FIRST CLASS HISTORIAN STRAIGHTENS OUT
NIGERIA'S HISTORY MADE CROOKED on
claims
on who LEADS WHERE among the BENIN,
IGBO, &
YORUBA in a viral exchange here reproduced
with
VERIFIABLE EVIDENCES
A REPLY TO Chief Femi Fani-Kayode by Dr.
Samuel Okafor on FFK'S “The Bitter Truth
About
The Igbo”,VERSUS “The Lies of Femi Fani-
Kayode”.
Dr. Samuel Okafor, who has a First Class in
History from the University of Nigeria
Nsukka and then did a Ph.D in Nsukka on
scholarship, dismissed Fani-
Kayode as a “half-baked intellectual.” He then
proceeded, point by point, to
address what he termed “the most reckless
amongst the tangle of reckless
comments spewed by Femi, a character who
with
each punch of his keypad
stresses his severely unwell conditions of
logorrhoea, delusions of
enlightenment, history and sociology –
amongst
others.”
Below are Okafor’s words:
FEMI AND HIS SEVERELY IGNORANT LIES:
•Femi Lies About the Yorubas Being Nigeria’s
Earliest Graduates:
From his myopic bubble Femi FaniKayode
claims
the Yoruba were the first
to acquire Western education; the first ever
known record of a literate
Nigerian in the English Language is the
narrative
of an Ibo slave who
regained his freedom and documented his life
history as a slave from the
time he was 11 years old in present day Ibo
land
till the time when he
gained his freedom in the middle of the 18 th
century. He later married an
English woman and had 3 children. He died in
1795.
Femi, a basic Google-research will do you
good
here; check out the name,
Equanoh OLAODAH. Further Femi claims that
the
Yoruba were the first
lawyers and doctors in Nigeria. This is again a
big
falsehood . The first
Nigeria doctor was an Effik man Silas G. Dove
who obtained a medical
degree from France and returned to practise
medicine in 1840 in Calabar.
This fact can also be verified from historical
medical records in Paris.
I would also ask that you google the name
BLYDEN – Edward Wilmot
BLYDEN – an educated son of free Ibo slaves
who
by the mid-19th century
had acquired sound theological education. He
was
born in Saint Thomas in
1832. He is one of the founding missionaries
that
established the
Archbishop Vining church in Ikeja. Before the
next
time you succumb to
your long-running battle with logorrhoea, Femi
please do some research.
What about the third president of a free Liberia
–
President J JRoyle –
again, a man of Ibo descent. Please take some
time to do some research so
that we can discuss constructively. It is wrong
to
peddle lies to your people.
It is academic fraud to knowingly misrepresent
facts just to score cheap
points with people who do not have the
discipline
to do research and accept
anything you pour out simply because they
say
you are well educated. To
again quote the great Nobel Prize Winner in
Economics Joseph Stiglitz;
Femi fits into the category of third rate
students
from first rate
universities with an inflated sense of self-
importance. Let’s go on!
Who was the first Nigerian Professor of
Mathematics – an Ibo man –
Professor Chike Obi – the man who solved
Fermat’s Last Theorem. He was
followed by another Ibo man, Professor James
Ezeilo, Professor of
Differentail Calculus and the founder of the
Ezeilo
Constant. Please do some
research on this great Ibo man. He later
became
the Vice Chancellor of the
University of Nigeria Nsukka and one of the
founders of the Nigerian
Mathematical Centre. Who was Nigeria’s first
Professor of Histroy –
Professor Kenneth Dike who published the first
account of trade in Nigeria
in pre-colonial times. He was also the first
African Vice Chancellor of the
University of Ibadan. Who was the first
Professor
of Microbiology –
Professor Eni Njoku; he was also the first
African
Vice Chancellor of the
University of Lagos. Anatomy and Physiology
–
Professor Chike Edozien is
an Asaba man and current Obi of Asaba. Who
was the first Professor of
Anatomy at the University College Ibadan?
Who was the first Professor of
Physics? Professor Okoye, who became a
Professor of Physics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
1960.
He was followed by the
likes of Professor Alexander Anumalu who has
been nominated for the
Nobel Prize for Physics three times for his
research in Intermediate
Quantum Physics. He was also a founding
member of the Nigerian
Mathematical Centre. Nuclear Physics and
Chemistry – again another Ibo
man – Professor Frank Ndili who gained a
Ph.D
in his early ’20s at
Cambridge Univesity in Nuclear Physics and
Chemistry in the early ’60s.
This young Asaba man had made a First Class
in
Physics and
Mathematics at the then University College
Ibadan in the early ’50s. First
Professor of Statistics – Professor Adichie
who’s
research on Non-
Parametric Statistics led to new areas in
statistical research.
What about the first Nigerian Professor of
Medicine – Professor Kodilinye – he was
appointed a Professor of Medicine at the
University of London in 1952. He
later became the Vice Chancellor of the
University
of Nigeria Nsukka after
the war. What about Astronomy – again
