9-11, Community Center, and Immigration

September 11^th!!! In Support of Park 51 and Comprehensive Immigration Reform

As a Methodist Christian, during the process of joining my Islamic sisters and brothers in the month long Ramadan fast, I have come to the realization that more progressive voices are needed in the current debate about the New York community center and the comprehensive immigration overhaul in the United States. However, my decision to speak out is not borne out of some epiphany and/or altruistic liberal virtue. On the contrary, I am speaking out of the basic human instinct of survival, morals and principles. My decision to fast does require more self examination because it was motivated by solidarity with others and the need to take charge of my health and well-being. The last time I experienced this difficult consecutive fasting exercise was a teenage born-again evangelical Christian. When I look around the United States I realize how some on the right of the political spectrum have decided to demonize “the other,” “the different,” “the foreign,” and “those cultures” etcetera etcetera.

Consequently, I have come to the unique but honest realization that the same fringe and evolving contemporary conservative movement on the right might one day single out my offspring for discrimination due to political convenience. The protestation about the Islamic center and the clamor to deport immigrants are both political avenues of sowing discord in society in this climate of economic recession. Conservatives are in an intermediary era, with a president that they are refusing to identify with, acknowledge and/or respect. They are afraid of change and would like to maintain the status quo, hence their decision to dwell on divisive propagandas and exploit our so-called differences. Examples of their misinformation are that President Obama was born in Kenya and he is a secret Muslim. Would they have supported him if he was a Muslim? The more bigoted premise is that affiliation with the Islamic faith is grounds for disqualification from elected/appointed positions in the United States of America.

Since, it is politically incorrect to cast aspersions about race; the next line of attack is to conveniently question Mr. Obama’s national origin (place of birth) and religion. It is worth noting that while President W. Bush and Cheney were in office the current hatred for Muslims and Immigrants that we are currently experiencing in the United States from the Republicans, did not reach this feverish pitch. Did the Bush administration take advantage of the fears of “the other” after September 11^th, 2001, the answer is absolutely yes. Bush and Cheney lied and deceived the country into a war in Iraq. They transposed Osama bin Laden’s transgressions and Al-Qaeda’s declaration of war to Saddam Hussein and Iraq respectively. Bush did not want us to blame the 1.5billion Muslims for the war declaration on September 11^th, 2001, however he substitute one Arabic name for another and Hussein became Osama.

Coincidentally, my children have recent immigrant heritages and their middle names are Arabic. They are citizens of Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the United States. In my humble opinion they are citizens of the world and their allegiances should be extended to make the planet a better place for all. My son’s name is Nnaji Yusuf. Nnaji is his Igbo name which means (Our Lord is holding) and Yusuf is his Arabic name which means the (The Lord Increases). My son’s middle name is a tribute to his uncle the late Alhaji Yusuf Conteh who arrived from war torn Sierra Leone and met his untimely death in Prince Georges County, Maryland. In objectively analyzing the current debate with regards to the Islamic community center and the insistence by some in the Republican Party to target Latinos in the immigration situation, I can not help but think that similar methodologies would be utilized against my children in the future.

            Moreover, some fools might decide to question my children on the legitimacy of their birth certificates, and whether they were actually born in Silver Spring Maryland. Their Nigerian heritage and/or Arabic middle names are going to become an issue, if we keep quiet and do not speak out at this juncture in history. Some in the future would definitely suggest and/or attempt to invalidate their United States citizenship. While others may think that this is impossible and can not happen in America, I would like to remind them that there is already a movement to denial citizenship to children who are born within the American territory. This debate is going on despite the fact that the citizenship provision of the United States constitution is one of the bedrock of the 14^th amendment. If conservatives have the audacity to challenge the Citizenship clause of the amendment that allows African Americans and all persons born in the United States to be naturalized citizens, then my supposition is very feasible.

            However, enough is enough! Progressives and people of good conscience need to stand up to confront the likes of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Newt Gingrich. We need to counter them in their attempt to derail this nation in transition. The freedom to freely express religious beliefs is enshrined in the constitution and should not be trampled with. The Park 51 project should proceed and be a testament of our resolve to appreciate diversity and inclusion. Recent immigrants should be provided with a path to citizenship just like it was the case in the past for other generations of immigrants. We should make a commitment to organize and vote out of office those who use religious intolerant and immigration as discordant political issues. Let us stand up against the bigotry of the majority from individuals and groups that want to rescind freedom of association and religious liberty. Those that site public opinion polls and try to intimate others with antics like the Koran burning should be called out. Truth tellers should remind our society that the same public opinion polls could have continued the patriarchy hegemony of this country with Jim Crow segregation and racism still in place.     

