timing is atrocious.

Nigerians would welcome it if Obama toughened his administration’s stance against the imposed government of Mr. Umaru Yar’Adua. It’s a different matter when the US imposes strictures that compound the travails of innocent Nigerians.

The designation of Nigeria as a garden of terror could not have come at a worse moment. Nigeria is in the midst of a crisis never seen in its history – the absolute disappearance of a man who presumes to be the country’s “president.” And then there’s his cohorts’ insistence on using his name to hijack and monopolize.

As the power game plays out, nobody has bothered to address a nation-wide fuel scarcity that’s crippled the country. Nobody is doing a thing about ever worsening power failures. The parasites exploiting Nigeria are too comfortable to care.

Obama’s policy is ill-advised. It consigns Nigerians to the undeserved category of terrorists, and places the onus on every Nigerian to prove otherwise. He would do better to review that policy in a manner that recognizes that there’s a veritable chasm between Nigeria’s “leaders” and its people.

By all means, America should officially declare those who are running Nigeria aground as terrorists, but it should spare the vast majority of Nigerians who have nothing in common with Abdulmuttalab.
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Latest News about Dr. Barbara Teer's National Black Theatre Events Jan 14th & 20th, 2010

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A 6' 10" tall female teenager from Jamaica

Check this out!!!

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6069464n
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The Detroit Bodysnatcher - a short video

"Apart from showing that those who do both the hardest and most of the work receive the least compensation, it also points to one of those important jobs that many of us may prefer not to do. However, imagine if no one did it..."

Dear friends,

As the new year begins, and while folks are trying to commit themselves to a variety of "resolutions", please remember that we should be grateful to be able to feed ourselves without having to beg or steal for our nutrients.

At any rate, on the link below is a short video from the New York Times online edition. Apart from showing that those who do both the hardest and most of the work receive the least compensation, it also points to one of those important jobs that many of us may prefer not to do. However, imagine if no one did it.

Happy New Year!!!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2006/08/25/us/1194817103426/chat-with-a-detroit-corpse-collector.html
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Dr. Ndibe on the Recent Arrest of a Nigerian "Terrorist"

"Nigerians received a bizarre Christmas gift Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, a 23-year old man from a privileged background, tried to pull off what could have been the bloodiest suicide bombing in the US since September 11, 2001..."

"Nigeria’s terrorism notoriety"
by Okey Ndibe

Nigerians received a bizarre Christmas gift Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, a 23-year old man from a privileged background, tried to pull off what could have been the bloodiest suicide bombing in the US since September 11, 2001. Umar Mutallab had planned to detonate explosives strapped to his body in order to bring down Northwest Airline Flight 253 as the jet neared its destination in Detroit, Michigan.

Had his gory plan succeeded, Umar – an engineering student at the University of London and son of Umaru Abdul Mutallab, the just-retired chairman of First Bank of Nigeria – would have unleashed mayhem and terror not only on Americans but the world as a whole. Thanks to vigilant passengers who wasted no time in pouncing on him the moment they heard popping sounds, this bone-chilling disaster was averted.

Even so, this sickening plot by a sick child of privilege has become an instant disaster for Nigerians everywhere, but especially those who live or frequently travel abroad.

Fair or not (and there’s a lot of argument to be made on both sides), Nigeria is portrayed in the foreign media as one of the great centers of corruption and scams. Despite a well-established history of religious fanaticism that spills out, intermittently, into orgies of killing in Allah’s name, Nigeria somehow managed to escape being baptized a haven of religion-induced terrorism.

Until, that is, last Friday when Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab imprinted the name of Nigeria on the global consciousness as an address where terrorists teem. Through his depraved bombing plot, this young man has smudged the image of millions of tolerant Nigerian Muslims in the eyes of the world. In fact, he’s given all Nigerians a notoriety they can ill afford.

Nigerians who travel, or live abroad – especially in Europe, Asia and North America – will bear the brunt of this dangerous new perception. In a post 9/11 world where the lines between vigilance and hysteria are often blurred, to be identified as sharing citizenship with a young man who tried to incinerate a plane mid-air can mean great ordeal.

Throughout last week, I received calls from Nigerians living in the US, the UK, or Europe. In each caller’s tone was a touch of dread. Some wondered what Abdul Mutallab’s crazed design meant for the future of Nigeria, a country already prostrate. Others were more concerned about how the aborted drama of a bloody bombing would reshape their lives.