another
Ibo man was the first
Professor of Astronomy – please, look up
Professor Ntukoju – he was the
first to earn a double Ph.D in Astronomy and
Mathematics.
Let’s go to the Social Sciences – Demography
and statistical research into
population studies – again another Ibo man –
Professor Okonjo who set up
the first Centre for Population Research in
Ibadan
in the early ’60s. A
double Ph.D in Mathematics and Economics.
Philosophy – Professor G D
Okafor, who became a Professor of Philosophy
at
the Amherst College USA
in 1953. Economics – Dr. Pius Okigbo who
became a visiting scholar and
Professor of Economics at the University of
London in 1954. He is also the
first Nigerian Ph.D in Economics. Theology
and
theological research –
Professor Njoku who became the first Nigerian
to
earn a Ph.D in Theology
from Queens University Belfast in Ireland. He
was
appointed a Professor
of Theology at the University College Zambia in
1952.
I am still conducting research in areas such as
Geography where it seems
a Yoruba man, Professor Mabogunje, was the
first
Professor. I also am
conducting research into who was the first
Nigerian Professor of English,
Theatre Arts, Languages, Business and
Education,
Law and Engineering,
Computer Technology, etc. Nigerians need to
be
told the truth and not let
the lies that Femi Fani-Kayode has been
selling to
some ignorant Yoruba
who feel that to be the first to see the white
man
and interact with him
means that you are way ahead of other
groups.
The Ibo as The great
Achebe said had within a span of 40 years
bridged the gap and even
surpassed the Yoruba in education by the
’60s.
Many a Yoruba people
perpetually indulge in self-deceit: that they
were
the first to go to school; to
be exposed to Western education; that they
are
academically ahead of other
Nigerian cultures of peoples. Another ignorant
lie.
As far back as 1495 the Benin Empire
maintained
a diplomatic presence
in Portugal. This strategic relationship did not
just
stop at a mere mission
but extended to areas such as education.
Scores
of young Benin men were
sent out to Portugal to study and lots of them
came back with advanced
degrees in Medicine, Law and Portuguese
Language, to name a few.
Indeed, some went with their Yoruba and Ibo
slaves who served the sons of
the Benin nobility while they studied in
Portugal.
These are facts that can be
verified by the logs kept by ship owners in
Portugal from 1494 to 1830. It
is kept at the Portuguese Museum of
Geographic
History in Lisbon.
WHY THE YORUBA LIES ?
Why then would several Yoruba people peddle
all
these falsehoods to show
that they are ahead educationally in Nigeria?
The
true facts from the
Federal Office of Statistics on education tell
otherwise, showing that 3 Ibo
states for the past 12 years have constantly
had
the largest number of
graduates in the country, producing more
graduates than Ondo, Osun,
Ekiti and Oyo states. These eastern states are
Imo, Anambra and Abia. Yet
he calls Ibos traders. Indeed, the Igbos
dominate
because excellence
dominates mediocrity – truth.
Let me enlighten this falsehood’s mouthpiece
even further: before the civil
war Ibos controlled and dominated all
institutions
in the formal sector in
Nigeria from the universities to the police to
the
military to politics:
•The first Black Vice Chancellor of the
University
of Ibadan was an Ibo
man
•The first Vice Chancellor of the University of
Lagos was an Ibo man
•The first Nigerian Rector of the then Yaba
College of Technology was also
an Ibo man
•The police was run by an Ibo IG
•The military as a professional institution was
also run by elite-ilk Ibos.
Facts can never be hidden. To be first does
not
mean you would win the race;
let us open up all our institutions and may the
best man win. Let us not
depend on handouts or privileges but on heard
work. Let us compete and
give the best positions to our brightest – be it
Ibo, Yourba or Fulani, and
then we shall see who is the most successful
Nigerian.
I find it difficult not to respond to some of
these
long-held lies that are
constantly being peddled by Yorubas. One is
that
the Yoruba have the
largest number of professors in the country. I
would again ask that we
stick to facts and statistical records. The
Nigerian
Universities
Commission has a record of the state with the
largest number of
professors on their records and as at 2010
that
state is Imo State followed
by Ondo State and then Anambra State; the
next
state is Ekiti and then
Delta before Kwara State. I am sure you
Yorubas
are surprised. When you
sit in the South-West do not think others are
sleeping but I wish to address
another historical fact and that is who were
the
first Nigerians to receive
Western education. It is important that these
issues be examined in their
historical context and evidence through
research
be presented for all to
examine.
I have continued my research for as the great
sociologist and father of
modern sociology – Emile Durkheim – put it,
the
definition of a situation
