My Beauty Best Teacher

Molara Wood's riposte to Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s "dont award another African a Nobel piece":

...it’s baffling that, nearly 25 years after Nigeria bagged her own Nobel through Soyinka, a Nigerian writer saw nothing wrong in suggesting that a Kenyan should not get the prize. Ngugi, Soyinka and Achebe have since the 60s formed the great tripod of the humanising literature of Black Africa. Soyinka has his Nobel, Man International Booker winner Achebe has been celebrated to the heavens for ‘Things Fall Apart’, and suddenly it’s a Nobel for Ngugi that will spell the death of African writing?
Nwaubani’s argument is deeply flawed; and it is regrettable that someone with a platform like the New York Times to postulate about Africa, chose to use her new-found international voice in this manner. The author of ‘I Do Not Come To You By Chance’ must realise that it will not be by chance that her argument will play into Western prejudices about Africa and African writing. ‘Oh, let’s not give another African a Nobel because, knowing no better, they’ll only copy themselves.’ Might as well go the whole hog and cite Shakespeare’s Iago: “These Moors are changeable in their wills.”

Molara Wood's riposte to Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s "dont award another African a Nobel piece":

...it’s baffling that, nearly 25 years after Nigeria bagged her own Nobel through Soyinka, a Nigerian writer saw nothing wrong in suggesting that a Kenyan should not get the prize. Ngugi, Soyinka and Achebe have since the 60s formed the great tripod of the humanising literature of Black Africa. Soyinka has his Nobel, Man International Booker winner Achebe has been celebrated to the heavens for ‘Things Fall Apart’, and suddenly it’s a Nobel for Ngugi that will spell the death of African writing?
Nwaubani’s argument is deeply flawed; and it is regrettable that someone with a platform like the New York Times to postulate about Africa, chose to use her new-found international voice in this manner. The author of ‘I Do Not Come To You By Chance’ must realise that it will not be by chance that her argument will play into Western prejudices about Africa and African writing. ‘Oh, let’s not give another African a Nobel because, knowing no better, they’ll only copy themselves.’ Might as well go the whole hog and cite Shakespeare’s Iago: “These Moors are changeable in their wills.”

In Ngex,Wole Soyinka stated:

“Part of the Obama lesson for this continent is that those who believe that leadership depends on religion, race, ethnic and other related issues are obviously living in the past. They are completely antiquated and are not to be counted upon as civilized people.
“What America has done is to gate-crash so many of us into the third millennium. Nigeria had an opportunity to show the way. Zimbabwe had an opportunity too. But we lost it because a few antiquated people never accepted the fact that all men are created equal, and that it is actually possible for a virtual outsider, but who is qualified to be a citizen of a nation, to rise to the top position of the country.”...[continue reading]

In 3QuarksDaily Tolu Ogunlesi writes:

Lamenting the presence of Nigeria on the US government’s list of “countries of interest” (in the war on terror), Nigerian writer and first African Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka told British journalist Tunku Varadarajan, at the Jaipur Literary Festival in January: “[Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab] did not get radicalized in Nigeria. It happened in England, where he went to university.”...[continue reading]

Wole Soyinka writes:

It is the secular that unites, not divides, it is the secular that includes, not excludes, the secular is basically egalitarian, not selective, it is the secular that guarantees equality of space and opportunity between one individual and the next, irrespective of sex, ethnicity or religion even as it guarantees space and protection for the rival faiths that inhabit the nation space. The theocratic urge is, on the contrary, intolerant and stifling. Religion has been responsible for some of the worst civil atrocities that have been perpetrated in my own country, Nigeria, in peace time.

Gani Fawehinmi was one of the ever resilient few,along with Nobel Laurete Wole Soyinka and other figures,who insisted on fighting causes whose primary or only relationship with their own well being was that it affected all Nigerians.He endured imprisonment,harassment and the climate of assassination created by the Babanginda and Abacha regimes in battling causes which,even though,they did not always succeed against totalitarian governments who controlled the organs of the law,succeeded in focusing national and international attention on the villainy represented by a significant number of the activities of such governments,as well as highlighting their illegitimate means of coming to power...[continue reading]

Henry Louis Gates discusses post-colonial Africa and other subjects with Wole Soyinka:
click here
via NaijaBlog

In Postconsumption Niti Bhan commends the "business flair of Nigeria's slum dwellers"highlighted in 'Welcome to Lagos':

In three programmes, series producer Will Anderson assembles a number of hugely likeable, articulate and witty people who live on garbage heaps, in beachside shanty towns and slums on stilts in the city's lagoon. Their tales build an intimate portrait of a city brimming with entrepreneurial flair, resilience, tough-mindedness and hope. This is not the apocalyptic urban vision with which Lagos has become synonymous and about which development experts sweat as the population of 16m climbs steadily towards a forecast 25m.Instead, it is a hymn to humanity and to the capacity of Africans to find means and motive to survive in even the most adverse conditions.

Wole Soyinka writes:

...Since the debilitation of civil society through decades of military rule, Nigerians freely use the expression ‘internal colonialism’ as the readiest expression of the continuing suppression of popular will, an orchestrated democratic denial that operates in relay, and is sustained by a select hegemony resolved to remain in perpetual control of the nation. Offering nothing in return, this unproductive cabal has become increasingly arrogant and contemptuous in its dismissal of even a pragmatic semblance of a gesture towards fair dealing that sometimes salves the pride and dignity of a people.

