Rev. Agbali's reply:
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Dr. Chika Onyeani, who believe so much in your competence of winning
an argument? The issues here are not a debating contest or a
projector for advancing claims of significance of what you have done
or not done. I wonder why the Organization of African Unity (OAU), an
association that buried itself in the sand like an Ostrich, in order
to be like the Phoenix birth and resurrect a new identity, has not
found it to give similar accolades to people like Wole Soyinka, and
even our George Ayittey, and others who have opposed the club of
megalomaniac dictators that have ruined the African polity. You must
have been parading yourself within the corridors of power, like your
kin, Arthur Nzeribe. Thus, you seem adept at trying to denounce
my analytical approach to unmasking actors like you who hop from one
space to another trying to be "settled" by powerful hegemonic
authorities around the world. Yes, I understand that the idea of
"Capitalist Nigger" equates well with the mode of operation of the
Aro merchants who were trading their kins in other to gain
economically from the throes and cries of the enslaved. Today, the
dynamics have only changed in people like you.
It is good to postulate things and live with them. Remember, last
year or thereabout, a Nigerian parliamentarian, of Igbo
extraction, in South Africa was denounced by a South African
colleague to go back home to his native Nigeria and make his valuable
contributions to the development of the polity there, rather than
heap solutions for South African problems. There is a truism in
that, that some of us want to salvage the world, but our own
homelands are in ruins. You want to save the Black race, that was
why I requested that you so should, with all your knowledge,
credential, and influence within the club of Monstrosity and
dictators to go back home and salvage your boiling space of origin.
The proverbial finger pointing with the rest turning toward you! Are
you afraid of bringing solace to your troubled home of origin? At
least, if not for anything folks like Alex Ekwueme, Chief Emeka
Odumegwu Ojukwu deserve respect for going back home to contribute
their veritable quota in ensuring Igbo development. Arrogant
postures of attacking a people that have endured their American
travail over 400 years when you cannot endure the travail that is
Nigeria thus hopping from space to space, offering monstrous
paradigms and illusive vignettes in trying to salvage the Black world
and its assumed savagery, is what I decry.
Rightfully so, you point to the essentiality of the point I am
making. Arrogant projection of subjective interest and glamorous
painting in the media- that is a passionate hobby of yours it seems.
However, more interesting is your threat. "I say to my dear good
friend, the Rev. Dr. Tony Agbali, please stop these innuendoes and
personal attacks. You will only have yourself to blame if you
continue." Threats, are according to the Romans, weapons of fools.
You can not harm me, you only merely realize that folks like me are
not afraid of you, nor even the delusionary monsters that occupy the
corridor of power. I know that in spaces, like Nigeria, hired
assassins and the weak utilization of state security agents to
eliminate foes are a constant feature of that terrain. I would have
panicked because since you relish what you consider your prime
achievement, namely the validation of the club of tormentors, but I
am not afraid of you, nor of any machinations that you are capable
of, alone or with any cohort that utilizes violence as a tool. I
understand well such modality, and I am well ready for it. Violence
and threats are instruments of cowardly display. Let me presume that
your threat represent merely a use of words for lack of a viable
alternative. However, be bold enough to portray what the true
ingredients of your threat amounts to.
I agree that multiplex voices are cogent to the resolution of the
African issue. It demands more than voices alone, it demand action
and also courage. Courage to stand up to oppression in all its
colorful dull arrays. The Africa we seek is one that must
incorporate multiple perspectives, and not threat. That is
essentially one major point where we differ. However, I guess
that certain contexts, allow others to privilege certain idioms such
as the easy appeal to threat and forces than others. I am not
presuming to say that the experience of the Nigerian-Biafran war,
the lengthy years of military domination, have traumatized you so
much that the idiom of violence finds an easy in-road into your
articulations. One, can see that you might not be alone, given the
high rate of armed robbers, hired assassinations, Okija Shrine and
other elements that serve to diminish the culture of life, within the
arena of your origin.
Further, while you might be kind enough to allot me the titular
appelation, "Dr." I do not claim to be one, as I am not one. I do not
own a Ph.D. at the moment, neither did I buy any yet from the popular
Abah Araria market from peddlers of pseudo-PhDs from non-existing, or
non-sanctioned American or European universities. I would have
imagined, that a journalist of "international renown" such as you
should have done your home work well enough regarding your subject.
Thus, you give a partial-truth about reality in this regard, and this
shows a porosity of journalistic practices. I guess, I have had the
benefits of reading your newspaper a few times, and I have in the
past similar misrepresentations. Further, I invited Dr. Ayittey
because, I am not one who throw away the baby and the bath water all
at once. I know, that Dr. Ayittey, like any reasoning African (even a
reasonable minor) hold the key to the resolution of African issues,
and adorn it with greatness. I know where and what I disagree about
with Dr. Ayittey, and I think that Dr. Ayittey can speak for himself,
except if you are also paid to manage his public relations image.
Well, as for being friends, you are in fact, not only a friend, you
are an African brother, and I appreciate the kindness of your
extending an olive branch to me. In any case, we are never at war,
we are only presenting different perspectives as we perceive them,
thus engendering war, where peace exists, induce the metaphoric
politics of dog-eat-dog, when the dogs are not even within reach to
tear each other apart, offers no resounding victory. All I can say,
is I cannot fight you based on the abstractions of letters, if we see
and ever meet I would be very available as a brother with another.
Only in this way, can we, as people (hopefully) of reason, can offer
resounding example to our rancous and volatile political class, whose
visions are too shallowly defined by rhetoric and not reality. We
are human beings with one another, and we do share common concerns,
and experience reality most times similarly, especially as it relates
to our daily survival. Thus, we share more of the human condition,
than we actually think about.
Thus, I will embrace Dr. Onyeani, so mine is not like the gifts of
the Greek, so do not fear when I reach out to you!!!