One friend, a professor at a top American university, told me about the traveling trials of a colleague of his, a professor of Sudanese nationality. On numerous occasions, the Sudanese scholar has been taken off flights, or prevented from boarding one – all on account of the man’s “Islamic” name and the Sudan’s reputation as a grooming ground for al Qaeda terrorists. Another friend, a young executive at a major American financial services company, related the experience of a colleague of his, an Egyptian-American. He said that when he and his colleague traveled together, the Egyptian-American was frequently subjected to exacting, even intrusive, searches and exhaustive questioning.

Travelers who carry the Nigerian passport know that they can count on a certain level of scrutiny and hostility at foreign airports. Who needs the added aggravation of being regarded as a terrorist – until you prove otherwise?

In the 1990s, at the height of 419 scams and other forms of schemes targeted at banks and gullible individuals, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued alerts warning American financial institutions to be wary of hiring Nigerians. Such directives took a toll on the career aspirations of many highly qualified Nigerian professionals in the US who were turned back from jobs the moment their passport gave them away. Many Nigerians who were working for financial corporations were subjected to surveillance that presumed them to be criminals – or, at least, crime-minded.

All that travail would pale to insignificance compared to the price Nigerians resident abroad stand to pay if – God forbid – the impression takes root that their country is a fertile soil for rabid zealots willing to inflict mass-murder and other forms of mayhem on “infidels.”

How exactly did we get here?

One answer, of course, is that al Qaeda is a global scourge, with cells embedded not only in Islamic nations but also in such liberal democracies as Britain, Denmark, Canada and the United States of America. In that sense, then, there’s nothing really extraordinary that a Nigerian had stepped up to play his hideous part in a tragic plot.

But there’s also a sense in which Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab’s emergence is the culmination of years of official nonchalance towards the phenomenon of domestic religious violence. Tens of thousands of Nigerians have perished in outbreaks of sectarian violence often instigated by members of some fringe Islamic group or another. It’s depraved, but not altogether unexpected, that zealots would from sometimes arise in a frenzied spree, fueled by a hunger to massacre non-believers in the name of their deity. But what’s even weirder is that the government – whose primary mandate ought to be the protection of lives and property – habitually indulges the slaughterers. On numerous occasions, the Nigerian police and army elected to snore away as fiends killed and destroyed in the name of “God.” Few, if any, of those murderers were ever prosecuted, much convicted.

The Nigerian state, in permitting sanctimonious fanatics to get away with their cruel sport, helped create Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. In the end, the difference between domestic religious terrorism and its exportation is only a plane trip away.

Dora Akunyili, Umaru Yar’Adua’s “rebrand” guru, once disparaged Nigerians resident abroad for tarring their country’s image through excessive criticism. Akunyili should know better, but those were the early days of her commission – and she was, it seemed, desperate to convince her paymasters that she was equal to the magic, not of clearing out shit, but applying deodorant on it.

Akunyili’s barbs at foreign-based Nigerians sought to create a false dichotomy. She implied that some Nigerians – the homebound ones – view their country more positively than the disconnected “exiles.” The truth, and she knows it, is that there are indeed two groups of Nigerians, but not along the lines she suggested. There are those – the vast majority – who are dismayed by their country’s missed opportunities and derailed promises. And then, there are others – a tiny group – who profess to love Nigeria exactly the way it is.

Whether one is located abroad or at home has nothing to do with one’s response to Nigeria. Interest is everything. Nigerians are like people everywhere else: they want a decent country where they can live as humans, secure in their lives and property. But there are the few, leeches and parasites whose appetites are as huge as their minds and consciences are miniscule, who take callous pleasure in a dysfunctional Nigeria. For them, dysfunction is a necessary condition for the kind of primitive accumulation in which they thrive.

Once the majority awakes to the fact of its numerical superiority – and, from the way things are shaping up in the country, that’s bound to happen sooner than later – then they will stand up and reclaim their country from the calloused hands of the few manufacturers of misery and death in our midst. That’s one way to ensure that the Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab and his ilk don’t define the rest of us.
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Percy Sutton Dies at 89 years-old, on December 26, 2009

http://washingtondcjazznetwork.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2645717:BlogPost:28754&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_post
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National Black Theatre Event in NYC on Friday, Dec. 18th

National Black Theatre's Communication Arts Program presents An Introduction "Kahuna in the 21st Century" this FRIDAY December 18th‏
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Elmer Smith on the Employment Summit

"If big financial institutions needed a TARP, American workers need a tourniquet..."

