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The Bigot In Kperogi’s Mirror

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Aliyu Salisu Barau,PhD

<p><&excl;-- BEGIN THEIA POST SLIDER --><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad4" id&equals;"quads-ad4" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p><div class&equals;"9Fl0mAtp" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<&excl;-- TV --> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"4399361195" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"auto" &NewLine; data-full-width-responsive&equals;"true"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>Aliyu Salisu Barau<&sol;p><div class&equals;"1SnkFR2L" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<&excl;-- TV --> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"4399361195" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"auto" &NewLine; data-full-width-responsive&equals;"true"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>&commat;farooqkperogi is among the too few Nigerians who elegantly sandwiched scholarship&comma; media&comma; and English language expertise&period; On the contrary&comma; I am neither a linguistic expert nor a political analyst&period; Here&comma; I am just trying to figure out the naughtiness of &commat;farooqkperogi’s thinking machinery&period; How &commat;farooqkperogi thinks substantially determines his writings and opinions&period; No doubt&comma; Kperogi’s articles are a cynosure of eyes of many Nigerians across political&comma; cultural and social divides&period; Some of his Nigerian readers pluck his linguistically well-crafted and yet asymmetric views and dye them in the colours of their sentiments or ignorance&period; It is normal to manipulate any text on this planet&period; Interestingly&comma; it is not unusual for bohemians and intellectuals to dress and feast on controversies&period; I see &commat;farooqkperogi as a sort of a roller coaster dripping joyful and sorrowful moments on public sentiments and obsessions&period; Indeed&comma; considering Nigeria’s contested socio-political landscapes&comma; &commat;farooqkperogi personifies Hankaka &lpar;a pied crow in Hausa&rpar; which they say&comma; who sees its black must see its white too&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I am indifferent with &commat;farooqkperogi’s criticisms of the powers that be&period; I don’t care about his tirades and vituperations directed at the political class who sold their moral rights at the market of failures and misgovernance&period; So&comma; what’s my headache with &commat;farooqkperogi&quest; Well&comma; I am deeply touched by his overriding superficiality&comma; unidirectional views&comma; bigotry&comma; extremism and spider mannerisms&period; To be fair to Kperogi&comma; no elites of the social and political divides of this country are immune from his pen&period; Nevertheless&comma; his seamless and borderless forays are in many instances unconscionable and peddling post-truth constructs&period; My labelling of &commat;farooqkperogi is based on my readings and analysis of his recent blog stuffs&colon;<br &sol;>&NewLine;• Presidents Who&&num;8217&semi;ll Make Me Renounce Nigeria &lpar;https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;farooqkperogi&period;com&sol;2022&sol;03&sol;presidents-wholl-make-me-renounce&period;html&rpar;<br &sol;>&NewLine;• Osinbajo’s RCCGification Part of Plot for Theocratic State Capture &lpar;https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;farooqkperogi&period;com&sol;2022&sol;04&sol;osinbajos-rccgification-part-of-plot&period;html&rpar;<br &sol;>&NewLine;• 10 Reasons Osinbajo Will Ignite a Religious Civil War &lpar;https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;farooqkperogi&period;com&sol;2022&sol;03&sol;10-reasons-osinbajo-will-ignite&period;html&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As a transdisciplinary environmental researcher&comma; I always prefer wider views&comma; co-produced&comma; and inclusive opinions&period; I am diametrically opposed to &OpenCurlyQuote;single story’ constructions &&num;8211&semi; as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie would say&period; My readings of the above articles has convinced me of Kperogi’s single story driven narrowed conclusions on crucial and critical national issues&period; Before I explain my points&comma; I have tried further analysis on Kperogi’s knowledge production mannerisms to see how that fits my labelling of him&period; For instance&comma; I conducted a rapid assessment of his authorship of academic works on leading research archives namely Researchgate and Google Scholar&period; Both repositories reveal in him a professor with a very limited network and co-authorship&period; By implication&comma; any scholar with limited networking and co-authorship will have little room for alternative view&comma; tolerance&comma; and thorough analysis&period; This evidence convinces me as to why &commat;farooqkperogi writes less holistically and cares less to get into deep layers of issues&period; Kperogi is a good reflection of Dubarudu- a character in one of the Hausa riddles&period; Dubarudu owns a mirror in a town where no one owns any&period; He alone uses it and no one can use it including his wife&period; Nigeria is a mirror that we need to share to see our faces and appreciate our different outlooks&period;<&sol;p><div class&equals;"3l6kPfPv" style&equals;"clear&colon;both&semi;float&colon;left&semi;width&colon;100&percnt;&semi;margin&colon;0 0 20px 0&semi;"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;" &NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"6550225277"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;nigeriantracker&period;com&sol;2022&sol;05&sol;09&sol;asuu-strike-and-posterity-ameer-abdul-aziz&sol;">ASUU Strike And Posterity-Ameer Abdul Aziz<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad1" id&equals;"quads-ad1" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad5" id&equals;"quads-ad5" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>My reading of the three blog articles by &commat;farooqkperogi leads me to carry further analysis on how this versatile writer thinks&period; Scholars make use of Low-Order Thinking Skills &lpar;LOTS&rpar; and Higher-Order Thinking Skills to determine thinking capacity of scholars and students&period; I always assume that Nobel Prize winners and other high ranking scholars utilise HOTS&period; Without prejudice&comma; blog articles produced by &commat;farooqkperogi appear to belong to low-order thinking skills&period; Then&comma; how is &commat;farooqkperogi a low thinker at least in the three articles under consideration&quest; The answer is discernible to all his readers that