celebrity radar - gossips
Nigerian Elections: Law Professor Rubbishes Chimamanda Adichie in Open Letter to Biden, Trudeau
Nigerian Elections: Law Professor Rubbishes Chimamanda Adichie in Open Letter to Biden, Trudeau
Interestingly, Yemi Oke, a top Nigerian lawyer and professor, has penned down an open letter to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Joe Biden on Nigerian elections, faulting popular Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie’s stand on the February 25 presidential polls.
In the letter dated Sunday, April 9, Mr. Oke said Ms. Adichie’s letter to Joe Biden is “seditious” and a “case of extraterritorial ethnocentric politicking of a non-resident Nigerian-American.” Mr Oke added that “Chimamanda’s letter is most unbecoming” and she went below expectations to pen-down a “seditious letter against the Government and people of Nigeria.”
The academic said he found it “most bewildering” that Ms Adichie, a “privileged Nigerian-born writer, has decided to paint her country of origin black.”
“Chimamanda’s letter was against entire Nigeria’s Democracy that was fought and procured with patriotic bloods and undeterred resolve of democrats, chief among them being Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,” he said.
Ms Adichie, the internationally acclaimed Nigerian novelist and essayist, wrote a piece titled “Nigeria’s hollow democracy” published in the latest edition of The Atlantic magazine on April 6.
Ms Adichie, 45, had said in her open letter to Mr Biden that the process of the Nigerian presidential poll was imperilled by “deliberate manipulation” and the “electoral commission ignored so many glaring red flags in its rush to announce a winner.”
Before the elections, Ms Adichie publicly declared support for Peter Obi, the candidate of the Labour Party, and hoped he would win “as many polls had predicted.”
Mr Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress was declared the winner of the presidential elections by the the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Ms. Adichie believes Mr. Tinubu could not have won the election if “results had been uploaded in real-time to the INEC portal. Mr. Tinubu of the APC polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored a total of 6,984,520 votes. The Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi came third with 6,101,533 votes.
Ms Adichie also alleged in her piece that: “Many believe that the INEC Chair has been “compromised” but there is no evidence of the astronomical US-dollar amounts he is rumoured to have received from the President-elect.”
“It was surprising to see the U.S. State Department congratulates Bola Tinubu on his victory while rage is brewing, especially among young people in Nigeria,” the novelist said, adding that “American intelligence surely cannot be so inept. A little homework and they would know what is manifestly obvious to me and so many others,” she said.
“Ludicrous claims”
In his letter, Mr Oke said: “Chimamanda’s claims and assertions on the recently concluded Presidential elections in Nigeria is not only ludicrous, it is also illogical, baseless and depicts ignoble ranting of an uninformed mind about legal and judicial processes or procedures.”
“It is unimaginable that someone who did not participate or vote in an election would make categorical statements about an election she did not witness,” Mr Oke said.
The academic added that Ms Adichie represents recent generations of Nigerian intelligentsia in the diaspora.
Her lonely voice on the election of President-Elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu is, at best, a muted trumpet which is audible to no one except herself and her co-travelers,” he noted.
The full details of Mr Oke’s letter is reproduced below.
April 9, 2023,
OPEN LETTER TO:
Mr. Justin Pierre James Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
and
Mr. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., President of the United States of America,
Dear PM and President,
RE: CHIMAMANDA’S SEDITIOUS OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN – A CASE OF EXTRATERRITORIAL ETHNOCENTRIC POLITICKING OF A NON-RESIDENT NIGERIAN-AMERICAN
Background:
It is most bewildering that a privileged Nigerian-born writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie born in Enugu, Nigeria in 1977 but now lives in the United State of America, has decided to paint her country of origin “black”. Sadly, Chimamandi’s letter is a reckless affront to our resolve not to be part of the “brain-drain” syndrome against our dear country Nigeria like the writer. Some of us are determined to be “brain-gain” to Nigeria. It is in view of this that we felt taken aback that Chimamanda went below expectations to pen-down a seditious letter against the Government and people of Nigeria.