Dear friends,

On th elink below you will find a piece by the pro;ific writer/thinker Elmer Smith of the Philadelphia Daily News.

An interesting comment from one of the people he interviewed in doing this report says, " 'We should be putting people to work in public jobs programs designed to help communities by repairing rusting infrastructure,' Dodds said. 'In the '70s, we put 4,000 to 5,000 people to work in this region in the CETA program. It's time to do that again.' "

None of the politicians or economists seem to get it. That is, make-work jobs are short-lived patch work operations that hide the real problem: people need to start developing their own communities, so that they can create their own livelihoods and not have to depend upon either the government or huge corporations. In order to do that, they must institute a new way of making value judgments that call for citizens in any particular community to work together for the common weal, as opposed to the dog-eat-dog type of mentality that became the major focus beginning with Ronald Reagan's and his bosses' assent to power.

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20091208_Elmer_Smith__At_employment_summit__the_10-percenters_call_for_some__good_jobs_.html
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Chinua Achebe Convened a Forum in Providence, RI 12/11/09

"Most of the men and women gathered at Achebe’s colloquium in Providence were in no doubt that the INEC headed by Iwu has an insurmountable credibility deficit. But they also realized that the time is ripe to mount a multi-pronged assault on the culture of fraud that keeps Nigeria in the grips of its least enlightened, morally bankrupt elements..."


"Anambra 2010 as window to 2011"
By Okey Ndibe

Nigeria’s preeminent novelist Chinua Achebe is, in manner, soft-spoken and gentle. In fact, Achebe has been described as self-effacing. Seldom does his voice rise. But those who know him best recognize that, beneath that genteel exterior, there is a steely core to the man. Achebe is the master of economy in expression, a man who manages the magic – rare in our world – of not expending one careless or superfluous word when he speaks.

Given Achebe’s demure nature, it’s significant that a certain impatience, even stridency, has in recent years crept into his voice. In several recent interviews or statements, Achebe – who just accepted a prestigious position as the David and Mariana Fisher University Professor at Brown University – has not tried to mask a deep disappointment with the desultory way that his (nearly) fifty-year-old nation continues to carry on. Some two months ago, the author even used the word “revolution” in speaking about what it would take for Nigerians to reclaim their country.

In 2004, Achebe’s rejection of what was touted as a national honor – the bestowal of the Commander of the Federal Republic by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration – became a classic of conscientious censure. The Obasanjo government’s announcement of the award came at a time of the regime’s ill-veiled sponsorship of mayhem in Anambra, Achebe’s home state.

In a letter that was as brief as its moral force was stupendous, Achebe conveyed utter outrage. He wrote to Mr. Obasanjo: “For some time now I have watched events in Nigeria with alarm and dismay. I have watched particularly the chaos in my own state of Anambra where a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom. I am appalled by the brazenness of this clique and the silence, if not connivance, of the Presidency.”

In those few words, Achebe not only captured the remaking of his home state into a state of anarchy but also struck at a fundamental truth about the character of the Obasanjo presidency: a tragic investment, not in nation-building but nation-wrecking, and a willingness to be wedded to criminal elements and projects.

It was not, properly speaking, honor that Achebe rejected; a government that lacked honor could not confer on anybody what it didn’t have. A dishonorable regime such as Obasanjo’s was capable, in the final analysis, only of dispensing dishonor. That presidency, like the “leaders” before him, had emptied national honors of any real moral content or social prestige. I wrote a column that lauded the novelist for his principled rejection of impunity and iniquity. The column was appropriately titled “Achebe’s repudiation of horror.” For it was clear to me that, had Achebe accepted the tainted honorific, he would have left his admirers, in Nigeria and outside, horrified.

Achebe deserves more fame for what strikes me as a highly intuitive insight into his country’s political drama. The man’s antenna seem adept at detecting those moments when his nation is poised on the edge of a terrible chasm.

The publication (but not the writing) of his A Man of the People – a novel that ends with a coup d’etat and predicts a succession of other coups – almost coincided with Nigeria’s first military intervention. The closeness of the fictional “prediction” to the real coup earned Achebe the unwelcome attention of the soldiers who planned and executed a counter-coup at the end of July 1966.

