Opinion
Nigerian Professor In Eastern Europe On Russia-Ukraine War
Published
12 months agoon

By
Tony Afejuku
Let me serve my readers today, this Friday’s, menu and dish on Russia-Ukraine war. This dish which you shall relish comes in the form of the sole subject of an interview a Nigerian professor in Eastern Europe granted me a few weeks back. The Nigerian professor is a definitive expert on Eastern European affairs with particular expertise in Russian-Ukrainian political and historical encounters. I am deliberately blotting out his identity here, including his current abode in Eastern Europe – although he has been entering and leaving Russia and Ukraine as he pleases for years. He is more than handsomely fluent in the languages of both countries as well as those of Georgia, Belarus and Poland, etc. Absorb the tongue of the Nigerian in his mask.
READ ALSO: Russia Warns Against Dangers Of Sanctions To Space Station
Columnist: I have just seen the video of Russia’s massacre in cold blood of some Ukrainians, some of whom got up untouched and intact after the Russian fire blackened out, so to speak. Did you see the video in question?
Professor: Yes. A fake video. Yes. No doubt. Clearly a production by an anti-Russian group. It is part of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Every war has its own catalogue of lies and misinformation and dis-information.
Columnist: How far can or will Russia go especially as NATO countries are pouring weapons into Ukraine and risking a dangerous conflict with Russia?
Professor: The war is entering a very dangerous phase. The United States is plotting to provoke Russia into attacking a NATO country like Poland so that NATO’s Article 4 could be invoked to declare a NATO-Russian war. Let us hope Russia does not fall into this trap.
Columnist: So U.S wants Russia to be trapped and crushed?
Professor: That is the plan. That is their plan. A weak and subservient Russia is the goal of the U.S.
Columnist: Will the U.S succeed in this plan? Will China not enter the war in support of Russia? You are a live-and-on-the-ground witness and expert. We are interested in your answer – you not being an armchair commentator and researcher or am I wrong?
Professor: First, Russia must not attack knowingly or otherwise a NATO country. Second, China may stir its Taiwan pot. I see Chinese military involvement in the Russian-Ukrainian war as a bit remote.
Columnist: Let us go back to the scene of the “dead” Ukrainian soldiers or non-soldiers murdered during the Russian “invasion”…
Professor: Ukraine live TV supposedly filming dead persons killed during the invasion. But during filming, one of the dead woke up adjusting his/her dress for comfortable posture…Ha ha ha!!! Someone rushed to him or her, to say “die, die, you fool, you are on live TV, die.” Ha ha ha!!! Propaganda that went wrong, that had gone wrong.
READ ALSO: New York Times’ Ex-writer Killed In Ukraine War
Columnist: Very hilarious!!! Truly very hilarious!!! Ha ha ha!!! If I may go back to the Chinese interest in the war; I saw a video in which a Chinese senior official was threatening the U.S. and making specific reference to the intention of the U.S. to embolden Taiwan Independent Forces… Is China apparently not more concerned with its own problems, with its own China-Taiwan problems than with Russian-Ukraine war and America’s interest there?
Professor: Not at all…
Columnist: Is this not contradicting your earlier remark/observation?
Professor: Not at all. I said : “Second, China may stir its Taiwan pot.”
Columnist: Let China do as it pleases China until America does as it pleases America. Phew!
Professor: My position does not change.
Columnist: The UN General Assembly reportedly dealt Russia an “overwhelming diplomatic defeat over Ukraine invasion,” losing a vote there by a staggering margin of 141 – 5 after an “emergency debate…” What is the way out now for Putin? This is a mighty blow that is mightier than a mighty blow. Do you agree?
Professor: He is in a huge fix. Putin is in a huge fix, a very tight corner with little or no space to engineer a successful operation. My view is that he will continue with his plot to take over a significant proportion of Ukrainian territory, while the sanctions are grinding Russian economy to a halt. The endgame for the Kremlin seems to be a divided Ukraine with the Russian sector under Russian control, while the Ukrainian sector will be forced to be a neutral state with its neutrality guaranteed by an international treaty. We shall see.