Chimamandi’s letter titled “Nigeria’s Hollow Democracy” was not about the election or person of the President-Elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose victory was freely and fairly unveiled despite dis-oriented opposition politicking and those of their supporters in Nigeria and their allies in the diaspora. Chimamandi’s letter was against the entire “Nigeria’s Democracy” that was fought and procured with patriotic bloods, labour, efforts, lives, and undeterred resolve of democrats, chief among them being Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who, by divine arrangement, is now the President-Elect of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The misplaced reference to certain “The smoldering disillusionment felt by many Nigerians” in her letter is, at best Chimamanda’s sole experience of agonies of defeat suffered by her and her preferred candidate/Party in the recently concluded Presidential elections in Nigeria.
Seditious Elements of Chimamandi’s Letter:
Sedition is an offence in the US where Chimamandi lives. It is also an offence in Nigeria, her country of origin that she now holds and views with disdains. Sedition not only covers a person’s actions but also any words or writings in print that may incite, encourage or promote the overthrowing of a government. The US criminalizes seditious conspiracy by virtue of 18 U.S.C. § 2384.
Sedition is a transnational crime defined as the “inciting by words or writing to show disaffection towards the state or constituted authority”. The transnational nature of sedition committed by US resident against sovereign nations led to the enactment of the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) which aimed to prevent “aliens,” or non-citizens, living in the United States from resorting to seditious acts or conduct, like Chimamandi did in her letter. The law authorized the President to deport “aliens,” and also permitted their arrest, imprisonment, and deportation for seditious acts or conduct. The Sedition Act also made it a crime for American citizens to “print, utter, or publish…any false, scandalous, and malicious writing” about a government.
Locus Standi of Chimamandi’s Letter
Under the Nigerian constitution, Chimamandi’s franchise, the constitutional right to vote and be voted for, is guaranteed but the writer opted to snub the legal right by refusing to collect a PVC- Permanent Voter’s Card. She opted to be more “American” than the real Americans! She also did not participate in Nigeria’s election as a candidate or as an eligible voter. She opted to make several videos to publicly endorse and campaign for her “messianic” candidate of the Labour Party. Chimamandi became needlessly embittered because her tribal option and those of her political Party failed woefully.
Chimamandi’s claims and assertions on the recently concluded Presidential elections in Nigeria is not only ludicrous, it is also illogical, baseless and depicts ignoble ranting of an uninformed mind about legal and judicial processes or procedures. It is unimaginable that someone who did not participate or vote in an election would make categorical statements about an election she did not witness. What Chimamandi did not tell her gullible readers is that her candidate won mostly in her/his ethnic enclaves and that the President-Elect, Bola Tinubu, President Buhari, notable Nigerian Governors, Senators and others also lost in their strongholds, which should ordinarily have been their locational advantage for “manipulating” the outcome, as Chimamandi unconscionably and recklessly alleged.
The Writer-turned ethnic politician did also not indicate that the Presidential election was conducted on the same date as the National Assembly elections in which the ruling party won about 60% of all seats in the Senate and House of Representatives. The winning trends of the APC is obvious, real, actual and all-embracing.
Chimamandi represents recent generations of Nigerian intelligentsias in the diaspora. Her lonely voice on the election of President-Elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu is, at best, a muted trumpet which is audible to no one except herself and her co-travelers. The only legal and legitimate option is for her candidate, Peter Obi, not Chimamandi herself because she lacks the locus standi, to approach the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal as provided by Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended). This has since been done, and further makes it illogical for Chiamamandi to resort to writing letters capable of inciting ethnic or violent reactions in Nigeria while she resides in the comfort of the US, her new found home or haven, which was fought for and procured with hard labour and commitment of Americans. If Chimamandi is unwilling to sacrifice to make Nigeria better, she should kindly desist from undermining the resolve of those of us who believe that Nigeria could be better if we all make necessary sacrifices like American did to build their country where Chimamadi now sojourns.
Chimamandi’s and Reckless Undermining of Judicial Process
Chimamandi’s letter is most unbecoming. Nigerians have spoken with their votes in the election, and they spoke loudly and clearly. The losers have since taken to the legal and legitimate options of challenging the outcome. Legally speaking, the issue is now subjudice. Chimammadi’s letter may be viewed as an attempt to undermine the course of justice or pre-empt the outcome of judicial processes. This is similar to the same way and manner her party and candidate orchestrated polls to pre-empt the outcome of an election they knew they could never win, as they planked their electioneering and campaign activities on tribal and other ethnocentric and religious sentiments. This is also reflected in the outcome of the elections as results empirically validated this assertion.