In 1984, Achebe published The Trouble with Nigeria, a treatise that has since become arguably the most widely read social and political analysis of Nigeria. The book’s importance, in sheer volume of sales as well as the frequency with which it’s quoted, belies its critical reception. Some haughty social scientists, anxious to protect their professional turf, had sought to pooh-pooh Achebe’s insights. A few of them even charged him with a lack of analytic rigor.

Today, many scholars examining the factors that precipitated the collapse of the Shehu Shagari administration routinely acknowledge The Trouble with Nigeria as a vivid portrait of the time and an illuminating study of Nigeria’s enduring malady. In some way, the book x-rays the corruption, dearth of vision and depth of rot that spelt doom not only for Shagari and his cohorts, but also (on an even profounder level) for the Nigerian citizenry.

The point is that Achebe’s instincts about his troubled, troubling country are so excellent. Achebe’s decision, then, to convene an international colloquium on Nigerian elections resonated both with many Nigerians as well as Nigerianists – my term for those deeply focused on Nigeria, whether they are diplomats or scholars. The colloquium took place last Friday, December 11, at the Westin Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island – a shout away from Achebe’s new academic address.

A throng of Nigerians attended the colloquium. The familiar faces included Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, Achebe, Dim Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, Governor Peter Obi, Professor A.B.C. Nwosu, Professor Abiola Irele, Senator Ken Nnamani, Senator Ben Obi, Mr. Emeka Izeze (a top executive of The Guardian), Mr. Sonala Olumhense (a columnist at The Guardian), and Sowore Omoyele (of Saharareporters.com). The team of Nigerianists included three former US ambassadors to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, John Campbell, and Princeton Lyman. Nigerians will remember Carrington for his clashes with the Sani Abacha dictatorship, often triggered by the ambassador’s identification with Nigeria’s democratic forces in their war against the bespectacled military ruler.

The colloquium achieved consensus on two linked questions. One: that the February 6, 2010 governorship election in Anambra will serve as a preview and dress rehearsal for the 2011 general elections. Two: that Nigeria may be hard put to it to survive another fraudulent polls, and certainly not one rigged on the scale of the 2007 “elections,” notoriously named as one of the worst in history.

Considering that so much rides on the Anambra governorship election, it’s nothing short of scandalous that Maurice Iwu will be permitted to conduct it. As chairman of the (misnamed) Independent National Electoral Commission, Mr. Iwu has established a distinction for incompetence, perfidy, and shamelessness. Here’s an electoral umpire who seems to think it’s up to him to award offices, to divest voters of their constitutional right to determine the outcome of polls.

The signs are there – writ large – that Iwu’s INEC is set to turn Anambra into its latest site for a tragic miscarriage of an election. Iwu has been on a media blitz lately; he’s up to his usual game of exhibiting a contrived tone of earnestness in insisting that his commission will deliver a credible election. Perhaps, he manages to believe himself. Nigerians know better. They know that he has a candidate in the race, and that candidate’s name is Nnamdi (Andy) Uba. Besides, Nigerians have seen the same empty strutting and grandstanding by Iwu just before the electoral heists in Adamawa and Ekiti. Nigerians realize that the real Iwu is not the one who makes high-minded speeches, but the one who operates crudely, in secret, only to emerge with bizarre electoral results.

Most of the men and women gathered at Achebe’s colloquium in Providence were in no doubt that the INEC headed by Iwu has an insurmountable credibility deficit. But they also realized that the time is ripe to mount a multi-pronged assault on the culture of fraud that keeps Nigeria in the grips of its least enlightened, morally bankrupt elements. Anambra will be a testing ground.

A politically naïve and confused Atiku Abubakar let INEC and the ruling party to get away with the Adamawa rig fest. The electoral umpire in Ekiti found a way to silence her conscience, and made another questionable call. Still, the mood in Nigeria and among the participants in the colloquium suggests that the days of unchallenged electoral impunity may be numbered.

Here’s my prediction: if INEC screws up the Anambra election, it’s likely to be the last election Iwu misconducts.

okeyndibe@gmail.com
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Sandy Banks on "Second Sunday of December, a Time to Remember"

"The death of a child you birthed and raised, scolded and praised, worried over and celebrated is unlike any other pain. And it doesn't matter if they are 4 years old, or 45, as my husband was."


