How the Bankruptcy System is fading BlackAmericans page 14
Atama plantation is today a source of discontent page 21
Extractive Sector Transparency, Value Maximisation and Nigeria’s Economic Recovery page 17
PATHFINDER International
Lifting up a standard for the Global African Community VOL. 1, NO. 5
FREE
www.thepathfinderinternational.com
ISSN 2573-6523
Highway Through Hell:
African Migration to Europe l The Paradox of Prosperity l Mali’s Migrant Crackdown l The Deported: My Smuggler, My Savior
October 2017
Prayer for Nigeria at 57 page 22
The Mande Charter
Coming Revolutions in black Africa page 16 SOCFIN’S plantations in Africa: Many places of violence and destruction page 19 Why I don’t speak Yorùbá — Daramola page 5
4 | PATHFINDER International, Oct., 2017
CARTOONS
PATHFINDER International, Oct., 2017 | 5
point where I'm a bit disturbed about my predicament. I study Latino-Americans and admire their effortless flow of Spanish to English and English to Spanish without hesitation or fear. And the large Ethiopian-American population around me that speak in their native tongues with the same free flow as they do English. Wi t h o u t t h e f e a r o f sounding awkward, without the fear of being teased by people who were never patient enough to teach you, without the fear of not sounding authentic. Regardless of what generation, first-generation or second, it seems like their language is still embedded in their immigrant American stories. Yet, I can't completely
B
N
ow, the occasional trendy pidgin phrases like "Ko le work" and "Naija no dey carry last" has slipped out of my mouth a few times, along with the basics like "Ekaaro" and "Omi" to name a few. But when I need to reply in Yoruba to the JJC (Johnny Just Come-To America) who is wittily trying to test my Yoruba aptitude for baseless comparisons, I freeze up and the words get stuck in my throat. I mean, I can understand what they're saying, for the most part, but to give an eloquent reply like a learned YorubaNigerian is a challenge. Most JJCs snicker and smile, condescendingly, at my rudimentary ability to properly communicate in the language that literally shapes my identity by the framing of my given birth names. I don't know what it is! One may question, how can I generally understand Yoruba when it's spoken to me, but I can't speak. Another may question how can I loosely read Yoruba, and still can't speak it. Even Yoruba speakers that can't read their own language, don't have the reading skill set I've developed through reading my grandfather's letters to my mom. To be honest, I’ve gotten to the
G iso ue la st D C ara ol um mo ni la st
Why I don’t Speak Yorùbá I have a confession to make. Although I am NigerianAmerican, Yoruba to be exact. I can't speak my own native tongue. fault my parents and their generation for the lack of necessary intentional language training. Because a large number of them who migrated to the States in the 80's came for academic advancement. Part of their academic training was to comfortably assimilate into the American economy, not necessarily just the culture.
Their priority was to become financially stable through their chosen career paths, sacrificing time spent at home in exchange for overtime pay and second jobs. Absentee parents created latchkey kids who adopted identities from their Black American friends, in which Ebonics became easier to understand
and speak instead of our native tongues. I have a cousin that grew up in Nigeria until she was 10 and spoke Yoruba fluently. When she moved to the States, she assimilated and lost the ability to speak Yoruba, because speaking it at home wasn't emphasized as opposed to English. But when I delved deeper, she confessed that she just hadn't tried to continue to speak her native tongue. It was not needful. And now when she tries, she feels like she is “trying.” Her awareness gave me an epiphany. Our psychological trauma of not feeling authentic continues to prevent us from taking the leap to speak a language that has been embedded in our culture in a way that affords
Yet, I can't completely fault my parents and their generation for the lack of necessary intentional language training. Because a large number of them who migrated to the States in the 80's came for academic advancement. Part of their academic training was to comfortably assimilate into the American economy, not necessarily just the culture. Their priority was to become financially stable through their chosen career paths, sacrificing time spent at home in exchange for overtime pay and second jobs. Absentee parents created latchkey kids who adopted identities from their Black American friends, in which Ebonics became easier to understand and speak instead of our native tongues.
us the opportunity to master it. Yet we don't. Simply put, we fail to speak because of lack of confidence. In order for us to start speaking the language, we need to accept our identities as cultural hybrids, push past our limitations and accept the responsibility of being immersed in two different dominant cultures competing with one another and complementing each other at the same time. There are advantages of being bilingual, even if the current economic market doesn't recognize it for Yorubas. As Nigerian-Americans, it's okay that we aren't there yet. That we aren't confident enough to speak it. Because the same responsibility we incurred as hybrids is shared by those that mock us every time we try; by the parents who didn't enforce our native tongues until we were old enough to know that it should have been, by the aunties and uncles that speak to us in Yoruba and accept an English response as the status quo, and by those who “high key” judge without understanding our cultural perspectives and offering to teach. I’m okay with who I have become, while striving to be better so that my kids, the next generation, can learn not to refuse. n
Federalism in Nigeria 2 ... Is it leadership? Is it followership? Is it availability of resources or factors of development? Or something else? First, on leadership, I would like to assume that we still have a crop of leaders who are genuinely committed to the development of human and material resources. To be voted into office in a free and fair election in which e l e c t o r a t e s v o te t h e i r interests based on manifestos shared with them and promises made to them, those electorates must be persuaded of the genuine motivation of the candidates. And perhaps more than the writer of the Book of Proverbs, our people believe in the sanctity of names and the fact that riches and honor are important only to the extent that they are not products of activities capable of spoiling one's good name. Therefore, good leaders try to make their mark and, if they succeed, they have their good names unspoiled. Consciously or unconsciously, Awolowo got it. His name has therefore remained unforgettable. Of course, I am not a reader of minds and I cannot unequivocally vow for every person that seeks leadership position what their motivations are. It is possible that the people are deceived and manipulated
by sweet-talking political charlatans. It is also possible that the people are too poor and ignorant to know when they are being conned. Such would not be unique to our clime. It happens everywhere including in the most advanced countries. But I know that the only reason that a genuine human being with a moral conscience would consider making the sacrifice to run for a leadership position is to make a difference in people's life and to make a mark. That was the case with the leaders of the West in its golden era. I would like to assume that our current crop of leaders shares this motive. And I would also assume that they have the skill sets needed to make a mark. There could be a difference in the degree to which these skill sets are shared. But that is not unusual and it should not be a liability in the discharge of the responsibilities of leadership. Therefore, between the past and the present, leadership should not be the difference. To the extent that my assumption is wrong, we have a serious problem.