The position of law in Nigeria (and similar to all civilized democracies of the world, including Canada and the US), is that: any individual or political party that intends to challenge or question the result of an election must ensure the petition is established on a valid ground or reason recognized by law. An election petition can only succeed with valid grounds recognized by the 1999 Constitution or Electoral Act, 2022.
The GIANT called NIGERIA Will Rise and Never Fall Again:
The expectations of Nigerians are very high on the up-coming Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidency, which had triumphed over all known forces of religious bigotry of “Muslim-Muslim ticket, ethnicity and other divisive tendencies. Elections have come and gone. The battle now shifts to the Presidential Election Tribunal. The act of serious, progressive and purposeful governance must immediately commence and continue pending legal battles. The President-Elect is no longer for the APC. He has declared that he is now for APC as much as for PDP, LP, and other major political parties in Nigeria. More importantly, he has also declared that his administration will govern for the benefit of those who voted for or against it. Now that the season of politics, politicking and electioneering is over, it is time for all of us to collaborate, including diaspora Nigerian citizens, writers and intelligentsias like the Chimamandis of the US, Canada, the UK and elsewhere, to team-up and get Nigeria working again under PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU.
The GIANT called NIGERIA must rise, and never fall again!
Conclusion:
The intention of this open letter is not to vilify, ridicule or incite and set the law of sedition in motion against Chimamandi. It is to right-size her over-bloated ego of perceived global self-esteem. She needs to realise that thousands, if not millions of Nigerians (including those of us who are now back home in Nigeria- but still frequently travel to those sides – to be a part of the solution and those still in the diaspora) have had similar and even better opportunities in Canada, US, UK and other countries of the world without deploying our privileged positions to undermine our country of origin, Nigeria.
At a time all hands are on deck to build a Nigeria of Renewed Hope under the in-Coming President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the unpatriotic Chimamandis opted for the ignoble act of stimulating crisis against Nigeria, a country that prepared them for their perceived global fames. This is not the Canadian or American culture we had imbibed and which has now positively and progressively shaped our worldviews and socio-political and other forms of engagements. For the records, the pride of Canada and the US democracies is Multi-ethnicity and Multiculturalism, not ethnocentrism. This is a vital lesson for all concerned.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Prof. Yemi Oke, PhD, FCTI, FCIArb.
celebrity radar - gossips
The Compassionate Pontiff: Pope Francis Dies at 88, Leaving a Mixed Legacy of Hope and Unfinished Reckoning
The Compassionate Pontiff: Pope Francis Dies at 88, Leaving a Mixed Legacy of Hope and Unfinished Reckoning
By George Omagbemi Sylvester
The world stands at a moral crossroads with the passing of Pope Francis at the age of 88, a man widely revered for his humility, humanity, and efforts to reshape the Catholic Church into a vessel of compassion, social justice, and mercy. Yet, even in his death, the shadows of unresolved trauma, rooted in decades of clerical abuse; cling to his papacy, threatening to tarnish a legacy that otherwise radiates light.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1936, Pope Francis was the first pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit to ascend the papal throne. His election in 2013 was itself a turning point, a signal that the Church was ready for introspection and reform after decades of bureaucratic rigidity and moral decline. But while Pope Francis redefined the global perception of what a pontiff could be, his inability to decisively eradicate the rot of clerical abuse and Vatican secrecy leaves a bitter footnote to an otherwise progressive era.
A Pope of the People
Francis was, above all, a pastor of the people. He lived in a guesthouse rather than the Apostolic Palace, carried his own bag, and rejected the papal limousine for a modest Ford Focus. His simple lifestyle sent a message louder than a thousand encyclicals, that humility was not merely a virtue to be preached, but one to be lived.
He tackled issues that many in the Vatican’s hierarchy feared to touch. From calling for action on climate change in his landmark encyclical Laudato Si’, to opening doors for the divorced and remarried, and asking “Who am I to judge?” in reference to gay Catholics, Francis sought to shift the Church from a rule-bound institution to a more merciful community of believers.
Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon once said of Francis: “His voice carries moral authority because it is not political. It is prophetic.” Indeed, Francis saw the world through the eyes of the poor, the refugee, the marginalized. He called the global economic system “an economy that kills” and urged nations to remember “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”
In his 2020 book Let Us Dream, Francis wrote, “This is a moment to dream big, to rethink our priorities… and to choose what matters.” That dream was not just theological, it was social, economic, environmental, and deeply human.
