Signs of Stressful Times

“If you would like to respond to this notification, please place your response above the dotted line. Hello Homeowners, With it being election time, we understand the want to display political signs. However, according to the HOA documents, signs of any kind are not permitted. Error! Filename not specified. (Article XI section 11.20) We kindly ask that you remove any signs that have been placed. Thank you for your cooperation.” I got this notice from my home owners association regarding my yard signs. Is this legitimate? “I don't know the background or details, but it sounds legitimate. Many HOAs have restrictive covenants--and they apparently are citing a specific one that pertains to yard signs. “People often run into problems with their HOAs. Sometimes it is possible to mount a campaign to get a provision removed or modified, but it takes a lot of time and effort!” Is the Home Owners Association Constitution in line with this Virginia Law?: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title15.2/chapter1/section15.2-109/ § 15.2-109. Regulations on political campaign signs. No locality shall have the authority to prohibit the display of political campaign signs on private property if the signs are in compliance with zoning and right-of-way restrictions applicable to temporary nonpolitical signs, if the signs have been posted with the permission of the owner. The provisions of this section shall supersede the provisions of any local ordinance or regulation in conflict with this section. This section shall have no effect upon the regulations of the Virginia Department of Transportation. Still waiting for a response from the Home Owners’ Association. Election stress is real. Be kind to your neighbors.

Huge Honor

Dear Dr. Onwubiko (Biko) Agozino,

On behalf of the membership of the American Society of Criminology (ASC) Division on Critical Criminology & Social Justice (DCCSJ), it is my great pleasure to extend our warmest congratulations to you! We are thrilled to inform you that you have been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Division on Critical Criminology & Social Justice Lifetime Achievement Award! This award, our highest honor, is reserved for those who have demonstrated sustained and distinguished scholarship, teaching, and service in the field of Critical Criminology. The selection committee has provided a detailed narrative highlighting your remarkable achievements and contributions to the field, which will be shared in full during the DCCSJ Awards Ceremony. The ceremony will take place at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology in San Francisco, CA. We would be honored to have you join us on Thursday, November 14, 2024, at the DCCSJ Social, which will be held at The Woodbury (685 3rd Street) starting at 7:00 pm. Your accomplishments will be formally recognized at this event, and we hope you can attend to celebrate with us. Please let us know if you plan to attend the ceremony and social. We look forward to honoring you in person! We are deeply grateful for your dedication and all the contributions you have made to the field of critical criminology and social justice. The selection committee shared the following comment about your work, and I hope it reflects how significant your contributions are to both our field and the DCCSJ membership. From the selection committee: Dr. Agozino was born in Awgu, Enugu State, Nigeria, where he witnessed the genocide in Biafra (1967-1970), about which he writes in his 2019 book “Humanifesto of the Decolonization of Criminology and Justice.” In 2003, Dr. Agozino produced perhaps his most acclaimed work, “Counter-Colonial Criminology: A Critique of Imperialist Reason,” in which he addressed the Global North’s domination of criminology, leading, in part, to the discipline's theoretical and methodological underdevelopment. As a group of his nominators commented, Dr. Agozino’s “body of work is nothing less than extraordinary with his impact immeasurable. Biko has worked tirelessly to challenge the Global North’s dominance of the discipline, exposing its colonial roots while always confronting structural inequality and oppression.” In recognition of this tireless commitment to the values and principles of our division, which includes his many years of mentorship and pedagogy to scores of students, the panel is honored to select Dr. Agozino with the most prestigious award of our division. Indeed, this award is a testament to your remarkable commitment and the impact of your work in advancing the values we hold at the core of our division. Your scholarship continues to inspire the community, and we are honored to recognize you for your outstanding achievements. Once again, congratulations on this well-deserved honor !

The Afrocentricity of Marx

By Onwubiko Agozino 

I was delighted to receive this attached clip from my daughter telling me about a mention of my work by the 'social media sensation, @theconsciouslee. It is a moving commentary on my paper about how much Karl Marx admitted that African history was at the center of his own intellectual activism. My paper was first published in the Review of African Political Economy in 2014. I was invited by roape.net editors in 2020 to blog a summary and update of the article after several authors cited it as ground-breaking. Monthly Review republished the blog in 2020. A graduate student at Cornell University interviewed me for the Unequal Exchange YouTube Channel about the article and the interview audio was made available on Spotify in 2022. Now, this awesome commentary by NAACP Image Award Winner, George Lee Jr. on TikTok has convincingly called attention to the same article. It is about time that I completed the promised book follow-up.

See also the popular podcast, I Mix What I like, that devoted nearly 90 minutes to a detailed discussion of the article that the host described as ‘work that is new to me’ with expressions of the desire to invite me to the show to answer questions arising. As I stated in the paper, some of such questions would only be fully answered in a book length manuscript.

Salute To Courage

 By Onwubiko Agozino

Today, January 15, I reflect on 'The World House' which MLK repeatedly said that we inherited from our ancestors. We must share with brothers and sisters in the Jim Crow South, in Vietnam, in apartheid South Africa, in Palestine and everywhere else. We must share all in a 'Beloved Community' or fight in 'chaos' and burn it down. Achebe identified the world house as Mbari, an ancient symbolic architecture still observed among the Igbo. It requires communal ritual selections of representatives to go into the forest and commune with the spirits of the ancestors for days. They return to restructure and reconstruct the miniature Mbari world (mud) house every now and then. When the foundations are shaky or the walls crumbled, a new one was collectively created to replace it. The new Mbari is  repopulated as usual with images of people from all over the world, along with ancestral spirit figures, animals and plants under the same roof. This symbolizes how tolerant of differences Africans are and it demonstrates that chaos is not always a bad alternative to order or the beloved community, since they coexist; as Abdul Bangura, Horace Campbell and Ron Eglash remind us with theories of the science, arts, and cultural politics of African Fractals. Desmond Tutu called the sharing spirit, Ubuntu or a bundle of humanity (and of nature too). Happy Martin Luther King Jr Day! Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to You. Onwubiko Agozino

Soyinka Is Right

Soyinka Is Right In a Sense 

By Onwubiko Agozino 

Do you agree with anything or everything that Wole Soyinka said about the embarrassingly disorganized and badly marred 2023 elections in Nigeria in which he singled out one party for apparently undeserved harsh words? Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie expressed her disagreement with the ‘strong words’ that Soyinka used in describing one of the candidates, but Adichie did not point out if there is any area of agreement with Soyinka. 

