Mr. Abarahamogu Madu and Ozodiobi Osuji Questions and Answers -By Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba

Mr. Abarahamogu (sometimes Abraham for non-Igbo) is a writer in Nigerian forums and a strong advocate for Biafra. Mr. Madu often discusses religion and its influence on Africa and most often exposing “unchristian” views about God. He is a strong advocate for Africans returning to their native culture. He writes much more frequently than anybody that I know. Mr. Ozodiobi Osuji is an erudite scholar and sometimes matches Mr. Madu’s articles production. Mr. Ozodiobi Osuji (Thomas for non-Igbo) is a professor and does what most professors do during summer – travel and explore their interest areas. You can read his articles in www.centerformindscience.org

Both Mr. Madu and Osuji are engaged in internecine wars over Africans, Nigerian, Biafran, and Igbo affairs.

I want to explore their most recent fight. Mr. Madu. He Quoted Heckman and Rubinstein’s assertion that some high-IQ people are not economically successful because they lack the right soft skill and asked Mr. Osuji for his opinion. And as expected Mr. Osuji came down on Mr. Madu with a ton of bricks in an article titled: THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE VERSUS THE PURSUIT OF MONEY, A TEACHING MOMENT FOR ABRAHAM MADU.In the article Mr. Osuji tried to distinguish between pursuit of knowledge and the pursuit of money. He went into different parts of history to show who or what has been important. He enumerated important scientists, thinkers, philosophers, writers etc. and concluded that no Africans were on the list except Chinua Achebe among the writers of memorable books. He said:
“Thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, Jean Jacque Rousseau, Voltaire, David Hume, George Berkeley, Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill,  Pierre Proudhon, Karl Marx, Shankara, Confucius,  Gautama Buddha and other philosophers are celebrated all over the world (please notice that there is no African name among these giants of human thought; this is very sad!).” This snipping of Africans, Nigerians and the Igbo is a pet peeve of Mr. Osuji. He says that his reason for this is to bring them up to the 21^st century standards. Mr. Osuji has relented recently on the attacks and is finding some good things about the Igbo but on this very article he was relentless. Possibly because the question was from Mr. Madu, an Igbo.

There are several misconceptions on Mr. Osuji’s virile attack on Mr. Madu for his question. One is the common belief by many Nigerians is that the Igbo love money more than anybody. There is no credible evidence to support this. Among Forbes’s list (or anybody else’s list) of rich Africans there are no Igbo on the list. There is no Igbo on top 10 richest Nigerians list. Among the list of Nigerian looters, Igbo names are seldom mentioned and when their names come up, it is over petty cash amounts. Those who have been accused of robbing banks and Nigerian treasury are mostly from the other ethnic groups.

Mr. Osuji is full of praises for the white folks whose preeminence among thinkers, philosophers, inventors, etc. are not in doubt. But he fails to realize that the writers of history are/were white men and they were more interested in their fellows. When the hunters tell the story of what happened in the forest it is always a hunter that is the hero. When the antelopes or other animals write the story, it will be different. Africans have not researched and published their story yet. So the foremost thinkers will remain the white men with a few white women thrown in for good.

Another misconception is that Mr. Madu speaks for the Igbo. Apart from being Igbo, Mr. Madu has little connection with the Igbo. He is not elected as the speaker for the Igbo, not appointed as the information minister, not selected as the Igbo voice. But each time he writes people who are angry at his position resort to attacking the entire Igbo people as Mr. Osuji does in this intellectually written article.

Coming back to Mr. Madu’s allusion to Heckman and Rubinstein’s assertion that some high-IQ people are not economically successful because they lack the right soft skill. This may or may not be true. A study of the IQ’s of US Presidents shows that most of them had/have very high IQ’s (130-160 range). Being a US president is quite an accomplishment. I will hazard to guess that it takes a high IQ to successfully put together a business of a billion dollars like Henry Ford, Rockefeller, Dangote, etc. have done. It will also take a high IQ to steal a billion. Economy builders like thinkers ought to be revered.

Please read Dr. Osuji’s articles (www.centerformindscience.org). You will find them interesting and there is a good mix of articles for general readers and those written in technical language that could be challenging to some. (Aduba and Osuji sometimes get into each other’s nerves).

Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba Boston, Massachusetts