₦airaland Forum

nairalanda1:
Good points, but to be frank, Achebe was very talented enough to win it.

He even came close in 2000, but lost to a relatively little known Chinese author. (Not hating, but Achebe should have won it).

To be frank the Nobel Prize for lit is hit and run. (One year they even gave the singer Bob Dylan. Someone on the prize comittee was living his youth again, lol).

Chiamanda might win it in due time tho.

I very much doubt that. As a stylist she hardly holds a candle to the likes of Kazuo Ishiguro, Marlon James, Cormac McCarthy, Karl Ove Knausgaard and many other writers who are currently active, and I say this having read both "Americanah" and "Half of a Yellow Sun". To be honest, Teju Cole is a better writer than she is, even if he doesn't get anywhere near as much public attention (largely because he doesn't cultivate such attention by pretending to be a rights-activist while actually being a tribal champion).

VERDA:
Bitterness will kill you guys one day, continue.

Right on queue, another intemperate, hate-filled "Obidient" lashing out in anger at anyone pointing out his group is far more often the aggressor than the victim of aggression. Is it that none of you can see the irony of validating the accusations against you by your angry outbursts, or is it a psychological thing you're simply unable to control?

Masterito:
Calling me a crazy fanatic without even knowing me says alot about you. It funny how you guys think your assumptions are facts. You don't even know the party or presidential candidate I support. However, I will let you wallow in your ignorance. Obi must be living free rent in your head.

As the Bible verse goes "By their fruits shall ye know them", in your case, the "fruits" being your fact-free, angry and insulting responses to my attempts to get you to debate in a level-headed and logical manner. It would be nice to be proven wrong about you "Obidients" even once in a lifetime, but I fear that will never happen.

donkach:
Shameless liar! Did you read the post well? Or are you bent on proclaiming lies and evil? I spit. What happened to where he said " in all you do be respectful ..."

And here we have an excellent demonstration of the criticisms I leveled at Obidients: you pretend to be the victims of aggression, yet resort to it at the first opportunity whenever anyone dares to say anything you don't want to hear.

Thanks for the intemperate insults, as you have helped me prove my point - an "Obidient" who is capable of calmly, rationally discussing issues without resorting to insults, personal smears or threats is apparently an impossibility.

successmatters:
Show me where Tinubu has ever used such words in his entire history?

"Tu quoque" is a logical fallacy, not an effective rebuttal of what I've said. I wasn't defending Tinubu, I was criticizing Obi, as it is Obi's words and deeds that are under discussion. It's remarkable how quick you Obidients are to resorting to logical fallacies when faced with arguments you have no reasonable counter to.

Stop trying to shift the discussion and try to honestly wrestle with the arguments I've made, if you can. I would like to be pleasantly surprised to encounter a calm, reasonable "Obidient" who stays grounded in facts at least once in this lifetime. Am I really asking for the impossible?

Penguin2:
By saying they should remain law abiding, what did he mean?

He even said they should not allow themselves to be drawn into unnecessary conflict.

Yet you said he didn’t utter a word in favour of restraint? He should have killed himself?

Please spare us the hyperbole. Who said anything about him killing himself?

How hard would it have been for Obi to have simply said something along the lines of "I know that you are angry and upset, but please channel those feelings in a positive direction. Lashing out or being impatient with the legal process will simply undermine the credibility of our movement. We must show by our words and deeds that we genuinely represent a new spirit in Nigerian politics"? Why is it Obi has found it impossible to date to deliver a message like the one I put together on the spur of the moment in a few minutes?

When Obama was being relentlessly smeared and attacked by the Republicans as a "Kenyan Muslim" and other such nonsense, his message to his followers was "When they go low, we go high", not to simply portray himself and his movement as blameless victims of evil forces. The difference between Obama and Obi is that Obama is a man of actual principle, not simply a demagogue afraid to rein in his most fanatical followers by clearly urging them to restraint.

