Farooq Kperogi – Read Top 8 popular national lies that won’t die in Nigeria
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Read Farooq Kperogi Biography: Top 8 popular national lies that won’t die in Nigeria -In Nigeria, once lies and historical myths take roots, they are almost always impossible to uproot. But the stubborn persistence of lies is no reason to give up on correcting them. Find below 8 oft-repeated lies with the most staying power in Nigeria.
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FAROOQ KPEROGI |
Top 8 popular national lies that won’t die in Nigeria /top 8 popular
- Wole Soyinka had a third class degree. After it emerged Dino Melaye earned a Third Class degree from Ahmadu Bello University, scores of social media commentators dredged up the old lie that even Professor Wole Soyinka had a Third Class degree from the University of Ibadan. There are two lies in this claim. First lie is Soyinka got a Third Class degree. No, he actually got an Upper Second Class honors degree. Second lie is he graduated from University of Ibadan. Finally He graduated from University of Leeds in the UK.
Read Farooq Kperogi Biography: Top 8 popular national lies that won’t die in Nigeria
- American government predicted Nigeria’s disintegration in 2015. Presently this is a big fat lie. It’s true a few private US think factories predicted that given the potentially contentious outcome of the 2015 election, there was reason to expect that Nigeria could be consumed by fratricidal in-fighting that could dissolve the union.
- America calls itself “god’s own country.” As I’ve pointed out in previous columns, America’s motto isn’t “God’s own country.” It is “In God we trust.” “God’s own country” is an old American English expression for one’s place of birth— or for a beautiful, forested rural area. The “country” in the expression refers to “rural area,” not a territory occupied by a nation.
Farooq Kperogi Biography: Top 8 popular national lies that won’t die in Nigeria
- Sokoto calls itself “born to rule.” At no point in history has Sokoto ever called itself “born to rule.” As I pointed out in my January 10, 2015 column titled “The Stubborn, Undying ‘Born to Rule’ Falsehood in Nigeria’s Political Discourse,” “Sokoto State’s official license-plate catchphrase from the beginning was and still is ‘Cibiyar daular usmaniyya,’ which is Hausa for the nucleus or the navel of the Usman Danfodio caliphate. The English version of the slogan has been rendered as ‘Seat of the Caliphate,’ which I think is a great idiomatic translation.”
Top 8 popular national lies that won’t die in Nigeria
- Usman Danfodiyo brought Islam to Nigeria. No, he didn’t. The presence of Islam in Nigeria, as I pointed out in my March 22, 2014 column titled “Nigeria’s Curricular Institutionalization of Mass Amnesia,” preceded the Usman Danfodio jihad by several centuries. What Danfodio did was to reform Islam where it already existed. And this happened only in the 19th century. The earliest record of Islamic presence in northern Nigeria (in the ancient Kanem- Borno Empire to be specific) dates back to the 9th century, that is, just two centuries away from the birth of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.
- Money from the North funded oil exploration in the South. Professor Ango Abdullahi actually repeated this lie recently. He said this, ironically, while exhorting Emir Sanusi II to “go and read history.” The truth is that not a dime of northern Nigeria’s money contributed to oil exploration in the Niger Delta.
Read Farooq Kperogi Biography
Update/Read Farooq Kperogi Biography: Top 8 popular national lies that won’t die in Nigeria
- Northern Christians resisted Danfodio’s attempt to convert them to Islam. This is a fusion of distinct historic memories. Usman Danfodio’s jihad did not seek to convert non-Muslims to Islam. If it did, Zuru would be religiously indistinguishable from Sokoto or Gwandu, given their geographic closeness. Danfodio only sought to “purify” Islam where it already existed, and used non-Muslim areas as a source for slaves. Since Islam forbids the enslavement of fellow Muslims, it wasn’t in the interest on the jihadists for surrounding non-Muslim areas to be converted to Islam. That would stop the source of cheap slave labor.
Read Farooq Kperogi Biography: Top 8 popular national lies that won’t die in Nigeria
- Donald Trump insulted Nigerians and Africans. Trump said so many terrible things about several people, and isn’t beyond saying terrible things about Nigerians and Africans, but he simply didn’t say anything about Nigerians or Africans. Not once during his presidential campaign. All the Nigerian- and African-bashing quotes attributed to him are hoaxes.
Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of “KT”- KarisasTravel
Farooq Kperogi, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Journalism & Emerging Media at the School of Communication, Kennesaw State University, USA. He blogs at www.farooqkperogi.com and tweets @farooqkperogi.
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