Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Femi Kusa's, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes

 

 

 

...

 

 

Mr Adepoju,

 

The issue is not the literary scene in Lagos or who let it go to pot. Or what role The Guardian used to play when Macebuh was in charge. Ibru was a businessman who set up a newspaper and who picked disgruntled elements of the old Daily Times to start off. There were mutual benefits for both sides and we saw that result in the quality of the paper in the early days. For whatever reason the quality of the paper fell or its fortune dwindled, it is not for us to pass judgment, because we were not part of the decision-making machinery at the papers. For instance, I worked there as a Special Correspondent between 1996 and 1997 and stories from the top constantly wafted into the newsroom, but it all depended on who was telling the story and which side of the dispute they were. But from my own reading, it was no worse than what happens in boardrooms across the world.

 

But, as I've tried to explain, this is not and shouldn't be the issue now. Whatever happened in the boardroom, Femi Kusa had kept a lid on it up till now. For thirteen years he or any other person did not mention it in public space. He did not need anyone to tell him that this is the wrong time to say these things, because of the unfairness of the situation. Attacking a man that cannot defend himself because he's dead is cowardly. Doing so at the very time the man died, after having over a decade to do so while he was alive, shows a lack of consideration for the dead man and his family and others whom he has mentioned, but who also are dead.

 

 

...

 

 

 

From: toyin adepoju <toyin.adepoju@googlemail.com>
To: Oluwatoyin Ade-Odutola <kole2@yahoo.com>
Cc: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, 28 November 2011, 19:35
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Femi Kusa's, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes

God bless you, my namesake, Oluwatoyin.
I get the impression you might even be better informed than myself on the historical incidents I addressed since I gather you were in the thick of the literary scene in Lagos in those days, where all the action was, while I subsisted on rumours in more or less remote Benin.

thanks
the other oluwatoyin
apart from the great Toyin at the University of Texas

On 28 November 2011 14:30, Oluwatoyin Ade-Odutola <kole2@yahoo.com> wrote:

Toyin Adepoju (you are too much!!),
 I doubt if you are an ordinary man-scholar. You have such a clear mind and clear head that everyone should envy. I still suspect that a highly esteemed professor Farooq A. Kperogi wrote what I just read. Wow!!
Toyin please keep up with your ability to think clearly. I endorse the piece by Femi Kusa!
Ibru has become larger in death. He was a human being with faults and he got upset like my landlord does when I miss my rent by a few hours.
Dr. Farooq A. Kperogi please chill and relax...read the piece again and your own reaction. I will send you Sina Peters to sing that song for you
Have a productive week ahead
Kole

From: toyin adepoju <>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 7:22 AM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Femi Kusa's, former Editor in Chief of The Guardian writes an unflattering exposé on Late Alex Ibru

I identify with you in the loss of your wife, Farooq.

Could you please give any directions on learning obituary writing?  I've done some writing of that but did not know it was considered a genre of its own that could be systematically studied.

I dont see this essay on Ibru as negative.

It tries, instead to give us an image of Ibru in his various manifestations, as businessman and politician.

Allow me to embarrass you and others by stating that I would also have liked to read about what transpired between Ibru and the man who might be the leading light of the Guardian at its founding, Stanley Macebuh, a dispute rumoured to be over a woman that seems to have led to Macebuh's leaving the Guardian and taking with him the magical photography of Sunmi Smart-Cole, if I have the name right, as well, in my view, the culture of the Guardian as an intellectual lighthouse. which was for a time, at the centre of Nigerian intellectual life in the humanities as evident in the Guardian Literary Series, where some of the best essays of  leading Nigerian literary critics, such as Abiola Irele and  Biodun Jeyifo were published, not to mention some of the most comprehensive explorations of various facets of Nigerian literature, essays written by scholars in Nigeria before a number of them fled abroad. The series was published as a set of two books edited by Macebuh. As far as I know, after Macebuh, the Guardian tried to continue that series, but it did not seem particularly successful and no more books came out of it. To my mind, from that point, the Guardian became more or less an ordinary newspaper of less than sterling quality. It was through the Guardian, for example, that Philip Emeagwali laid the  decisive foundations of his massive global fraud of self misrepresentation, through a glowing interview with Reuben Abati, later to became chairman of the Guardian editorial board, an interview full of bare faced lies of achievements of global stature, lies which a journalist  ought to have been able to uncover  through some diligent and even basic research, before going to press.

I hope the Guardian will one day apologize for unwittingly  aiding this fraud.

I don't believe that death is a time to speak only positive things of the departed. What human is only positive? Let us leave the exclusive rights for encomiums to the graveside. Those who have opinions, emotions etc unlocked by the death of the departed person should please air them. That is part of the departed person's legacy. Those who read that can then piece together the bits and come to their own conclusions.

Evidence of small mindedness on my part, the vicissitudes of the Guardian after Macebuh and the fact that

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com