Conclusion of the Presentation by Segun Gbadegesin, retired professor of Philosophy, Howard University, Washington D.C. USA and former President of Egbe Omo Yoruba in North America, at the Egbe's Convention held August 25-27,2017; Kansas City, Missouri, USA. How about followership? There is no doubt that there has been a serious erosion of the values that sustained us through the 19th century civil wars and the brutal colonial exploitation. But erosion, serious as it is, is not annihilation. Those values still predominate in the larger Yoruba culture despite the incidences of 419 and it is by appeal to them that we judge actions and behaviors, including those in the economic and political realms. We still hold dear our obsession with hard work as we detest laziness and parasitism. We still believe that good education is key to a successful life. Therefore, every household makes the effort to give their wards good education even when they must pay through the nose. And what must be a concern to all is that the poorest worker or artisan
now holds firmly the belief in the superiority of private schools over public schools and is not deterred by the exorbitant cost. I think that it is safe to assume that our people are generally good and they have an abiding faith in those cherished values. However, they need the encouragement of leaders and the hope that their hard work will be rewarded. To my mind, however, one important difference between the past and the present is the “us” versus “them” mentality that comes with the artificial division of the region into autonomous states. Surely, not all was well between the sections of the Yoruba nation in the remote and immediate past. I touched on this sordid history in my column some weeks ago. And as we know, the creation of states has inadvertently reopened
some old wounds of tribal animosity to the detriment of the desperately needed cooperation across the southwest. It was because I believe strongly that we must find a creative way of blurring the sharp and dangerous edges that the artificial boundaries between states have created, and remove the wedges that had effectively blocked the development of the entire region that I and other wellmeaning citizens welcomed the emergence of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) a bold initiative of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) a few years ago. For no matter the divisions, the people of southwest are one and their leaders, no matter what the temptations are, must refrain from putting them asunder. States are supposedly created for administrative purposes. They must not be used in a way that retards growth or limit the opportunities for the people, and certainly never in a way that tears apart the fabric of the Yoruba nation.
There could be a difference in the degree to which these skill sets are shared. But that is not unusual and it should not be a liability in the discharge of the responsibi-lities of leadership.
In the light of the difference between the past and the present southwest in terms of the transition from one region to six states, what adjustments need to be made to ensure that the people still matter and their social and economic interests are enhanced? Vo l u n t a r y r e g i o n a l integration must be the policy objective of the leaders of the states and region and party affiliation must not stand in the way of this important ideal. Years ago, I made this point in a keynote address to Egbe Omo Yoruba National Convention that took place in Baltimore, Maryland. It was also part of my submission when I gave the Bola Ige Memorial Lecture a few years ago. DAWN had not been established in those days, and the partisan war over rigged elections was still very much fierce. The challenge was for victims to accept the leadership of those who stole their mandate and work with them for the integration of the region. Happily, that war is over and political enemies of the past now wine and dine together on the same political table. What needs to be overcome now is fiefdom mentality and leadership temptation to resist crossfertilization of ideas and practices across territorial boundaries. n
14 | PATHFINDER International, Oct., 2017
MAGAZINE
How the Bankruptcy System is failing Black Americans By Paul Kiel with Hannah Fresques (ProPublica) This story was co-published with The Atlantic.
O
VASHA MILLER PUSHED THROUGH the revolving doors of the black glass tower on Jefferson Avenue last December and felt a rush of déjà vu. The building, conspicuous in Memphis’ modest skyline along the Mississippi River, looms over its neighbors. Then she remembered: Years ago, as a teenager, she’d accompanied her mother inside. Now she was 32, herself the mother of a teenager , and she was entering the same door, taking the same elevator. Like her mother before her, Miller was filing for bankruptcy. She’d cried when she made the decision, but with three boys and one uneven paycheck, every month was a narrow escape. A debt collector had recently won a court judgment against her and, along with that, the ability to seize a chunk of her pay. Soon, she would be forced to decide between groceries or electricity. Bankruptcy, she figured, despite its stink of shame and failure, would stop all that. She could begin anew: older, wiser, and with a job at a catering company that paid $10.50 an hour, a good bump from her last one. She could keep dreaming of a life where she had money left over at the end of each month, a chance of one day owning a home. What Miller didn’t know when she swallowed her pride and called a local bankruptcy attorney is that she would probably end up right back where she started, with the same debts, in the same crisis. For the black debtors who, for generations, have made Memphis the bankruptcy capital of the U.S., the system delivers neither forgiveness nor renewal. Up on the sixth floor of that tower where I met Miller last February, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee appeared to be a well-functioning machine. Debtors, nearly all black like her, crowded the wedge-shaped waiting area as lawyers, paralegals and court staff, almost all white, milled about in front. Hundreds of cases are filed here every week, and those who oversee and administer the process all proudly note the court’s marvelous efficiency. Millions of dollars flow smoothly to creditors, to the court, to bankruptcy attorneys. But the machine hides a harsh reality. When ProPublica
Black people struggling with debts are far less likely than their white peers to gain lasting relief from bankruptcy, according to a ProPublica analysis. Primarily to blame is a style of bankruptcy practiced by lawyers in the South.