Baba Sho done old now. But no matter what he says, he will remain a hero for many; and whatever he says matters to most. We may not always agree with him; but even when we disagree, there may be areas of agreement with his views that must be pointed out in recognition of his complex narratives that are open to interpretation at different levels of analysis. 

 Personally, I agree with Soyinka that the slogan, Obidient, is inappropriate for a democratic society or for a party seeking to be taken seriously by the people. Obedience is more correlated with fascist regimes than with democratic societies prone to debates and freedom of expression without fear. Perhaps, M-Obi-lized could have been more grammatical to Soyinka but he is entitled to say that he is not Obidient to anyone. He could have added that he was not Batified nor Atikulated either. He should have said it better but what he said has progressive implications. 

 The Obidient movement is wider than the Labour Party and it is not an ethnic movement of the Igbo, contrary to comments that wrongly suggest so, perhaps to incite Igbophobia. The Igbo voted more for Obasanjo than some Yoruba did. They voted more for Yar’adua than some Hausa and Fulani did. They voted for Jonathan more than some Ijaw did. Even when they voted against Buhari, some of them voted for him too. They did so even when there were Igbo candidates contesting against the candidates they voted for. The Igbo were not the only ones who voted for Peter Obi for president across the country. All parties should commit to offer apologies to the Igbo for the hatred and violence against them and offer them reparative justice. 

 The task of the Labour Party is to mobilize the masses of workers, farmers, traders and youth through a closer link with the organized labour that has offices already across the country. Peter Obi can commit his significant shishi towards building the party up by, for example, helping to hire full time staff, funding training and workshops for party workers, and helping to open offices across the country. The party can build beyond the organized labour and the Obidients and should mobilize to defend its mandate and be ready to contest every seat in every election going forward. Obi cannot always be on the ballot paper. Labour Party should organize beyond the colonial boundaries of Nigeria and mobilize across Africa for Union Government.

 About 26% of the electorate were reported as coming out to vote. Perhaps this figure would have been higher if there was no voter intimidation, ballot box snatching, and violence. To raise this poor turn-out percentage, I have suggested elsewhere that there should be an INEC lottery at every general election. The voters whose numbers are electronically selected would win the prizes in their own senatorial zones. For example, if INEC budgets one billion naira per senatorial zone to be awarded to 1000 voters at the rate of one million each, I bet that the turn-out will be almost 100%. 

Such an incentive to vote is small compared to the reported nearly one trillion naira budget of INEC. It is a small price to pay for increased voter awareness and against vote buying. Nigeria should consider abolishing INEC and allowing the state electoral commissions to run all elections, including the presidency and national legislatures elections. Just add the state governor and state assembly elections to the ballot for the federal elections on the same day. Allow voters to be identified with any government-issued ID and not just with the PVC. Allow early and absentee voting. Allow the Diaspora to vote. Allow a citizen like Nnamdi Kanu to campaign for referenda of his choice without being locked up even after the courts freed him. 

 Nigeria should move away from the divisive imperial presidency model and adapt the presidential committee of Switzerland. Each geo-political region should elect one candidate to the presidential council. Each of them will get a chance to chair the council for one year while serving on the committee, then there is another general election every six years. Any region that elects a male president to the presidential committee will automatically elect a female vice president from the region to the committee of vice presidents and vice versa. Proportional representation will allow smaller parties to be represented in parliament, as in South Africa. 

 Collective leadership may help to reduce the heat over which region produces the president and focus our attention on what matters. No matter where the president comes from, no region enjoys 100% literacy, poverty eradication, security, electricity, water supply, sewage service, garbage collection, healthcare, motorable roads, employment, gender equity, agricultural subsidies, etc. 