Obama also understood that allowing his followers to become angry and overzealous would play right into the hands of his opponents who wanted nothing more than an excuse to say "Look at the angry black man and his angry followers". Here Peter Obi shows yet again his lack of strategic insight: even if he were perfectly fine with all the "Obidient" fanaticism currently on display, a cleverer man would recognize the need to officially distance himself from it in public in order to stand any chance of winning over the undecided in the future. Instead Obi acts as if there will never be another election held in Nigeria, so there's no need to moderate the image of his party by clearly distancing it from its loudest and most vicious elements. Either he truly doesn't get what is needed, or he lacks the courage to follow through because he is as scared of the extremists behind him as everyone else.

Pathetic. He doesn't utter a single word in favor of restraint on the part of his intolerant followers, preferring to act as if they were all blameless victims of aggression rather than being the very people indiscriminately perpetrating it. He has nothing to say about those of them calling for an "interim government" and other lawless acts either, nor about his VP candidate who has heavily hinted on broadcast television that he will be unwilling to accept an adverse legal judgment from the Supreme Court. Peter Obi's statements may play well to his existing support base of fanatics, but to anyone not already in his camp, they will be rightly perceived as the cowardly weasel words they are, the words of a demagogue so hungry for power that he is ready to fan the flames of violent conflict in his desperation to achieve high office.

Masterito:
Lol, it is fine funny to see select what to respond to. Just like Soyinka you judge the xenophobic and tribalistic behavior exhibited by BAT, which is clearly worse than what Obidients do. I won't be surprised if you are a BAT supporter like Soyinka who clearly is one of BAT benefactors.

And here we go again. Like I said, you have nothing to stand on by way of either factual evidence or logic, which is why you are so quick to resort to ad hominem attacks. You are obviously a lost case. The pity is that there are so many aggressive fanatics like you out there rallying behind Peter Obi as if he were a messiah able to turn water into wine.

How refreshing to read an intelligent epistle from a Nigerian religious leader for a change. This is the first Nigerian Bishop who actually sounds like a disciple of Christ, not acting like a televangelist huckster fishing for money in the name of "tithing", not advancing a narrow sectarian or "tribal" agenda, and not serving as a mere agent for some politician or party. Instead we have a genuine religious message that speaks to moderation, introspection and reaching across barriers. Bishop Kukah is perhaps the first (and maybe only) living Christian figure in Nigeria who seems deserving of respect.

Masterito:
Yet he did spot the xenophobic and tribalistic attitude of BAT supporters. See Soyinka is bias. I was not shocked to see he once benefited from Tinubu. He spoke like the APC spokesperson. He was clearly selective in his criticism.

Nothing in this gibberish addresses any of the points I made, proving yet again what is obvious to anyone with half a brain: "bias" is what you budding fascists cry whenever anyone dares to deviate in the slightest from your point of view.

FatherOfJesus:
lol, you people like telling yourselves sweet lies

There you go again, projecting your own faults onto others. If anything I said is a "lie", why not bring out evidence contradicting it? You can't do so because you are the one engaging in a failed attempt to deceive through lies and misdirection.

Masterito:
Na he wasn't specific in the criticism of the tribalistic behavior by certain persons but was specific in calling out Obidients and Datti. He was clearly bias.

That is only "bias" if you equate being "Obidient" with either ethnicity or with having a monopoly on the truth. In either case, such a belief is clearly fascistic in attitude, which is indeed what Soyinka was saying.

Watch the interview again. There are many people to criticize in the APC, such as FFK, Bayo, MC Oluomo etc but he never did. To call for a debate with the LP vice candidate was were he messed up totally.

Why? Why is he obliged to personally name-check every single person in the APC for his criticisms to be valid? And how is it "messed up" to hold to account a man who was aiming to be the second-most powerful person in Nigeria? All I see here is "whataboutism" and an absolute intolerance of criticism, precisely the fascistic attitude Soyinka had a problem with in "Obidients". Soyinka clearly criticized the APC in Lagos, but the only people out slandering him are "Obidients" too thin-skinned to handle anything other than unqualified praise.