analyzed consumer bankruptcy filings nationwide, the district stood out, both for the stunning number of cases in which debtors were unable to get relief, and for the reasons why. In Memphis, an entrenched legal culture has made bankruptcy a boon for attorneys while miring clients like Miller in a cycle of futility. Under federal bankruptcy law, people overwhelmed by debt have a choice: They can either file under Chapter 7, which wipes out debts and, since most filers lack significant assets, allows them to keep what little they have. Or they can choose Chapter 13, which usually requires five years of payments to creditors before any debts are eliminated, but blocks foreclosures and car repossessions as long as debtors can keep up. In most of the country, Chapter 7 is the overwhelming choice. Only in the South, in a band of states stretching from North Carolina to Texas, is Chapter 13 predominant. The responsibility of knowing which path to pick falls to those seeking relief. In Memphis, about three-quarters of filings are under Chapter 13. That’s how Miller filed. She thought the two chapters were “the same,” she told me. Initially, they are. Upon filing, debtors are shielded from garnishments and debt collectors. But whereas under Chapter 7 those protections are generally made permanent after a few months, under Chapter 13 they last only as long as payments are made. Most Chapter 13 filers in Memphis don’t last a year, let alone five. As efficiently as cases are opened, they are closed — usually because debtors fail to keep up with payments, according to a ProPublica analysis of court data. In 2015, over 9,000 cases in the district were dismissed — more cases than were filed in 22 other states that year. Less than a third of Chapter 13 cases in the district result in a discharge of debts. And when their cases are dismissed, debtors are often in worse straits, because as they struggled to make payments, the interest on their unpaid debts continued to mount. Once the refuge of bankruptcy is gone, the debt floods back larger than ever. They’ve borne the costs of bankruptcy — attorney and filing fees, a seven-year flag on their credit reports — without receiving its primary benefit. A system that is supposed to eliminate debt instead serves to magnify it.
Driving this tremendous churn of filings is a handful of bankruptcy attorneys with what sounds like an easy pitch: immediate relief, for free. In Memphis, it typically costs around $1,000 to hire an attorney to file a Chapter 7, but most attorneys will file a Chapter 13 for no money down. Ultimately, the fees for Chapter 13 filings are higher — upwards of $3,000 — but the payments are stretched over time. For many people, this is the only option they can afford: debt relief on credit. For attorneys, they gain clients — and a regular flow of fees — they might not otherwise get, even if few of their clients get lasting relief. For black filers in Memphis, relief is particularly rare. They are more likely than their white peers to file under Chapter 13 and less likely to complete a Chapter 13 plan. Because failure is so frequent in Memphis, many people file again and again. In 2015, about half of the black debtors who filed under Chapter 13 in the district had done so at least once before in the previous five years. Some had filed as many as 20 times over their lifetimes. Here, bankruptcy is often not the one-time rescue it was envisioned to be, but rather a way for the poor to hold on to basic necessities like electricity for a couple months. “The way we have it set up, our culture, has a lot of unintended consequences,” said Judge Jennie Latta, one of five bankruptcy judges in the Western District of Tennessee. Since 1997, when she took the bench, the racial disparities in Memphis have been evident, she said. “It was troubling to me then, and it’s still troubling to me.” When I asked judges, trustees, who administer the cases, and debtor attorneys what could be done to reduce racial disparities and improve outcomes, I was mostly met with resignation. I heard a lot about the poverty in Memphis and a legal culture with deeply rooted traditions. But ProPublica’s analysis identified bankruptcy attorneys in Memphis who had much more success in getting their black clients out of debt. These attorneys had a different approach, preferring Chapter 7 to Chapter 13, and, crucially, allowing more flexibility in what clients paid upfront in fees. Scrutiny of Memphis is important, because the racial differences we found there are present across the country. Turn to page 15
PATHFINDER International, Oct., 2017 | 15
MAGAZINE
How the Bankruptcy System is failing Black Americans
Contd. from page 14 Nationally, the odds of black debtors choosing Chapter 13 instead of Chapter 7 were more than twice as high as for white debtors with a similar financial profile. And once they chose Chapter 13, we found, the odds of their cases ending in dismissal — with no relief from their debts — were about 50 percent higher. Meanwhile, the $0-down style of bankruptcy practiced in Memphis, long common across the South, is quietly growing in popularity elsewhere. Chicago in particular has seen an explosion of Chapter 13 filings in recent years. A recent study found that the “no money down” model is becoming more prevalent, prompting concerns that it is snaring increasing numbers of unsuspecting debtors and ultimately keeping them in debt. ABOUT 10 MILES south of the black glass tower lies the community of Whitehaven. Famous as the site of Graceland, Elvis Presley’s mansion, its streets are lined with miles of humbler homes, mostly one- or twobedroom bungalows. The houses reflect the range of financial security among Whitehaven’s almost exclusively black residents: Some lawns are immaculately kept in front of neat, pretty facades, while others run riot with weeds next to broken-down cars. This is where Novasha Miller was born and raised. She went to Hillcrest High on Graceland Drive and still lives in the area. Here, bankruptcy has a startling ubiquity. Count the bankruptcies filed from 2011 through 2015 by residents of Whitehaven, and there is almost one for every three households. Miller’s spiral downward began in late 2014, when she and her sons moved into a $545-per-month apartment in Highland Meadows, a complex pitched on its website as nestled in a “serene woodland setting.” Inside, roads wander around shaded clusters of two-story structures, some with boarded-up doors and windows. Miller soon realized she’d made a mistake by signing the lease. Roaches emerged every time she cooked, she said. Underneath the kitchen sink, mold was spreading that seemed to aggravate her 10-year-old son’s asthma. The stove broke; then bedbugs arrived, leaving telltale marks up and down her and her boys’arms. Despite her calls and complaints, she said, management didn’t fix the mold issue and told her she’d have to pay for an exterminator herself. Finally, she decided to move. She wrote a letter saying she was breaking her lease and explaining why. “My kids’ health is more important than anything, and I just had to leave,” she told me. (The company that manages Highland Meadows did not respond to requests for comment.) A couple of months after she moved, Absolute Recovery Services, a collection agency, sent her a letter saying she owed $5,531 — a total that seemed inflated to Miller. If she didn’t pay up immediately, the agency wrote, it might sue. It followed through the next month, tacking on a $1,844 attorney fee, for a total bill of $7,375. Derek Whitlock, the attorney who represented Absolute Recovery Services in its suit against Miller, provided ProPublica with an accounting of Miller’s debt. Only $1,635 was due to back rent; the rest stemmed from eight different types of fees — all of which, Whitlock said, Miller had “contractually agreed to.” Miller’s lease had also stated that residents were “responsible for keeping the premises free from infestation of pest, etc.,” he said. With no attorney to represent her, Miller went to court. Delayed by a search for parking, she missed her case, and Absolute Recovery won a judgment against her. A court employee told her the agency could soon move to garnish