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Obama: Africans and Americans

Obama! The lesson for Nigerians and Africans

Some of us were visibly upset and heated up when it became apparent that the first African American President of the United States of American with first generation African heritage was not going to visit Nigeria during his inaugural homecoming visit to the sub-Saharan region of our continent from July 10-11 2009. How dare he impugn the “Giant of African,” the nation with the highest black population, and with some of the most intelligent people in the world? Interestingly, we failed to realize the under pinning of President Obama’s snub of Nigeria which was similar to that of Kenya his paternal homeland. Why did he go instead to Ghana, a stable best practice, result oriented, and reasonably governed African country?  

His Excellency Mr. Obama’s late mother is from the state of Kansas, he grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia. As a college student he went to the “big apple” New York for his undergraduate degree before heading to Illinois State to work as a community organizer. After spending time in three other American states he settled in the city of Chicago which is in Illinois State. Then he embraced Chicago as his home and no one asked him if he was an indigene or a settler. Mr. Obama concentrated on assisting the poor and underclass communities within the state. His primary goal was not to usurp power for himself but instead to organize the lower income inhabitants of the windy city and to empower them towards social change. In fact he enmeshed himself into the culture and norms of the city and state and eventually went to law school as a means to assist the less privileged in his adopted Chicago community.

Did people dangle his unusual name Barack Hussien Obama in his face and behind his back? Yes of course, a minority of people probably teased him and gossiped about his father’s African roots and Islamic religion. Some definitely viewed him more as an outsider, a Kenyan, Hawaiian and/or an Indonesian. However, because of his dedication and empathy for the community and people, he was supported by the majority of Chicagoans and eventually Americans.

This analysis per-se is not to negate the contemporary resentful and antagonistic opposition from the American conservatives and hate mongers that are still suffering from post traumatic syndrome because Mr. Obama was elected the President of the United States. Neither is my article a coronation of the man President Obama, whom many progressives like me in the United States are beginning to view with trepidation and buyers remorse. The apathy is due to his support of large chunks of the Bush and Cheney foreign and domestic policies. President Obama the individual has failed to articulate his positions on progressive issues and has allowed the conservatives to successfully triangulate and cow his administration. 

            However the situation in Africa and Nigeria is more volatile because when “push comes to shove,” Pan-Africanism, reason and logic goes out the window and we slaughter each other based on our perceived differences. We become mad in the name of economic difficulties, religion, and political expediency. In Kenya, Kikuyus and Kalenjins would rather have a blood bath than have dialogues and in Nigerian northerners are fighting each other in the name of settlers verse indigenes.  For example in Plateau State, Nigerian Christians and Muslims in the north have resulted to killing each in the name of colonial religions and to settle century old scores. We have practically forgotten the commonality of our black and/or African heritages and are quickly filled with hate and disdain for each other.

Conversely, I have experienced something different as a product of mixed parentage with Ibo and Ijaw heritage. I was born at Aggrey road waterside the epic center of civil disputes between the Ikwere and Okrika tribes in Port-Harcourt Rivers State. While I was fortunate to have the first stages of my development in the Town region of the garden city (Port-Harcourt), I would be remised if I fail to mention that this same region had large concentrations of Hausas and Fulanis. Though, most inhabitants of Port-Harcourt knew where our Hausa/Fulani brothers and sisters resided and conducted their businesses, there was never a single reprisal attack on our fellow country men and women notwithstanding the incessant attacks of individuals and families from the south and west of Nigeria in the north. Instead we patronized the businesses (foreign exchange and suya amongst others) of the northerners from the Niger street to Lagos street corridors of Rivers State Nigeria.

            Unlike President Obama and the United States we are still very much engaged in ti-for-tat vitriolic killings and hybrid destructive politicking. In Nigeria some of us are still trying to recriminate others for the assassination of his Excellency Prime Minister, Sir Abubaka Tafawa Balewa (the golden voice), northern Premier, Sir Ahmadu Bello, and western Premier, Sir Ladoke Akintola. We present with acrimony despite the Nigerian and Biafran civil war that killed nearly two million of our fellow citizens. In Africa, we are quick to claim President Obama as a son like President Muammar al-Gaddafi did when he appeared at the United Nations while simultaneously remaining “Leader for Life” in Libya. There is a perplexing state of denial when we do not ask ourselves if Obama’s story is possible in most African countries.

