₦airaland Forum

Fhemmmy: Lol . . Keep talking and we able to figure you out, i remain humble, Sir

Obviously, you take yourself too seriously. Anyway, unfortunately for you, we can't all be jobless and childish to the point of figuring total strangers that have no interest in us. . .goodluck with your new found job, figuring me out, I hope Seun gives you a plaque or better still a salary, you obviously need it.

holypower: gold are meant for building since the foundation of the world. GOD didnt use gold to adorn his angels but to build the street in Heaven. Thats why GOD commanded solomon to build His house with a gold. Check ezekiel 7:19-21, thats where GOD used because of people who wear golds and used them for making idols, there, GOD make wearing of ornament an unclean thing. Dear GOD make gold for building, even the ark of convenant, GOD ordere that it should be make with gold. Gold is nt for adorning. "Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." (1 Peter 3:3-4).

one has to be incredibly stoopid to have this kind of thought process...WTH

Fhemmmy: And all these comments brought the smartness out of you?

Am I supposed to appeal to your religious sensitivity I am only responsible for what I write, how you choose to understand it is your problem not mine, may be you shou8ld get busy with more important real life issues facing you and not lay siege on NL waiting for somebody to post comments you find not in line with your own religious inclination so the you can reply with subtle but foolish retorts to make you come across as moderate or having a good head. Go fool somebody else you jobless troll.

some people just make you want to slap the Jesus craze in them. Only Jobless and gullible women take going to church as an occupation,sensible women know that there is more to life than wasting it on going to church to hear some con artist stand in pulpit and talk about some white God he or his fore fathers does not know and will never know.

MY FAV QUOTE FROM THIS PIECE: " You thankGod the boys did not throw a coming out party to announce that they are gay. One lives in Arizona and another in Hawaii. Your house is empty, calls come on holidays only."

MY FAV QUOTE FROM THIS PIECE: " You thankGod the boys did not throw a coming out party to announce that they are gay. One lives in Arizona and another in Hawaii. Your house is empty, calls come on holidays only."

soyad: When will the Igbos get it right , the way they have always followed where is the gain , Boko Haram will continue to teach them bitter lessons and yet they refuse to learn . The PDP will continue to use the Igbos for as long as they continue to live without principles .Na dem sabi

mAKE dEVIL PUNISH YOUR WHOLE GENERATION YOU SLOWPOKE

bokohalal:

yOU ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO UNDERSTAND IT ANYWAY

THESE FOLKS JUST DON'T GET IT AT ALL, GOVERNMENT HAS LONG PAST THE PERIOD OF NEGOTIATION, THEY HAD THEIR CHANCE BUT FRITTERED IT AWAY PLAYING SENTIMENTAL POLITICS. NOW THEY ARE GOING TO GET THE BIG STICK WITH NO CARROT. . LOL

bokohalal: There is nothing to laugh about here.If the APC does not exist yet how did the MASSOB leader arrive at his conclusion? And you have not seen it but agreed with him. Build across divides. And,hey,I am not Yoruba!

LOL. . funny Fellow, after having tried for so many years to paint suggestively wrong pictures of the SE region and its people in the pages of Newspapers and electronic media, now you are going to attempt to tutor me about the politics of the SE, don't you think such attempt is presumptuous and a little ignorant? Anyway, opinions are like butt holes, everyone has got one.

franchizy: For d fact dat d igbos r minorities, I don't think APC needs there votes. But I bet Uwazurike dat once Chris Ngige becomes Anambra state Governor in 2014, himself and Rochas Okorocha will put the highest vote for APC come 2015.

hahahahaha. . . Igobs are minority From which person Planet did you fall from?

ilugunboy: Heheeeheeeeeee you took that out of my mouth.

Igbos generally are averse to opposition politics...

Igbtand politics have evolved beyond not just being disposed to opposition politics, it is more about political survival and ideal. what is the use of switching sides only to continue to be subservient in the new party. APC as far as I know, has no political ideal different from those of the PDP besides the fact that they are just interested in dislodging the PDP what else do they stand for?