READ ALSO: Fox Journalist Killed In Ukraine War
Columnist: How does this scenario benefit Ukraine? Or will this scenario of a divided Ukraine begin to benefit Ukraine in a short or long run? Or will Ukraine fight to finish?
Professor: A weakened and defeated Ukraine will have little choice in determining the endgame. Assuming that the U.S. and its allies elect to intervene militarily (via their foot soldiers, etc.), Ukraine will be turned into a battlefield that we have not seen since 1945. Will this scenario invite the White House and the Kremlin to release their respective arsenals? It could happen. However, in the absence of U.S./NATO military intervention, Russia will accept a ceasefire only after it has achieved what it set out as its minimum goal.
Columnist: But I am seeing America and its allies strangulating and sinking Putin and Russia without Biden and America firing any bullet at the Kremlin. The diplomatic isolation and economic noose will eventually do the work for Biden, NATO, the EU and Ukraine. Maybe my projection is a non-projection. I insist you should please talk again on this. Or you won’t?
Professor: There is no doubt about the effect the sanctions and diplomatic isolation are having on Russia. But that WILL NOT make Russia to capitulate. How far will the West allow Ukraine to disintegrate? Ukraine is like a baby held up from the balcony by a fugitive threatening to drop it from a 30-storey building.
Columnist: Please explain the metaphor. Ukraine is strong enough to survive from a 30-storey building even in its baby state. Ukraine is a very determined baby unwilling to cease to exist, I think. Or?
Professor: I am not doubting Ukraine’s determination to exist, but the question is whether the collective will to fight a losing battle at a huge human cost is strong enough? Is the baby strong enough to be a full-grown man now?
READ ALSO: Fourth Russian General Dies In Ukraine
Columnist: Ukrainians don’t want to lose their democratic freedoms and other democratic advantages, no matter what. Is this not what is giving them their manly manliness?
Professor: The outcome of the war and the subsequent peace treaty and other matters will determine the future structure of Ukraine.
Columnist: We shall continue our delicious discussion and splendid interview in the coming days. What a sumptuous time we have had!
Professor: Interview?
Columnist: Interview? I think so. Or have I ambushed you as Putin has ambushed Ukraine? But be unworried. Your identity will be blotted out. I won’t allow Pandemonium Putin bring pandemonium to you where you are in Eastern Europe. We are fellow comrades and activists. But you are deliciously objective. You have been sumptuously objective.
Professor: Thanks, Comrade. You decide: to blot out or not to blot out my identity. We are courageous enough to stand before truth and face truth. No matter the circumstances. No matter our circumstances.
Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.
Read more authentic news on our social media platforms
Related
You may like

By Tony Afejuku
The debate has progressed well so far. Our professors, whose strokes have centred on their fellow professor’s manned INEC have tried as best as they could not to confine their impressions solely to the prism of subjectivity. Even when their impressions seem to be subjective, they still make allowance for contrary views, for opposing views. This obviously gives clarity, objectivity and logic to the subject at hand. Is the will of INEC of a professor minder and mincer of words’ control the will of the people or of the masses? On whose side are the Professors who are as concerned as almost everybody is with what is going – or with what has gone on – primarily about our Presidential 2023 elections? Our Professors who are debating the subject constitute the courageous and prophetic Nigerian voices of our day. Their authentic and responsible thoughts are not restricted to the local or regional. They are also not confined to electoral duties and responsibilities expected of the umpire and the will that belongs elsewhere. The truth about the quality of leadership about our country and elsewhere is also told in the debate of the literati.
