A Mea Culpa Demand

Back in July 2014, I sent the following to an Igbo-Biafran nationalist who made use of quotes mis-attributed to me in a self-published book.

The letter speaks for itself.

I really do not want to get ad hominem in the quintessentially bombastically chest-pumping and self-righteous manner that is typical of the discourse between those Nigerians who consider themselves as purveyors of intellectual knowledge and paragons of truth when in fact they are essentially ‘tribal men in suits’.

There really needs to be an elevation in the general level and quality of discourse which all too frequently degenerate into tribally motivated rancour.

This man Cajetan Iwunze should do the decent thing and correct his errors and issue a civilized apology.

July 2nd 2014

Dear Mr. Cajetan Iwunze,

Cease and Desist Request - Comments wrongly attributed to Adeyinka Makinde in your book

My attention was drawn to an excerpt of a book entitled ‘The Political Constraints on Nigerian Economic Development Since The (sic) Independence’.

You are identified as the author.

A view of the relevant section of the aforementioned book at ‘Google Books’ presents the following quotations attributed to ‘Adeyinka Makinde’ culled from an edition of the Nigerian Daily Sun newspaper published on 10th December of 2007 and other sources such as the Igbo Village Newsletter of 27th January 2011 and The Guardian of 19th July 2004:

-“Where did this (sic) people get off feeling superior to other people, when it is clear that they are not?”

-“The mental disorder where the individual has delusions but does not hallucinate. In delusional disorder, also known as paranoia, the individual believes what is not true as true … believes that he is superior to other people … Igbos have a delusional disorder ( a group can have paranoia, this is called follie adeu (sic))”

I would like to put it on the record that neither of the above words were written or spoken by me.

Any comments by me in relation to the Igbos and Jews were made in two sources:

1. A talk given by me at the Jewish Museum on October 22nd of 2007 entitled ‘Igbos: A Lost Tribe of Israel’
http://adeyinkamakinde.blogspot.co.uk/…/igbos-lost-tribe-of…

2. A reply to a rejoinder to my talk by Mr. Ozodi Osuji entitled ‘The Igbo and Jewry’
http://adeyinkamakinde.blogspot.co.uk/…/03/igbo-and-jewry.h…

Mr. Osuji’s responses to my talk, respectively entitled ‘Igbos are Africans not Jews’ and ‘Igbo and Jewry: Any Connection? – A response to Mr. Adeyinka Makinde’, were published at a website named ChatAfrik.com.

The original links of Mr. Osuji’s are no longer available but have been reproduced at various sites on the World Wide Web.

This appears to be a chronologically correct thread containing my original talk and the correspondence between Mr. Osuji and myself:
http://www.nigeriansinamerica.com/…/the-igbo-a-lost-tribe-…/

At no point will you observe me using any of the quotations attributed to me in your book.

The second bulleted quote regarding delusional disorder are referenced to a Nigerian Guardian articled dated from July 2004. I had offered nothing on the subject of Igbos and Jews at this period in time.

So far as the other quote is concerned, I sent a letter to the editor of the Daily Sun stating that an article attributed to me was in fact written by Mr. Osuji and asked that this be corrected.

I received no reply.

I also issued a vigorous rebuttal to one Law Mefor who made a comment at ChatAfrik again attributing Mr. Osuji’s words to me.

This really is all down to rather sloppy research on the part of the Daily Sun, Law Mefor and now, as it turns out, you, Mr. Iwunze.

The expectation is that those who publish newspapers and those who term themselves writers ought to hold themselves to the highest standards of professional conduct including the exercising of due diligence during the research process as well as the correcting of published errors.

This, much to my regret, is a feature sadly lacking in this matter.

Therefore I would be grateful for you to do the following in future editions and/or print-on-demand batches of your book:

-Make the appropriate corrections to the relevant text and reference notes of your book which wrongly attribute certain quotations to me

-Provide a short note specifically indicating the misattribution of the quotations and a statement of apology.

If you have any queries about anything in this communication, I can be reached at adeyinkamakinde@aol.com

Yours sincerely,

Adeyinka Makinde