What is the rationale for the continued consideration for Buhari who has failed in all his 3 consecutive attempts at thesame thing he is being considered for? Why is there this default arrangement of positions for only people from certain sub-regions of the country? Why the heavy bias for thesame recycled crooks from thesame regions that have ruled this contry for most parts of its existence?
Abeg make una spare us all that APC will do magic story, let them do their magic in the state where they exist first before shouting and boasting about non-existent results.

bokohalal: If the MASSOB leader really said that about the APC,or any political party at that,his leadership sense should be questioned. He should be building bridges across ethnic and religious divides in order to get the best for his people and actualise his and his people's dream of independence. To brazenly exclaim prohibition of a group that include prominent Igbos smack of leadership suicide. Imagine saying that Yorubas or muslims are dead on arrival in Igboland?

To the likes of you, saying that APC is dead on arrival in the SE is tantamount to tribalism, lol. . many of you need an overdose of your own pills, you try so hard to point other people's flaws yet you are blind to your own very mighty flaws. As far as the SE is concerned, the APC does not exist yet alone considered as a viable alternative.

HAH: If politics is a game of numbers then I think it is the igbos that need APC not vice versa. If APC can get. Majority vote in atleast SW,NW,NE and NC. Then APC don't necessarily need SE.

If we win now na dem go dem decamp like ants.

Natural AGIPs

Little Kid that does not know anything about the crass nonsense that comes out of his ignorant mouth. I am yet to see anyone win an election at the Presidential level without the average vote support from every of the 6 sub-region of Nigeria. But what do you know, to you it is all about shouting and repeating ignorant propaganda that has continued to make sure the likes of your hero Buhari continues to cry at the turn of every election he has participated in. . lol

dayokanu: How come Wole Soyinka doesnt lose sleep over Booker T award and Father of Literature award

But na Achebe people wan die because of Nobel.

I thought they said Nobel is irrelevant and substandard, Why una wan kill unaself on irrelevant and substandard Nobel prize?

. . .lol. . Dayo you be serious Jonsing guy o. .don turn to NL's resident tribalIst abi. Wetin concern the topic with Wole Soyinka now? Nna eh, NL ga gba gi ara. .

Son-Of-El:
you wish. You really wish.

ignore the kid jare...he is lookinf for somebody to indulge him.

TheBookWorm: Let us not forget that many Africanist think of him as a "peau noire, masques blancs." His second wife was a French woman...

exactly my point. The man was already a very powerful political force with or without his literary profile. Even the Negritude movement was both a political and black African literary movement in France that was founded by both literary Icons and Politicians of Black African intellectuals.

CAMEROONPRIDE: I don't engage fool ^^ Senghor playing in a lower grade, are u all right? Someone who has been inducted in the French academy?


You are funny dude go read about senghor and his negritude movement , you are either too young or simply poorly educated

You are the Fool here, you brainless Bimbo that thinks she's got it all figured out. Senghor was no doubt a notable figure more because of his political career than his contribution to African Literature. Till this day, there is still controversy about whether he met the standard of contributing "a lifetime record of outstanding scholarship in African studies and service to the Africanist community"
There is nothing you can tell me about Senghor that will be news, He was a damn good Poet, no doubt but he was more of a politician and gained recognition largely on the basis of his political career being a President and all. 4ck off if you do not know how to debate like an adult, you douche.

CAMEROONPRIDE: Would you deny that modern African literature was known and used/read all over the world before Achebe?