Professor (Mrs.) Razinatu Mohamed in her submission, in her salvo-cum-explosion actually, drew attention to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s explosive explosion in the presidency. If Professor Osinbajo had provided the right vice-presidential leadership there would not have been the need for him to explode as he did as per a viral video Professor Razinatu Mohamed referred her fellow debaters to. “What has he been doing in the eight years of their administration? Irritated my foot; he is complicit.” Not done, Professor Razinatu drew attention to the kind of leaders that Nigeria and Africa need: “Leaders that understand the rudiments of modern socio-economic development and systems; Leaders that understand the crux of requirements for economic growth. Leaders that could demonstrate to the rest of the world that just as the world needs Africa, African countries need the world in a symbiotic relationship and partnership context where assistance becomes a dual role…..”
Razinata’s concern is clear. Nothing in Nigeria will climb out of its hollow hole. In fact, the will of the people will remain hollow so long as a hollow mincer and minder is in charge of its electoral affairs.
Professor Da Sylva perhaps responds better to Professor Razinatu Mohamed’s algebraic stroke. “Unfortunately, Nigeria’s democracy is trapped in its primordial self-made ethnic and religious sentiments and so, standards, merit, competence and pedigrees are measured by their curious divides of religion and ethnic inclinations. Until we all come to realize that heavens help those who help themselves, Nigeria ain’t going no-where – meeen!”
But below is Professor Da Sylva’s sledge hammer response to Professor Razinatu Mohamed’s Osinbajo hammer blow:
“Prof Osinbajo’s office demands he does what he did. Besides, it shows maturity and spirit of sportsmanship on his part. Every loser in a game “healthily” contested, is naturally expected to do the same. The only difference which again shows Osinbajo’s magnanimity is that in this context, the contest under reference was neither healthy nor just. The umpire seemed compromised and merely worked to a prepared answer. Yet the gentleman did the needful. I guess, brothers and sisters, that we should put all that behind us, and work for our common good, and the wellbeing of the country, provided the mythical Aso cabal will let the President-elect be, and let the masses be, and as such, they should not create any cause for us to think otherwise, lest they provoke our sense of patriotism to take appropriate action! I guess that those were the reading or feelings of the dirty-minded Aso Villa cabal. People that kill with sword never wish that any folk should pass a sword over their heads, a wise saying goes in Yoruba. The human principalities simply suspected that should they allow PMB to give the VP the intended latitude, they might not be able to control him. I remember on his return from London, he commended the efforts of his VP while he was away. He said he would still continue acting while he would still have some more rest at home. The following day everything changed, PMB decided to take charge as the President. I suspected some back door politics was playing out. My co-debaters, quite naturally, you’ll agree with me that, it is not over-ambition or sheer opportunism as you might insinuate for any deputy in an office to aspire to the next higher office, in a legitimate manner, there is nothing really unusual about it, and it would amount to killing a mosquito with a sledge hammer, should Oshinbajo be crucified for that, if at all. And as for his wishing Buhari’s non-recovery, I think that, again, like my Sister R, is a little unkind and not fair to the gentleman who I know to be a servant of God. He knows as much as I do, by our true Christian orientation and Biblical injunctions that, should he ever wish Buhari’s death or wish him any form of misfortune in those trying periods of the President, God Almighty who we serve would deal mercilessly and ruthlessly with him. That is what Psalm 41:1-13 is all about. So rule that out, because it is not, and could never be in his character. I can vouch for him. Rather, I saw him in those times that he acted for his principal, as someone zealous and appreciative of the trust his principal invested in him, and as such he tried to do his very best to merit the trust and the opportunity! I know and I am also sure that this is what an IBK, or a Razinat, would have done too had they found themselves in a similar situation! It does not amount to wishing one’s principal any evil, not at all. Not everyone can be like Chief Obafemi Awolowo who resigned his position under Gowon when the regime became financially reckless shortly after the civil war. Awolowo also gave very profound argumentation to justify convincingly his actions. He also turned down some other appointments including the “49 Wise Men of the Constitution Drafting Committee.” Oshinbajo couldn’t have resigned, normally, and naturally his principal, PMB should have supported him as a capable successor, but again, the President’s ethnic and religious bigotry took the better part of the President. Besides, PMB’s mind was long poisoned against his VP, a clean job by the Aso Villa cabal. IBK, Lady R, until the faceless cabal is permanently silenced the wheel of Nigeria might continue to go round in a circle, and to nowhere in particular”.