her paycheck, she said. Under Tennessee law, debt collectors can seize up to a quarter of debtors’ take-home pay, and in Shelby County, which contains Memphis, they sought to do so in over 21,000 cases in 2015, according to a ProPublica analysis of court records. Such garnishments are far more common in black neighborhoods. “I cried, stressing at work,” said Miller. “I couldn’t work, trying to figure out what to do.” At the time, Miller earned $9 an hour working for a catering company where her hours were often cut without warning. Although she’d never had an extended stretch of unemployment, the last several years had been a struggle. She still carried $19,000 in student loans from a cosmetology program, and a $1,100 loan from a car title lender, TitleMax, which she’d used to cover one month’s shortfall. TitleMax routinely lends at annual interest rates above 150 percent in Tennessee, and every month Miller had to come up with about $100 in interest to keep the company from seizing her 2003 Pontiac Grand Prix. If Absolute Recovery garnished her wages, Miller stood to lose her apartment, her electricity or the car she drove to work. The pressure, she said, pushed her into bankruptcy court. “It’s hard out here,” she said. “I hate that I had to go through it just to keep people from garnishing my check.” She Googled “bankruptcy attorney” and landed on the website of Arthur Ray, who has been practicing in Memphis since the 1970s. His website was topped with “$0” in large type. “Most of our Chapter 13 bankruptcies are filed for $0 attorney’s fee up front.” She called and made an appointment. EARLIER THIS YEAR, I headed to Memphis to meet people like Miller and find out why attorneys there kept funneling their black clients into Chapter 13 plans when so few could complete them. I came armed with what amounted to a score sheet for each attorney, showing how their black and white clients had fared. ProPublica had taken every case filed in the district over 15 years, paired it with census information and put it on a map. In a starkly segregated city like Memphis, we could deduce the race of their clients with confidence based on where they lived. I caught up with Ray by phone. Like most of the higher volume lawyers in the district, Ray is white while most of his clients are black. About nine out of every 10 of his cases is a Chapter 13. And he was twice as likely to file under Chapter 7 for a white client as he was for a black client. None of this troubles Ray in the least. If Chapter 13 has an evangelist, it’s Ray, who trumpets its attributes unapologetically. In his eyes, debtors need Chapter 13 to train them to get their financial houses in order and instill discipline on their unruly spending. “A Chapter 13 shows people how to live without buying things for that 60-month plan,” he said. “With a Chapter 7, wham bam it’s over, and they’re back to the same old thing, the bad habits that got them in trouble to begin with.” When debtors squander Chapter 7’s power to erase debt, he argued, they are stuck — barred from filing again for eight years. Better to keep that option in reserve for something truly catastrophic, he said. Ray conceded that most of his clients do not successfully complete their Chapter 13 plans, but he argued that wasn’t so bad. “It may be a long time before the creditors come after them,” he said. And when the phone calls and the legal notices do come back, “then they can file again.” Even though residents of the mostly black areas in the Western District of Tennessee file for bankruptcy in much higher numbers than residents of white areas, they are less
likely to actually see any debt discharged, or wiped out. With Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filings combined, there were almost 8,000 more filings by debtors from mostly black census tracts from 2008-2010, but debtors from mostly white tracts received almost 3,000 more discharges. I told Ray that Novasha Miller hadn’t understood the difference between the two chapters. Ray was not troubled by this either. As required by law, he said, he provides clients with documents explaining the difference, but any client who asks about Chapter 7 will get an argument from him. “They need to learn how to live not buying things on credit,” he said. Few attorneys are likely to express this paternalistic view as bluntly as Ray, but the idea that bankruptcy courts should rehabilitate debtors instead of simply freeing them of their debts dates back to the 1930s, when, buoyed by creditors’ lobbying efforts, Chapter 13 first became law. It’s a form of bankruptcy that sprang from the South: Started as an experiment by the bankruptcy court in Birmingham, Alabama, it was added to the federal bankruptcy code through a bill authored by a Memphis congressman. To this day, many see Chapter 13 as the more honorable form of bankruptcy because it includes some attempt to repay debts. But when I asked some of Ray’s colleagues why so many of their clients filed under Chapter 13, honor was rarely mentioned. Instead, they said it was about holding on. “Chapter 13 is generally a ‘keep your stuff’ chapter,” is how Bert Benham, a Memphis bankruptcy attorney, put it. Most people who end up filing in the district don’t own much. In 2015, 69 percent of those who filed under Chapter 13 didn’t own a home, and the median, or typical, income was less than $23,000 per year. For many people, the most important thing is keeping their car, a necessity in Memphis, which has little public transportation. Used car lots abound, offering subprime credit. When borrowers fall behind and lenders threaten repossession, Chapter 7 won’t stop that from happening. But Chapter 13 allows secured debts to be repaid over the course of the plan. In theory, loan payments on a car or mortgage can be reduced to an affordable level, providing time to catch up without fear of repossession or foreclosure. Lured by this promise, desperate Chapter 13 filers can spend years caught in a loop. One Whitehaven resident told me how, in order to hold on to her car, she’d filed under Chapter 13 four times since 2011. The first time, she lost her job a year and a half after filing, and her case was dismissed after she fell behind. She immediately filed again to keep the car for job interviews, using unemployment benefits to make the payments until she couldn’t. She then filed a third time. Finally in 2014, after her third dismissal, she got a new part-time job paying $11 an hour and filed again. She still has two years of payments to go and will have spent most of her 30’s trying to hold on to her car. “If I’d known,” she said, “I just would have let my car go.” Bernise Fulwiley, 60, filed for Chapter 13 in 2014 to avoid foreclosure on her home, a brick bungalow with a large maple in the yard on a corner in Whitehaven. The following year, she lost her warehouse job when she required foot surgery and couldn’t keep up her payments. She got another warehouse job, earning $9.50 an hour, and filed again. She has kept up the payments for two years, and is determined to make it for three more. “‘God, go before me. Open this door! Help me, Lord!’ That’s been my prayer,” she said. “I ain’t gonna never give up.” For decades, the most prolific bankruptcy firm in Memphis has been Jimmy McElroy’s, known for its longrunning TV commercials featuring the now-deceased Ruby Wilson, a legendary blues and gospel singer dubbed the Queen of Beale Street. At the end of 30-second spots, she exclaimed, “Miss Ruby sings the blues, and you don’t have to!” McElroy, a mild-mannered white man in his 70s with a genteel lilt to his speech, told me that “the ultimate success” for a Chapter 13 filing is “to pay it out, get a discharge, get out of debt. And then learn to live within your means.” From 2011 through 2015, McElroy’s firm filed over 8,000 Chapter 13 cases and fewer than 900 Chapter 7 cases. About 80 percent of his clients come from predominantly black neighborhoods. But “ultimate success” is rare at his firm. Only about one in five of the Chapter 13 cases filed by his black clients reached discharge, a rate typical for the district. When I asked why, McElroy, whose office is in the same tower as the bankruptcy court, said clients generally “get the temporary relief they needed,” but then things just happen: “They lose their job. They get sick. They get a divorce.” Sometimes Chapter 7 does seem like a better choice, he said, but the client can’t afford to pay the attorney fee, which, at his firm, is about $1,000. n To be contd. in the next edition.
22 | PATHFINDER International, Oct., 2017
FAITH
Prayer for Nigeria at 57 Delivered by Pastor Goke Afolayan at the Gospel Faith Mission International Church(GOFAMINT), Brentwood, MD on October 1, 2017
P
ost-slave trade abolition, some nations of the world switched to colonization of other peoples. This they achieved methodically beginning with trading with the people, extending to taking them as protectorates. Tactically they amalgamated these protectorates into nations architected to their political and economic gains for generations to come. Nigeria is one of those "nations" put together by the British as their colony. It is made of diverse "natural nations" in their tongues, languages and culture amalgamated into a "British-made nation" and remains so until this day. In 1960, Nigeria was granted independence. Independence for self-determination and self-governance. Today, 57 years after that independence, the diverse "natural nations" constituting the "British-made nation" still struggles to keep and maintain the colonialarchitectured unity. The peoples do everything, including praying, to deny and resist natural inclinations for the “natural nations” as created by God. Today, more than a century after Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, Nigeria still does not have stable electricity. Telephone system, roads, highways, airways, sea ways, - all are non-functional. Nigeria is endowed with natural resources that are either untapped or tapped with high level of corruption in management. Nigerian universities train doctors but the leaders have no confidence in them to provide care. The leaders travel outside the country for medical care. The universities graduate engineers but engineering projects are outsourced to the Europeans, the Chinese or other nations. Despite all the universities with self-acclamations of greatness, Nigeria cannot boast of any self-produced technology. The people don't have confidence in the government instituted education system. Private institutions are proliferated all over the place. Individual citizens bore holes to provide water for themselves. Individuals generate their own electricity with generators. The country cannot boast itself in any infrastructure provided for the people. Government workers are denied their wages for many months in sequence, yet the leaders leave in affluence. It is often said that "home is where the heart is." Nigerians in diaspora don't look forward to going home. Nigerians at home are seeking ways to exit at all cost. Nigerians jubilate and give testimonies when granted visas to Europe or the Americas. Others die in the thousands in the North Africa deserts and the Mediterranean Sea, trying to cross illegally to Europe. Home, unfortunately, is the least in places where their hearts are. Slavery, prostitution, and human trafficking are now prevalent in many parts of the world with Africans, especially Nigerians as victims. In the quest for survival, money, employment, and improved lifestyle, human kidnapping, rituals, armed robberies are becoming more and more prevalent. The church of Christ seems oblivious to these issues. It appears the most we do is to pray and be silent. That's all. Our solution to the state of education in the country is to build our own schools and universities. Ownership of an educational institution accords the denomination a status upon which to pride or compete. The graduates of these church denomination-owned institutions join the unemployed upon graduation. There is no active involvement of the church in shaping the social infrastructure or making demand on the country for economic change. Our solution is to build our own denominational communities which is gradually gaining trend across denominations. These are just two examples of the channels of alternative solutions modeled by the church in Nigeria. Consider that in any congregation in Nigeria, if a minister would ask people who have no jobs or who have jobs but have not been paid wages for several months to stand up, one would not be surprised at the number. Financial income determines to a large extent the economic state of any people. I have not heard many ministers of influence and affluence, if any, in Nigeria admonish or speak to the government about these issues. Nigeria ministers minister to the people but never challenge or rebuke the leaders oppressing them. Rather, access to authorities and “Aso Rock” is considered status to pride upon. Numerous passages in the scriptures tell of the roles of prophets addressing social and moral inappropriateness in the society. An example can be found in 1Kings Chapter 21, where we read about the evil act of King Ahab, and Elijah rising to the occasion to address the issue. In the New Testament we read about John the Baptist condemning the unlawful act of Herod in taking his brother's wife.
