A Poolside Sit-Out With Niyi Osundare In Abuja

 By Tunde Olusunle

Typical of the extremely organised personality that he is, the multiple award-winning poet, Niyi Osundare, had already “served notice” of his imminent visit to Nigeria, weeks before he came. He had been invited by the organisers of the “Nigerian National Order of Merit,” (NNOM), to deliver a lecture at the 2022 edition of the Annual Forum of NNOM Laureates, in Abuja.

*Olusunle, Osundare and Nyitse

His presentation was titled “Poetry and the Human Voice”. The event was scheduled for Wednesday December 7, 2022, and the New Orleans, US-based Osundare needed to “forewarn” those of us who are his younger kith, that he was coming to our city. He does have a good number of we his mentees, inspired by his craft, in the Federal Capital Territory and it was going to be our pleasure to have him around.

Scholar And Novelist Isidore Okpewho Passes On at 74

By Nduka Otiono 
Africa’s foremost scholar of Oral Literature and award-winning novelist, Isidore Okpewho, has passed on at 74. He was a prolific author, co-author and editor of about 14 books, dozens of articles and a seminal booklet, A Portrait of the Artist as a Scholar.

Prof Isidore Okpewho

Prof. Okpewho died peacefully at a hospital in Binghamton, a town in Upstate New York where he had lived and taught since 1991. His teaching career spanned University of New York at Buffalo (1974-76), University of Ibadan (1976-90), Harvard University (1990-91), and State University of New York at Binghamton. 

According to family sources, the Distinguished Professor at State University of New York, Binghamton, passed away on Sunday, September 4, 2016, surrounded by family members. Although he battled illness recently, the scholar and humanist had demonstrated exceptional capacity to deal with his challenging health conditions. Indeed, only two years ago, his last book to which he had long committed his intellectual resources, Blood on the Tides: The Ozidi Saga and Oral Epic Narratology, was published by University of Rochester Press.

Born on November 9, 1941 in Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria, Okpewho grew up in Asaba, his maternal hometown, where he attended St Patrick’s College, Asaba. He proceeded to the University College, Ibadan, for his university education. He graduated with a First Class Honours in Classics, and moved on to launch a glorious career: first in publishing at Longman Publishers, and then as an academic after obtaining his PhD from the University of Denver, USA. He crowned his certification with a D.Litt from University of London. 

With his two earliest seminal academic monographs, The Epic in Africa: Toward a Poetics of the Oral Performance (1979) and Myth in Africa: A Study of Its Aesthetic and Cultural Relevance (1983), Okpewho quickly established his reputation as a first-rate scholar and a pioneer of Oral Literature in Africa. For his distinctive and prolific output he was honoured with a string of international academic and non-academic awards that included the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM), in Humanities for the year 2010. 

Change, Nigeria’s Political Challenges, And The Canadian Example

By Nduka Otiono

The generally peaceful conduct of the March 28, 2015 Nigerian presidential election and the gracious acceptance of defeat by the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) strongly signaled that Nigeria may have turned a new page, politically.

Other indicators of a new turn for Africa’s largest democratic country and economy are the following firsts in the country’s annals: the widespread innovative use of technology for the process—the use of card readers; the overthrow of the ruling PDP by the General Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) through the ballot box after 16 years of dominance; the election of four none indigenes of a state (Lagos State) as members of the Federal House of Representatives; and the above-average performance of the National Electoral Commission in ways that suggest considerable independence of the electoral umpire.  

Although news reports suggested a poor turnout for the second-tier of the 2015 elections into governorship and state parliamentary positions, the relative voter apathy did not becloud the overall plaudits that the current political process has earned locally and internationally. So, too, did the reports of violence leading to death in sections of the country and the localized electoral malpractices not detract from the respectable scorecard of the electoral commission.  

Chinua Achebe, 37 Other Nigerian Writers Speak On The State Of The Nation

We are troubled by the turn of events in Nigeria, and hereby call on President Goodluck Jonathan and the rest of the country’s political leadership to take immediate steps to tackle the state of lawlessness in certain parts of the nation and address the trepidation and rage that has reached dangerous levels within the Nigerian populace.

Chinua Achebe

Nigeria is witnessing a new escalation of sectarian violence, culminating in explosions that have killed or seriously wounded scores of people at churches and other centers of worship and local businesses.

As a people who lost two million citizens in a civil war, Nigerians must bring an urgent sense of history to the gloomy events. The country’s leadership should not view the incessant attacks as mere temporary misfortune with which the citizenry must learn to live; they are precursors to events that could destabilize the entire country.

We applaud President Jonathan’s declaration of a state of emergency in certain local government areas in four states. However, we have seen little indication that the country’s security and law enforcement agents are up to the task of protecting the lives and property of citizens in all parts of Nigeria.