 Dr. Agozino is a Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. To follow similar debates on USAfricaDialogue Series on Google Groups, see: Ode to Soyinka at 86 91 views Subscribe Biko Agozino's profile photo Biko Agozino Jul 13, 2020, 5:27:28 PM to Dialogue From ten years ago, this Oriki still dey fresh: Ode to Soyinka @ 76 Ode to Soyinka @ 76 ODE TO BABA SHO AT 76 By Biko Agozino ‘Unlike societies right next to the Igbo for instance – more famously the... Gloria Emeagwali's profile photo Gloria Emeagwali Jul 13, 2020, 6:32:16 PM to usaafric...@googlegroups.com Biko, This is Illuminating but you seem to be throwing out the Igbo Kingdom of Nri, out of your discussion of Igbo history. Why so? Igbo society was also hierarchical with the Osu and Ohu being at the lower rung of society. Title holders were not on the same rung as those without titles. Athenian democracy was shallow and over hyped in the textbooks since half of the population were enslaved and had no voice to participate. Another white lie. Igbo society may have been better but by no means a perfect model. As for Soyinka I wish him happy birthday although I still hope to ask him one day why he was so lukewarm about supporting the civil rights movement in the US? Correct me if I am wrong on this. A tiger does not show its tigritude , he said. Well you can say the same about the BLM movement - but Black Power symbolism was crucial for the movement to energize and inspire, and that it did. Yesterday the great Formula One racer Lewis Hamilton the only Black racer in the sport at a high level, did just that: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/sport/2020/jul/12/lewis-hamilton-vows-to-spend-life-fighting-racism-after-black-power-salute Sent from my iPhone On Jul 13, 2020, at 5:27 PM, 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series wrote:  -- Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/1041738840.1477311.1594655395274%40mail.yahoo.com. Biko Agozino's profile photo Biko Agozino Jul 13, 2020, 8:27:13 PM to 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series Sista Glo, On the Igbo not being perfect, no one ever said that they are perfect for they name their children, Uwaezuoke, the world is never enough. Yet, with all their very human imperfections, the Igbo do not deserve the hatred that the rest of Nigerians reserve for them. That is what Soyinka keeps reminding us, we have things to learn from the Igbo just as we have things to learn from other cultures. Threatening the Igbo with genocide is a form of phobia that is unjustifiable given their actual and potential contributions to the reconstruction of democratic praxis in Africa. Democracy itself is not perfect, it is the worst system of government, except for all the other alternatives, said Churchill. He would know because he preferred to impose colonial dictatorship in line with the philosophy of Plato - The Philosopher King - and Aristotle - the Aristocracy - as better models compared to democracy or what they called mob rule. Eze Nri was not a king but a chief priest whose authority never extended beyond the hamlets of Nri. It is true that chiefs were emerging in some parts of Igboland as documented by Nzimiro but Uchendu identified them as 'intrusive traits' from our monarchical neighbors. Rather than scoff at the deeply democratic traditions in places like Igboland, Rodney invited us to study them and celebrate them as much as we celebrate the empires of Western Sudan. The fascination with the Igbo by Rodney is all over HEUA where he praised them for building their own schools when the colonizers pretended that there was not enough money for schools; he celebrated their resistance to the double squeeze of underpaying the peasants for their harvests and hiking up the prices of manufactures, leading to the Women's War of 1929; and he dismissed claims that the genocide against Biafra was as a result of tribal war since the nations of Nigeria are too big to be called tribes, and there was never a record of genocide by Nigerian nations against their neighbors before colonization, while there are no African tribes called the Labour Party government of Britain nor Shell BP that orchestrated the genocide with Soviet Union help. The Osu and Ohu institutions, in my humble opinion, were impositions resulting from the slave raids and they are not present in every Igbo community. The Ohu system of slavery came about as a result of the slave raids to capture people for sale but the Igbo resisted such raids as much as they could. The British claimed that they burnt down the Long Juju of Arochukwu in order to end the slave trade that they themselves imposed and ran for 4 hundreds years. Chinweizu dismissed such a claim as false because the British had long ended their slave trade by the time they organized the punitive expedition to Arochukwu over the struggle to dominate the lucrative trade in palm oil. Osu came about, in my own opinion, as a sacred order for people who ran into the shrines to dedicate themselves rather than join in the resistance against the slave raiders. The Igbo would say, O sukwa, or it is happening; and those who fled into the refuge of the shrines were feared for having made contact with supernatural forces and became ndi Osu. A goat that is dedicated to the shrines is never beaten and it can come into your house and eat your dinner without fear. The Osu were untouchable because no one could beat them or kill them. Azikiwe made it his priority to abolish the Osu system once he became Premiere of the Eastern Region in 1952. The problem remained a burden to the Igbo because anyone who married an Osu was regarded as an Osu too. Parents would still make enquiries to make sure that their children will be happy in their marriage rather than face discrimination. Other nations in Nigeria also discriminate in the choice of spouses for their children. The Osu system has already been dissolved by the Igbo who are dynamic and cosmopolitan more than any other nation in Nigeria. For instance, no parents would withdraw their child from school if the teacher was known to be Osu, no one would refuse to go to church if the priest is an Osu, and no one would refuse COVID-19 relief if the governor or senator sharing it is an Osu. With the Igbo excellence in modern education, their success in trading and widespread enthusiasm for travel to other lands, the distinction between Osu and Amala is almost completely erased as people make friends in school or at work or on the sports field or in a musical band without bothering to find out if there is still a caste system. It may still be a problem in local politics but it is fast dying out. The residues of Ohu and Osu among the Igbo could be additional points to make in a legal writ or negotiations for reparations for the slow healing wounds of slave raids and post-colonial genocide for which the Igbo suffered more than most. The Diaspora demand for reparative justice should be extended to Africa too. Baba Sho cannot be imagined to be a scholar-activist who never paid homage to the Civil Rights Movement. That is exactly the theme of his play, Bachae, a homage to the civil rights movement in the US. Much more than almost any other African writer, Soyinka has been fascinated by the survival of African cultures of struggles for freedom in the Diaspora. His joke about the tiger and the tigritude should be understood as a critique of Senghore who preached Negritude but relished being an evolved Frenchman, though Senghore understood the joke and retorted that Soyinka does not speak tigrese or he would know what the tiger professes. See a commentary on Soyinka and the Civil Rights Movement in the US: Postcolonial Identity in Wole Soyinka Postcolonial Identity in Wole Soyinka Soyinka's representation of postcolonial African identity is re-examined in the light of his major plays, novels... Biko Ibrahim Abdullah's profile photo Ibrahim Abdullah Jul 13, 2020, 9:07:34 PM to usaafric...@googlegroups.com There was no Igbo as we know it today in 1500; what Afigbo called "village republics" pre-dated Igbo identity in the same way kingship authority and monarchical institutions pre-dated Yoruba identity. At issue here is communalism---as a universal phase through which human society pass through. Communalism as a pre-capitalist socio-economic formation sans class would read like "democracy"---Afigbo's "village republic" but they're not. Comrade Ikenna's conclusions on this subject refers. Sent from my iPhone On 14 Jul 2020, at 12:27 AM, 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series wrote:  To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/843384819.1773442.1594686359560%40mail.yahoo.com. Biko Agozino's profile photo Biko Agozino Jul 13, 2020, 9:40:01 PM to usaafric...