An Incomplete Reckoning
Yet even prophets stumble. While Pope Francis acknowledged the evils of sexual abuse within the Church, his actions often fell short of his rhetoric. He initially defended Chilean Bishop Juan Barros despite widespread allegations of covering up abuse, only to backtrack after international outrage. Though he later defrocked hundreds of priests and convened global bishops for a summit on abuse in 2019, the fundamental structures of secrecy and institutional protection remained largely intact.
Renowned historian Garry Wills once said, “The Catholic Church is the longest-standing authoritarian institution in the Western world.” Despite Francis’ reformist zeal, that institution remained resistant to full transparency.
“There is no greater tyranny,” wrote Montesquieu, “than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.” This tyranny lived in the silence of countless victims whose testimonies were long ignored, buried under ecclesiastical bureaucracy.
Even Francis’ own commissions on abuse faltered. Several prominent abuse survivors resigned, citing lack of progress and frustration at the Vatican’s unwillingness to hold bishops accountable. It is a tragic irony that a pope so committed to the poor and oppressed struggled to fully deliver justice to the most grievously wounded among his own flock.
Philosophical and Political Legacy
Despite these failings, Pope Francis reasserted the moral relevance of the Church in an era of rising authoritarianism and nihilism. He condemned populist nationalism, warned against “savage capitalism,” and confronted world leaders on their failure to uphold human dignity.
Barack Obama once called him “a living example of Jesus’ teachings,” and indeed, Francis preached with the urgency of a man who saw the world on fire.
He often quoted Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov: “The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” For Francis, that “something” was the dignity of the human person. He reasserted the Church’s opposition to the death penalty, called for the abolition of nuclear weapons, and emphasized that migration is not a crime but a human right.
His encyclical Fratelli Tutti called for a new kind of politics: “A love capable of transcending borders is the basis of what we call social friendship.” In a world fractured by xenophobia and greed, Francis’ voice was often the lone trumpet of compassion echoing across closed borders and barbed wire fences.
Criticism from Within
Not all welcomed this new direction. Traditionalist Catholics saw him as a threat to orthodoxy. Some cardinals openly resisted his reforms, and conservative theologians accused him of creating doctrinal confusion. But Francis seemed unfazed. “Tradition is not the worship of ashes,” he once said, quoting Gustav Mahler, “but the preservation of fire.”
Perhaps it is this fire that will define his legacy. A fire for justice, mercy, and a Church more in tune with the suffering of the world than with the politics of Rome.
The Final Chapter
As news of his death spreads, reactions are flooding in. UN Secretary-General António Guterres praised him as “a tireless advocate for the poor, the vulnerable, and the planet.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described him as “a moral compass in a turbulent world.” In the slums of Manila, the plains of Kenya, and the refugee camps of Lebanon, candles are being lit for a pope who saw them not as burdens, but as brothers.
Yet, for the victims of clerical abuse, the candle burns differently, more like a flicker of hope never fully realized.
Francis once said, “Mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life.” But mercy without justice, as philosopher Cornel West reminds us, is sentimentality. And justice without truth is cruelty.
The Church now faces a difficult road ahead. Will it choose a successor who deepens the reforms Francis began, or one who retreats to the safety of orthodoxy? Will it finally confront its sins not with apologies alone, but with sweeping structural change?
Pope Francis leaves behind a Church more open, more self-aware, but still grappling with its darkest sins. He was the right man for a world gasping for empathy, but not quite the hammer needed to demolish the structures of secrecy that protected predators for decades.
Still, in an era of cynicism, his belief in the power of mercy, inclusion, and human dignity stands tall.
As the philosopher Immanuel Kant once said, “Two things fill the mind with ever increasing awe: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.” Pope Francis reminded a watching world that amid scandal and sorrow, there remains a moral law—and it must always side with the least of these.