OP, not to get in the way of your conspiracy theory (I know how much fun those can be), but how is it some sort of tribalistic "gang up" by Hausas and Yorubas when the region which went in the most for voting along "tribal" lines was your very own? Do you really expect us to believe that the reason why Obi got 95% of SE votes was because he was soooo much better than the other two candidates, even while Yorubas and northerners were voting for Obi in Lagos and Plateau?

95% freely voting for one single party is simply unheard of in any truly democratic country: it is either evidence of mass rigging, or of an ethnocentrism so intense that "our pikin" is seen as automatically superior to everyone else, even if all objective evidence might point the other way. It isn't as if Peter Obi turned Anambra into a second Singapore during his 8 years in office.

Masterito:
In life you can't be always right. Even the president of US makes mistakes. Soyinka was wrong to call the Obidients fascists. He spoke like an APC spokesperson. Besides, Obidients is not a Biafran movement. A[b]lso, Soyinka could have address the the tribalistic and xenophobic behavior in Lagos but he was selective in his criticism.[/b] In this case, Soyinka didn't act like the respectable Icon we know. However, I still respect him and understand that he is human to make mistakes.

And in the highlighted you betray the fact that you never actually watched the interview in question. If you'd watched the whole thing, you'd know that Wole Soyinka actually did what you are accusing him of not doing! He criticized the events in Lagos, using the exact same language he used to criticise Datti's troublesome rhetoric, yet here you all are jumping up and down calling him all sorts of foul names anyway!

This collective insanity by you "Obidients" is exactly what Soyinka was getting at when he mentioned "fascism". The refusal to accept that people can differ with you on anything whatsoever on principled grounds, and the insistence on treating even the slightest hint of dissent as grounds for limitless hatred, are the hallmarks of totalitarianism. Only fascists and Stalinists divide the world into an "us" vs "them" struggle to the death on the basis of even the smallest doctrinal deviations, and that is your hallmark.

Iamgrey5:
The biggest reservers of Soyinka criticism are Yoruba leaders like Obasanjo and Tinubu in the past.

The man even said South East deserves the presidency in a recent interview.

How is calling Datti's statement out tribalistic?

They have redefined "tribalism" to mean any viewpoint which is less than 100% in agreement with theirs on all issues at all times. Even going to prison for 3 years on their behalf cannot defend one against the charge, nor will criticizing Tinubu and advocating for a SE presidency within the very same interview pointing out "Obidient" excesses ...

VULCAN:
Your Ignorance stems from your lack of exposure.

There is no Nigerian nay African, alive or dead whose books have been translated into as many languages as Achebe.

And Achebe can't hold a candle to JK Rowling, Danielle Steele or John Grisham in terms of either book sales or translations. I suppose by your criteria that makes these writers the greatest masters of the English language who ever lived or something?

It's pathetic the ridiculous lengths some of you will go to salve the chip on the shoulder you clearly have over Wole Soyinka having been awarded the ultimate prize in literature while Achebe never was. That's why you're sinking to such preposterous depths to argue that Achebe is "greater" because he (supposedly) sold more copies of his books, as if the likes of Wole Soyinka, William Faulkner, JM Coetzee, Saul Bellow and Yasunari Kawabata* could ever be regarded as "inferior" to purveyors of massively popular potboilers like "Dan Brown" of "Da Vinci Code" noteriety. It's the same inferiority complex that drove Charly Boy to gratuitously introduce Achebe into a discussion about Soyinka, as if he were putting forth his own tribal champion in a Roman gladiatorial contest.

*I'm sure you'd never even heard of these authors before now, let alone read anything by them, though you're ludicrously posturing as if you were some kind of literary savant.