@googlegroups.com Democracy is not a phase in the evolution of republics, democracy predated republics or nation states. Democracy is a system of government of the people by the people and for the people. It is ahistorical to say that there were no Igbo before 1500 based on what you know today as identity. There was no entry for identity in the Encyclopedia of Social Science until the 1960s, what they had was an entry for identification, according to Stuart Hall. The Igbo language was always there from the beginning of human evolution of languages in Africa. The name Ndi Igbo literally means Early People. Ancient or modern, they have exemplary contributions to democratic forms of governmentality, said Soyinka. You are welcome to dismiss it as village republics but they were wider than the villages, they saw democracy or self-ownership as spreading throughout the world of the Igbo or Uwa Ndi Igbo, not just the village or hamlet. Biko https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/8E3F1986-345A-4D85-9C38-D44BC4FD8189%40gmail.com . Emeagwali, Gloria (History)'s profile photo Emeagwali, Gloria (History) Jul 14, 2020, 5:58:01 AM to 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series Thanks for the clarification on Soyinka. You are right the statement was about negritude. I hope that the everybody -hates -the -Igbo sentiment is a figment of your imagination. The Biafra war is over but you seem to think that it is not, loyal soldier. Some historians link the Kingdom of Nri to the elaborate and exquisite 9th century artifacts at Igbo Ukwu. GE Professor Gloria Emeagwali Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU From: 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series Sent: Monday, July 13, 2020 8:25 PM To: 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ode to Soyinka at 86 Please be cautious: **External Email** To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/843384819.1773442.1594686359560%40mail.yahoo.com. Ibrahim Abdullah's profile photo Ibrahim Abdullah Jul 14, 2020, 5:58:01 AM to usaafric...@googlegroups.com Biko---you come across as a crass Igbo ideologue! So identity is new and democracy is old? Where is the evidence? Stuart Hall and Abe Lincoln? Is that what history teaches? And the Igbo language has always been there--unchanged and changeless. So the link between Igbo and Igala and the suggestion that they split from a parent language; and the findings linking kingship institutions to borrowings from Igala is all crap. And Wole is your authority re Igbo forms of what "democratic governmentality". Am sure you will agree with me that Foucault is from Aba---true or false? Sent from my iPhone On 14 Jul 2020, at 1:39 AM, 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series wrote:  To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/1732211526.1776323.1594690031699%40mail.yahoo.com. Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju's profile photo Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Jul 14, 2020, 5:58:04 AM to usaafricadialogue Biko, well done on your beautiful summation on igbo achievement. But its vital we face the osu problem head on which you and other igbo scholars on this subject who insist its not a huge problem are not doing. a search for the term 'osu' in the igbo centered facebook group igborant hq brings up at least eight posts on the subject. the richest of these is this active post and thread linked below with 392 comments as of today, a post where young igbo are actively demonstrating the permeative force of usu caste discrimination in igbo society. they are doing this through first hand accounts of the agonies of victims and their own self declared allegiance to this evil ideology-even in the face of fellow igbo who are so discriminated agst, other so described 'second class igbo' who would also be on that group, victims watching in pain as their fellow igbo openly describe them as less than fully human. unless igbo elite address this horror forcefully, its going nowhere. and even when they do so, its depth of superstitious and classism- being a means of feeling superior to others- and the heavy investment in it by those who call themselves 'freeborn' or 'diala', if i get the name right, in contemporary igbo society, means it might take up to 100 years of active campaigning to bring this evil practice to an end. we should avoid ethnic gymnastics and semantic pyrotechnics in addressing this delicately painful culture of dehumanization within and by members of the same ethnic group agst their own kin. we should be wary, agst stark and overwhelming evidence to the contrary, of claims that non-igbo dont understand the reality of usu caste culture bcs non-igbos are outsiders to the culture or that those igbo who criticize it dont understand it. we should focus on the evidence. it is a mark of the greatest inhumanity that a people facing the double challenge of a struggle within their own country and as black people on the global stage could insist on continuing to be so evil to each other. we must rise above ethnic self defense and indifference to and mockery of ethnicities not ours and address this horror as the whole world is struggling for african-americans- Ifeanyi Valerie Nwadike shared his first post. New member · 10 July at 18:38 Akwaugo was supposed to be married tomorrow but a particular reoccurring Igbo Tradition tarnished that eternal bliss. Akwaugo met Kenneth in the University and they both fell hopelessly in love. Both from Imo State, they were novice to any Culture and Traditions. They were in love for 3 years and after giving her a promise ring 💍, it escalated into an Engagement 💍 ring and Boom!!! Marriage. Both parties introduced themselves to their various families but something happened. The Mum knew the place of the girl very well. She sent spies to investigate 'Nchoputa' and found out the girl was an Osu. Her world came tumbling down. Ken who has a First Class in Physics says "I won't marry you baby cos of the future of our kids!" Akwaugo weeps on. 😨😫 Footnotes: Honestly, I don't think your Bible, Church or Religion has taught you anything if you still believe in the 13th century barbaric custom of OSU CASTE SYSTEM. You cannot be shouting BLACK LIVES MATTER or complaining of discrimination by whites when you discriminate against your own brothers and sisters at home. Our extant Constitution condemned discrimination at all level but in IGBO LAND, the OSU CASTE SYSTEM is still prevalent. 🌚🌚 There are many customs that have been abolished because they're repugnant to natural justice, equity & good conscience. Customs like forbidding females from inheriting their parent's property, sleeping with the corpse of their husbands to prove their innocence, what's so difficult in abolishing the OSU CASTE SYSTEM? Like how do you tell a 2 years old boy that he's an OUTCAST simply because your forefathers married their forefathers to the gods over 1000 years ago? Your Bible said you should treat others the way you would want to be treated (golden rule). How would you feel if your fellow being discriminate against you? 🌚 CUSTOM is the people's way of life. Discrimination is not our way of life & shouldn't be one of our customs. 🌚🌚🌚 Or what do you think? 🤔 I'm a freeborn tho. Will I say I'm lucky or blessed? 🤷🏾‍♂️ I'm just not happy to see a friend treated like she has a plague. Happy Weekend! ❤️ Image may contain: 1 person, close-up 128You, Adeleke Adisaogun Ajiyobiojo and 126 others 392 comments 17 shares Wow Comment Share To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/843384819.1773442.1594686359560%40mail.yahoo.com. Ibrahim Abdullah's profile photo Ibrahim Abdullah Jul 14, 2020, 9:21:35 AM to usaafric...@googlegroups.com Gloria: Biko is the last soldier standing with the last ogbonigwe that has refused to explode. He will never accept Jack's no victor no vanquish plea. But he is still my comrade. Recall the heated exchange between Comrade Ola Oni and Ikena at the Marx indaba in Zaria? Biko always reminds me of that encounter whenever he appears with his ogbonigwe. He appears trapped in a past sans closure! Sent from my iPhone On 14 Jul 2020, at 9:57 AM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju wrote:  To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTSgODdSEnU7OXFEZ%2B2r30KNAg-ty5ievGOP-JDhZbVb6w%40mail.gmail.com. OLAYINKA AGBETUYI's profile photo OLAYINKA AGBETUYI Jul 14, 2020, 9:23:17 AM to usaafric...