l Pastor Goke Afolayan
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and his contemporaries addressed the social issues of their day loudly and persistently both from their pulpits and by peaceful protests on behalf of the people. Shall we also mention Bishop Desmond Tutu who also did not play oblivion to the social issues in his country but addressed it directly from his pulpits and loudly and persistently until some change happened. When will Nigeria’s ministers, many with influence, be touched enough by the suffering of the people to rebuke these leaders and make demands on behalf of the people?
Stories have it that some leaders in government, and in authority sometimes attend church events and are prayed for. One would wonder if the Bible-referenced people of Israel were to be Nigerians, they would never have left Egypt. The Moses' of the people and their elders would only have prayed but never made any demand on Pharaoh to set the people free. Would some elders have rather lavished themselves in the pleasures and opulence of Egypt, perhaps? Voices are rising from Nigeria peoples in their natural nations, tongues, and tribes towards resolutions, referendum, and secession in some cases, but the Church in Nigeria remains unconcerned and quiet. Polarizations and agitations are escalating in many quarters; local groups are making their voices heard. There are concerns that echoes of impending war are looming (of which we earnestly pray not to happen). No individual who experienced the civil war would wish for another war again. The Church, however, remains silent. In many cases, we take reactive rather than proactive positions to many issues that even affect us. The influence of many of our ministers is exercised more on “enlarging our coasts” than it is on shaping the structure of the “colonial-amalgamated” nation. LET US PRAY l Pray for divine intervention for the peoples Nigeria to wake up and seek restoration in all facets. l Pray for restoration of our God-given “natural nations” l Pray for peace upon the “lands” l Pray against the looming violence including secession by violence/war Pray for healing in the church and that the church will take her rightful place in the country. l Pray for GOFAMINT to be active in wisdom as a ministry of God, not just to the peoples, but also to the leaders in authority. l Pray for true independence for the peoples of Nigeria. l Pray for deliverance of the people from the oppressors in leadership. n
Identity and the Quest for Restructuring in Nigeria “..of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” 1 Chronicles 12:32 (1) Christians for Yoruba Nation(CYN) is a platform for concerned Christians in general and Yoruba Christians in particular, to reestablish the God-given Yoruba Nation and her Diaspora within the context of the on-going attempts at Restructuring of the Nigerian Nation-State; more-so given the fact of Yoruba influence in the anti-colonial quest and her subsequent developmental strides before the Unitarization of Nigeria in 1966. This engagement is driven by the realization that our continuous existence as a God-created Nationality cannot be dependent on colonial imposition which truncated our potential development hence this responsibility, as reflected in Nehemiah 1: 8-10. In pursuing this, CYN is not advocating a “Christian” Yoruba Nation, for we recognize that the Yoruba Nation is a multi-religious society hence all of her citizens and residents shall have the freedom of worship, more-so when the Yoruba Society has a tradition and Global reputation of religious tolerance within itself. (2) The Yoruba Nationality, just as other Nationalities in the Nigerian Nation-State, is caught up in the Crisis of Identitythat has characterized the operations of that Nation-State since the military seized power in 1966 and imposed its ownIdentity on the rest of the country. Our God-given Identity is our Nationality and any form of political, economic and social formulation that will mediate the interrelationships within the Nationality and between Nationalities expressed as a Nation-State must involve the direct participation of the Nationalities making up such a Nation State, more-so when there are different existential realities between the Nationalities which the apparatus of the Nation-State seek to mediate. (3) The post-1966 Nigerian Nation-State exist in contradiction to the right and consequently the ability of the Nationalities to maintain their God-assigned Identity. It attempts a homogenized “Nigerian” community devoid of the Nationality via the military-activated Unitarized Nation-State, where everyone is dependent on the Center; itself being under Hausa-Fulani Hegemony whose vision drives the homogenization pursuit thereby nullifying the God-given Identity of the Nationalities as Nations in
themselves. There are so many examples of this reality. (4) The Nigerian Nation-State is completely dependent on international economic forces responsible for our colonization without any philosophy of engagement that will address disparities between the Nation-State and its international sponsors and within the Nation-State itself thus living out the reality expected by colonialism while negating the existential expectations of the Nationality. (5) This Nation-State is parasitic on the God-given natural resources of the geo-political space. This in turn leads to the non-utilization of these resources to develop any meaningful human resource or capacity. This causes massive exodus of human capital glamorized by the military Nation-State as remitters of foreign exchange back into the country with no impact on productivity since the Nation-State, as a creation of colonialism, was and is not wired for such productivity. Nigeria's economic history is replete with examples of these. (6) As a response to the homogenization, the “Nigerian” seeks refuge in his or her Nationality, Religious inclination or allegiance to Western (and Eastern) Worldviews as the basis for his/her Worldview since there is no such thing as a “Nigerian” World view; for, the only way the “Nigerian” Worldview can come about is through homogenization and assimilation of one Nationality by another. Consequently, such homogenized “Nigerian” Worldview will become an anti-African Worldview since the “African” Worldview is dependent on the African Nationalities. (7) The fact that the Nigerian Nation-State had been engaged in this process in different military and civilian versions with nothing but further underdevelopment to show for it must mean it cannot be an option for solution. This is why the ruling Party has begun moves to address this issue, not only because it was a major point in its Manifesto, but also as a response to varying degrees of agitations all over the country. (8) What is being promoted as the solution, variously defined as “devolution”, “restructuring” which are nothing more than distribution of powers and functions between governments, fail to address the fundamental question, to wit: Is a Government the creation of a Constitution OR is a Constitution the creation of the Government? To be continued in the next edition.