Let me engage you a bit.
Yes, I will. Prior to Chinua's TFA, can you mention any african novel that was internationally acclaimed? I mean, today it is easier fore an African writer to write and get the desired and universal audience that his/her work deserves. Many of the African books and authors that have gained world wide acclaim did so through the publishing reach of Henneman African Writers' Series which was a collaborative effort Chinua, Christopher Okigbo and the guyz at henneman to put African literature outside of the local confines of Africa. The impetus for such effort was in the evidence of Achebe's TFA. Ask anyone that is very familiar with African literature to mention the first 10 african books and aithors of note, 100% of them will be authors' whose works were published from the African writers' Series, that is how powerful and influential the man's effort and those of his other coleagues in the publishing firm was. This is not about citing list of french speaking African writers who are good in their own write but play in lower league.

Garri the 1st: Read the last part of ur comment and tell me if you didn't infer that it was a GREAT ACHIEVEMENT..

Prof-Lodo

It is either you have problem with comprehension or you just want to split hair unecessarily. legendary recognition= Great achievement, what a DOLT!

slap1: Chimamanda is 'my sister' and Zadie Smith is a British writer. I love Chimamanda's works, but Zadie Smith is in a class of her own; an effortless and ''pre-naturally gifted writer''. Adichie has more awards than Zadie Smith, but it doesn't make her better than Zadie Smith. Zadie Smith's White Teeth is one of the most arresting books I've read. So, don't start fighting over writers, they are not your regular politicians.

Well, this is purely subjective to individual opinion and not a statement of fact! But the Fact there is that one of the two writers' work is more celebrated, has more influence, has inspired more readership and has won more awards than the other, that to me is the true measure of who is a better writer, at least, the process is not subjected to the elitist opinion of an "elitist few" or the "litrary initiated" like you said Wole likes to put it, how the work does outside the confines of its litrary comfort zone is a way better and more thorough process of scrutiny, dont you think?

slap1: Chimamanda is 'my sister' and Zadie Smith is a British writer. I love Chimamanda's works, but Zadie Smith is in a class of her own; an effortless and ''pre-naturally gifted writer''. Adichie has more awards than Zadie Smith, but it doesn't make her better than Zadie Smith. Zadie Smith's White Teeth is one of the most arresting books I've read. So, don't start fighting over writers, they are not your regular politicians.

Well, this is purely subjective to individual opinion and not a statement of fact! But the Fact there is that one of the two writers' work is more celebrated, has more influence, has inspired more readership and has won more awards than the other, that to me is the true measure of who is a better writer, at least, the process is not subjected to the elitist opinion of an "elitist few" or the "litrary initiated" like you said Wole likes to put it, how the work does outside the confines of its litrary comfort zone is a way better and more thorough process of scrutiny, dont you think?

Garri the 1st: Being called a "Legend" is a great achievement according to you abi??

Kai!! This people sha....

Grandeur of Delusion (abi na how dem speak dat grammar again)

Petty minded fellow, I know you are looking for some ignoramus like yourself to indulge you, sorry I am not interested, especially when your pointless retorts have nothing to do with what is written, can you point to where I pretended to infer that being called a Legend is a great achievement?
What an ignorant fellow trying so hard to sound smart and hip. . .scheeeew!

The real significance of Achebe was captured by that announcement in London in 2000, when he, Wole Soyinka and Derek Walcott were invited to a special program. The announcement read:
‘Two Nobel Laureates and a Legend’.
There is no greater honour than such a very true legendary recognition.

In 1988 Achebe was asked by a reporter for Quality Weekly how he felt about never winning a Nobel Prize;
he replied: “My position is that the Nobel Prize is important. But it is a European prize. It’s not an African prize.
Literature is not a heavyweight championship. Nigerians may think, you know, this man has been knocked out. It’s nothing to do with that.

1. Achebe’s attack on Conrad:
On the 18 February 1975, Achebe presented a Chancellor’s Lecture at Amherst, titled “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”. In that presentation, he criticized Joseph Conrad, the tradition of racism in the west and pointed out that racism was the core of Conrad’s critical book “The Heart of Darkness”, asserting that the book more than any other work displays that Western desire “to set up Africa as a foil to Europe, as a place of negations at once remote and vaguely familiar, in comparison with which Europe’s own state of spiritual grace will be manifest”.

