First, please leave my name out of your attempt at buttressing whatever point you were trying to make. The way you phrased that line seemed to connote that I was sympathetic to some argument you were trying to make. I am sure you are more than capable of making your argument without invoking my name.

As to the substantive issues - I abide by the very same advice which I have been proferring to all and sundry in the last few days. At this point in time, I prefer to reserve 'judgement' as to the allegations until such time as better and more credible testimony emerges. The evidentiary standards to which I am accustomed as a lawyer cannot be met in a cyber-trial. Since we are compelled to rely on circumstantial evidence, principally comprising email [which may, in time, prove to contain defamatory material], a greater burden is placed on those who make assertions of facts.

Both Uwazuruike and Okwukwu are lawyers and so should be well aware of the rules of legal ethics pertaining to client confidences and the law of defamation. I hope they will keep these in mind.

I wonder why Okwukwu and his cohort seem to believe that sending a mass email to the world at large about internal problems within MASSOB was the most appropriate and effective means of resolving the problems. Please note that I am not necessarily controverting the veracity or otherwise of his allegations - I am simply puzzled as to his choice of forum to vent his grievances.

As to Mr. Udenkwo's silence, I'd like to point out that if I were in his shoes, I would not deign to dignify rumours and innuendoes about sex scandals in my home with so much as a reply or comment. Furthermore, Mr. Okwukwu has not told us how he knew that Uwazuruike and Adanma had sexual intercourse. Did he spend the night awake observing who slept where? If he did, what was his interest in obtaining this information? Did he personally observe Uwazuruike and Adanma actually engaging in sexual intercourse? If he did, how did he come to be in a physical position as to observe sexual intercourse with his own eyes or was he in the room as part of an orgy? If so, does he have empirical evidence of this e.g. photographs or a third witness?
If we accept that Okwukwu was able to see through the walls and doors of the room or was peeping through the keyhole, why was he so particularly interested to know whether or not, a mature, consenting woman had sex with a mature, consenting man?

Do we now automatically assume that once an adult man and an adult woman are alone behind closed doors, that they must be having sex? We know that in Sharialand, nursing mothers are sentenced to death for adultery with their pregnancy out of wedlock as the principal evidentiary basis for the conviction, but we do our things a little differently in Igboland.

It may interest you to know as a matter of historical record, that Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson was/is a serial adulterer and that Winnie Mandela was occassionally unfaithful to her husband. Did their marital infidelities diminish their capacity for leadership of their respective peoples? I am not particularly worried about which MASSOB leader or member is having sex with the other. As long as they are consenting adults, its no one else's business but theirs. If Uwazuruike has bimbo eruptions, that is between him and his missus.I am more concerned about the allegations of lack of internal democracy and transparency in MASSOB.

Finally, I would like to extend my profound sympathies to Mrs. Udenkwo whose matrimonial bedroom has now become the subject of prurient and, I dare say, voyeuristic interest.

N.B. I do not wish to take [or to be seen as taking] sides with either of the protagonists in this dispute at this time.The jury is still out in my court.
I am just raising these issues in response to Mallam Shaga's invocation of my name in buttressing his allegations.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ugali Shaga:
Nobiorah:
Your analogy of Marcus Garvey and the "Universal Negro Improvement Association" to Ralph Uwazuruike's MASSOB and moral outrage does not make sense, at all, realizing the divisionist, Uche Okwukwu, has not been proven wrong on which the said drama and plot made Udenkwo's residence the site of all these scandals. Why is Udenkwo not speaking out? Are we missing something?

Based on all the revelations, and with Udenkwo stopping short of uttering a word regarding all these allegations, indicates a lot more is fishy. The Adanma of a lady told her side of the story and Uche Okwukwu presented us with what he presumed his experience was when he spent the night at Udenkwo's house.

As the case may be now, whom do you believe? That Uche Okwukwu is making empty threats? That what he has been saying should not be taken seriously? That he (uwazuruike) is a destined leader as you envisioned in taking you guys through relating to the Biafra Republic which apparently seems to be a hoax?

The case of Okwukwu and Uwazuruike as your so-called struggle entails and means the problem of dialogue and diplomacy is still far-fetched.

You all can do better without Uwazuruike, his moral outrage and the deceptive Okwukwu.

