NigeriansTalk » Barack Obama

Of Commentaries, Reactions and Over-Reactions

Olumide Abimbola — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:43:55 +0000

In the BusinessDay of January 12, 2010

December 25, 2009: A Nigerian-born male, with secondary education in Togo and university education in London, said to have been radicalized during his university days in London, and to have been further radicalized in Yemen, attempted to detonate an ‘incendiary device’ that he had sown into his underwear before getting on a flight to Detroit. The situation was contained with the help of fellow passengers.

The flight originated from Amsterdam Schiphol airport, where the airport security failed to detect the said ‘incendiary device’.

The first reaction of the American Transportation Security Administration was to immediately announce a one-hour rule. This means, among other things, that nobody on a flight bound for the United States is allowed to leave their seat during the last hour of the flight, not even to go to the toilet.

Reacting to this, some commentators complained about how it seems that the US is playing catch-up with terrorists. They wondered whether terrorists would actually repeat their last failed tactic.

Shortly after the news of the Detroit terror attempt, there were debates in the media about whether or not a full-body scanner would have detected that there was some foreign article in the underwear, and if so, whether it would not be better to have full-body scanners in all airports. One should point out that now would be a good time to invest in the shares of companies that manufacture said scanners.

January 3, 2010: The American Transportation Security Administration declared Nigeria ‘a country of special interest’ and added it to a list of countries whose citizens would have to go through ‘enhanced screening’.

Commentators wondered whether it was really wise to alienate potential allies in the fight against extremist Islam, pointing out that Nigerians had done all they could to stop the situation, and that ultimately, it was American officials who dropped the proverbial ball.

Other commentators wondered at the generalization about a country from one isolated case, especially since there was nothing in the young man’s past to suggest that he had been radicalized, or had radicalized others, in Nigeria.

In reply to these, other commentators stressed the fact that Nigeria could be a hotbed of terrorism, especially because there have been what have been largely termed religious violence in the Northern part of the country. In counter-reaction, some pointed out that this is an overtly simplistic take on violent conflicts that are a lot more political than religious.

January 6, 2010: The Nigerian Senate gave the United States a seven-day ultimatum to remove the name of the country from the list. They threatened the severance of diplomatic with the United States if the United States refuses to remove the name of the country from the list.

On the same day, Mrs. Dora Akunyili, Information Minister and rebrander-in-chief of Nigeria, who had earlier tried – albeit unsuccessfully – to distance Nigeria from the young man with poor taste in underwear, said that the inclusion of Nigeria on the list had ‘the potential of undermining long-standing and established US-Nigeria bilateral ties and the goodwill the US enjoys in Nigeria’.

January 7, 2010: Barack Obama, the American President said, at a press conference, ‘we will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as Americans, because great and proud nations don’t hunker down and hide behind walls of suspicion and mistrust.’

Some commentators said that this was in reaction to those who said that United States was now suffering from a ‘siege mentality’ by introducing measures that some see as becoming, on the one hand, increasingly invasive of individual privacy, and on the other, increasingly isolationist.

Glaringly absent was any mention of the threat by the African superpower.

January 8, 2010: Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice of Nigeria, speaking on behalf of a president whose state of mind and health remain largely unknown, allayed fears of any confrontation. He said, ‘we cannot be talking about ultimatum at this stage.’ He also said that the two countries would avoid a potential face-off by resorting to diplomatic solutions to the issue.

To which Petrodollar-land heaved a sigh of relief.

Thinking about Evolution

Seye Abimbola — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:39:55 +0000

There is at least one sense in which Nigeria and the US are very similar: having a remarkably high proportion of religious people – or as the present fad expression goes, people that “have a personal relationship with God” – and of course also having a high proportion of creationists, which follows, so it seems, quite easily.

This was the first thought that occurred to me last year when during the heated US presidential campaign I saw John McCain and Barack Obama on the TV, apparently appealing to the American religious conservative right, both of them at the Saddleback Church, engaged in what could hardly pass for a mild debate moderated by the pastor, Rick Warren. I remember thinking to myself: the only other place where this could possibly happen is right here in Nigeria.

It is in my experience quite safe to assume that by being a Nigerian, you are simply religious by default, until confessed otherwise, and that you believe yourself to be a creationist even without having as much as a half-hearted look at the evidence for evolution by natural selection. With this premise, I have discovered what has become for me a most favoured pastime, which is to bring up the theory of evolution and Darwinism and related scientific concepts easily associated with atheism, agnosticism and all sorts of ungodly tendencies to spark up discussion amongst colleagues in Nigeria.

I hope we could have one such exchange here on NigertansTalk. Painfully, competing and admittedly often more pressing issues generally trump whatever space we might have for science in our politics and national life.

In the discussions that have resulted, I have found that roughly half of the people I’ve encountered fall within the category I refer to, for the purpose of this post, as “the fundamentalist,” and the lowest watermark of such argument will be: “I would cease to believe in the existence of other planets and solar systems and galaxies if I find a remark in Bible (or the Qur’an) that so much as suggests that the earth is all there is in the universe.”

The other half are about equally divided into three groups: “the open minded” (“Well, it seems there is some good evidence that I’ll have to spend some time to consider more carefully.), the “I don’t give a damn” (“Whatever it is, I don’t think it matters.”), and “the malleable,” those that get convinced after a lot of discussion, only find that they have reverted to creationism at the next encounter (“What you said the other day, I really don’t think it can be true.”).

There is an American student from Texas here, with whom I’ve had two long and interesting discussions on evolution and creationism. She is an avowed creationist and a Christian, and like most of my Nigerian friends, she possibly couldn’t accept that being a Christian and an evolutionist at the same time are not fundamentally conflicting positions. For her, they are simply mutually exclusive: the exact same argument that my Nigerian friends would make.