He has departed this world, not with the might of a monarch, but with the footprints of a shepherd. Let the next chapter of the Catholic Church be written not just with prayers, but with courage. For that is what Francis hoped for most, not sainthood, but a Church worthy of its founder.
celebrity radar - gossips
Hear what Bishop Wisdom Irabor said about Dr. Chris Okafor… The Generational Prophet of God
…….IT IS WORLD DR CHRIS OKAFOR’S DAY: EIGHT BIRTHDAY NOTES TO THE GENERATIONAL PROPHET:
PLEASE TRY AND READ TO THE END:
HELP ME SAY A WORD OF PRAYERS TO HIM:
1. Happy Birthday to the man who is completely different from everything his enemies told you about him. My relationship with you made me know that, you can become a bad person relating with the person people think is good for you, you can also become a good person relating with the person people think is not good for you. I found God relating with you.
2. Happy birthday to the man whose financial gift to me, in two separate cheques, cleared the first year school fees of my both daughters in private university. The both school fees is about four point three million naira. You made me not to feel the pain of paying the first year for both of them. Apart from you and Pastor David ibiyeomie, No mentor or Senoir man has ever done anything for me.
3. Happy birthday to the man who taught me how to be a father and a friend with my assistant pastors. I came for training with your pastors, and I saw how you bonded with them as a friend and a brother to them, yet they honour and respect you as a father. Only few men can combine these two aspects with a balance. I saw them respect your authority and still confess their secret battles to you for you to help them overcome. Where I came from, you don’t tell anyone your secret battles as a pastor, you will become a public ridicule.
4. Happy birthday to the man who I followed a few weeks ago to see a mentor who came from Abuja for a program in Lagos, and in my presence you wrote a cheque of twenty million naira as a prophet offering to that mentor. Most people don’t know you even have more access to fathers in our family tree, than most of us that were raised in that family.
5. Happy Birthday to the man who practically lives a life of fasting and prayers daily. I came to do a three day training program, and you made me too, to fast and pray with you and the pastors for all three days. At a point, I said to myself, how I wish people know you personally and privately. You are a Christian to the core. I pray for my friends, May you not first meet the enemies of your helper before meeting your helper.
6. Happy birthday to the most quiet blessed man, I have ever seen. Your cathedral is about twenty five thousand seaters, with a crowd of people gathered inside every week, And many surrendering their lives to Christ every service day, you don’t talk about it, the headquarters has so many buildings, offices and event centres, you don’t talk about it, your lekki branch is over 50 plots of land, you don’t brag about it. You have over 400 branches home and abroad, you don’t brag about it. It was in your house last year, when I came for dinner with you, that I saw a brand new Royce Rolls and a brand new bullets proof Land cruiser jeep, that you have never talked about openly. Let’s not talk about your business investment in several sectors of life. The few that I know of. You are blessed, yet very quiet and humble.
Thank you for always allowing me to stay for free, in your ministry 5 star hotel, any time I visit Lagos. I still stayed there last month for free for five days. You save me so much sir.
7. Happy birthday to a prophet who is a balanced teacher and a good preacher. I remember joining your service after one of the training programs I came for. From the beginning to the end, there was no prophecy. I told you after the service, we know you as a prophet, why will you do service and there is no prophecy? You said to me, To have a balanced church, you must know how to combine the word, prayers and prophecies. So that nothing is lacking. Today is a teaching and prayer service. If I call for prophetic service, you won’t know this is the man that just finished teaching.
8. Happy birthday to the man who bought a massive duplex for his Resident Pastor, few minutes drive to his own house in the same estate he lives. They both live in the same estate in lagos. According to him, this man has left all to follow me, if I don’t do this for him, it means unbelievers who do it in the secular world are better than me. On my last visit to lagos, the private driver attached to me showed me the house on our way to see him at home. To confirm what the pastor himself already told me.
Thank you for being there for me and several others.
I love you sincerely and genuinely.
You are my Brother for life.
Happy birthday sir.
Your Bro.
Bishop Irabor Wisdom Robinson.
From all of us at ANSWERS ASSEMBLY WARRI DELTA STATE NIGERIA.
-
Business6 months agoComprehensive Media Audit Shows Flutterwave, MTN Nigeria, and Bolt Outpacing Competitors in Media Engagement
-
celebrity radar - gossips7 months agoHow Deji Adeyanju Secured The Release Of Speed Darlington
-
Politics7 months agoMy best is yet to come’ As Ambassador Adesina ‘Lanre Ogunsola affirmed at the APC APEX body, Obafemi Owode Local Government
-
Entertainment4 months agoAliu Gafar delivers stellar performance as Esusu in Femi Adebayo’s Seven Doors