Dear friends,

I read this piece, on the link below, from a friend who writes for the Los Angeles Times, Sandy Banks. Her work appears on this blog, from time-to-time. Nevertheless, her most recent column is a very powerful and touching one about losing a child - the worst event that a parent can ever experience. Moreover, in our holiday spirit, we should not forget that this is a painful time for many.

One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-banks12-2009dec12,0,7274539,full.column
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Tiger Woods and the "sex scandal"

"Of course, that comes after the prime directive: Never have an affair with anyone who would enjoy seeing themselves on the cover of “In Touch” magazine." - Gail Collins

Dear friends,

The brouhaha about Tiger Woods' alleged mistresses is, at least to me, a laugh a minute. "Let's keep it real!", if you'll pardon the jargon. Many, if not most, of the women who are coming forward are lucky if they were even a one-night stand, probably. But rich people draw parasites faster than corpses in a swamp.

Hence, much of what is passed off as relevant "news" in this market-driven, possession-oriented culture has more to do with how pathetic American journalism is, for the most part (although, occasionally, something informative and inspiring does slip through). Nonetheless, while Tiger Woods learned to master the game of golf, he, apparently, has never learned much about social relationships. As a matter of fact, personally, I cannot recall hearing Tiger talk about anything other than golf anyway.

Yet, really, about what is this stupid story? More than ever, the US government- and corporate-controlled media are exposing themselves for what they are - i.e., opinion-makers. After all, the techniques that they use to disseminate information, as scholar and social critic Noam Chomsky has insisted for decades, are: Selection of topics, Distribution of concerns, Emphasis of issues, Filtering of information, and Bounding of debate. This enables media agencies to: Determine, Control, Shape, Select, and Restrict information and ideas that "Serve the interests of dominant, elite groups". (see Manufacturing Consent by Chomsky)

Finally, the average American citizen swears that s/he thinks, feels, and consciously acts as an individual. However, as many of us are aware, most of what the former think, feel, and do are based upon images and ideas that are superimposed on the minds of the population through coercive cultural institutions, of which media are no small part.

At any rate, on the link below is a quite appropriate piece from Gail Collins of the New York Times that, in case you missed it, may be of interest to you.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/opinion/10collins.html?_r=1
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Join Us on December 10th in New York City!!!

"Join us as an audience member for this unique experience of discovering new untapped talent"
2031 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10035
BETWEEN 125TH AND 126TH STREETS

Acknowledgements:

This program is funded in part by Council Member Inez E. Dickens, 9th C.D., Speaker Christine Quinn and the New York City Council, City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone and your individual contributions.

presents:
An Artist Showcase:
"Fertile Ground"
Thursday December 10, 2009
8pm-11pm Suggested Donation: $10.00
On this special evening,
YOU - the audience have an opportunities to witness ten new artists present original material

National Black Theatre's House Band
Bert Price on keyboard, Olamide on guitar,
Brady Watt on bass guitar, Jamal Hampton on drums, Jamal Peoples on keyboard, to be one of the ten artist presenting orginal material.
contact Mr. Bert Price at berttheproducer@gmail.com

WEBSITE LINK
Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black
Your participation is most important!!!
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Racism and the Job Hunt

"...if we start thinking in terms of 'we', instead of the 'I' that keeps this market-driven, possession-oriented society going, then we will be able to build communities that are prosperous in every way."

Dear friends,

We have to build our communities, starting with how we raise our children. Racism, the euphemism for "White Supremacy", is a cultural institution in America. It is not a disease or a form of xenophobia.

To be sure, the term White Supremacy usually conjures up mental images of men in white bedsheets. However, a far more useful definition is: the United States is a White Supremacist nation, because a person can come from, say, Romania yesterday, declare himself or herself "white" and immediately inherit the oroginal Pilgrim group. George Washington, the battle flag of the Confederacy, country music, and privilege over African Americans and those who look like us, as his or her claim of being "white" will also make him or her part of an artificial "majority" group.

All of our talk thus far concerning people calling themselves "white" has yet to deal with the subject of a often used cult term, the "white male". Supposedly, this "white male" is the cause of our society's problems (if not the world as well). The question then arises, "Who is the white male?" Is he the European American fellow in the unemployment or welfare line?

According to recent federal census figures, there are as many low-income European American men in our country as there are combined for all non-European Americans, regardless of so-called "race" or gender - or age. How about someone who is homeless or imprisoned? Perhaps, this is our powerful "white male". Or, is it an infirmed man in one of our many veterans' hospitals nationwide? Maybe, it is the guy who is about to lose his home or car - or job.