@googlegroups.com Biko. I slways stand back when most of your arguments revolve around Igbo exceptionalism. Thank God you have not yet resorted to sneers and veiled insults at interlicutors in this particular thread as may be unbecoming of a professor on the eve of his sixtieth birthday. I dont know how anyone can be speaking of 'village republics' as synonyms for village democracy. The Igbo may indeed have practiced village democracies as many African communities ( and the Greek city states did) but that did not translate into republics with their unique political traits. A republic will pledge the various democracies to a central authority through representation which the Igbo village democracies did not. To this extent most of the Greek city states and Yoruba city states were not republics even though they tended in evolution in that direction. That is why the Yoruba city states remained at best constitutional monarchies ( they only sent military contingents in time of war as Greece did in the Delian League.) Full republicanism started with Rome with three centralised assemblies to which member communities sent representatives. To refer to emergence of chiefs in Igboland as intrusive traits is to suggest that the Igbo unlike other communities were incapable of political evolution, incapable from learning from others but were created perfect at the beginning of time. .Nothing could be further from the truth. And why do you always undercut all reasonable arguments with people hating all Igbo and still threatening genocide against them? Come on, you can do better than that. You are no longer in your 20s and 30s. OAA Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone. -------- Original message -------- From: 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series Date: 14/07/2020 02:50 (GMT+00:00) To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ode to Soyinka at 86 Boxbe This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (usaafric...@googlegroups.com) Add cleanup rule | More info Democracy is not a phase in the evolution of republics, democracy predated republics or nation states. Democracy is a system of government of the people by the people and for the people. It is ahistorical to say that there were no Igbo before 1500 based on what you know today as identity. There was no entry for identity in the Encyclopedia of Social Science until the 1960s, what they had was an entry for identification, according to Stuart Hall. The Igbo language was always there from the beginning of human evolution of languages in Africa. The name Ndi Igbo literally means Early People. Ancient or modern, they have exemplary contributions to democratic forms of governmentality, said Soyinka. You are welcome to dismiss it as village republics but they were wider than the villages, they saw democracy or self-ownership as spreading throughout the world of the Igbo or Uwa Ndi Igbo, not just the village or hamlet. Biko On Monday, 13 July 2020, 21:07:31 GMT-4, Ibrahim Abdullah wrote: https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/8E3F1986-345A-4D85-9C38-D44BC4FD8189%40gmail.com . -- Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin To post to this group, send an email to USAAfric...@googlegroups.com To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDial...@googlegroups.com Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialo...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/1732211526.1776323.1594690031699%40mail.yahoo.com. Biko Agozino's profile photo Biko Agozino Jul 14, 2020, 10:39:40 AM to usaafric...@googlegroups.com 'No victor no vanquished' is a polite way for the genocidist army to say la luta continua. It is the triumphalist Igbophobes who are continuing to wage the genocidal war against Igbo survival with things like Python Dance I and II, quit notices, deportation, and threats of mass drowning of the Igbo in the lagoon. No Igbo group or individual is waging war against the haters orm against other innocent Nigerians in retaliation. No one among the Igbo is seeking to build and explode Ogbunigwe or to fight with small arms to kill fellow Nigerians and steal their land or to destroy their places of worship. Not I bird, said Soyinka in Death and the King's Horseman - a puzzle that literary theorists are yet to unravel as an allusion to the violence against the Igbo. Some Igbo are asking for a referendum on the reconstruction of Nigeria and the call for restructuration is heard all over the country, not only in the South East. Even if there is a referendum today, you may be surprised to find more Igbo voting to continue with the one Nigeria of Azikiwe due to their heavy investments in other parts of the country and their love of travel. Even if Nigeria is divided today as an Arewa group recently called for, I will not be surprised if the Igbo call for us to go beyond division and try multiplication of cultural diversity through migration and settlement, subtraction of hatred, discrimination, and phobia, and addition of tolerance, atonement, and reparations. The Igbo example to the world is that even in the face of phobic hatred, a people can thrive if they invest their energies in education of their young rather than invest in weapons of mass destruction. Countries like Germany, Japan, South Korea, and China that have avoided war in the past 50 years have taught the world that education is better than invasion and forceful occupation. In other words, if the Fulani cattle herders and the Boko Haram terrorists are willing to learn from the open secret of Igbo survival and success, for example, let them build modern schools to educate all their boys and girls to the highest level of their abilities. The brilliance of the few who are given access to education in the North shows what Africa is missing by neglecting the education of our youth while arming them with foreign weapons to make Africa ungovernable. Education, education, education is the key to success, according to CLR James, Nkrumah and the Ghana Revolution. There will always be discrimination and heartbreaks in the choice of spouses. All over the world, families are choosy when it comes to the marriage of their children but education ensures that some stones that some builders refused may become the head corner stones. The Osu caste system is a contradiction in the democratic Igbo tradition but the Igbo have dealt with the problem democratically without resorting to genocide, incarceration, expulsion, drowning, or the seizure of properties. To the Igbo, it is less important to know whether you are Osu or Diala today, what counts is your morality, your skills as a medical doctor, teacher, musician, footballer or lawyer, your faith as Cathlic, Protestant Muslim, or Odinani, your education as in formal or Imu Ahia apprenticeship, your support for the community, and your wisdom. To a great extent, the Igbo are proof that when you have contradictions in a democracy, the solution is not less democracy but more democracy. Yes, the Igbo learn a lot from their neighbors, but I hope that they will learn more democratic lessons than undemocratic feudalist ones, more scientific lessons than money medicine superstition, more humility than ethnic supremacy. The neighbors of the Igbo are free to learn also from the tail of the kite how to fashion the ogene metal gong if they want. Who is sick and beautiful, asked Oriental Brothers? Biko To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/DB6PR04MB29827C1AADE9CB069C4A5E04A6610%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com. Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju's profile photo Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Jul 16, 2020, 9:38:21 AM to usaafricadialogue Beautiful summation but this section is an effort to avoid the issue- ''There will always be discrimination and heartbreaks in the choice of spouses. All over the world, families are choosy when it comes to the marriage of their children... The Osu caste system is a contradiction in the democratic Igbo tradition but the Igbo have dealt with the problem democratically '''' Not true. It is dealt with through ongoing discrimination that is far from ''healthy discrimination and heartbreaks in the choice of spouses. All over the world, families are choosy when it comes to the marriage of their children''. Brother, please Igbo elite should address this scourge, not sweeten or whitewash it. On the way to repositioning Ndigbo, I wonder how you can do so without seriously addressing anti-Osu discrimination amongst Ndigbo. An Igbo writer went so far as to describe disaffection by Osu as critical to Biafra's defeat in the Nigerian Civil War. The more realistic response in self defense is 'we are sensitive to this problem, and are working on it'', not ''ít no longer exists'. Everyone knows the latter response is false, so no one is deceived, the speaker and those whom they are addressing. Taking this further, at the risk of being accused of ethnic essentialism, if I get the term right, ignoring the continued pervasiveness of the Osu phenomenon plays into the hands of perceived inadequacies in Igbo political organisation, this perception being centred in the question of unity of vision amd issues of leadership. People point to Ojukweu's poor showing when he returned from exile and went into politics. What has been the range of Igbo elite's response to IPOB, the modern, more refined version, though still in need of refinement, of the Biafra initiative? thanks toyin To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/1087066256.2278768.1594737459775%40mail.yahoo.com. Emeagwali, Gloria (History)'s profile photo Emeagwali, Gloria (History) Jul 16, 2020, 12:29:47 PM to Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, usaafricadialogue Quote of the day “We are sensitive to this problem and are working on it “ not “it no longer exists.” Adepoju Professor Gloria Emeagwali Prof. of History/African Studies From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com on behalf of Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2020 9:36 AM To: usaafricadialogue Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ode to Soyinka at 86 Please be cautious: **External Email** Beautiful summation but this section is an effort to avoid the issue- To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CALUsqTS2DbeJe4CrrTznZLNJv6ysDkJpMY-i7zvjxZRToZjitQ%40mail.gmail.com. Biko Agozino's profile photo Biko Agozino Jul 16, 2020, 3:46:23 PM to usaafric...@googlegroups.com Adepeju, You are making things up in quotation marks that I never said - 'healthy discrimination'; 'no longer exists' - na you sabi that one. What I said is that Azikiwe abolished Osu on day one after the British tolerated it for 100 years. Unfortunately, Zik did not have enough daughters to marry off to all the fine Bobo who were Osu, it was joked by some. My observation is that no matter how handsome and attractive you are in your mirror, once you want to marry someone, there will be many critics to object that you are too short or too tall, too educated or too illiterate, some may even accuse you of being too sexy to be trusted with the opposite sex, or that you go to the wrong place of worship and must convert first, or that you are too poor to afford the bride price, or too rich to be humble. Abi na lie? Yes, I said that the Igbo are dealing with the Osu residues of the European slavery holocaust by relying on indigenous democratic modes of governmentality. There has never been massacres, genocide, expulsions, abandoned properties, sectarian suicide bombing, kidnapping of gwongworo loads of school girls for sex slavery, no ritual killing for money medicine, no internal deportations or threats of drowning in the Oshimili. Never! To the Igbo, a core principle of life is live and let live, life to water and life to fish, let the eagle perch and let the kite perch, when one thing stands another thing stands beside it to make the forest rich. You are right that the Igbo elites could do more by, for example, bringing a writ for reparative justice against the British who orchestrated the slave raids and later the genocide in Biafra against the Igbo who did not make good slaves and who led the struggle for the restoration of independence. The Igbo elites and masses have already done much by ignoring the caste system when it comes to the personal choices of spouses, friends, business associates, co-workers, congregations, play mates, schools, books, movies, songs, or political comrades. But when it comes to the retail politics of who should be crowned Igwe based on the imposition of 'natural rulers' by the Obasanjo dictatorship in 1976 in an attempt to pocket the indomitable Igbo; against the victory of the Women's War against colonialism and the praxis of Azikiwe that shunned traditional rulers in the Eastern Region under the Richards and the McPhersons Constitutions with a big Con, caste systems may be revived by rivals as fake news. The Igbo could end this by returning to their indigenous democratic system without chiefs and by relying on elected town mayors and city council members for fixed terms in office. I do not know where you got the prejudice that the Osu were to blame for the defeat of Biafra. Most rational scholars know that the blame goes to Christian Yoruba and Christian Middle Belt military commanders with the support of some Christian Niger Delta elites and with generous supplies of deadly weapons by the Christian Labor Party government of the UK, the Christian Soviet Union and Islamic Egyptian military pilots but blamed it all on the Muslim Housa-Fulani elites. The Christian and Indigenous Jewish Igbo did not discriminate when it came to allowing refugees to share their homes without charging rents, they did not discriminate when it came to joining the resistance forces without guns against the genocidist military, they still do not discriminate when it comes to the education of all the boys and girls for a greater tomorrow. Ojukwu did not lose his deposits because anyone accused him of being an Osu, you are making this stuff up. He simply committed the blunder of joining the NPN to contest against the party of Zik with the long-shot hope of displacing Ekwueme as the presidential candidate in the next election (see Ezechukwu, The Rebel that I served). Ikemba could have joined Achebe and S.G. Ikoku, Eskor Toyo and Soyinka in the Talakawa party of Aminu Kano, Balarabe Musa, Rimi and Bala Usman that was aligned with the NPP of Zik, Nwobodo, Mbakwe and Solomon Lar. Or he could have stayed away from partisan politics as an elder statesman or Eze ndi Igbo gburugburu (all round). Had he joined Zik's party, he would have been unopposed for any position that he wanted to contest and no way could he have lost a seat to an unknown medical doctor in his Nnewi home constituency. You cannot blame everything on the Osu because it is a dying institution without the juju power that you attribute to it. The opinion of the Igbo towards IPOB is very democratic. The masses of the Igbo believe that IPOB members should be allowed to have their say and to fly the Garveyist flag (which fine pass the Green-White-Green that Soyinka said must have been designed by a dyslexic colonial official, of all the colors in the world, they imposed green twice to suggest that we are bush people, hence ain't no black in the green-white-green, The Penkelmese Years), stay home once a year to eat nsala soup in honor of the dead, and should be given the right to demand for a referendum (as is done in Scotland, California and in Barcelona) without being declared a terrorist organization to be terrorized with Python Dance, mass killings, jails and proscriptions. However, no Igbo person will agree that IPOB speaks for every Igbo person because everyone has the right to self-ownership or freedom. Say your own and let me say my own, sang Osadebe. Many Igbo believe that the way forward is the Pan Africanism of Du Bois, Azikiwe, Nkrumah, Mandela, and Marley towards a United Republic of African States. There is no country in Africa where you will fail to find a significant Igbo presence and the task for us elites is to make all Africans feel at home across Africa. This is the promise of the democratic dispensation - to allow freedom of movement and freedom of association to all people of African descent. Unfortunately, some groups still fantasize about building colonies and empires, expulsion of others and the domination of the security forces in the world of the knowledge economy which is better built with book houses than with ammunition supplied by imperialists for the mass destruction of Africans to enable the theft of our resources. Biko To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/MN2PR01MB556869545B23A1068785C323DE7F0%40MN2PR01MB5568.prod.exchangelabs.com.