PATHFINDER International, Octt. 2017 | 23
Young people in Central, Eastern Europe Contd. from page 3 protest against corruption People who do not work day after day fighting corruption do not necessarily realize how terribly slowly things actually change. That, Kunder worried, could push more people to abandon their faith in democracy and turn to extremist politics, as is happening all over Europe. “The students still believe that what they are asking for is going to happen,” Kunder said.“The government will not do that.” Indeed, the government hasn’t gotten rid of Kalinak, an ally of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. And, lip service aside, the official fight against corruption has been half-hearted. We re S t r a k a a n d Klacman and their peers disappointed they didn’t get what they wanted? And now what will they do? “At first, I felt
discouraged, because I expected more, you know? As a young person,” Straka said, laughing at himself. NGOs, at least, tell him they are now in a better position to negotiate new laws, even if the real rub with corruption is enforcement of existing laws. (Slovakia already has relatively robust anti-corruption legislation.) “So there are some smaller things, which are good. But the main things haven’t actually happened.” “ We c a n n o t b e satisfied with these things, and we have to keep going,” Klacman said. They just don’t know exactly how. They hope to get 100,000 signatures for their petition to force a discussion in parliament (they had 72,000 when we met, though some didn’t fill out their addresses correctly). They weren’t sure if this third protest
would turn out to be their last protest, or who would take over their work, or even if it was the sort of torch that even could be passed on. What about running for office themselves? Klacman said he would only want to get involved at politics at the local level, not in the national jungle. “Not ‘up there,’ but helping the community.” Straka doesn’t think he wants to get into politics. But it’s too early for him, or any of his cohort, to decide such a thing just yet. “We’re still too young,” he said. Emily Tamkin reported from Romania and Slovakia on a transatlantic media fellowship with the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. Photo credit: Vladimir Simicek/AFP/Getty Images RWANDA She tried to run against Rwandan President Paul K a g a m e . N o w s h e ’s looking at 20 years in prison. n
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Pastor Tunde Bakare, Generals I Gowon and Obasanjo n Lagos, Nigeria, Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly used his Independence daysermon to praise European “civilizing mission” by glorifying colonialism as the source of conflict resolution among what he referred to as the warring communities in the Niger area. When our existentialism is denied by a “man of God”, the problem is not of God but the denier. Pastor Tunde Bakare, probablya Yoruba (there are some denying their Yorubanness) denied Yoruba and her history when he stated thusly “before the creation of the Nigerian state, there was no Yoruba nation, there was no Igbo nation, there was no Hausa nation, neither was there an Ijaw nation. We must not be misled by nostalgia for a spurious harmonious past or the myth of homogenous ethnic groups that is far removed from reality. The area around the Niger was marked with unrest, continuous intergroup conflict, subjugation, enslavement and oppression of the weaker by the stronger until Nigeria provided the possibility for peaceful coexistence. For this, we must appreciate the Nigerian state, we must celebrate our Nigerian-ness and we must gravitate towards strengthening our nationhood rather than cursing our blessing.” Limiting this to the Yoruba experience, he deliberately overlook the Nigerian State itself being the result of British“subjugation, enslavement and oppression of the weaker by the stronger” and Pax Britannica not being an act of demonstrating peaceful coexistence. Must we then accept the falsehood of Nigerian Statehood only because a Pastor says so? The major cause of the Yoruba Civil War was the “war to end all wars” begun as an attempt to quell the perennial conflicts arising from the Fulani invasion. This “war to end all wars” ultimately pitted the Unitarists against the Federalists in Yorubaland. There would not have been such an internal conflict if there was no sense of Yoruba Nationhood. It is written that those who serve God must do so in Spirit and in Truth. Pastor Tunde Bakare need not engage in peddling historical falsehoods in order to promote the Nigerian State of his dreams. In Washington D.C, USA,yet another annual prayer ritual took place.This was virtually the brainchild of former Nigerian Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, who, as aLieutenant-Colonel, became the country's Head of State as a result of the July 1966 northern countercoup to the January 1966 coup whose lopsidedness in the senseless murders of northern and western political leaders provided the immediate cause for the July counter-coup and eventually the Nigerian civil war. Although he had a Christian background, his coming to power reflected Nigeria's power politics at the time, where he represented the geo-political North. His first pronouncement, after being announced as the new head of State, was “the basis for Nigeria's Unity no longer exist” hence the declaration of Independence by the North before the decision was overturned a few days later by the same North, acting on the advice of the colonial power now being eulogized by Pastor Tunde Bakare as the purveyor of peaceful coexistence. After the war, the General became a