Interestingly enough, not only is the "white male" never clearly identified by his bashers, as well, nobody mentions that this "white male" is nurtured by a mother, wife, lover, sister, grandmother, aunt, cousin, and/or friend who calls herself "white". In other words, from whom does the "white male" learn to be a "white male"? It seems like someone is playing a sidewalk shell game on us.

The point being made here is: in a society where people are placed on various social levels (called social stratification) for any number of reasons (for example, upper vs. lower class, black vs. white, male vs. female, sick vs. well) - a person can often be a member of both an oppressor group and an oppressed one, at the same time. The Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill debacle proves that adequately. Thomas is an agent of Male Supremacy (euphemistically-called "sexism"), yet he is oppressed as a non-European American. Also, this idea is eloquently presented in an anthology of essays, edited by David Theo Goldberg, called Anatomy Of Racism: "Oppression exists in many different forms and degrees...Group oppression occurs when a group is defined or conceived of as a group and is oppressed because of its group characteristics...generally the oppression of a group requires the power of another relatively cohesive group...Group oppression, thus, generally occurs when oppressors act as part of a group to oppress others identified as a separate group." - from an essay by John L. Hodge called "Equality: Beyond Dualism and Oppression"

Obviously, the word "oppression" implies lack or loss of freedom. But freedom is not a lone fixed thing. There is individual freedom and group freedom. All U.S.A. citizens have, to some extent, personal freedom (for example, the right to protest or vote for whomever we choose, the right to express ourselves in a variety of ways, and so forth). Many of us, however, lack group freedom, however. So it seems that there is much more going on here than oppression by the "white male". As a matter of fact, if anything, the white male is a red herring.

One of the worst aspects of this notion of "whiteness" is that many people have been made to use the word interchangeably with "American". More than skin color and nationality is implied in "whiteness", however. For instance, almost forty years ago, as a Black Panther, while doing community organizing work in New Haven, Connecticut, I got into a political discussion with a young Chinese woman who was the roommate of a friend of mine (who also happened to be Chinese and belonged to an organization called I Wor Kuen). At one point, during our conversation regarding racial discrimination, this Asian American woman declared, "I don’t get what you mean...I'm white". When I interrupted, "You're Chinese!" (as both of her parents were) - she burst into tears and walked away. As a matter of fact, regardless of wherever I saw her after that day, she never spoke with me again. (An interesting side note, about three years after the aforementioned incident, while in Boston one night watching television, I saw the same young Chinese woman being interviewed on a local station. She had become the costume designer for a nationally recognized European American ballet company.)

At any rate, in an essay called "The Souls of White Folks" Dr. W.E.B.DuBois wrote: "The discovery of personal whiteness among the world's peoples is a very modern thing...The ancient world would have laughed at such a distinction...by emphasis and omission to make children believe that every great thought the world ever knew was a white man's thought, every great deed the world ever did was a white man’s deed..."darkies" are born beasts of burden...Such degrading of men by men is as old as man and the invention of no one race or people...It has been left, however, to Europe and to modern days to discover the eternal worldwide mark of meanness -color!"

Ultimately, although people will feel disempowered by ceasing to identify themselves as “white” (a fact that blows away the argument against "affirmative action"), they should appreciate the fact that the whole concept of whiteness is an ideological construction anyway. Moreover, it is a phony claim - if not an illusion.

Finally, if African Americans start thinking in terms of "we", instead of the "I" that keeps this market-driven, possession-oriented society going, then we will be able to build communities that are prosperous in every way. Moreover, as a result, other groups may follow our successes in building "community" which will make them have less need to mean-spiritedly pit themselves against us by calling themselves "white" (which allows them to be part of an artificial "majority" group that is getting screwed by the "organized minority" just as much as we are). And so, the information on the link below will have become dated. Dig?

One Love!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html
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Smith on the Injustice of American justice

"There is no free-standing right not to be framed," argued Neal Kataya, of the Justice Department..."



Dear friends,

One of the areas in our economy that continues to proliferate is the Crime Industry. Moreover, both "the law" and many of its enforcers, have it in their interests to keep the industry going and growing in that context.

On the link below, my very dear friend and brother, Elm Smith of the Philadelphia Daily News delivers a very thoughtful piece that enlightens us all. Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/69944622.html
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