To Achebe, “Heart of Darkness projects the image of Africa as “the other world,” the antithesis of Europe and therefore of civilization, a place where man’s vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally mocked by triumphant bestiality”.

Achebe further asserted that Conrad’s famous novel dehumanized Africans, rendering Africa as “a metaphysical battlefield devoid of all recognisable humanity, into which the wandering European enters at his peril.” It was in that lecture that he described Conrad as “a bloody racist”. Before this lecture, Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” had become a household property in the west.

It is strongly believed that the Nobel Committee in particular and the west in general had a tough time to swallow that “truth-is-bitter” pill.

2. His criticism of Schweitzer:
Achebe made a critical remark on Albert Schweitzer, a German-French theologian who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. He spent a great deal of his life bringing the Christian gospel to the people of Gabon. He died in 1965 at the age of 90 (He is well-known for saying that the Christianization of Africans was a historical burden that Europeans must shoulder to atone for the sins of slavery and colonialism).

Schweitzer was quoted as saying, “The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother.” Achebe was piqued by all these, and accused him of racist paternalism and condescension toward Africans. Let us hear Achebe, “That extraordinary missionary, Albert Schweitzer, who sacrificed brilliant careers in music and theology in Europe for a life of service to Africans in much the same area as Conrad writes about, epitomizes the ambivalence. In a comment which has often been quoted, Schweitzer says: ‘The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother.’ And so he proceeded to build a hospital appropriate to the needs of junior brothers with standards of hygiene reminiscent of medical practice in the days before the germ theory of disease came into being.”

This came as a ‘shock’ to westerners: how could Achebe challenge a man honoured in the West for his “reverence for life”, and recognized as a paragon of Western liberalism? Of course, Achebe cannot get away with this and the Nobel Committee took note of it in their “Nobel diary”

3. Ezenwa-Ohaeto (Achebe’s biographer) suggests another possible reason why the Stockholm academy shunned Achebe: Achebe once refused to attend a Conference on African literature in Stockholm, Sweden. With his characteristic humility he explained that he considered it
inappropriate for African writers to assemble in Europe in 1986 to discuss the future of their literature. Ezenwa-Ohaeto implies that in all likelihood the act was perceived as a snub by the Nobel committee, who assumed that this refusal was an indicator that Achebe would refuse the Prize itself if awarded.


4. But perhaps Achebe’s more obvious “sin” (according to Kperogi) was that in 1985, a year before Wole Soyinka was given the Nobel Prize in Literature, he characterized the Indian-Trinidadian writer V.S. Naipaul as “a brilliant writer who sold himself to the West.” Then he added: “And one day he’ll be ‘rewarded’ with maybe a Nobel Prize or something.” This came to pass. Achebe was prophetic. In 1990, Naipaul was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and in 2001 he was “rewarded” with a Nobel Prize in Literature. Many people say Achebe would have been announced as the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1985 but for this brutally frank barb at the West— and the Nobel Prize.


It is also worthy of note that Chinua Achebe is not the only writer that has beencontroversially omitted from the Nobel Literature Prize. The Wikipedia encyclopedia noted some other writers (apart from Achebe) that have been ‘overlooked’ for the Literature Prize. Some of these writers include Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Émile Zola, Jorge Luis Borges, Marcel Proust, Vladimir Nabokov, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, August Strindberg, Simon Vestdijk, John Updike, Arthur Miller, Mark Twain.

percipi1: I don't like people who turn down facts to boost their primordial sentiments. Honestly if a Nobel Prize winner, whose face is on a national postal stamp in Sierra Leone is considered, in your view, to be of 'relativey limited influence'; then you are definitey worse that your flippant tribalist. If you have issues with Soyinka's English, you should seek clarification.