It actually got me wondering how similar Nigerians must indeed be to Americans in this regard and why would that be? It is for me, as for most scientists a persistent puzzle as to why Americans are so religious and how creationism is so widespread and evolution is taken with so much negative seriousness in the US. I could easily explain the situation in Nigeria. I was never taught the theory of evolution in primary or secondary school, although of course more because there were no teachers to teach it than because there was a legislation against teaching it.

Looking back however, I think not having been taught evolution in secondary school was indeed a blessing because then I was left to study it all be myself and so had the opportunity to weight the evidence against my knowledge of the Biblical account of creation which I was raised in, and was, as I still am, also very well versed in. I am almost certain that even if there were teachers, it is unlikely that any will teach it well enough to present the evidence and allow the pupils make up their mind.

My comparative anatomy lecturer in medical school after discussing all the interesting and beautiful evidence for evolution, ended the lecture by saying it was all crap, and that we should take none of it any seriously beyond the point of recanting (sic) them during exams. Might that be the reason: the lack of unbiased exposure to the basic tenets of evolutionary theory? Might this be what some Americans are protecting against when they say they don’t want evolution taught in their schools?

What do you think? Are you an evolutionist? Why, if yes, and why not if not? Were you introduced to the theory of evolution by natural selection in secondary school? What do you think the effect of that might be if you were or might have been if you were not? Do you think an evolutionist could at the same time “have a personal relationship with God?”

Obama’s face of Africa that is too often overlooked.

Beauty — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 09:08:56 +0000

A vendor sits in his street kiosk - Luc Gnago/Reuters

I intended to boycott the media frenzy on Obama´s second visit to Africa as over 25,000 children died around the world on the same day but “We don’t need Obama to show us how to make Kenya a great country” by Barrack Muluka writing in Nairobi’s Standard put a stop to that foolishness. His rant, “we would not crave a visit by some foreigner whose existence we did not even know of ten years ago”. Elsewhere expectations were enormously high as the White House made sure Internet and mobile phone users around the world got involved with the visit to Ghana using Face and Twit!

The importance of President Obama’s visit to Ghana was not lost on the folks at Google as they teamed up with the Ministry of Tourism in Ghana to create a special site for President Obama’s visit. Shame the ajax.googleapis.com application was awfully slow but the numbers game showed Obama was the only party on the web. Mainstream media not to be outdone contributed an overkill of analysts but without any worthy of mention as blogs took the play and the debate continues today.

There were many one line condemnations of Obama’s shallow and simplistic speech from a surprising number of people including Nigerian Lawyer and human rights activist, Femi Falana who thought it was a huge embarrassment to the African continent and black people. But the Glaring Omission on Nigerian Curiosity proved quite popular with a lot of thought provoking comments. The updated version clarified that “Obama could freely ‘scold’ Africa, he neglected to acknowledge the historical role played by American government and even certain businesses in creating some of the problems Africa now faces.”

Solomonsydelle’s theme is repeated in Obama’s Ghana Speech Under whelms on GlobalVoices. Non seulement que l’Afrique est le dernier continent qu’il visites malgre ses origines, perhaps they should have left out the cringe-worthy label, Obama Africa. I also enjoyed Obama In Nigeria, Oh Sorry, Ghana! on Nairaland, “I guess he doesn’t want to be kidnapped by Militants” a comment quipped.

“After the illustrious son of Africa, Barack Obama has left Ghana on the July 12, 2009; I decided to call him because the sermon he delivered to Ghanaians and Africans was too far beyond my comprehension. As a matter of fact, he gave me enough time and this was what ensued between us. That was how “Comment: My Telephone Conversation with Obama!” by Joy Online’s Abdulai Hanan R. Confidence who went over the speech line by line. “So, is that the reason why you chose Ghana because we have just discovered oil? Or the Africom matters?” Highly recommended!

For Richard B. Muhammad, “President Barack Obama’s pilgrimage to Africa’s first modern independent nation may be one of the most significant trips to the continent by any U.S. political figure”, however, President patronizing was how Nigerian social justice activist and blogger saw the visit in nibl. Sokari Ekine aka Black Looks, pointed out the contradictions in Obama’s denial of the destructive role of the West played in Africa. Sokari also revealed that the Ghana speech lacked substance in her review on Pambazuka News.

The enormous historic and symbolic visit was reduced to Obama: Ghana’s Gain, Nigeria’s loss by Ghana Pundit who added that Former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu also listened to Obama speak. Not the miracle speech and I was almost annoyed with the bellyaching was how Akín began but concluded that the speech struck the right balance. President Obama in Ghana. Why not Nigeria? by Ghana based Nigerian blogger and web entrepreneur – Oluniyi David Ajao added that “The President of the United States is at liberty to decide which countries to visit or not to visit, and in what order he visits them.”

Is Obama Africa’s saviour? by Reuter’s Mpho Majoro finished with the question common to most of blogshere. But should Africans in any case be looking to Obama – or anyone from outside – to solve the continent’s problems? Or is there more that Africans should be doing themselves to improve their lives? In the end, are we still bitter or have we learnt something from this tech Savvy Obama Ghana speech in English, French, Swahili, Arabic and Portuguese? Thanks to all the contributors but did the message get home? How many African countries are planning to sow the seeds of information using technology?

In 1985, around 85,000 people visited the tropical country; that number has now skyrocketed to around 600,000. In June of this year, the Ghana Tourist Board launched a promotional initiative with the aim of attracting 1 million annual visitors by the end of 2012. – Forbes.com – Obama Went To Ghana. Should You?

To those that missed the performance, A New Moment of Promise in Africa is at the White House, USA.