Ishilove:
And when Audu Abubakar took over, was he better?

Nigerians have selective amnesia. They are dragging her over the sins of her father, yet the children of the same Audu were called out years back for rape and waste of state resources. Rather than focus on the message, they are focusing on the ethnicity of the messenger.

I am ashamed to share nationality with such a backward people.

I am even more ashamed to share nationality with the sort of backwards people whose defense to pointing out corruption is to say "Na only him steal?" Because that is all your reference to Audu Abubakar is about - his corruption in no way justifies or lessens that of Augustine Aniebo, whose greed is what enabled his daughter to enjoy the highfalutin cosmopolitan lifestyle that brought her to where she is today, pretending to be an agent of "change" while in no way repudiating the kleptocracy that she has benefited from all her life.

Moniya4Real:
Sometimes,I wonder what is it exactly wrong with the black race. Communal clashes, even though within members of the same village is commonplace on the African continent.. you won’t hear such from other parts of the world, especially the Europeans. Africa why?

Are you paying attention to international news at all? What do you think is currently happening in Israel and in Northern Ireland? This insistence that there is something wrong in particular with "the black race" is racist self-hatred born of deep ignorance.

The same people openly delighting in so much death while chanting "family matter" are the ones currently backing a doomed effort to claim Peter Obi "won" in the region where this supposed "family matter" occurred. Do you really believe all northerners are so blind to the hatred you have for them, that they would ever vote for a candidate you champion? Or that "Yoruba Muslims" are incapable of seeing how you seize on such a horrible incident as an excuse to vent your tribalistic bile? Do you think both of these groups don't vote, or do you simply believe their votes shouldn't matter?

BeanX:
I watched the news this morning, this small girl should stay away from politics matters, she's too unripe to be talking about Nigerian politics; let her face other things.

The truth of the matter is that both Tinubu Peter Obi and Atiku are all criminals or involved in some dubious means, however I see no reasons why she would accuse both Tinubu and Atiku without accusing Peter Obi.

We all know the reason why ... Peter Obi is apparently a saint, his Pandora Papers, government money in family brewery and N250 Million "security vote" scandals notwithstanding.

habsydiamond:
do you know its in the constitution that being cleared or not such person should not be allowed to contest. Moveover, he wasn't cleared the forfeiture of 650,000 $ serves as the punishment for his crime. Which means he bought himself out of jail.

Which constitution would that be, exactly? Surely it can't be the Nigerian one, as the civil forfeiture was done to the American IRS. Then again, it can't be the American one either, as civil procedures (the "civil" in "civil forfeiture" ) are not criminal cases, and in any case, while going to prison might bar one from voting in certain American states, it doesn't place any restrictions on running for office (which is what Donald Trump is currently counting on).

That you think a civil case - with no criminal prosecution - brought in another country has some sort of influence on Nigerian law says everything there is to know about your knowledge of law and the constitution. The gibberish you've written may have allowed you to fool yourself into thinking Obi will miraculously gain power (even though Atiku actually got more votes), but it won't convince any judge, no matter the number of "likes" it may gain you on Nairaland and Twitter.

DatNiggaDaz:
That is the mandate we are talking about

Illegality and rascality should never be allowed to stand again in Nigeria. Tte structures of criminality and corruption must be pulled down so that Nigeria can make a progress .

Nigerians should not be afraid to express their displeasures other than peacefully and not result to monkeys and baboon being soaked in blood.

That's funny, isn't blatantly disregarding a court order by overwhelming the state-appointed enforcers of the laws the very definition of "illegality and rascality"? Since when has the law been upheld by breaking it?

Gucciblog:
Obidents were on their own before your Soyinka threw the first punch.

So you expect them to tell your Soyinka thank you?

Soyinka "threw the first punch" by pointing out the fascistic tendencies of the "Obidients" with their love of insults and threats, and your response is ... to retaliate with insults and threats? It's as the OP said, you're so infatuated with your "cause" that you fail to realize when you're validating the very accusations made about you.

