My Experience With Being Censored By Nigeriaworld.com
By
Pat
Akinbola Ph.D. Columbia MO
This is to provide a sub-text for this letter in view of the circumstances which led to my inability to publish it at the site where the issue emerged. I am being censored by Nigeriaworld.com, even though I have previously provided materials through the site in question. I sent 3 separate e-mails to get this letter published and did not even get a bland response. My concern with being censored on such a site is that a less discerning information consumer may be unable to identify both the subtle and not-so-subtle manipulation which occurs by design in such sites. When I started to get some more information and background on this problem, I found out that I was not alone. Indeed, among those that have been censored is at least one individual whom I hold in high esteem and whose writing I’ve always viewed as objective.
It is this type of intolerance of constructive criticism and open dialogue, among other vices, that continues to hinder our development as a nation. I think we need to be matured enough to agree to disagree agreeably, on issues such as are contained in my letter. While the website owner or operator has a right to do many things on his site, I think those that provide information portal services such as the one in question, also have an ethical responsibility not to attempt to taint the browsers view of information on their site. As a minimum, I think they should allow all views (within civilized limits) to be expressed. My being censored on this important issue (my emphasis) raised in my mind some of the regulatory activities that will probably occur in future to reduce such abuse of public information access. As a minimum, some declaration or disclosure of partisanship will be helpful. I hope to further explore some of the issues I raised in my letter in future writings.
Patrick Akinbola
************
Letter
to Chuck (Nigeriaworld) from a fellow Nigerian
Hi Chuck,
This is in reaction to your rather sarcastic subhead “Strange Bedfellows award” to the news story
Strange
Bedfellows Award: AD
vows to mobilize against impeachment threat on Obasanjo
which
I read on Nigeriaworld.com on Wed. Aug. 21st. While I admire
and value the precious service that you continue to offer through your site, I
felt the need to comment regarding what appears to be your partisanship getting
the better of you. While I’ve no political affiliation, my being a Yoruba man
prompted my response as a way of clarifying what could either reflect badly on
Yorubas as an ethnic group or on the AD as the party that currently represent
the Yoruba states. It will be easy with such erroneous titling for those
non-Yoruba’s who would prefer to characterize the Yoruba political leadership
as such, to mischievously play up such misinformation thus reinforcing old
stereotypes. This in a nutshell is
the reason why I’ve taken the time to share my views on this observation.
You
wrongly represent the Obasanjo/AD solidarity on this issue as an incompatible
exotic mix. I do not see such
strange bedfellows and wonder why a hopefully seasoned close observer of the
Nigerian political environment such as you sees it as such.
As I tried to offer my own rationale in support of such expression of
solidarity, I found myself also recognizing an issue, which seems to
differentiate some of our perceptions among ethnicities in Nigeria.
I am usually reluctant to generalize by ethnic groups or tribes, but
recognize that each group is a product of some core values, history, etc. which
defines their worldview. To
therefore loosely generalize values or moral expectation across nations and
peoples in a country as diverse as Nigeria would be too simplistic.
My
observation for instance is that an issue, in which an Ibo man may consider his
response as pragmatic, could be perceived by a Yoruba man as opportunism.
While a typical Ibo man may not see anything wrong with what could be
described as a pragmatic response to an economic opportunity for instance, a
Yoruba would also weigh other non-economic considerations such as relationship,
precedence, etc.. While this is not
to say the Yoruba man will take the morally superior position, it is more likely
however that his cultural space among his people will evaluate this issue with
some fundamental differences based on that worldview and cultural prism.
A
good example of this difference in values between the Ibo and Yoruba in this
regard, was recently manifested in an recent article by my dear frend Dr. David
Ihenacho in which he enumerated the value to Nigeria leaving the OPEC.
Even though I have no experience and limited knowledge of that area, I
was struck be the fact that his eloquently put case for us to leave OPEC focused
entire on economic considerations, and seemed to completely ignore the
socio-political ramification of such decision.
I did not need any special study of the facts for that to occur to me as
an important consideration not discussed by him in the document.
This brought me to the conclusion that we were both operating from two
cultural prisms, both of which were very similar but not entirely congruent.
This is not to belittle or indeed generalize this to everyone within the
sub-groups. It is however an
important consideration for many aspects of structuring a society as complex as
Nigeria.
Returning
to Chuck’s editorial sub-titling above, I think such support of Obasanjo by AD
only shows the sophistication of their analysis, and political calculation.