            Similarly, there is a denial of the lessons that surrounds the life, rise, and ascendancy of Mr. Obama. He did not have the right family name and political pedigree but arose to lead a nation of immigrants in transition. Is his story possible in Cairo, Yaounde, Lome, Kinshasa, Dakar, and Kampala to mention a few capitals of African countries? The answer is a resounding and unequivocal no way because we are self-centered, greed, and contentious to the highest degree. In Africa most rulers aspire for power and leadership positions but metamorphose to become the impediment to our rudimentary progress and structural growth.

            In the United States of America we know how much money then Senator and now President Obama was/is paid as salary. We can easily find out who donated to his political action committees and how much each donor gave. Whereas this level of transparency is palpable to ensure good leadership and governance in the African continent, we seem to strive in secrecy that produces wanton corruption. Former President Obasanjo of Nigeria recently made a statement that our congressional delegates are bankrupting the nation. We the people spend time fighting each other over economic and political crumbs and senseless ethnic and religious internal strife. In essence we allow our so-called elites, representatives, and rulers to goad us into conflicts when they are engaged in the fleecing of our precious continental resources.  

Nnamdi Frank Akwada, MSW, BA, Community Activist
Masters of Social Work (2010)
University of Maryland Baltimore
Health Specialization
Management and Community Organization/Clinical Concentration
University Student Government Association
Chief of Public Relations, 2009-2010
Social Work Community Outreach Service-
Maryland Community Fellow Intern 2009-2010
Bachelors in Criminology and Criminal Justice (2001)
University of Maryland College Park

History: Nigerian Politics

                                      Letters to My Grandfathers

In 2000, the year that the world was suppose to come to an end especially in the West, remember the predictions of Y2K computer systems malfunction, I went back to the United Nations o Nigeria for my paternal grandfather’s burial. I had left five years prior to the United States and joined an ever increasing Nigerian community that was more reticent about the situation back home despite the reality that they were going to be migrants abroad for many many years. General Abacha had evicted Interim President Dr. Ernest Shonekon after getting the back pass from the former criminal in charge General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. My Mbaise grand dad had died at the very timely age of 80. I got to know him from the prism of holiday visits on Easter and Christmas celebrations when the entire family traveled from Port-Harcourt to Imo State. Okenze Ugochukwu Thomas Akwada was a traditional title holder in Igbo land and his death was definitely the end of a chapter for me because my Igbo and Ijaw grandparents were all dead and a generation shift was in motion.

            Unfortunately, I did not have the privilege to encounter my maternal grandfather Mr. Alaibe Ogan who worked in the educational sectors of eastern Nigeria. He passed away before I was born but his lasting legacy was education, tolerant and enlightenment. He took his children from Okrika a subset of the Ijaw kingdom and worked as a principal/teacher in the present day Abia state. My mother and her siblings grew up partly in Aba and Umuahia cities and with time spoke fluent Igbo. As a civil servant Mr. Ogan was able to send out his first son Mr. Ashley Ogan to England to further his education. Thus my uncle missed the pivotal event of our young country, the Nigerian and Biafran civil war that killed approximately 2.5million southerners. A genocidal history that the United Nations of Nigeria, the African Union, and the international community is struggling to come to grips with in contemporary times.

            On the other hand Okenze Akwada, Ikoro as the village community affectionately christened him struggled to survive with his children. He struggled in poverty for most of his young life, including during the Nigerian and Biafran civil war. However, his first son, my father volunteered to defend the Bright of Biafra homeland from the genocidal onslaught of the Nigerian forces. This decision would in turn save his life because he got some basic training and was not one of the conscripted soldiers who did not have a chance against the better trained and equipped, British and Russian supported Nigerian troops. The Niger Deltans or Brifrans became the sacrificial lamb for the capitalist and communist ideologues that amazingly had a common interest in their marginalization.

            In spite of this history my paternal grandfather and my lineage survived and granddad ended up with a total of four wives before he died. But wait a minute he was not married to all four women at the same time. He was involved with my grandmother and had to marry his late brother’s wife in line with the prevailing culture. Though the union produced an offspring (my dear uncle) it did not last for too long. My Grandfather remained a rowing stone and married a third wife after the death of my grandmother and a fourth wife after the death of his third wife.