Vinnie2000:
*Derailing of Trains
*Owo Massacre of Christians
*Deborah Samuel's painful murder
*ASUU Eight months Strike
*Naira Redesign wahala
*Fake Bishops
*MC Oluomo's threats to Igbos
*Presidential Election
*Governorship Election

Wole Soyinka KEPT MUTE in ALL these grave Issues ravaging Nigeria,

Only to wake up and Focus his energy on Datti/LP/.

Is this NOT madness, Honestly? 😕

I don't know if your eyes just glazed over this, but LegendHero already pointed out that all of this is a lie, just a few comments before yours. What is more, this same Wole Soyinka that you and Charlie Boy are pouring out such venom over is the man who was thrown in prison and served 25 months in solitary confinement - far worse than the already terrible prison experience - for his attempts to broker a ceasefire during the Biafran War. When have any of Soyinka's Igbo critics ever made a sacrifice of similar magnitude? How many of those carelessly projecting their own tribal chauvinism on the man could have gone through such an ordeal without going mad?

It's irritating enough to see blatantly false and self-serving accusations of "Igbophobia" and the like thrown around simply because others dare to take a different view, but seeing the character of one of Nigeria's only true heroes routinely besmirched by clannish sore-losers is particularly galling, especially because Soyinka stood up for the Igbo cause when the likes of Azikiwe were safely abroad, and the envious Achebe - unlike Soyinka - never once stuck out his neck for anyone other than his own people.

SalamRushdie:
Spoken ignorantly , does this clown know Nigeria has the highest ticket rates becauy of our greedy govt and it bad policies , the ticket prices are high because of high govt tarriffs on each ticket and the inability to repatriate profit at will..Next time you buy a ticket look for the break down and see what your actual ticket cost is and what the evil Nigerian govt steals from you

Thank you for articulating what so many Nigerians miss (including the "journalist" who wrote this article). The real blame for Nigerians paying so much more than Ghanaians lies with the Nigerian government, not the airlines. All other things being equal, tickets from Nigeria should be cheaper, given the advantages of scale from Nigeria's much larger market, but our senseless exchange-rate restrictions mean airlines have to charge more upfront to make up for the extra costs they face getting their money back out.

The other thing many Nigerians seem incapable of understanding is that these companies are not greedy exploiters "taking money out of our economy", as the money in question is for services they have rendered, services millions of individual Nigerians have found valuable enough to be worth paying for of their own free will. All the roadblocks to repatriating profits achieve is to make Nigeria a much less attractive place to offer goods and services in.

Blue3k:
Looks like they going to checkmate the doctors. Now that they can't leave its time to deal with their demands for better pay. They're going to get the most vicious reactions now that most of them can't run away.

While I'm sure that is the intended effect, I doubt it will work out like that in practice.

For one thing, it will accelerate the departure of all the doctors who already in the pipeline and will be qualified before the bill passes.

The next factor to consider is that many medical students will still have the means and opportunity to proceed abroad to wealthy countries where they can train and qualify, except now they can simply rule out ever returning to Nigeria. The bill therefore shrinks the pool of possible medical practitioners, particularly in fields where the necessary expertise can only be acquired abroad. How many world-class surgeons from places like America's Mayo Clinic are going to leave behind their cushy careers to work as mere trainees in Nigeria, no matter how much they might wish to return home?

The final thing to note is the impact this will have on the number of students who will opt for medicine in the future. Anyone intelligent enough to consider medicine is also smart enough to realize that to the extent this bill actually works, it makes becoming a doctor a much less attractive prospect, and they'd be better off switching to fields where no such restrictions are in place, and qualifications are equally portable (e.g. computer science or engineering).