It does not take a rocket scientist to come to such a conclusion. For
starters, the legislators where on a tele-guided vengeful mission which was
already clear to many within the electorate, at least as reported by the press.
AD could therefore only better endear themselves to the electorate, by
openly identifying with the president. Secondly,
the President who is Yoruba was being unjustifiable harassed by the largely
sponsored legislature. By
unjustified harassment, I’m referring specifically to the impeachment threat.
I’m not claiming that Obasanjo had been doing all the right things,
because he had not, and probably knew it himself.
Another
motivation is that AD while not of the same party, will like to use the
opportunity to push a moral argument, around emphasizing due process and derive
any political advantages from such. Afterall,
the President was not at loggerheads with the AD, leading to the whole
legistative dabacle. Indeed, it
appeared that they were already actively planning on ways of collaborating in
2003, as reported in the media. We
are well aware of the AD folks who ended up in Obasanjo’s cabinet.
We also have heard allegations of corruption against elected officials of
both parties. It is not as if one
is claiming or perceived as the saint and the other as the devil.
So, why would anyone see strange bedfellows.
Except
maybe someone who was already predisposed to seeing what did not exist.
Or worse, someone who wanted to draw broader conclusion from their
perception of the unfolding political chess game.
Or even worse still, someone who had an anti-Yoruba disposition, and saw
in this story, an opportunity to perpetuate myths.
I do not see you Chuck as having such sinister intents.
To even further confuse the less discerning, there is Chief. Gani
Fawehinmi (whom I do not agree with on this specific issue)
siding with those calling for the impeachment of Obasanjo.
I think the scenerio played out by this event so far, shows the
sophistication of Yoruba politics at the national level.
It shows how the juxtapositioning of ethnicity and principles or issues
continue of inform the political chess game, defying the analysis of the
culturally and politically unseasoned. Many
non-Yoruba’s appear to have difficulty reading the Yoruba group mindset and
its reflections and actions within in the national political environment.
A not so distant example was the Yoruba support for Obasanjo after his (s)election
despite the lack of support leading to the elections.
Back to my focus of this letter.
I
see two issues that require delineation, the first is the role of ethnicity and
the extent to which ethnic sentiments or solidarity should or could be
reflected. At another level is the
focus on issues and/or principles. If
AD and/or Afenifere are in solidarity based on principles, I do not disagree.
Indeed I admire them. If on
the other hand, they offer solidarity based on their ethnicity, that also will
not be bad either. The wrong thing
would be for them to blindly support Obasanjo on an unprincipled issue, sole and
only because he is Yoruba. It is
only when such inconsistencies occur that they can be branded strange
bedfellows. I believe the popular
sentiment in the country appears to be that, while wanting to assure the
separation of powers, etc., assure that we do not give room for fifth
columnists and other opportunists with more clandestine plans for Nigeria to
undermine our collective purpose and goals.
In
conclusion, Instead of ignoring our ethnic affiliations and pretending that
there is a “detribalized Nigerian” we need to get with the program of
appreciating the strength of identity, orientation, value and purpose provided
through these ethnic affiliation. They
need to be harnessed and interdependent relationships forged across ethnicities
and groups, recognizing that each has their strengths and weaknesses, and
playing up on the strengths of all combined.
It is our failure to do this, among other progressive measures that make
most of us continue to languish in negativity, uncertainty and speculation about
one another. These days, I think we
the literate one are even more parochial that many of our illiterate bretheren.
I
think we as the new generation of thinkers for our nation need to recognize and
effectively delineate the entanglement of these issues and remain consistent in
our commitment to justice and fair play. I
believe I can hold on to these values while at the same time professing my
“Yoruba-ness” as my primary identity before my “Nigerian-ness” since one
came before the other. Also,
I cannot be a fully integrated Nigerian, if I’m not first a confident,
informed Yoruba man. This Chief Awolowo abundantly stated to Nigerians during
his lifetime, only to be naively labeled a tribalist.
I was also at a time in my life actively trying to model the detribalized
Nigerian until I found out that no such human being exists. We need to continue
to discuss and debate these issues over beer and pepper soup as well as at
conferences, but recognize that we cannot will away our primary identities as
people each with an ethnic origin that continues to dominate the scaffolding of
our worldview.
Your
site has come a long way and I’ve referred many Nigerians to it over the
years. I think you’ll retain your
credibility and trust as an avenue for untainted information by resisting the
temptation to editorialize, especially where doing so openly reveals your
biases. Keep up the good job.
Pat
Akinbola Ph.D. Columbia MO