care&period; He uses interrogatives such as &OpenCurlyQuote;when’&comma; &OpenCurlyQuote;where’&comma; &OpenCurlyQuote;which’&comma; &OpenCurlyQuote;how many’ and &OpenCurlyQuote;who’ inn driving his opinions in the tree articles&period; We could see mentions of places&comma; names of persons&comma; number of persons&comma; places&comma; when and where in his labelling of religious bigotry by VP Osinbajo&period; Healthy and informed minds would care only about the HOTS interrogatives such as &OpenCurlyQuote;why’&comma; &OpenCurlyQuote;how’&semi; &OpenCurlyQuote;what evidence is there&quest;’&comma; &OpenCurlyQuote;cause and consequences’ etc&period; Unfortunately&comma; less informed and sentimental Nigerian readers can easily be misled by the lots of LOTS amplified by &commat;farooqkperogi&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At this point I am bringing out my real problems with this language scholar&period; I really find it very nauseating and irritating when &commat;farooqkperogi declared in his blog of March 28&comma; 2022 that he would renounce his citizenship of Nigeria if any of the four individuals he listed in the blog would become Nigeria’s next president&period; The four Nigerians he condemned are Osinbajo&comma; Tinubu&comma; Bello and Wike&period; How on earth&quest; What depth of hatred is this&quest; What if God has decided one of them to be&quest; To me this is an exotic bigotry&comma; branded intolerance and egregious extremism&period; Where is his knowledge of the language of contestations&comma; resistance and resilience that characterize works of Edward Said&comma; Frantz Fanon&comma; Michel Foucault&comma; and Karl Marx&quest; Maybe&comma; I should remind him of the struggles of the Irish activists captured in Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh’s Language&comma; Resistance and Revival&period; Such a Kperogian declaration amounts to cowardice&comma; hopelessness&comma; and disillusionment&period; How can I give up my citizenship on account of a tenured president that could be at the mercy of the judiciary&comma; parliament&comma; media and civil society&quest; I never expected &commat;farooqkperogi to easily forget how spirited men and women stood against the caudillos &lpar;strongmen of Latin America&rpar; seen in Pinochet of Chile&comma; Stroessner of Paraguay&comma; Somoza in Nicaragua&comma; and Trujillo in the Dominican Republic&period; I wish good luck to the listed four and to Kperogi when you forsake Nigeria for America where black lives matter&period; The people brutalized by the Nigerian junta yesterday are princes of the Aso Rock Villa of today&period; That is how time works&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>No little thanks to &commat;farooqkperogi for giving us a neologism -RCCGification through his April 14th 2022 blog opinion&period; I was distraught reading that as I saw in it that article tight shortness of sight and breath considering it is coming from a scholar&period; Saying that one church denomination will overrun Nigeria is a devilish statement&period; Even Satan might call that the last post-truth reality&period; Nevertheless&comma; I find solace in Mehdi Hassan’s response to Anne-Marie Waters during Oxford Union Debate On Islam held at the Oxford University in the UK sometime in 2015&period; Putting your article in the context of that debate and Mehdi’s response means &commat;farooqkperogi is a big fanatic and bigot&period; Why&quest; Because RCCGification is the same thing as Islamisation&period; Every time a Muslim rules Nigeria some Christian bigots use the thread of Islamisation to weave clothes of suspicion and division&period; So what’s the difference between the advocates of Islamisation and RCCGification&quest; Is it not flipping sides of the same coin&quest; I would be happier to have as leader a just Christian than unjust Muslim&period; RCCGification of Islam&comma; Catholicism&comma; Protestants&comma; and traditional religions is a mirage&period; RCCGification of Nigeria is a charade since this church has not even seen intergenerational transition of itself let alone overrun others&period; Let us be frank to ourselves&comma; it has been a standing tradition of Nigerian political&comma; religious and business leaders to bring close to them the people that they know&period; Hence&comma; I am unruffled by any list of political appointees associated with RCCGification agenda&period; I am always amused by fears of Islamisation and I always see Christians as its drivers and authors&period; When you insist on going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem as Muslims do in Mecca&comma; you are just Islamising Nigeria Christianity&period; When you say let us block the Muslims or deny them their rights what is your name&quest; Islamaphobe&comma; unjust&comma; conspirator or still a Christian&quest; What I like most about religion is sweet taste of spirituality&period; Those forwarding RCCGification agenda are either mischief makers or ignorant of Nigeria’s social&comma; historical and political institutions&period; When I saw the casket of Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu draped in Nigeria’s flag and carried by the Nigerian military officers&comma; that is the day I realised that Nigeria is bigger than all its citizens&period; Nigeria overwhelms anybody with any hidden agenda&period; A critic must learn how not be like a spider&period; Its knowledge of design is superb and its nest is outstandingly beautiful&period; However&comma; the skinny guy builds its nest on the common pathways not minding trapping everybody&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Aliyu Barau&comma; PhD<br &sol;>&NewLine;Kano&comma; Sunday&comma; 11&period;44 AM<br &sol;>&NewLine;Twitter&colon; &commat;aliyubarau<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;-- END THEIA POST SLIDER -->&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad3" id&equals;"quads-ad3" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js"><&sol;script> &NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle" &NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block" &NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"autorelaxed" &NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-4403533287178375" &NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1004305389"><&sol;ins> &NewLine;<script> &NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi; &NewLine;<&sol;script>&NewLine;<&excl;-- WP QUADS Content Ad Plugin v&period; 2&period;0&period;95 -->&NewLine;<div class&equals;"quads-location quads-ad4" id&equals;"quads-ad4" style&equals;"float&colon;none&semi;margin&colon;0px&semi;">&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;

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