This is just another example of ignorant Nigerian politicians passing populist legislation that restricts trade, not caring about the inevitable consequences which will result. This mentality is why a petroleum-exporting country has no working refineries and suffers perennial fuel shortages, and it is why power supply has languished at the same capacity for decades even as brand-new power-generating stations lie idle. Passing laws restricting the options of private citizens has never worked to increase the availability of any goods or services, whether we're talking food price controls or restraints on newly qualified doctors.

The right way to get Nigerian doctors to stick around is to make medical practice in Nigeria more attractive, by devoting more financial resources to health (and to primary care in particular), but Nigerians are so blinded by the "awuff" mentality that they would rather pass useless, economy-distorting restrictions rather than actually paying what the market demands for what they want, never mind decades of failure going down this route.

Kinehap:
I have grown to know that the average Nigerian is always blind to seeing the truth when it never favour him. Am not surprised at your response

How amusing that you should craft a response far more suited to your own self than it is to me. As expected, you provide no factual evidence to support your assertion, you muster no logic to buttress it, you simply make an ad hominem and expect that to actually convince anyone with any intelligence.

bibiking7:
[b]


Exactly what I said on another thread. The drug case is a non starter.
The Abuja 25 percent does not make sense. Then you are saying that Abuja voters are more valued than all other nigerian Citizens. Let's say, I want to contest for an election that I know that I cannot win. During voters registration, I bring in people to Abuja to register and campaign more in Abuja. Do giveaways and stuff and make sure the person most likely to win scores less than 25 percent in Abuja. That will ruin the election. We cannot hold a fresh election because of Abuja.

Indeed, take their "logic" to its ultimate conclusion, and even winning outright in all 36 states would still not be enough without 25% in Abuja alone. In effect, voters in Abuja would be granted a national veto no other citizens enjoy, as flagrant a violation of the expectation of political equality of all citizens as it is possible to get.

Corn247:
Why did you think everything is about igbo when in most of the situations, they're even out of context... You sabi how many yorubas the mods don ban?

Their endless paranoia and obsession with always seeing themselves as "blameless victims" is truly tiring. Fires break out in a Lagos market and they rush to attribute it to "Igbophobia", mods rein them in and they scream "discrimination", voters are turned off by inexperience and pro-Biafran agitation and they waste no time accusing the voters of "bigotry", even though the very same voters had given their kinsman a victory 2 weeks prior ...

But who stopped Obi from using religion in politics? Isn't that why he is now wailing about a "stolen" mandate? Or were you really expecting all those northern and Yoruba Muslims he portrayed himself as being in a "war" with to still cast their votes for someone who saw them as enemies?

You're free to mix religion and politics as you please, but don't complain when the electoral consequences come to roost. It should have been clear as day that a victory based only on the votes of Igbos and disgruntled middle-belt Christians was never going to happen, but Obi and his followers ignored what everyone was pointing out, and allowed themselves to be deceived by their own self-generated echo chamber. Peter Obi lost the election as soon as "Obidients" started screaming about a "Muslim-Muslim" ticket as if that alone were evidence of some nefarious plot.

Kinehap:
A country with a working system would easily know that Labour Party won the election.

Why are people not talking about PDP that filled the same law suit as labour party against APC .

The answer is clear. Labour Party won that is why.

Keep deceiving yourself. Nobody is talking about the PDP lawsuit because the PDP and its supporters have far more class and self-restraint than you lot. They clearly understand that the worst thing you can do when filing a lawsuit is to talk all sorts of nonsense about it even before going to trial, as you only provide the opponent with fresh material to undermine your case.

Peter Obi never had any chance of winning the core north or most of the SW once he embraced the IPOB elements in his campaign and started visiting every church in the country to fight his "religious war", as most Yorubas and northerners aren't stupid enough to support anyone who treats them as a threat and an enemy. Even if by some miracle Obi manages to prevail in his desperate lawsuit, the only effect would be to throw the Presidency to Atiku Abubakar, who would have won by a landslide if Obi's impatience and selfishness hadn't led him to leave the PDP.