Gani Fawehinmi was one of the ever resilient few,along with Nobel Laurete Wole Soyinka and other figures,who insisted on fighting causes whose primary or only relationship with their own well being was that it affected all Nigerians.He endured imprisonment,harassment and the climate of assassination created by the Babanginda and Abacha regimes in battling causes which,even though,they did not always succeed against totalitarian governments who controlled the organs of the law,succeeded in focusing national and international attention on the villainy represented by a significant number of the activities of such governments,as well as highlighting their illegitimate means of coming to power...[continue reading]

We present the concluding part of Rina Okonkwo's article on corruption see part 1 here:

The military coup of January 15, 1966 was a direct response to the corruption of the First Republic. The popular support for the coup showed that people rejected corruption. Despite the brutality of killings of First Republic politicians, there was widespread rejoicing in the country for the acts. The assassinations of the Minister of Finance Chief FS Okotie-Eboh, who was notorious for flaunting his ill-gotten wealth, Premier of the Western Region, Samuel Akintola, nicknamed “rigging” and Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto, the Premier of the Northern Region, “whose wardrobe was the most elaborate in the world,” were applauded.13 The coup eliminated “the old brigade of politicians who were destitute of public spirit.” 14

The Ironsi government instituted a series of commissions of inquiry into affairs of the Nigeria Railway Corporation, the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, Nigeria Airways, and the Nigeria Ports Authority. The report on the Ports Authority revealed that a number of ministers, including Okotie-Eboh, Ribadu, and R.Njoku had formed companies and used their influence to secure contracts.15 In Nigeria Airways, the minister, K. O. Mbadiwe had interfered with award of contracts to a company not registered in the register of companies. K.O. had gone against the board to send “Operation Fantastic,” the maiden flight of Nigeria Airways to New York. Friends and relations of the minister travelled free to New York. Many stayed on in the United States. Chief Dafe, the chairman of the board, was found guilty of hiring many unnecessary party workers in the airline. “Chief Dafe did not know the difference between Nigeria Airways and the party headquarters of the NCNC.” 16

Dr. Ikejiani, Chairman of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, was found guilty of misallocation of funds and disregarding the Board and recognized procedures of the NRC. When Ikejiani became the Chairman, he was in debt. Ikejiani left the NRC with a fleet of cars and buildings. The building of the Railway medical centre, which was estimated cost L75, 000, was inflated to L440, 000. The inquiry thought Ikejiani had diverted railway funds to build his private hospital. The architect for the medical center designed a building for Ikejiani in Lagos free of charge. The panel recommended that Ikejiani never again hold public office. 17

The zeal to punish the wrong doers of the First Republic died with the Gowon coup of July 1966. The politicians in detention were freed. Corruption increased. “Youths knew no other life than corruption.” “One could steal if he shared with those in the right places.”18

The coup of 1975 was an attempt to end corruption. Murtala Mohammed began by declaring his assets and asking all government officials to follow his example. Murtala instituted a series of probes of past leaders. The Federal Assets Investigation Panel of 1975 found ten of the twelve state governors in the Gowon regime guilty of corruption.
One of the exonerated military governors, Rotimi, was later appointed to head a commission of inquiry in 2000. The guilty persons were dismissed with ignominy and forced to give up property in excess of earnings.

The Belgore Inquiry investigated the “Cement Armada.” The Gowon government had imported sixteen million metric tons of cement at a cost of N557 million. Millions of Naira was lost in demurrage charges, as the cement rotted in the seas outside of Lagos. The ports were too congested to enable ships off-load their cargoes. The inquiry noted that the Ministry of Defence needed only 2.9 million tons of cement at a cost of N52million. The orders were inflated for private profit at great cost to the government.19

State governments held similar commissions of inquiry. Corrupt officials were dismissed with immediate effect and asked to refund the money they had stolen. Murtala was assassinated after only two hundred days in office. The Obasanjo regime did not show the same zeal in its prosecution of wrongdoers.

The Second Republic, under President Shehu Shagari, saw a resurgence of corruption. Shagari was ineffective in stopping the looting of public funds by the democratically elected officials. On December 31st, 1983, General Buhari led a popular coup with the aim of halting corruption. Buhari arrested the state governors and commissioners and brought them before tribunals of inquiry. All accounts of politicians were frozen.

In less than two years, Babangida replaced the reformist Buhari regime. The next fourteen years saw no serious attempt to stop corruption. Leaders found guilty in tribunals under Mohammed and Buhari found their way back to public life and recovered seized property. Wole Soyinka observed that for Abacha to launch a war against corruption was a “huge joke.”

The Third Republic has instituted numerous commissions of inquiry. The Oputa panel and the Akanbi Commission have investigated corruption. Yet all the commissions of inquiry and reports have not stopped corruption. The Transparency Index rated Nigeria the number two corrupt country in the world in 2001.

An historical look at corruption in Nigeria demonstrates that rhetoric against corruption does not end corruption. All the inspiring words of our leaders and journalists have not changed anyone. We have heard the most eloquent appeals and strongest language castigating wrongdoers to no avail. Azikiwe and Shagari were two excellent writers who did not act to stop corruption of their party members and colleagues.

From our survey of corruption in Nigeria, it would appear that change in Nigeria must come from the grass roots and not from the leaders. The British realized, as far back as 1947, that an educated, enlightened citizenry was the key to stopping corruption. Government could not legislate an end to corruption. Punishment of wrongdoers, while necessary, was not sufficient to stop corruption.

In his comparison of corruption in Nigeria and Britain, Ronald Wraith pointed to the need for education in good character and the importance of diffusion of wealth, power, and education in the society. There was need to build a tradition of disinterested public service. In Britain, responsible government began with the emergence of people who entered government service after they had amassed substantial wealth. They joined government, not to increase their fortunes, but to contribute to the country. When the people of Nigeria reject corruption, they will demand and receive good behavior from their leaders.