During some of our Christmas festivities my grandfather always had a cantankerous circus like atmosphere with his third wife who was about the age of his younger children. However his young wife would be pregnant when we returned for the Easter holidays. I have hypothesized over the years that my grandfather’s third wife died as a result of the inherent stressors within the family. Dealing with the six children from my grandmother, her own six children, and negotiating other family dynamics was ultimately fatal for my step grand mother who died too young.

Despite the shortcomings of Mr. Ugochukwu Thomas Akwada, I would always admire him because of the way strangers spoke about his integrity. Some people just identified me by saying that is Ikoro’s (his nickname) grandson. My grandfather was infamous in our community for speaking truth to power, challenging the status quo, and maintaining an independence from the two kings in our locality. He was a simple man who understood that his legacy was not based on monetary gains and self aggrandizement. People heaped encomiums on him for his principles and not for his material wealth. I would take my granddaddy’s principles over most of the current crop of grandfathers we have in the African continent especially those in charge of nations.

            In Zimbabwe for instance we have in President Robert Mugabe our granddaddy (maybe great grandfather) of despots. Mr. Mugabe has publicly declared that he would die in power than relinquish it to the next generation. Once a national hero Papa Mugabe chose to force masses of black Africans into exile, place them in abject poverty, and expose his people to diseases such as cholera. In neighboring South Africa, President Jacob Zuma is engaged in multiple wife diplomacy instead of digging in to improve the condition of millions. Who speaks for the hundreds of African immigrants who have been massacred in South Africa due to xenophobic antics and did anyone get prosecuted? How can our continental prophet and music maestro Mr. Lucky Dube be nonchalantly murdered in cold blood on the streets of Johannesburg? Most Pan-Africanist had envisioned Phillip singing and running around the opening stadium of the FIFA world cup competition.

            Sadly these situations with our modern-day grandfathers are not limited to the southern African region. In Uganda President Yoweri Museveni has occupied power for approximately 25years but keeps on reinventing himself. While grandpa Museveni is busy taking over from Snoop Dog or more aptly D’banj in the rap music game, the discourse in Uganda is concentrated on the sexuality of political activists. The pressing issue is not redistribution of wealth, political corruption, self sufficiency in agriculture, and the Lord Resistant Army who are still in the business of kidnapping and displacing innocent communities in the eastern and central African regions.

                

General Obasanjo, Danjuma, Babangida, and Abacha are major catalyst for the corruption, violence, and instability that is prevalent in the United Nations of Nigeria. The great Pan-Africanist Sir Peter Tosh sang about “everyone asking for peace but no one is asking for justice.” Dr. Jonathan President of Nigeria and Mr. Adoke Attorney General and Minister of Justice we the people are requesting for justice that is indeed over due. These men are now grandfathers and should account for their misdeeds. Let us apply the same vigor that the government is using to dismantle the Niger Delta militants to bring these generals and others to justice. We are presented with the current mess in the country because of the governments that these generals presided over for nearly fifty years. 

            However in the western side of the continent we are not faring any better with our grandfathers either. For example, in Nigeria one of our supposed elder statesman Alhaji Adamu Ciroma the former criminal in charge of the Nigerian Central Bank, Minister of Industries, Agriculture, and Finance is leading a sectarian assault on our ever evaporating national unity. This former government official, who is a pivotal member of the Northern Military Industrial Complex (NMIC), believes the absurdity that only individuals from the north and other so-called elites that have the blessing of the north should be Presidents of the United Nations of Nigeria. At his old age Mr. Ciroma and his cohorts are still fighting the battle of northern Nigeria hegemony and trying to make the rest of the country their imperial colonies.  

           

               

Nnamdi Frank Akwada, MSW, BA, Community Activist
Masters of Social Work (2010)
University of Maryland Baltimore
Health Specialization
Management and Community Organization/Clinical Concentration
University Student Government Association
Chief of Public Relations, 2009-2010
Social Work Community Outreach Service-
Maryland Community Fellow Intern 2009-2010
Bachelors in Criminology and Criminal Justice (2001)
University of Maryland College Park

Politics: Nationalism and Corruption

White Nationalism and Corporate Corruption in the Age of Obama

Republicans have once again shown their dexterity and willingness to do anything and everything to cling on to power. Indeed hail to the Grand Old Party (Elephants) who are discipline with their messages and resolute in their convictions for the furtherance of corporate corruption/domination and inequality in our national and global social and economic polity. They have certainly bastardized the Democrats in the just concluded midterm elections with the perfect tide and/or message of the great recession and our spineless Commander in Chief who acquiesced to the conservatives on many occasions. President Obama and the Democrats are clamoring for life support and have not begun to go through the stages of grief. The irony is that the President and his party that often want to be “Republican lite or diet-GOP” could not have made things anymore easier for the current whirlwind of victory that the Republican party and their siblings the Tea party are celebrating.

