What has happened to our consciousness as people? We must be asking ourselves these kinds of questions in order to shape a future that is good for all and harms no one. One glaring example of the misery our self-interest perpetuates is demonstrated in Dr. Oguchi Nkwocha's poignant explanation of lessons learned from the shameful journey of Andrew Young, the former black civil rights leader and confidant of Martin Luther King Jr., with a pretigious history, who has recently come under criticism for his dirty dealings with corrupt African governments, especially for his close relationship with General Olusegan Obasanjo, Nigeria’s former president. How easily our actions and behaviors can tumble a life with much good into a shameful journey.
PERSPECTIVE by Dr. Oguchi Nkwocha
Those who use the excuse that they want to change Nigeria from inside out, take special note! Below is the usual path and endpoint.
BTW: When we started harping on Andrew Young, no one else took note. Good to know that our instincts and deductions always pan out. Now, read and weep!
Oguchi Nkwocha, MD
A Biafra Citizen
Nwa Biafra
_________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Young: Tracing a Shameful Journey
Step 1:
“…Young put it another way, “For 40 years of my life,” he told the Times, “I was on the outside seeking change. I realized that I could be more effective being on the inside implementing it.”…” –excerpted from article below.
Step 2:
“…Reports indicate that Young’s ties to Africa developed while he was the US ambassador to the UN in the late 70s, meeting Obasanjo, the military-installed president of Nigeria, at the time. “Obasanjo and I kind of hit it off immediately,” Young told the Times. “We were mainly interested in democracy.”
Actually, Obasanjo was a US operative, closely allied to the CIA, who took power in 1976 after his predecessor, Murtala Muhammad, was assassinated under unexplained circumstances. At the time, the US was still reeling from the OPEC oil embargo and was vitally concerned with Nigerian oil interests.
When Obasanjo left power the first time, in 1979, he was appointed to the board of directors of the CIA-run African American Institute, headed by the former US ambassador to Nigeria Donald B. Easum. In the 1980s, Obasanjo was sent on high-profile speaking tours by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the US Institute for Peace. …”
Step 3:
“…Young has defended his relations with Obasanjo, portraying him as the defender of democracy in Nigeria who has broken the past practice of corruption that has been rampant since the country won its independence. Obasanjo has also received the praises of President George W. Bush and Colin Powell as an example of the type of democracy they would like to see in Africa…”
Step 4:
“Who benefits from Andy Young’s relationship with the government of Nigeria? It’s not the Nigerian people,” remarked Ken Silverstein, a reporter for Harper’s Magazine. “As I see it, the primary beneficiaries of his work in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa are those corrupt, authoritarian regimes he works with and his private corporate clients.”
Young has provided his services both to enrich his clients and himself, but also to assist the United States as it joins hands with various blood-soaked dictatorships and strongman in order to secure American strategic interests in the pivotal continent…”
Step 5:
“…Young is a member of the National Security Study Group and therefore would have been briefed on the Bush administration’s newly established United States Africa Command (AFRICOM)
Young is aware that the US has developed strategic interests in the oil states of Africa and has made plans for the establishment of strategic military bases. West Africa alone has an estimated 15 percent of the world’s oil reserves. And by 2015, the region is expected to provide 25 percent of the US energy market…”
Concluding step:
“…Meanwhile, the funds flowing into GWI and the hands of Andrew Young are at the expense of the Nigerian and African masses. Despite the nation’s wealth in natural resources, 70 percent of its population of 140 million lives on less than US $1 per day….”
Learn more: www.biafraland.com
~ end.
I believe that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would weep at this news. He would be saddened to see the extent to which we, as human beings, are willing to go to satisfy and justisfy and excuse our greed and self-interest in a disturbing disguise. Who knows how many details we may be missing in this story of Andrew Young that might tell a fuller story in any direction. It doesn't really matter. This shameful journey serves as an example to us all of our human weakness. It points out that every words we speak, every thought we express, every attitude we reveal to the world demonstrates how big or small we are as leaders in our own right. As most of those actions and behaviors have implications on others we too often overlook. Even if Andrew Young were to object, it begs him to ask the question of himself, how did my actions and behavior leave such an impression? How did they turn good into shame and sham?
In the words of Dr. King ...
"All humanity is involved in a simple process, and all men are brothers. To the degree that I harm my brother, no matter what he is doing to me, to that extent I am harming myself. ...It is hardly a moral act to encourage others patiently to accept injustice which he himself doe not endure.
...We are caught in an insescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly."
So just what size is your leadership?
How can we continue to turn our heads when such greed and injustice sits at our feet awaiting our action?
I leave you asking myself this questions of conscience. I hope you will too.
Debbe
Debbe Kennedy
Founder, Global Dialogue Center
On behalf of the Nation and People of Biafra
RELATED PODCAST AND STORIES:
PODCAST with Oguchi Nkwocha, M. D.
STORY #1: NIGERIA: Did you know people are dying?
STORY #2: NIGERIA: GREED, HUMAN ABUSE, STEALING and loving your neighbor?
STORY #3: NIGERIAN LEADERS STOLE 100 BILLION SINCE 1999
Creating a better world for all sometimes means stepping up to courageously take a stand. Much of the problems we face today exist because most of us sit idly by waiting for others to make the badly needed changes that are piling up. Changes that impact lives and the future of all people.
