Acapella on the Nigerian Condition

#EndSARS Protest: Police Brutality and Reforms in Nigeria

#EndSARS: Johnny Just Drop

#EndSARS: They Don't Care About Us

#EndSARS: Nigeria Is Murdering Its Citizens

(By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) – Nigeria Is Murdering Its Citizens                               LAGOS, Nigeria [Oct. 21, 2020] — For years, the name SARS hung in the air here in Nigeria like a putrid fog. SARS, which stood for Special Anti-Robbery Squad, was supposed to be the elite Nigerian police unit dedicated to fighting crime, but it was really a moneymaking terror squad with no accountability. SARS was random, vicious, vilely extortionist. SARS officers would raid bars or stop buses on the road and arbitrarily arrest young men for such crimes as wearing their hair in dreadlocks, having tattoos, holding a nice phone or a laptop, driving a nice car. Then they would demand large amounts of money as “bail.” 

          SARS officers once arrested my cousin at a beer parlor because he arrived driving a Mercedes. They accused him of being an armed robber, ignored the work ID cards he showed them, took him to a station where they threatened to photograph him next to a gun and claim he was a robber, unless he paid them a large sum of money. My cousin is one of the fortunate few who could pay an amount large enough for SARS, and who was released. He is not one of the many tortured, or the many disappeared, like Chijioke Iloanya.

Nigeria: #EndSARS #EndPoliceBrutality

Nigeria at 60: Our Roots by Tayo Fatunla

Source: New African magazine

Ajofia Nnewi: Onye Na-Ezi Uzo

 

Ajofia Nnewi: Onye Na-Ezi Uzo

Things Fall Apart: The Stories Nwoye Loves

"Okonkwo was inwardly pleased at his son's development, and he knew it was due to Ikemefuna. He wanted Nwoye to grow into a tough young man capable of ruling his father's household when he was dead and gone to join the ancestors. ...
          "So Okonkwo encouraged the boys to sit with him in his obi, and he told them stories of the land -- masculine stories of violence and bloodshed. Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell, and which she no doubt still told her younger children -- stories of tortoise and his wily way, and of the bird eneke-nti-oba who challenged the whole world to a wrestling contest and was finally thrown by the cat. He remembered the story she often told of the quarrel between Earth and Sky long ago, and how Sky withheld rain for seven years, until crops withered and the dead could not be buried because the hoes broke on the stony Earth. At last Vulture was sent to plead with Sky, and to soften his heart with a song of the suffering of the sons of men. Whenever Nwoye's mother sang this song he felt carried away to the distant scene in the sky where Vulture, Earth's emissary, sang for mercy. At last Sky was moved to pity, and he gave to Vulture rain wrapped in leaves of cocoyam. But as he flew home his long talon pierced the leaves and the rain fell as it had never fallen before. And so heavily did it rain on Vulture that he did not return to deliver his message but flew to a distant land, from where he had espied a fire. And when he got there he found it was a man making a sacrifice. He warmed himself in the fire and ate the entrails.
          "That was the kind of story that Nwoye loved. But he now knew that they were for foolish women and children, and he knew that his father wanted him to be a man. And so he feigned that he no longer cared for women's stories. And when he did this he saw that his father was pleased, and no longer rebuked him or beat him."

Chinua Achebe, 1958 [2010], 39-40

Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy)

Of Nigerian-Americans and Wake-Keep

(By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo) - Walter’s Wake-keep

In the Boston metropolitan area is a Liberian who loved to attend Nigerian parties. (Let us call him Walter, because we have no permission to use his real name.) He loved Nigerian music, jollof rice, pepper soup, Shoki dance and watching Nigerians spray dollar bills like snow flakes at these parties. Trust Nigerians in America, they come up with every reason to throw a party - child dedication, wedding anniversary, birthday, graduation, send-off, wake-keep, etc. 

Every party is special but none is as special as a wake-keep. If you rent a hall to celebrate your 50th birthday or 25th wedding anniversary, or even your child's 5th birthday, or your child’s dedication in church, the general feeling is that you have the money to spare. People will still come, enjoy, and may even give you gifts, but it is mostly not seen as obligatory. But when it is a wake-keep, the party from conception to execution is aimed at raising money to assist the bereaved to go home and attend the funeral of the dead. The MC makes that clear every ten minutes of the event. And since people are expected to "drop something," organizers make sure that there are a lot of food and drinks to justify the things people will "drop".

          Another feature of these wake-keep, other than the fact that most of those for whom the events are held had never been to America, is that there is an unwritten understanding between the organizers and the attendees that whatever the attendee gives is documented, noted and permanently preserved for the time when it would be necessary to return the favor. In Igbo community, they even have a proverb that backs it up. It says: whatever a man gives to another man is a loan waiting to be repaid.

An Apple A Day Keeps Our Dollars Away

(By Ogaga Ifowodo) - An Apple A Day Keeps Our Dollars Away

Can’t recall now when the Apple became the official fruit of Nigeria, announcing its newly begotten status along every main road and at every street corner, stacked one on top of the other in green or red pyramids in trays or on the importation cartons, taking the pride of place in the produce section of every supermarket. The Apple has also staked its claim to our appetite in the more traditional open markets, as I learnt the other day driving past and seeing an apple stand somewhere, it seemed, between the meat and fish stalls at Utako Market in Abuja! A reminder, I suppose, to shoppers not to forget to get their natural vitamins and anti-oxidants which, presumably, only the Apple can supply, along with their proteins. 