            President Barack Obama seemed oblivious about the reality that it was progressives who were disillusioned with the President Bush and Vice President Cheney eight year administrations that propelled him into the white house in 2008. These “professional left” like the white house christened them, were the ones that organized a cynical society to take a chance on Mr. Obama. The coalition of young progressive Latinos, Asians, Blacks, Caucasians, and elderly African Americans voters became the springboard for the change we thought we could believe in. However, the Democratic politicians quickly took the rugs from under the legs of these constituencies who made far reaching sacrifices and investiture in voting for the Obama administration. Instead of heeding to the demands of the left, the President decided to court and gratify the right. On January 13^th 2009 the newly elected president Obama hastily embarked on an appeasement tour of the just defeated conservative media luminaries. The President went to the house of George Will in Chevy Chase Maryland to dine with the same neo-conservative figures that supported and became the mouthpiece for the Bush and Cheney cowboy policies.

            Consequently while other national capitals around the world were busy preparing indictments against the President Bush and Vice-President Cheney war criminal team, the Obama administrations sort to shield them from internal and/or external accountability and prosecutions. Hence, President Obama became a defender of war criminals, torture, American hegemony, and our patriarchy structures. Obama single-handedly attempted to exonerate the previous regime from their illegal invasion of a sovereign country that resulted in the mass deaths of thousands of innocent civilians half way around the world in the Middle Eastern nation of Iraq. President Obama restricted Attorney General Eric Holder’s attempt to seek some modicum of justice for the voiceless.

            Interestingly, these acts of unprincipled cowardice by President Obama enabled the opposition that had lost a historic election to begin their strategy of mass antagonism. Our so-called “socialist” Mr. Obama went on to further alienate the progressives and independents while he played “footsie” with Wall Street by granting them their request to appoint Professor Lawrence Summers as the white house director for the National Economic Council (NEC) and Mr. Timothy Geithner the Secretary of the Treasury. Progressive economist like noble laureates Professor Paul Krugman and Professor Joseph Stiglitz were bypassed by the new administration.

Thus the banks were recapitalized with taxpayers’ monies and nobody in government thought it was a decent idea to force them into signing memoranda of understand and/or contracts with regards to financial reforms. The new president continue the same unconditional corporate hangouts that began in the Bush administration under former Treasury secretary Henry Paulson. For example Citigroup went from near collapse to been able to purchase Chevy Chase bank in Maryland with some of the $300 billion government guarantee bailout funds. Hence Citibank, Bank of America, and other banks forced students with loans and homeowners with mortgages into bankruptcy and foreclosures respectively after they received taxpayers sponsored monies. President Obama in his unrealistic bid to please all sides went on to exacerbate the problems of the lower and middle income individuals and/or families who were loosing their jobs and homes in quick succession.          

However, the Republicans love them or hate them were able to come up with a well oiled and effective message that used the growing economic crises and their support for white hegemony as a rallying cry to egg on conservatives and some independents. The Tea Party sub-set of the Republican Party demanded their country back from the “Socialist African Witchdoctor Nazis Indonesian Muslim African-American Nationalist Chicagoan Gangster Hawaiian Commy.” They seduced and intimidated the media into granting them nonstop coverage. In fairness the Obama administration and the Democratic Party did not respond to them with any substantive public campaign because the battle was already lost. Our corporate owned and sponsored media that cheered on as President Bush and Vice President Cheney swindled us into an unprovoked war in Iraq became accessories to the Tea Party zealots like Sarah Palin.    

Invariably, the Republican Party and Tea Party who denied and negated the Americans that voted in 2008 are now lecturing us that indeed the “true Americans” have spoken. The same personalities that did not recognize the masses that voted on November 4th 2008 during the United States 56^th quadrennial elections and those (2million strong) that came to Washington DC on January 20^th 2009 for the President Obama inauguration ceremonies from all over the country and the world. Republicans and Tea baggers want us to give credence to a mid-term election in which about 30million Americans who voted in the 2008 general elections did not bother to show up. But then again the Republican Party and the Tea Party folks present with hubris that could be summed up as the Audacity of Spin and Misinformation. They would do anything to keep a government ineffective in order to continue their self-fulfilling prophecies (that the government is the problem) and assume roles as the problem solvers while conveniently negating their roles in the hemorrhaging process.                     