Okey Ndibe

Clearly, the sophistication and deadly impact of the terrorist attacks suggest an agenda to create widespread fear and, possibly, to foment anarchy or war. President Jonathan has no greater duty than to ensure that Nigerians are safe wherever they live or visit within the country. He should demonstrate his recognition of that solemn duty, in our view, by doing the following:

(a) Outline both short and long term plans to comprehensively address the scourge of terror,

(b) Appoint competent and committed officials to head the various security agencies, and

(c) Serve as an agent to heal the many divisions plaguing Nigeria, and persuade all well-meaning people to enlist in the fight against festering violence.



Tess Onwueme

President Jonathan’s decision to remove fuel subsidies in the country at this time was ill-advised. Coming at the advent of the New Year, and barely a week after the gruesome Christmas Day attacks on worshippers, the policy has forced many Nigerian citizens to perceive his leadership as one that is both insensitive and possibly contemptuous of the mood of its people.

We stand with the Nigerian people who are protesting the removal of oil subsidy which has placed an unbearable economic weight on their lives. This action has clearly imposed an untenable and unfair burden on those segments of Nigerians who are already impoverished - subsisting on less than $2 a day. We call on President Jonathan to immediately change course. By reverting to the old prices of petroleum products, President Jonathan can work to diffuse tension in the country and exemplify the true servant leader who not only serves but also listens to his people. To insist on having his way, and to deploy state security and legal apparati to crush growing popular uprisings is to stamp on a highly valued tenet of democracy – the right to peaceful assembly – and to inadvertently promote greater violence in the country.



Isidore Okpewho

President Jonathan’s administration has made a persuasive case that a few highly connected Nigerians have corruptly profited from fuel subsidy. The government should swiftly bring to justice those corrupt profiteers as well as the bureaucrats who aid and abet their unconscionable parasitic activities and economic sabotage.

We acknowledge President Jonathan’s recent announcement of 25% cut in the basic salaries of political office holders.

But we believe that the move merely scratches the indefensible bloated salaries and allowances paid to Nigerian political officials. The president should also champion significant cuts in the huge cost of running the various tiers of government and the luxuries that have become the signature of those who ought to protect the commonwealth, serve the people, and not exploit them.



Besides, the culture of corruption and impunity in official quarters constitutes a grave threat to national security and to the country’s effort to establish a democratic culture and meaningful economic development.

Nigeria needs a return to relative calm to enable its people, and the Jonathan administration in particular, to focus on the task of combating the incubus of corruption, poverty and home-grown terrorism.

Signed by:
Chinua Achebe,  Okey Ndibe, Nduka Otiono, Helon Habila, Akin Adesokan, Pius Adesanmi, Tess Onwueme, Obiora Udechukwu, Yinka Tella,  Richard Ali, Chiji Akoma, Paul Ugor, Tolu Ogunlesi, Samantha Iwowo, Idowu Ohioze, Offiong Bassey, Chido Onumah, Bunmi Aborisade, Omolade Adunbi, Mahmud Obeamata, Mahmud Aminu, Nasr Kura, Gimba Kakanda, Obioma Nnaemeka, Sonala Olumhense, Ikhide Ikheola, Isidore Okpewho, E.C. Osondu, Ogaga Ifowodo, Mike Nwosu, Herbert Ekwe Ekwe, Chimalum Nwankwo, Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, Ebenezer Obadare, Ahmed Maiwada, Madina Shehu, Hussein Abdu, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani

               

2011 Achebe Colloquium On Africa: Schedule Of Activities

 Schedule

All Panels Will Take Place In The Martinos Auditorium Of The Perry And Marty Granoff Center For The Creative Arts...

Participants Subject To Change

Saturday, December 3, 2011

8:30 am – 9:00 am
Welcome
Ruth Simmons, President, Brown University

Opening Address
Emeka Anyaoku, Chief, Former Secretary General of British Commonwealth

9:00 am – 10:15 am
The Arab Spring: Challenges to Democratization and Nation Building
·         MODERATOR: Peter M. Lewis, Associate Professor and Director of Africana Studies Program, Johns Hopkins University
·         Daniel Serwer, The Center for Transatlantic Relations, American Consortium on European Union Studies, EU Center of Excellence, Johns Hopkins University
·         Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Coordinator, Democracy and Islam Programme Centre for the Study of Democracy; University of Westminster
·         Chibli Mallat, The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques; Visiting Professor of Islamic Legal Studies, Harvard Law School
·         Richard Joseph, John Evans Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University
·         Ali Mazrui, Director, Institute of Global Cultural Studies, Binghamton University




 10:30 am – 11:45am
Arab Spring 2011: Prognosticators Roundtable

·         MODERATOR: Darren Kew, Associate Professor, Department of Conflict Resolution, Human Security, and Global Governance; Executive Director of the Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development, University of Massachusetts