And Professor IBK takes the floor: “Prof. DAO, yours is a powerfully convincing submission, at least in a large measure. Now I am willing to hold a slightly different opinion about Osinbajo. Yet, I cannot fathom why he chose to run against Tinubu, days or weeks after the latter had begun his campaign in the party primaries. There’s much we don’t know about why OSBJ decided to run against BAT. Nothing is wrong with that politically but a little problematic from an Ethical or, at least Moral, point of view. Osinbajo did a poor job of it and came out a distant 4th in the primaries. I think he didn’t read the situation correctly and was probably misled by some cabal of sorts. Either way Osinbajo made a politically fatal error in this regard. Perhaps he must have sensed, or was told, that BAT was not the anointed candidate, or that BAT would be crippled by some ill-health or a medical condition. I remember the party’s screening committee publicly recommending that only younger contestants would be recommended to the NWC or such. Clearly there was an attempt to sideline BAT. Whatever the explanation, Osinbajo make the error in his campaign of promising to be more Buhari than Buhari. A man despised by whole sections of the northern population, a man whose reputation for laziness and incompetence was on the ascendant. Anyway, all is now history and Osinbajo has not given a good account of himself in this particular case. Prof DAO, I think your concept of the Trickster should account for Osinbajo’s situation here. FULL DISCLOSURE: a very close family member of mine was drafted to head Osinbajo’s campaign effort in Kano. We discussed extensively about Osinbajo’s pledge to carry on with Buhari’s policies. There was bewilderment and shock within the members. A week later half of the membership resigned on account of Osinbajo’s increasing identification with Buhari’s policies. Many mistakenly thought that Osinbajo was Buhari’s anointed one! I could go on…”
Interestingly interesting and intriguingly intriguing, dear, dearly dear readers: this debate.
To be terminated by the columnist-terminator and terminator-columnist next week after Professor Olu Obafemi’s summation of the debate he presided over.
Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.
Related

By Ijeoma Fynecountry
The 21st of March of every year is international day for the celebration of persons living with down syndrome. The advocacy and push for communal and political recognition of the basic fundamental rights for persons living with various types of disabilities, particularly intellectual disability, just as enjoyed by their peers who do not have any form of challenge – physical or intellectual has recorded a substantial success around the globe, especially in more developed climes.
While the same cannot be said of the situation in Africa and Nigeria in particular, scanty breakthroughs have also been seen over the years, with the consistent and dogged efforts by some specialized organizations such as Down syndrome Foundation, Nigeria (DSFN).
The theme for this year’s celebration is “With us, Not for us”. This theme is apt particularly in the current era where the push for inclusion has taken a center stage in the campaign worldwide. While it is comforting to know that people, government and communities alike are now becoming more empathetic to the plight of persons living with disability, it is also necessary and most important that their rights as human beings deserving of not just empathy but actual concrete benefits accruable to other citizens without disability, is massively taken into consideration and actually provided for.
Therefore, it is not enough for the government to map out and create as in Lagos state and few other states, sections in the public schools to admit children or persons with intellectual disability, it is necessary to adequately equip these special schools with the needed “specialized” manpower, infrastructural and educational aids to attain the targeted educational goals for these persons. Likewise in the provision of better healthcare, economic, social needs of persons with disability etc.
Persons with intellectual disability do not just need to be specifically educated in accordance with his or her type of disability, but MUST also necessarily be able to aspire to or expect to be employed according to his or her learned ability. That way, a full right, befitting of a person, be him a person with disability or not, is assured. For what is the need of going through a learning process, acquiring a specialized knowledge about a craft or handiwork and eventually still not being given the opportunity of gaining employment as supposed, not due to lack of knowledge but for having a disability? No human being should be subjected to such. Our government should do better. The society at large should do better.