Nnamdi Frank Akwada, MSW, BA, Community Activist
Masters of Social Work (2010)
University of Maryland Baltimore
Health Specialization
Management and Community Organization/Clinical Concentration
University Student Government Association
Chief of Public Relations, 2009-2010
Social Work Community Outreach Service-
Maryland Community Fellow Intern 2009-2010
Bachelors in Criminology and Criminal Justice (2001)
University of Maryland College Park

African Affairs

Sovereign National Conference- United Nations of Nigeria

            Our civil societies and social justice individuals have requested for a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) to redefine the United Nations of Nigeria since the disastrous General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s administration. In my humble opinion the three objectives of the SNC should be; the discontinuation of internal and external colonialism in Nigeria, Africa and by extension throughout the African Diaspora. The second issue is to end the Nigerian and Biafran civil war that killed more than 2.5million southerners and continues through the persecution and neglect of the Niger Deltans by the Federal Government in Abuja and state houses in the Niger Delta region. The final goal of the SNC should be resolving the lack of transparency that results in massive corruption and “do or die” politics. These and more points should be evaluated despite the potential 8year leadership of President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan because the SNC predates and supersedes his mandate.

            Moreover, the prospect of the Sovereign National Conference has been viewed as a means to take the country beyond the 1914 amalgamation exercise by the colonial and imperialist United Kingdom. In 1914 Sir Frederick Lugard decreed the unification of Southern and Northern Nigeria. Most critics have asserted that the British Empire did not provide and/or facilitate adequate consultations between both regions that eventually evolved into the United Nations of Nigeria. Instead they used the divide and conquer strategies which were the catalyst to the Trans Atlantic slave trade expeditions that took Africans to the West and ensured genocidal warfare in places like the Benin, Ghana, Nri, Kano, and Opobo Kingdoms to mention a few. The SNC is envisaged as a way to reengage our various tribes so that we can make an attempt to stop the tide of imperialism which has been cast as modern-day western cloned administrations that continues unabated. The movie “Apology of an Economic Hitman” and book “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” by John Perkins might crystallize my contentions.

            In reference to ending the Nigerian and Biafran civil war through the SNC, the reality remains that since 1967 southerners have been demonized and killed in the north for the flimsiest of reasons. Our natural resources such as peak petroleum and liquefied natural gas in the Niger Delta are now a curse. The powers that be like the federal government of Nigeria have a vested interest in the instability and militarization of the region. The western countries and their multinational companies/cabals are actually cartels (an insignia that is used for OPEC by western news agencies and governments) that want to “oil” us dry and would also like to maintain the current structures.

Over the years our Nigerian government has remained lazy and reluctant to equitably diversify the economy. The government, the military, and the Oil companies (such us British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell) are willing and eager to wage wars in the Niger Delta instead of setting up commissions for peace and conceding to the reasonable demands of the poor. The Niger Deltans live with exposures to carcinogens and oil spills that make the Louisiana gulf coast oil explosions seem like a joke while the government and oil company cartels would rather murder our community leaders like Dr. Ken Saro Wiwa and Chief Albert Tombari Badey and then setup discord among us. Where are the apologies and restoration for these brutal realities? Why did the Nigerian government and Royal Dutch Shell fail to consider the demands of a non-violent progressive human rights movement? These inactions have spurned the current instability, killings, and kidnappings in the Bright of Biafra.

            Consequently, the Sovereign National Conference should seek to address our problem with transparency and corruption. How do we begin to account for the billions that were siphoned from projects like the Ajokuta Steel Rolling Company and the National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria (NAFCON) at Onne by the General Babangida administration? Notwithstanding these thefts of national resources the Northern Military Industrial Complex (NMIC) wants to rule us again. They are crying about staying out of power for only 17years when they have held us in servitude for 50years. NMIC members like Babangida and Rilwanu Lukman (former Minister of Mines Power and Steel, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Petroleum, Chairman of the Board Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and Secretary General of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC) have sliced the Niger Delta regions into Oil blocks for their personal interest and foreign business partners/criminals. Then, they wonder why our impoverish people and their children who graduate from schools without any economic opportunities have arisen to stop these madness. After all these atrocities General Babangida is able to profess his love for Nigeria. If this is how the love is manifest we pray not to know his enemies.