---

You give those guys too much credit. Do you really think that that guy is silent because he cares about anyone but himself? Do you see how quickly they jumped on me for asking them to be accountable to the people? We are involved in a movement, which routinely leads to the deaths of young Igbo men and women. Yet, one of the groups that hold themselves out as the leaders of the movement has decided that it is beyond reproach. They expect me to fold up just because one of them was stupid enough to say �gObasanjo plant.�f

I am greatly offended and disturbed by the callous and irresponsible allegation of Barrister Uche Okwukwu. More so, by the way and means by which he chose to make the allegation. What this man, who ought to be one of our most able leaders, has succeeded in doing by his thoughtless allegation and action, is not only malign Chief Uwazuruike and our beloved sister, Adanma, but also disparage the whole Igbo race. There is hardly any reason for any reasonable person to believe or even suspect that there is any chance of the allegation being true. We are talking not just about an Igbo woman, which is something in itself. We are talking about an Igbo woman of a very high calibre. One of the only two Igbo women of the several thousands in the USA alone, who are politically conscious and proud enough to sign up on the Biafraland forum, to thrash out matters of crucial Interest. This is definitely not the type of woman who would leave serious business on hand to jump into bed with a man she had just met for the first time. What is more, in another married man's (woman's) home. We are talking about a highly educated Igbo woman.

I was beginning to think that some of the allegations levelled against Ralph Uwazuruike might be substantiatable, until I read the part about our sister. I began to have doubt about the whole thing. No, the allegation against Adanma, just has to be a false allegation. It is simply too convenient to believe that the two met in somebody's house and had sex there and then, setting aside important and urgent business. Igbo women just do not do something like that. I'm sure that if there was any chemistry between the two, they would go somewhere convenient and safe.

My sister, Adanma, I'm behind you in this travail. I'm confident that you'll be exonerated in this callous allegation, and huge blight on our sacred movement. If it wasn't maliciously intended, it was certainly misguided. May such puerility and flipancy never rear its ugly head again.

Thanks

I have nmothing else to say to you. Enjoy the new year and make the best out of it.

Eno Udoh.

Folks, we are at this point flogging a dead horse. The less said about this matter the better, when you guys keep repeating these lurid details you are in effect giving our detractors much wanted ammunition.

At this point saying anything about this even to denounce it is redundant and counter productive.

I sat comfortably and watched how characters were assassinated, not only from the MASSOB scandal but in personal attacks indicating it was not all about the Biafra struggle but to settle scores and make cheap points.

Does it in any way occur to you that the Biafran struggle is not even close to slave trade? And has it occured to you that if African Americans should be declared as a nation, that they would be among the best twenty economy on Earth, and U.S.' eighth economy? And why are you not working in concert with them realizing their potentials rather than belittling them?

I don't get it. Every Nigerian I have spoken with wants to get out of what they describe as a forsaken nation called Nigeria. Who would rebuild your land? Me and other African Americans whom you have betrayed as having no clue and useless?

Y'all should think deeply because your level of awareness is quite disturbing when one comes to conclusion that none of you is serious but a pursuance of personal interest.

Some of you, as a matter of fact, had realized the consequences that is involved about isolation and personal gains. That's my experience. When you start talking to your representatives and constituecies regarding your plight of a troubled nation, as in Nigeria, then, they (U.S. Congress) will be listening to you, knowing that you have a case.

A number of hard vicious points which are nevertheless true.
#1.
No one has belittled the struggle of the black americans to be free. Why on earth would we?
#2.
As far as I can recall, although there were pockets of rebellion within the slavery movement, and you had some outspoken anti slavery fighters as Graham Douglas, and before him the freed igbo slave in the 16th century, Olaudah Equiano, as you know it was Abraham Lincoln who emancipated the slaves during the civil war, and the slaves who emancipated themselves.

With all due respect, if your people could not even free themselves from slavery, how much less l;ikeley are they to succeed in freeing a people totally alien to themselves??
#3.
Perhaps it was uninentional, but I detect anote of superciliousness in your writing, as if to speak we would come to your people for a hand out after achieving independence.

Let me educate you on my people, and please quote me any time:
WE BEG NO ONE, WE PLEAD WITH NO ONE. WE HAVE NO KING. IF WE HAVE NO KING OF OUR OWN, LET NO STRANGERS SUFFER UNDER THE ILLUSION THAT THEY CAN ONE DAY COME AND LORD IT OVER US>

I appreciate your comments, however you fail to realise how connected we are. Igbos like many African nations were victims of slave trade. And needless to say, they lead from the front during the abolition movement. Remember, when we argue and profer the various solutions you read about on the board, Igbos are the second largest West African nationality.

My sincere message to all my African American brothers and sisters is simple: 'until we start looking at Africa differently, the entirety of our people will remain in the various forms of subjugation we witness today.'

Africa is more than the former colonial identities today parading themselves as "States". These "State" were structurally inadequate from the beginning and remain incapable of carrying through the aspirations of its peoples to fruition. I therefore say we must and without delay revisit the issue.

It may please you to know we are not asking anyone and certainly not my African American brothers and sisters to rebuild Nigeria. Nigeria cannot be rebuilt because the foundation is completely wrong. Kindly note that at the turn of the last century there was no Nigeria. The creation of Nigeria mean't to be like other similar colonial creations, an economic out-post. Honestly, honestly, honestly, Nigeria is unworkable.