The theme for this year is enjoining all stakeholders – the government, communities, corporate organizations, religious bodies/organizations, individuals to open up their hearts, and recognize the very urgent and important need to help in the actualization of these basic human needs, rights of persons living with intellectual disability as we are all human. No human rights or needs should be prioritized over the other no matter the state of their health, mental and physical capacity. Stand with us by taking actual intentional steps towards uplifting and elevating the humanness of persons living with disability. It is not enough to say that you are for persons living with disability, your specific, intentional, targeted actions toward ensuring the practical applicability of these rights matters.
Fynecontryis a Lagos-based legal practitioner and the legal resource person for the Down Syndrome Foundation Nigeria.
Related

By Hope Nwawolo
Despite the hues and cries that greeted the results of the 2023 elections, what if the court’s pendulum stays or swings otherwise in the expected litigations?
What will it teach our inquisitive young children?
What will it do to the hopes and dreams of the youths?
What will it do to the mind set of those in diaspora, waiting and hoping to return?
How will it affect our heroes still alive and yearning for the good old times?
One basic fact is that no matter where the pendulum swings, something new has started in the political sphere of Nigeria. And because it was unexpected, it has become almost impossible to strangulate it.
In every competition, there is an expectation that the best man will win. That may not always be in politics, particularly, in Nigeria…where the winner may not be the best man or even the better man. And when it is said that politics is a game of numbers, sometimes, the actual numbers may not be visible to determine the end result. It becomes a case of the more you look the less you see; until interpreted by respected learned men with high integrity.
Politics, they say is a dirty game, where money speaks and promises made are broken without an iota of guilt. Where the gullible minds of the masses are deceived, with as little as a box of indomie. Where some vibrant but jobless youths are brainwashed to risk their lives to snatch ballot boxes for the politicians who do not know them beyond giving them stipends through some third parties. Where market women are forced to come out for rallies and campaigns because they cannot afford the fine that will be imposed on them if they failed to participate. They also do not want the harassment of the market leaders.
In politics, fear is palpable in the air, before, during and after elections. The 2023 elections recently carried out, depicted these more than expected in both the politicians and electorate. What started like the usual political pattern took a drastic turn about nine months to the first elections and though it was said to be only a social media affair, it got everyone sitting upright and tightening his seat belt, particularly after the first elections.
Now, there is a generational shift, a new awakening, a new dawn and a new political birth, waiting to happen. To wherever the pendulum turns; where the court stands, it will make a turnaround in Nigeria. It may be turbulent at the beginning, it may be emotionally draining and psychologically traumatizing, but it will point to light at the end of the tunnel.
There is a new hope backed by a high spirit of determination. An unexplainable faith in many people for that newness of existence and purpose. An unprecedented emotional and psychological strength in the youths not to give up on their dreams. An unquenchable desire to keep praying. Soon a newness will break forth to calm all nerves and dry all tears.
A newness that will permeate conflicts and hatred,
A newness that will dissipate unnecessary anger,
A newness that will usher in unquestionable and transparent political systems in future elections,
A newness of freedom to choose a candidate without coercion or molestation
A newness of jubilation after the announcement of election results.
This is the new Nigeria that is awaiting delivery…
Nwawolo, PhD, writes from Lagos.
Related
NEW TIMES CULTURE

Professors On INEC’s Will (3)

BREAKING: PDP Suspends Anyim, Fayose

With Us, Not For US
Top Stories
-
Opinion4 days ago
Rigged Elections And The Moral Burden Of Illegitimacy
-
Opinion2 days ago
The 2023 Elections And The Newness Of Nigeria
-
Opinion3 days ago
Overcoming Policy Execution Trap As Nigeria’s Development Challenge
-
Latest News3 days ago
Why We Won’t Congratulate Oborevwori On Delta Gubernatorial Victory – Deta APC
-
Latest News2 days ago
BREAKING:Confusion As INEC Rejects Irregular Votes In Abia, Enugu Governorship Election Results