Hopefully, the SNC would be able to provide major transparency blueprints to stop these corruptions that occur with impunity. We have a situation where resources are allocate in the federal, state, and local governments and one or few persons can boldly steal these monies without any hesitations and accountability. This leads to the nonpayment of civil servants, teachers, and societal breakdown. Can we not have a situation that informs all the citizenry about national revenue allocations? Have 50years of experiences not proven times without number that secrecy is the brainchild and toolkit of the ruthless embezzlers in the United Nations of Nigeria and indeed worldwide. How can a civil servant in the National Assembly be in the position of importing 6 armored vehicles and conspire to defraud the department of customs in the process by not paying the required clearing fees. The first and obvious question is the source of his money. Did anyone bother to ask this representative and others to declare their assets before they contested the elections? Another point of inquiry should be about his constituents, are their interest really been served.                    

However, why some have postulated that the Sovereign National Conference is the panacea for our problems, others wonder about the practicality of the consultation. These concerns are grounded in our past and present-day experiences. For example how would the over 200 ethnic nations within the United Nations of Nigeria elect/select their representatives to the SNC. This process is crucial because it would ultimately determine the success or failure of the meeting. Would the ethnic nationalities be bamboozled and/or “wayooed” into sending individuals like some in the current National Assembly to the SNC? Let me digress by proposing a 30% across the board reduction of the salaries, bonus, and gratuities that are allocated to members of the Nigerian National Assembly.

Conversely in answering the aforementioned question, if we are tricked and the usual suspects (so-called elites and NMIC) hijack the conference, we might have to stop in our tracks and strategize anew. We can not afford to congregate with just members of the Nigerian Elites Establishment (NEE). These so-called elites have demonstrated their inabilities to relate and empathize with the regular Ades, Obinnas, Zainabas, and Bomas of the United Nation of Nigeria. But they need to realize that some of us are no longer cynical and resigned to dissolution, we are engaged and mobilized with a willingness to lay down our lives on the altar of social, economic, and environmental justice by way of good governance. The question for the government is how long we are going to remain with vestiges of colonial mentality /mental slavery. On the other hand citizens of the United Nations of Nigeria need to grapple with how to configure the Sovereign National Conference to achieve positive progressive outcomes for all our nationalities.        

Nnamdi Frank Akwada, MSW, BA, Community Activist
Masters of Social Work (2010)
University of Maryland Baltimore
Health Specialization
Management and Community Organization/Clinical Concentration
University Student Government Association
Chief of Public Relations, 2009-2010
Social Work Community Outreach Service-
Maryland Community Fellow Intern 2009-2010
Bachelors in Criminology and Criminal Justice (2001)
University of Maryland College Park

My Nigerian Story- Vestiges of a Cuckoo Nation Part 1 of 2

My Nigerian Story- Vestiges of a Cuckoo Nation Part 1 of 2

My journey into the United Nations of Nigeria was certainly bereaved with many complexities. Ironically, one of the national cable channel “Hi Nolly” kept on repeating the same approximately 10 clips of Nigerians recanting their Nigerian stories in a nation of close to 200million individuals. I was only intrigued by the story of Bolanle Austen Powers who admonished Nigerians who are unable to appreciate our language, culture, and values.  Thus, from Lagos, Benin, Onitsha, to Owerri and to Port-Harcourt, I and my family were confronted with so many unique chronologies of the Nigerian story that were systematically exempt from the propaganda machine that was eschewed from the Hi Nolly platform and our so- called elitist national dogma. However, the reality is that we are saddled with a nation that purports to be the giant of Africa while we remain mired in mediocrity, corruption, and mismanagement, hence the assessment of our current state. 

                Our problems are magnified with the introduction into our airports and encounter with our so-called first line ambassadors. Apart from the general deplorable conditions of the airports (Lagos, Owerri, and Port-Harcourt which are the ones I visited) for a nation that is ranked one of the largest oil exporter in the globe, the men and women of the Nigerian Customs and Excise are a national disgrace of the highest order. While few foreigners and citizens of the United Nations of Nigeria might attempt to smuggle in and out various items, our immigration officers seem to thrive in collecting bribes with no shame, trepidation, and pretense. Certainly, there is a general sagacity that these civil servants work on voluntary bases for our country and are mandated by the “powers that be” to use their stead in sourcing revenues for their general upkeep from travelers. The emergent of former Vice-President of Nigeria and Deputy Director of Nigerian Customs and Excise Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as a presidential aspirant is telling. His recent revelations that he became a multi-millionaire as a federal employee before the June 12th 1993 election debacle should encourage the investigation of the profligacy of pubic trust that is very pervasive in the United Nations of Nigeria.