What I propose is to revisit the authentic pre-colonial African nation who had developed complex languages and culture and form nation-states around these groups. These group have the cultural capital to effectively mobilise for economic, technological and spiritual advancement.

The next step will be to organise these nation-sates into a Union of West African Nations. This supra-national organisation can do our international biddings and arrange our defence, and at the same time allowing healthy and sufficient autonomy to enable the determination of self by its various constituents. [/B]Therefore no one is seeking isolation for the sack of it. Infact isolation is not the word. Lets call it the quest for self-determination, period.

Lastly, the African American's fate is linked to the fate of Africa just as the various European Americans' fate and outlook has always being linked to Europe.

My brother, take the time and learn about the mess the Europeans left behind in African. Then, reflect and think about the most viable solution.

Also, West Africa's/Africa's destiny is linked to the structural efficiency of the "State/s" we end up with.

[ January 04, 2002: Message edited by: AfricaWest ]

[ January 04, 2002: Message edited by: AfricaWest ]

People,
MASSOB is still waxing strong. i DON'T BELIEVE any of the false accusations laid down by the Okwukwus and other fools. Ndi Ikwere and other igbos with the alliance of Efik, Ogoja, minority brothers and sisters should deal with him and other useless sabos. I do hope that Uwazuruike and other memebers of massob WILL do something quickly to avoid this rubbish again.

No organisation can be perfect but among other Biafra organisation MASSOB is the best. Massob MEMbers have gone through hell fighting for Biafra and it's a shame that we have sabos pretending to be in support of Biafra while at the sametime fighting us.

But, anyway, problems do persist, however. Was it not here that one of you frustrated morons derided African Americans as sports enthusiastics with no leaders of thought? That was, indeed, cold.

I believe that the interest Williamson has about Nigeria (if any), is not in the best interest of the Igbo/Biafrans and certainly not to our Biafra actualization cause.

Lately, we've been besieged with distractions from monkey-wrench wagers in a marshal plan of bringing our Biafra actualization agenda to a debilitating halt.
Thankfully, we were able to detect it and have set out to bring it to a standstill.

Therefore, I believe that the best repellant for fireflies like Williamson (whenever necessary) is the NSHI RECOMMENDATION.

If Williamson want to explore the issues about slave trade, let him open a thread for it. I promise, we will not disappoint him there.

ALL:

Its wonderful to have you back!

Looking forward to more invigorating debates!!

Almost seven in ten African American babies are born to single mothers. One third of African Americans looking for job are jobless. African Americans have the highest rate of unemployment.

And why does this matter? It matters because your so-called leaders--Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton--who were supposedly be addressing these vital issues are busy pursuing shadows rather than taking care of an epidemic that has engulfed African Americans.

Recently, both civil rights activists and political shenanigans were busy protesting against supposed slights to Havard's Afro-American studies professors while crime, baby mothers and joblessness in the slums continues apace.

As the whole struggle now entails, it is practically obvious that we who are African Americans and our origin is a lost cause. Our identities can no longer be identified. Am I from Ghana, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Malawi, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo, Dahomey, Cameroon, etc?

These are the questions that bothers African Americans from which they demand answers to why such recklessness, as in slavery, was carried out

Right now, there is no African American who can trace his or her origin to where he or she comes from. But studying American history and slave trade, and coming down to the civil rights era with Malcolm X questioning what language the blacks spoke before they became captives of racial profiling, how far have you guys gone in establishing the Black plight?

I am totally lost. And I need some explanations.

[ January 12, 2002: Message edited by: Emela ]

The "Black/African" is similar to the rest of the human-family, there are more questions than there are answers.

However, you have raised issues from our past that will never go away until we confront them squarely. Each affected individual and nation will have to find the courage to do so. Igbos as a nation do have the courage!

Emela has given a synopsis of the current tribulations of the Igbos of West Africa and the grave situation they face, literally, on a day-to-day basis. However, it may be too much to ask for your understanding at this stage, but please give us the benefit of doubt! Frankly, our mentality has been so assulted and messed-up that we are pre-occupied with "salvation" of self, first.

And in saving ourselves somehow we can show the unrepresented, marginalised and oppressed peoples worldwide that there is hope!

Nonetheless, I believe Amanda asked you to open a separate thread on the issue of slavery. I think that's the best approach.
Remember, the slavery issue is different and a separate issue from MASSOB (yet, I dare say, there may be historical parallels between the two).

I look forward to your new post on this calamitous-historical event that perhaps changed the course of our lives and history, forever!

[ January 14, 2002: Message edited by: AfricaWest ]