The Case for the Prosecution of the Ekweremadus?

The prosecutor, in the case of the Ekweremadus, opened on February 6, 2023 by saying that the donor must have been coached to call the defendants, cousins, uncles and aunties. Is that all they have got after more than 200 days in detention? 

It is completely normal for all younger people to call all older people uncles, aunties, daddies and mamas; and call one another brothers, sisters, cousins, in Africa and in the African Diaspora. Kwame Ture and Charles Hamilton emphasized this point in their classic book, Black Power, to show that people of African descent are unique in the way that we relate to one another communally as family. The only exception is when calling a Black man an 'Uncle Tom', is frowned upon as a derogatory term.

The prosecutor should be forgiven for not knowing this basic cultural fact after months in detention but the lack of this awareness does not count against the defendants. In any case, being called a cousin, uncle, aunt, daddy, or mommy is not an evidence of deception or criminal conspiracy in either England and Wales, or anywhere else. 

Testifying on 02/27/23, Dr. Obeta admitted to his defense attorney that he traveled from Nigeria with his own kidney donor in 2021. He apologized for saying that they were cousins when they were no blood relations. He desperately needed a donor, he said. It is still not a criminal offense to call someone a cousin or son. He said that he treats his donor as a son now and keeps in touch with him. 

Anyone who believes that two African brothers are not related by blood should go ahead and prove the null hypothesis. We are all related by blood, actually. That is why the law does not require blood relationship to qualify as an altruistic donor.

 The prosecutor also said that the defendants had money and power but that justice cannot be bought. In the eyes of the law, the defendants remain innocent until proven guilty. The burden of proof is on the prosecution. 

 The claim that the doctor himself had received a kidney donation recently in the UK and that his donor allegedly recruited the unnamed donor for the Ekweremadus does not prove the defendants guilty of the perfectly legal procedure of organ donation under UK law. Even the prosecutor admitted that any family would do what they could to save a daughter that the prosecutor said had a deteriorating kidney disease. 

 Hence the prosecution avoided charging a case under the organ donation law and chose to charge the defendants with the violation of the understandably more severe modern slavery act. 

The evidence being simply that they bought clothes for the young man (for a colder climate) and gave him pocket money that the prosecutor admitted was small but was a lot of money in Nigeria. Is that all the evidence the prosecution has after all the delays and detention without bail?

The Defense Attorney countered the allegations of the prosecution on 02/08/23 as follows: 

"In Nigerian society there is an expression ‘everyone is each other’s keeper’ and the altruistic donation of organs is not regarded there as such a rare event as it is in this country.

“He will also say he was told (the donor) had offered to altruistically donate a kidney to Sonia.

“He denies he put directly or indirectly any reward to (the donor) or offered to do so and throughout he believed (the donor) was content to do so without reward.”

The prosecution engaged in misconduct on Thursday, 2/16/23, by abusing the enormous powers of search and seizure by the Crown in violation of the privacy rights of the defendants. 

Apparently having no case against the defendants, the prosecution stooped low by trying to use text messages between a father and his daughters on Fathers Day against the father and against one of the daughters who was critically ill. Inadmissible in a criminal court and litigatatable in a civil court.

It is clear to anyone who can read reports of the closing arguments of the prosecution that what the daughters asked for in their Fathers Day messages was not more money but more time with their busy father and the father understandably promised to spare no expenses (of time) with them. What kind of father would answer otherwise? 

The parents arrived London on June 23, 2022, two days after those texts, to spend more time with the children and they were promptly arrested, proclaimed the prosecutor. 

Why did the prosecution try to use those very private and absolutely lawful expressions of love between an African man and his daughters on Fathers Day against the father, the mother, and against their critically ill daughter who needed care, not biased prosecution? 

Was that all the 'evidence' the prosecution had against the defendants for which they detained the father and mother without bail for hundreds of days and counting (in the case of the father), and even during Christmas, Kwanzaas, and New Year celebrations? No case to answer.

Testifying on 2/20/23, the alleged victim said that it was Dr. Obeta who gave him money to travel and that when he went to the London hospital for tests, it was the first time he heard of kidney donation and the first time he heard the name, Ekweremadu. No evidence against Ekweremadu in his testimony. No case submission.

The alleged victim testified that he was told to lie that he and Sonia were cousins to facilitate the organ transplant. Was he told to lie about anything else? The defense counsel for Obeta reminded the court that he had lied about his age to the police to make him look more vulnerable, he also lied that both his parents were dead when they were still alive, and he lied about living on the street when he shared a room with two others in Lagos. 

Whether he was a reliable witness or not, he should be given leave to remain in the UK indefinitely after being used by the Crown to try and criminalize the innocent. Case closed. 

On March 6, 2023, the Distinguished Senator from Nigeria, Dr. Ike Ekweremadu, testified that he paid the expenses of Dr. Obeta who undertook to find a donor for his daughter, having found one for himself in 2021. 

Ekweremadu insisted that he made it clear that the kidney donation must abide by the law, the donor must not be paid or coerced and must be willing to act altruistically, he told his brother who was a class mate of Dr. Obeta. He was hopeful that such an altruistic donor could be found in Nigeria because of the compassionate nature of the society. 

On March 7, Ekweremadu told the court that he was afraid that people were trying to take advantage of his family but he continued the process for the sake of the life of his daughter. 

On March 9, the prosecutor cross-examined Senator Ekweremadu on why he did not get a donor from his family and alleged that he must have preferred to buy one from someone less fortunate. But the defendant said that it was not true, he simply followed the advice of the more knowledgeable doctors. 

Obviously, a family with a history of kidney disease is better off looking for a donor outside the family. In any case, it is not a crime to accept an altruistic donor from outside the family and the law never stipulated that the donor must be a family member. 

On 03/13/23, Dr. Beatrice Ekweremadu testified that she played no role in the search for a kidney donor. She said that, as a mother, she visited her children in the UK regularly while her husband handled the family finances. There is no need for the Ekweremadus to take the witness stand because they have no burden of proof if they are innocent.

No allegation of crime has been proven by the prosecution in the case of Crown v. Ekweremadu. On 03/16/23 the Judge gave final instructions to the jury and stated that no defendant should be convicted for telling a lie because lying is not necessarily proof of guilt. 

On 03/23/23, three of the four defendants were found guilty by the jury while Sonia Ekweremadu was found not guilty. On May 5 2023, the judge sentenced Dr. Obeta to 10 years in prison and sentenced Senator Ekweremadu to 9 years and 8 months in Prison while his wife got 4 years and 6 months.

In my humble layman opinion, the convicts have legal grounds for appeal. Using the innocent expressions of love between father and daughters on Fathers Day to try and incriminate both parents and the critically ill daughter is prosecutorial misconduct. 

The final instruction to the jury by the judge erred in law by misleading the jury into believing that the defendants lied but could still be found not guilty. It is not a lie when Africans call one another cousins and the Organ Donor Act does not require blood relationships to be lawful. 

The case should have been filed under the 2020 Organ Donor Act which allows for a living donor and not under the 2015 Modern Slavery Act which states in section 2 subsection 2 that even if the victim consented to the travel as a child or as an adult, it is still illegal if the travel was intended to facilitate exploitation. Altruistic organ donations are not for the purpose of exploitation or slavery. The inconsistency between the two Acts should be examined by the appeal court in favor of the more recent legislation.

The mother should not have said that she was not involved in the search for a donor but it may be true that the patriarch controlled the family finances and relied on advice from doctors. The Senator should not have denied being wealthy but that does not amount to a crime. 