                Moreover, I was able to acquire the title of the second half of this commentary from my six year old son who visited Nigeria for the first time in his life. After exhausting some energy trying to dissuade my young man from summing the United Nations of Nigeria as a “Cuckoo land,” I decided to put on my objective lenses and stop my romanticism. Thus the ability to wonder why some members of our security forces at the Lagos state Murtala Mohammed airport would assault a woman who came to pickup a man from the international airport. Our uniform personnel verbally harassed this lady, struck her vehicle, and called her all types of names in the book (una no sey dem must call am Ashawo becos she no give dem money). I and a couple of bystanders literally put ourselves between the lady and our gun wielding officers who wanted to beat her up. This particular officer had to be restrained by his fellow law enforcement members. My immediate family, who were in the country for the first time witnessed this cruel treatment, they remained traumatized by the reactions of the officers.

                Consequently a minority of Nigerians by any scientific measure but with long lasting impacts do not comprehend that first impressions matter. We are oblivious of the fact that there are reasons beyond scenery why thousands visit places like the Caribbean, Ghana, and other global tourist destinations over and over again. The three major reasons are the hospitality, sincerity, and effective customer service. I have personally experienced these factors in Jamaica and the Cayman Island. These places have citizens who realize that most visitors come to invest their time and limited resources during their trips and they appreciate their guest. In the process more people descend on these areas due to positive affirmations (simple word of mouth oh!). The resulting effect of this trust and openness is that some single-holiday seekers have been known to get engaged and married to locals in these areas. In these places visitors are not generally entrapped by 419 schemes of marriage and other deceptions.    

Unlike the Lagos Area Boys who are attempting to annex the Bar Beach in Lagos the aforementioned people and places treat individuals with courtesy and respect while getting the best out of the situation. There are no get rich schemes like claiming to clean the beach despite the visible filthy of our national treasury and using the proceeds (give me my money) to buy beer and smoke ganja right in front of those you want to obtain. The belligerent young man that approached me for his money should thank his luck stars like I admonished him. My wife and children essentially saved him from more confrontation. What got me so upset was that he made it seem like he handed me his money fifteen years ago when I visited the beach with my good friend Mr. Dateme Amarchree on the eve of my travel abroad. But as a criminologist and social community activist I realize that my young brother is a victim of his social environment. The dreams of our young people seem to have been stolen from them because of the national problems of corruption and mismanagement. I only hope that His Excellency Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, and any other dedicated official or community activist are not too bothered by other elementary or monumental stuff to tackle these issues.   

                Relatively, the women and men of the Lagos State National Museum need to be applauded for their professionalism and etiquette. They represented the entire nation with class and dignity throughout the tour of the exhibitions. As an entity they were in star contrast to many vendors and businesses that inflated their prices because that could dictate the foreignness in some guest and operate from the prism that those of us that happen to reside abroad are either nameless “Dollars” and/or “Pounds.” I am sure that my son who conned the “Cuckoo land” insignia would side me on this point because of his malleability.  More importantly I hope that the other Nigerian family from Florida whom we met there, who had children in their late teens and early twenties, saw a respectable side of the United Nations of Nigeria. These same Nigerian kids from the United States who coincidental were in our country for the first time and saw us later in the day when we were in a heated debate with the thugs at the Bar beach. Though their parents informed us that they experienced similar problems with the “young property owners,” it is my hope that the children will want to return to our country.  

Comparatively, the National Museum needs to continue their professional standard so they do not suffer the fate of ABC bus services that used to be the pearl bearer of professionalism in the mass transit system. When I left the United Nations of Nigeria in 1995 the ABC bus company was in a top distinct class and the envy of other transportation firms. We as a people sure know how to begin but the problem remains in our ability to sustain a consistent high standard over the years. Anyway why should we expect ABC bus services or any other mass transit company for that matter to continue their initial principles when our federal and state governments can not fulfill the elementary task of providing safe new roads and maintaining the subsisting roads?    

Nnamdi Frank Akwada, MSW, BA, Community Activist
Masters of Social Work (2010)
University of Maryland Baltimore
Health Specialization
Management and Community Organization/Clinical Concentration
University Student Government Association
Chief of Public Relations, 2009-2010
Social Work Community Outreach Service-
Maryland Community Fellow Intern 2009-2010
Bachelors in Criminology and Criminal Justice (2001)
University of Maryland College Park