Editor’s Note In the heat of the battle for the soul of the Peoples of Nigeria, our humanity is being ignored, which would be why the colonial power glorified by Pastor Tunde Bakare ensured a false census just so it will have its way. The product of this lie, the Nigerian State, is what Pastor Tunde Bakare, Generals Gowon and Obasanjo and all promoters of “peace, unity, non-negotiability of Nigeria” want us to fully embrace. The question for “Nigerians” is therefore not one of “praying” (mostly amiss) but in recognition of our humanity which translates into each of our Nations being recognized as a Nation for, and in itself. victim of another coup in July 1975 after which he proceeded on a voluntary exile to the UK and upon his return, collaborated with other Christians to establish “Nigeria Prays” which started life under various military administrations in Nigeria, whose military governors often encouraged and patronized its activities. It is anchored on “One Nigeria” where that oneness is defined by homogeneity and uniformity, although the country is multi-lingual and multi-cultural and all efforts at ensuring the homogeneity and uniformity became the main causes for the crisis that led up to military intervention and subsequently General Gowon's ascension to power. His own political (and military) history therefore cannot be divorced from this new passion of praying for Nigeria's oneness. The anchor Scripture for the Washington DC prayer session is2 Chronicles 7:14, which says “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land”.The word “wicked” defines exactly what Nigeria is, today; from false census figures to a Constitution brought about by the northerndominated military tailored to centralization of power. General Olusegun Obasanjo was Nigeria's military Head of State between 1976 and 1979; the civilian President between 1999 and 2007. He declared himself to be a born-again Christian.Because of agitations for restructuring of Nigeria from nearly all the Peoples of Nigeria, General Obasanjo threw his hat into the ring, stating clearly that he is not in support of Restructuring of Nigeria except in what he called “restructuring of the mind”.
General Obasanjo led the military regime which validated the unitarization of Nigeria begun by General Gowon. His regime reinforced the centralization of Nigeria's financial resources, leading to the states having to go cap in hand for monthly allocations to sustain their administrations; placed all of Nigeria's mineral resources under the control of the central government, itself under Northern military and political control, the end result of which is the despoliation of the Niger Delta area, placed all academic institutions of higher learning established by the various post-Independence Regional Administrations under centralized control, determined one centralized agricultural development paradigm for Nigeria and more importantly, legitimized Nigeria's unitarization though subterfuge by interfering in the production and ratification of the 1979 Constitution by military fiat and collaborated in the imposition of the fraudulent military-created Constitution of 1999, which in reality was no different from that of 1979 which he superintended. Yet, for a Born Again Christian, to argue for a restructuring of the mind must mean the person himself has restructured his own mind to such an extent that he would boldly proclaim, as Apostle Paul did, that “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”(2 Corinthians 5:17); for, as the Apostle's life and times showed, his Damascus experience defined not only the “restructuring “ of his mind, but also of his defining characteristics and what he was able to go through and overcome in the process of putting all of these into practice. It was a “turn around” from persecution of the Way to its promotion.
Africa's militaries were and still are the premier agency for continued colonial domination, having been created by colonial enterprises for the decimation of the various peoples of Africa, often pitting one People against the other in the recruitment and organization of such military, where, for Nigeria, the military was dominated by northerners with a mandate to secure Nigeria for the north. This was the context under which Yakubu Gowon, a minority and Christian from northern Nigeria, became the military head of State; and for Olusegun Obasanjo, he retained his leadership because he accepted this Northern diktat as recounted by General Oluleye, the then Finance Minister, who was unceremoniously dismissed by General Obasanjo through a radio announcement upon General Oluleye's complaint about “northern domination” of Obasanjo’s paraphernalia of office. These two Generals therefore contributed, in a significant and direct manner, to the wickedness the Nigeria State has become. If a “Damascus” experience proposition wereto come into play, that must inform on their position and advocacy as to how Nigeria became what it is and what remedies are available for a transformation to occur. In which case, the entire edifice on which “Nigeria Prays” rest would be different from what it presently is; and General Obasanjo's “restructuring” of the mind would accept the reality that Nigeria's “Golden Era” was in the premilitary Regional federation that existed which was neutralized mainly by their own actions or acquiescence. There was a mindset that produced the developments of that era just as there was a mindset that produced its negation such that asking for a “restructuring of the mind” or “praying for Nigeria” at this point without addressing this aspect is denying the Scripture both Generals now claim to promote and believe in. When both Generals and the Pastor introduce false paradigms anchored on what they have contributed to making out of Nigeria, discerning Christians must reexamine their own understanding of the Spirit in these matters and begin to determine their allegiance, whether it is to “men” or God. The first platform for the search would be what really constitute their own Nations: the Nigerian PostColonial state as already determined by these two Christian Generals with some Pastors towing along by glorifying colonialism or their natural God-created Nations which may or may not have to work out a Re-Formation of a new architecture of State that will encourage their mutual co-existence. In the heat of the battle for the soul of the Peoples of Nigeria, our humanity is being ignored, which would be why the colonial power glorified by Pastor Tunde Bakare ensured a false census just so it will have its way. The product of this lie, the Nigerian State, is what Pastor Tunde Bakare, Generals Gowon and Obasanjo and all promoters of “peace, unity, nonnegotiability of Nigeria” want us to fully embrace. The question for “Nigerians” is therefore not one of “praying” (mostly amiss) but in recognition of our humanity which translates into each of our Nations being recognized as a Nation for, and in itself. n
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