is real in its consequence . What this simply
means is that one must never
allow a perceived falsehood to become one’s
reality and by extension
individuals who accept a defined position act
as
though the situation is real
and apply themselves in that narrowly defined
perspective.
Why is this important to state it is because for
long the Yoruba have
peddled lies that have almost become
accepted
as the truth by other
Nigerians but it is important that we lay down
the
facts for others to
examine and come to their own conclusion for
facts are facts. Let’s go back
to education. Historically, Western education
resulted as a product of
indigenous ethnic groups interacting with the
whites through trade. The
dominant groups sold slaves, ivory gold and a
host of other products to
their European counterparts in exchange for
finished goods – wine,
tobacco, mirrors, etc.
THE BINI
The Bini who were the dominant military force
from the 15th to the 19th
century raided and sold other ethnicities to the
Europeans. Top on the list
of those they sold were the Yoruba, Ibo and
Igala.
Various other ethnicities
suffered as a result of the Bini military
expansion.
And the Benin
Kingdom stretched from present-day Benin up
to
what is now
geographically referred to as Republic of Togo.
Indeed, the influence of the
Benin Empire extended to the banks of the
river
Niger to present-day
Onistha.
There are huge Yoruba settlements in the
Anioma
part of Delta
State who fled Yoruba land as a result of these
attacks and constant raids.
Yes, there are Yoruba people who are currently
living with Ibos in the Ibo-
speaking part of Delta and they are full citizens
of
the place no one refers to
them as strangers and there is no talk about
the
Ibos being the host
community like we hear from the Governor of
Lagos State. But let me
return to research. Slaves were moved from
the
hinterland to the coast and
many were sold through Eko to the New World.
These slaves were the first
to encounter the Europeans and by extension
their way of life – this
included education in a Western sense. The
Bini
King had taken pains to
establish a diplomatic presence in Portugal
and
the relationship developed
into areas that extended beyond trade in the
late
15th century and lasted
well into the early 19th century. Scores of
young
Bpni youth were sent to
Portugal and studied there, coming back with
advanced degrees in various
disciplines. The next set of people to receive
Western education were the
slaves themselves. Some of them managed to
buy their freedom and develop
themselves further.
For the Ibo it does not matter who your father
is;
the question is: Who are
you? Who was Obasanjo’s father? Was he the
most educated Nigerian? I
am sure the answer is no. Yet this Great
Nigeria
led this nation two times
as a military Head of State and as a civilian
President. What about GEJ?
Who was his own father? Was he the first
Nigerian to go to London? The
answer is no. In fact, he had no shoes, yet he
is
fully in charge. So it does
not matter if your father was the first Lawyer or
first Doctor in Nigeria
but rather what matters is what an individual
does with the talents the
Almighty has given to him. Let us open up
Nigeria
for competition. That
is the solution to our problems. Those who
want
privileges keep reminding
us that their fathers were the first to go to
school
in London. Every
generation produces its own leaders and
champions. Like Dangote who is
the biggest employer of labour in Nigeria today
and the richest man in
Africa. Was his father the first to go to study in
London? Yet he is the
master of people whose parents gave them the
best. My brothers, the
answer to the Nigerian problem is that we
should
establish a merit-driven
society. “I get am before” no be property. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1094789327281350&id=100002508788585&_rdr

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While i like the fact that the author is trying to set the record straight but these our learned men should go a step further to articulate ways through which our people can be delivered from these criminal political and economic systems that has impeded our progress as a people. The masses are frustrated and waiting for these lone voices to organize themselves into a movement with clearly defined motive/action plan that the masses especially youths can join to salvage this country or bury it once and for all.

FFK may be wrong in some of his claims but he has consistently spoken out against the flawed political system in Nigeria and the attendant problems.

Wow!history sweet well,well.But Nigeria Una don do us bad thing oh,see wetin removal of history in Nigeria schools have cause.God bless this man for educating us.

Is only a debased human will take Fani Kayode serious. I hope those who enjoy inflammatory and hate speeches will have course to have a rethink.

agwom:
...

why are u like this?

Decodedp:
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agwom:
...

why are u like this?