Eagle eyes has succinctly answered youe subtle tribal pettiness. It is so comfortable for you lot to parrot about Wole Soyinka's greatness with every exaggerations possible yet the honorary title given to Achebe that has stuck becomes a problem all because even though it is mere honorary title, it towers above your tribe's man overrated Nobel Laureat.
Besides, I read the said interview, Wole sounded down derisive and patronizing when talking about Achebe, nobody needs him to put up appearance and act like he does not have issues with the man. Using all that unecessary and evasive grandstanding explanation to make a simple idea seem ambigious and confusing when he could have just said, Chinua and I are not particularly close but we share mutual respect for eachother, kappish!

With all his patronizing descriptions and baseless suggestive statements to make it look like the man had problem with his Nobel award, to the point of making statements that can not be proven and credited it to Chinau, how childish can Wole get. .scheeew! The man is full of himself and finds it difficult to be humble and let others blow his own trumpet.

When asked about the new generations of writers and who he prefers, the egocentric Wole could not even bring himself to even talk about anyone in particular, at best, all he had to say was that he read many of them during traffics and sometimes fights the temptation to fling some out of the windows, what an encouragement from Wole Soyinka to the new generation of Nigerian Writers, very cheeky!

Yet this same man has problems with people who had been inspired by Achebe's humility, efforts towards getting not just his own works but those of other great africans out to the world through his pioneering and collaborative publishing effort with Christopher Okigbo another accomplished litrary giant. What was Wole's response to such effort, uneccessary show of superiority and protest that he will not allow his books to be published by the heinemen publishing firm that had seen the efforts of the African Writers Series and decided to collaborate with them, after his lame explanation of not wanting his books to be categorized by such efforts, what did he do, he took his books to another whiteman's publishing firm to be published. . . Scheeew!
His grouse was probably because he did not want his coleagues to edit his work, not too good for his Ego, i guess!

Wole Soyinka is no match for Achebe in the litrary world, Achebe has done a lot for a African literature, Achebe wrote so that other African writers can write believing that their books wont be type-cast just as another book written by an african without the language ambiguity to impress on the english man of the writer's mastery of his language, Achebe just wrote like an African and told every other african to dare to do thesame.
I have said my piece.

jhydebaba: Lastpage! I'm not talking about only one man being poor here. If only u can know the root cause of the whole issue, then you'll agree with me that poverty has got a vital role in the whole crisis.

If the people have access to the basic things of life, I don't think that the leaders of BH would've gathered more foot soldiers.

If only u knew what 200 naira means to the poor people in the north who have been neglected by there leaders. Now, here is someone brain washing them, giving them food and telling them so many ways in which the govt failed them not forgetting to manipulate the holy book to his advantage. Tell me, if u are in there shoes, won't u fight that govt with ur lastblood

I don't have pity for BH but the truth must be said.

Can you just be honest enough to admit it to yourself that BokoHaram is a fall out of vague verses in the koran that is open to misinterpretation and can be used to justify extremist ideologies like those of the Salafist and wahabbist.

BokoHaram did not start as a result of poverty or poor people coming together to protest FG's injustice, poor people can't buy weapons let alone wreck the kind of havoc BokoHaram has been doing. BokoHaram is largely the brainchild of extremist misinterpretations of Jihadist injunctions from the Koran, though there are spelt out cases for jihad, the fact there is that, it is vague and very susceptible to misinterpretations.

An average islamic terrorist justifies his act of terror on a non-muslim using these koranic injunctions and convincingly siting instances where a constituted authority had tried through the use of force to stop them as the agression from non-muslims to warrant a jihadist reaction just like the Koran suggest.

The fact here is this, anyone that chooses to follow the Koran to its last letter will end up doing thesame thing or seeing every opposition moves from non-muslim as an aggressive act that can warrant a jihadist reaction. It all boils down to justifications of extremist ideologies born out of losely letttered injunctions in a holy book not poverty.