·         Emmad Shahin, Henry R. Luce Associate Professor of Religion, University of Notre Dame

·         Lina Khatib, Program Manager for the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy, Stanford University

·         Tarek Masoud, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University

·         Stuart Krusell, Associate Director, Office of External Relations, MIT

12:45pm – 1:15 pm

Keynote Address

Ali Suleiman Aujali, Libyan Ambassador to the United States

1:30 pm–3:00 pm

Darfur: Towards Sustainable Peace

·         MODERATOR: Lina M. Fruzzetti, Royce Family Professor in Teaching Excellence and Professor of Anthropology, Brown University

·         Alex de Waal, Program Director, HIV/AIDS and Social Transformation, Social Science Research Council

·         Ali B. Dinar, Associate Director, The African Studies Program, University of Pennsylvania

·         Eddie Thomas, Fellow, The Rift Valley Institute

·         Christa Capozzola, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, USAID

·         Ryan Spencer Reed, Photographer

  

3:15 pm – 4:45 pm

Southern Sudan: Obstacles Facing the World’s Newest Nation

·         MODERATOR: Roger Middleton, Chatham House

·         Thomas Kwasi Tieku, Director, African Studies, University of Toronto

·         Lant Pritchett, Professor of Economic Development, Harvard University

·         Jehanne Henry, Senior Researcher for Sudan and South Sudan, Human Rights Watch

·         Rebecca Hamilton, Journalist and Author, Pulitzer Center

·         Eric Reeves, Smith College

5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Keynote Address

John Schram, Former Canadian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Angola, Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Sudan; High Commissioner to Ghana and Sierra Leone; Distinguished Senior Fellow, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs Senior Fellow, Centre for International Relations, Queen’s University

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Literature and the Spoken Word

* This event will take place in the George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space in Churchill House located at

155 Angell Street

·         MODERATOR: Raphael d’Abdon

·         Twin Poets

·         Titillate Sonuga

·         Offiong Bassey  

Presiding: Nduka Otiono, Postdoctoral Fellow, Africana Studies, Brown University

Sunday, December 4, 2011

8:30 am – 9:00 am

Welcome

Corey D. B. Walker, Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Africana Studies, Brown University

Opening Address

Chinua Achebe, David and Marianna Fisher University Professor of Africana Studies, Brown University

9:00 am – 10:15 am

China and the United States in Africa: Cooperation or Confrontation?

·      MODERATOR: Olakunle George, Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies, Brown University

·      Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution, Harvard University; President, World Peace Foundation 

·      Walter Carrington, Former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria

·      James J. Hentz, Head of Department and Professor of International Studies & Political Science, Virginia Military Institute

·      Scott D. Taylor, Director of African Studies, Georgetown University

·      Omer Ismail, Senior Policy Advisor, The Enough! Project

·      Deborah Brautigam, School of International Service, American University

10:30 am – 11:45 am 

China’s Presence in Africa: Collaboration or Colonialism?

·         MODERATOR: Tijan Sallah, Senior Economist, The World Bank

·         Richard Dowden, Director, Royal African Society of London

·         Matt Wells, Researcher, Human Rights Watch

·         Muna B. Ndulo, Professor of Law, Director of Institute for African Development, Cornell University

·         Brent Huffman, Assistant Professor, Medill School of Journalism Northwestern University

·         Tony Gambino, Consultant and Former Mission Director, USAID Congo

·         Xiaohon He, Professor of International Business, Quinnipiac University

                   

12:30 pm – 1:15 pm

Keynote Address

David Shinn, Former United States Ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, Adjunct Professor of International Affairs, The George Washington University

1:30 pm – 3:00 pm 

Zimbabwe: Prospects for a Stable Democracy or Dictatorship?

·      MODERATOR: Corey D. B. Walker, Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Africana Studies, Brown University

·      Alex Vines, Research Director, Royal Institute of International Affairs; Chair of Africa Program, Chatham House

·      Blair Rutherford, Director of the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University  

·      John Campbell, Former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Senior Fellow for African Policy Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

·      Robert Rotberg, Director, Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution, Harvard University; President, World Peace Foundation 

·      Chitsaka Chipaziwa, Ambassador of Zimbabwe to the United Nations

·      C. E. Onukaogu, Resident Commissioner, The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Anambra State, Nigeria

·      Vivian Nkechinyere Enomoh, The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Anambra State, Nigeria

3:15 pm – 5:15 pm

Literature: The Spoken Word

MODERATOR: Alastair Niven, Principal, Cumberland Lodge

Chinua Achebe

Sonia Sanchez

Jayne Cortez

Yusef Komunyakaa

Obiora Udechukwu

 Bassey Ikpi

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RELATED TOPIC 

2011 Achebe Colloquium To Explore Arab Spring, Zimbabwean And Darfur Crises