The defense attorneys should not have put them on the stand since they claimed that they had no case to answer. The smart Nigerian lawyer who represented Sonia did not allow her to testify and she was acquitted. The Royal Free Hospital needs to be investigated for apparently running a scam. The Ekweremadus were obviously victims of a fraud and not the alleged offenders. 

The UK Supreme Court ruled in July 2023 that a bank is not liable for a fraudulent transfer by a customer to a fraudster's account. But the Crown Prosecution Service did not follow up on the civil case with a criminal case against the customer by bringing a chartge of conspiracy for fraud the way the Ekweremadus were prosecuted for being duped while seeking helop for their ill daughter.

The Ekweremadus should appeal their conviction and also pursue litigation in the civil courts for hefty damages against the Crown Prosecution Service for prosecutorial misconduct and against the hospital for the scam.

Dr. Onwubiko Agozino

Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies

Virginia Tech is the author of Black Women and the Criminal Justice System, Routledge, 2018; and of Counter-Colonial Criminology, Pluto, 2003.

Ekweremadus: British Justice System Is Still Racist-Sexist-Imperialist

 By Onwubiko Agozino 

 The detention of Ike Ekweremadu (along with his wife, Beatrice) is a racist-sexist-imperialist act. They are detained on allegations of a conspiracy to traffic a 'minor' for the modern-day slavery plot to harvest the organs of a ‘homeless minor’ for transplant to their own ailing daughter. 

Ekweremadu is the Nigerian Senator representing my home constituency of Enugu West but I am writing as a scholar and not as a political supporter. I express some reasonable doubts about the case.

 This scandal raises the neglected question of whether the legal system in the UK remains institutionally discriminatory, unknown to many in Nigeria who hail the trial uncritically as proof that the British justice system is fair to all contrqary to a UN experts finding that racism is 'structural, institutionalized, and systemic' in the UK criminal justice system. 

Lawyers for the detainees have filed suits in Nigeria to force banks and government agencies to disclose the private details of the registration of the alleged donor to help them to establish their innocence whereas they should know that they have nothing to prove as defendants in a criminal case: the burden of proof lies with the prosecution beyond all reasonable doubts. The UK government should explain why they doubted the age shown on the Nigerian ECOWAS passport in the first place before the young adult allegedly confirmed it to the court as his real age.

 Since the aim of their travel to London was stated in an alleged letter to the High Commission visa officers who could have refused a visa if the donor looked like a minor, or if they suspected that it was a plot against the laws regulating organ donations, it could not have been a 'conspiracy' unless the High Commission staff were co-conspirators, or the Ekweremadus were set up. 

Based on the Common Law principle of the presumption of marital coercion, Section 34 of the Nigerian Criminal Code says that a married couple cannot be charged with conspiracy unless a third party is involved because (e.g., in Canada) matrimony makes a couple one legal personality. US and Australian Courts have allowed prosecution to proceed in serious cases like terrorism or fraud conspiracy.  In the case of the Ekweremadus who openly planned to save a child lawfully with an organ allegedly offered freely by an alleged adult donor, where is the mens rea or criminal mind?

 In the UK, all adults are presumed to be organ donors (Organ Donor Act 2020) when they die unless they opted out while alive, and all in need are registered to wait in a queue to prevent material inducements from the rich to influence poor people to donate organs to the rich. About 7000 patients are waiting for organ transplants in the UK and hundreds die a year while awaiting organ donations. 

Donors can still volunteer to help individuals, especially if they are related, though relatives may not always be the best match. Relatives still need to give approval in the case of harvesting organs from the dead. In the case of living donors, no one is dead but the voluntary donor can withdraw the offer at any time before the surgery. 

 If the young donor lied about his age in order to obtain a passport as an adult, or did not know his age as many births go unrecorded in Nigeria, or lied to the UK police about his age in order to gain asylum, he should now be granted asylum because he may have been used as a bait by the UK to entrap the Ekweremadus. He should not be deported to Nigeria nor trafficked to Rwanda by the government of the UK for 'processing'. 

 The blame lies with conditions in Africa that are forcing many to flee abroad for better chances. This includes rich people who go in search of medical treatments not available in the exploited rich continent. They are often attended to by medical doctors and nurses initially trained with the scarce resources produced by African workers at home before they checked out to provide technical foreign aid to industrialized countries in exchange for huge remittances. 

Ekweremadu has individually tried to improve the lives of some of his constituents through his Ikeoha Foundation NGO that awards university bursaries and scholarships and provides adult literacy programming and free medical services to thousands in the face of government failures. 

He moved the famous motion on the doctrine of necessity to allow the swearing in of Vice President Jonathan as President following the demise of President Yar'adua. He was physically attacked in public in Germany by some of his detractors in 2019. He is not a saint but even a devil deserves his advocate.

 It is understandable that any parents who have a sick child could be taken advantage of by anyone claiming to be a willing organ donor. But if it is discovered that the volunteer is under-age, this should be thoroughly investigated without remanding the Ekweremadus in custody pending weeks of fishy investigations with apparent prejudicial, racist, sexist, and imperialist implications. 

Though rich and powerful, the assumptions of white supremacy and patriarchy may have helped to disarticulate their privileged class relations in this case. If the Ekweremadus were of different skin color or even from different ethnic groups in Nigeria itself, it is unlikely that they would be denied bail, given that they have family in the UK, surrendered their passports, and are recognizable in their own rights. 

 Remanding both of them in custody shows no concern for the care of their sick daughter. Even if the man is proven to have done something wrong, why detain his wife too, why not detain their daughter and the doctor too if it is a ‘conspiracy’? This discrimination deserves to be denounced by all. 

 If the couple had $20,000 on them without declaring the amount, it is within the limits of $10,000 maximum each that can be carried without declaration in some jurisdictions. It is patriarchal for the media to report that the confiscated money was found only on the man. 

 After centuries of imposing modern-day slavery on Africans (not to mention the not so ancient slavery of the Trans Atlantic slavery), no British law-maker has ever been arrested in Africa and denied bail based on an allegation of a conspiracy for human trafficking or for any alleged offense. To do so in Africa would have triggered a major diplomatic row but the neocolonial Nigerian regime is silent about the arrest of a prominent politician because of the assumptions of imperialism and dependency. 

 I published a book on Black Women and the Criminal Justice System: Towards the Decolonisation of Victimisation in 1997 to show that race-class-gender discrimination is alive and kicking in the UK justice systems. It was republished in 2018. 

Let the investigation into this case include an enquiry into alleged racism-sexism-imperialism by the British legal system to help hold the system accountable.

Dr. Agozino is a Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Virginia Tech.