When the apple, a temperate region fruit, began to rule our tropical palates? My guess is the late eighties. Shortly after the Gospel of No-Alternative-to-SAP according to military dictator General Ibrahim Babangida and his finance minister, Olu Falae, had led to capitulation to the IMF/World Bank. The result was that trade liberalisation and the removal of tariffs, not to mention devaluation of the naira (we are still talking about that today) and cessation of social or human capital spending—in other words, all commonsense measures to protect the domestic economy and the people—came to govern, like an implacable god, every national economic policy. The goal was clear enough to the imperialist designers of those “conditionalities” and to anyone not willfully blinded to the truth: to make dependent economies, the postcolonial ones especially, facing acute shortage of foreign exchange to service their debts, become even more dependent by being forced to import just about everything when their national currencies become so weakened they render local industries comatose and unable to compete with the manufacturing giants of Europe, North America and Asia.

Prologue to Azuh Arinze's Journalism Encounters

Encounters: Lessons from my Journalism Career

Prologue by Chijioke Azuawusiefe

      Human interactions generate memories and lessons. Positive lessons enrich and equip the individuals involved with a base for favorable future relationships. Not-so-positive ones provide them with insights on how to remodel similar experiences going forward. In Encounters: Lessons from my Journalism Career, Azuh Arinze captivatingly recounts some of the significant associations that made his career and shares the most inspiring takeaways of competence, dedication, hard work, tenacity, generosity, and gratitude which he has painstakingly teased out from those life-changing relationships in his close-to-three-decades outstanding profession as a consummate journalist. 

        For seventeen years, Azuh, whom I call “Igwe Journalism” because of the mastery and preeminent command he demonstrates in the exercise of his métier, worked at Fame and Encomium Weekly, two of the most influential soft sell magazines of their time and the Facebook and Instagram of their day. Who read Encomium in its heyday and did not eagerly look forward to Azuh’s “Potpourri” column to catch up with “the latest gist” on which celebrity showed up at which upscale hangout or club, did what, with whom, and then zoomed off in the latest model of their vehicle brand, with registration number XYZ? Yes, Azuh was (and still is) that thorough. He would go on to edit Encomium for eight years, after editing (from 1999 to 2000) its sister publication, Reel Stars—one of the first magazines dedicated to covering Nollywood and its stars, filmmakers, and marketers.

Of Nigerian Politics, Meddlesome Godfathers, and Suspended Anambra Traditional Rulers

Anambra State Governor Obiano (R) hands certificate of
recognition to traditional ruler

(By Comfort Obi) - Anambra: Time To Tell These Traditional Rulers The Truth

          Let me start by saying that I am from a solid Royal Home. Not the kind of Royal Homes that are two for a kobo, now, scattered all over Igbo land. The one I come from is very much over a Century old. And even though I don’t prefix my name with Princess, I understand what it is to  be  one. 

My respect for the traditional institution is, therefore, sky high. And I feel really bad when I see any of them being humiliated. Which is the angle from which a number of people want me to look at the shame playing out in Anambra State.

I am likely to disappoint them here.

I believe very much in the Igbo adage which says: “When adults reduce themselves to rice, children feast on them.” In sum, that is the story of what happened in Anambra State. Some traditional rulers reduced themselves to rice, and were feasted upon from Anambra, to Abuja, and back to Anambra.

For a couple of reasons, not relevant here, I am not a fan of Willie Obiano, the Anambra State Governor. But last week, I grudgingly gave him a thumbs-up.

Obiano, in an unprecedented action, suspended 13 Traditional Rulers. He did well. The suspension, he ordered, would last for an initial one year, after which it could be lifted, or extended. I don’t agree.

The Marriage Whisperer: A Review

The Marriage Whisperer

A Review by Chijioke Azuawusiefe, SJ

          Marriage has been designated a number of things ranging from sacrament to business, with in-betweens like covenant, union, vocation, institution, partnership, social construct, and even horse race. It all depends on who does the classification and those involved in the relationship. But in all the cases, one factor remains certain: marriage is a work in progress. Those involved work at it and that work takes different forms for different couples. 

The Marriage Whisperer tells a fascinating story of six middle-aged women who, leveraging the support and the company of their friendship, navigate the challenges of their marriages and relationships. Tess Ajibosin, in this debut novella, paints a picture of strong characters who, nonetheless, are human enough to acknowledge their vulnerabilities when it comes to their associations with men, even though they do not allow their shortcomings to diminish them. Ajibosin leverages the experiences of these women to bring the broad strokes of her brush to bear on the gender and patriarchal conversations canvas in contemporary Nigeria. She then traces the contours of these discourses through the individual lives of the narrator, Camille, and her friends, as each confronts and comes to terms with the relationship blues that her life presents. 

Nollywood: Omoni Oboli and Gender Equality

(By Ijeoma Chinonyerem) - Before now, I rarely watch movies by Omoni. But since I came home, the family and I have watched plenty of her movies on Netflix and I just have to stan. 
In all the movies produced by Omoni's production company, there is a conspicuous or subtle promotion of egalitarian ideals. 

No matter how trite the storyline is or how weak the jokes are, you cannot miss the infusion of these feminist ideals here and there.

In Wives on Strike, they reinforced consent even in marriage. Did you notice that NONE of the husbands in the movie forced the wives to have sex. Did you notice? Did you? Nothing like "your body belongs to me cos you're my wife".

The wives retained FULL bodily autonomy, starting from the senator's wife to the mechanic's wife to even the prostitute. Reinforcing what we've been preaching that NO IS NO even in marriage. It was a teachable moment that even when married, consent can still be denied and forcing it is rape. No husband raped their wife.

In Okafor's Law, Toyin's character said something which resonated with me. She said "you women think that by slaving away for men, he will pick you. Get some self esteem. Grow up".

Gbowam!!!