It is amazing how Halifa reacts when under fire. I never imagined i would
witness Halifa swagger, brag and swashbuckle of intellectual prowess or even
his scholarly kudos; all the same it's Halifa as never before enumerating the
boffins he hangs out with. I thought Halifa was more humble than that. He
could have got on with his defence without bragging about the colourful
milieu of who is who in African academia that he hangs out with. Anyone who
knows Halifa will tell you three distinct  qualities in him that is a rarity
in Africa and or amongst the African intelligentsia: that he is a scholar of
great distinction and erudition(for Cherno Baba to scoff at this subtly tells
you a lot about what is wrong with him), an unquestionable integrity and
fealty to the down trodden and oppressed peoples all over the world. He
certainly isn't perfect and has his problems but this is not the time and the
place to get into that. Enough of that trivia and to more serious things.
Frankly had Halifa read Ayittey's central theme with detached emotions of
someone with every right to be annoyed but nonetheless sanguine, he would
have discovered that Ayittey's contention is thus this: the Nyerere's and
Nkrumah's of Africa are certainly not saints. Heroes they are but saints they
ain't. And this argument takes us back to Halifa's conclusion that we must
celebrate their successes and visions whilst at the same time with feet
rooted in realism acknowledge and learn from their failings and mistakes. In
short whilst we celebrate we shouldn't forget why they never got past the
initial emancipation. Both of you make the same conclusion albeit in a
different fashion and your emphasis/prejudices and methodology  set you
apart. Halifa even you don't practice what you preach about methology and
scientific enquiry. If you had displayed this principle of scientific inquiry
into your answer and defense of Nyerere and Nkrumah, you would set your
symphaties and Pan African prejudices aside and employ the cold logic of
scientific inquiry to dissect the lives and times of these two African
leaders. A forensic scrutiny of their lives and times would reveal their
tyrannical heavy handedness and heroic attempts to improve the lot of the
African. It seems to me and this is mere speculation and intuitive, that
Halifa's prejudices do really run deep; for both Nyerere and Nkrumah were old
left Socialist Africanists. Could this be the solicitude of Halifa's
symphaties towards them and makes his lose cold logic and scientific
methology. Witness Halifa's strident prose and cold logic when dealing with
Jawara. Yet juxtapose that with his tempered and compromising or should i
dare say apologetic stance when he writes of Jammeh. Just because Jammeh
famously flaunts some crude form of Pan Africanism, he generates their
benevolence and tempered satire as they help stave off all unflattering
viewpoints on Jammeh and his likes in Africanism.
As for Ayittey when i read his piece, that his is some scholarly work was
laughable and a big joke. For Cherno Baba to load plaudits on Ayittey's
erudition as a scholar tells you why Cherno is a dilettante in disquinshing
between flowery prose and scholarly work. It is one thing to compose good
prose but another to write with distinction scholarly work. Cherno these days
i have noted some tinge of pomp and sententious piffle in your writings and
it would be remiss of me not to diagnose pedantic display of pomp and
prescribe self doubt for you to go back and research what qualifies a writing
to be worthy of the name scholarly work. You seem to forget that you have yet
to graduate and mistake your flowery prose and immature verbosity with
intellectual precision. Humble thyself "mawbeh" for they say who he who seeks
knowledge begins with humbleness.
I hope we move away from personality spats to the real issues. Let the debate
continue.
Hamjatta

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