@ACM
You just got that flippant tribalist cornered, misquoting a book that any serious minded observer can easily look up and make a mess of his bigoted claims. These guyz' will do anything to downplay Achebe's work, reach and influnce yet they are quick to play up Soyinka's relatively limited influence, reach and likeability.

donfinboi
You make me laugh. The way you talk about SW politics and Yoruba people is funny and parochial to say the least. Mind if I ask you this, "have you lived outside of the SW region?"

There is too much exaggeration in the way you describe the SW and its imaginary "political sophistry". You know, I would have fallen for your very colourful paintings of the SW politics if I did'nt live in the SW and the most sophisticated part of it for that matter.

It is funny you even had to stretch it to the point that you claimed PDP was dead in the SW, what a laughable assertion. That the ACN surreptiously played dirtier than the PDP in the SW who at the time had serious internal crisis that took all the attention away, does not mean that the PDP is dead.

To even claim that every average Yoruba person om the street gives 2 4cks about party ideology is the dumbest talk ever.
I am going to tell you how sophisticated an average Yoruba voter is: in my street for instance, virtually every polling unit had some kind of cook party near, thugs hang around this party gathering, eating and inviting everyone to join in the frenzy, it was all ACN affairs and you dare not go to units that were entirely peopled by ACN thugs and supporters to talk about voting PDP.

Many of these average "sophisticated Yoruba" voters actually voted after joining in the near by party and frenzy, anyone that didn't join was not only shouted at but indirectly forced by shouting things like, "ACN centre ni eleyi o. . . Afe ri awon PDP ni bi ba yi o". . They say these things with stern faces, as if to say try the contrary and be dealth with. The polling units are so sorrounded by these thugs that it will take a brave person to call their bluff. Yet politics in the SW is full of "ideological sophistory" that is unequalled elsewhere in Nigeria.

All these exaggerations about Yoruba and their supposed political intelligence is laughable and fictional, they are not different politically from every other Nigerian voters. All these yarns about how Yoruba ppl don't vote personality but ideology is rubbish, put one Yoruba man on the ticket and see how tribalism works.

donfineboi: U need to do ur research very well bro. It was the support GEJ got from the SW region that led to his victory at the polls last presidential elections. If u did ur research well u'll no that CPC won in all the core northern states. If you compare the election results you will know that the margin was the closest in all the 4th republic election results.
Things may not be the same for GEJ this time around. Judging from his administration, his performance is barely below average. The SW voted for GEJ not the PDP, but now they have realised there's no difference, so the sympathy vote ish won't play in next election. The SW people are the most enlightened in the country. Unlike other zones who cast their votes on ethnic grounds

Yoruba votes helped GEJ win which election? Why are Yoruba people so full of themselves and have this overbloated sense of political importance. Don't think because the SW controls the media, you can ram down outright lies down our throats as facts. If anything, the SW region was demystified by GEJ's election victory, he proved to them that with or with a total support from them, so long as he had the backings of the entire eastern region, the SW can either tag along or stay in opposition raanting while he, Jonathan wins that election. The SW showed its political strength and influence by putting in a total of 2.8 million votes, Lagos accounting for about 45% of the votes. Knowing how the population of Lagos is constituted it will be folly to attribute JEG's heavy victory there to the Yoruba people. Now facing the core Yoruba states, by calculations, their votes number was inconsequential to influence anything even though just like every other states the Presidency needed at least 25% votes from every state.
You guyz need to stop arrogating to yourself some fictitious importance in winning the elections for GEJ, any subregion should make noise about giving him the victory or putting him there, it is the SE, and they have continued to give him that same support regardless without using it as an object to arm twist or manipulate the presidency. The SW did the least in bringing JEG to Aso rock, that is the fact that a million propaganda can not change.

Asari talks too much, little wonder the presidency is keeping him at arm's length, he is not the only Niger Deltan ex-Militant leader neither is he the fiercest leader of all the militants. Ateke and tompolo that even wrecked more havoc with their activities no dey disturb like this guy, na wa o.