TED CRUZ AND THE NIGERIAN APOLOGISTS: CAUTION! Folks, Politics for the politician, they say, is not just the art of policies, but also the antics of publicity. Im afraid we have all been duped by the Texas wacko bird. If you would slow down and think, as my friend Dr. Diuto Esiobu would advise, you might find that we may have unwittingly fallen into this Cruz trap. Here we are demanding - in some fora, almost begging - a Tea Party extremist to apologize for a Tea Party-type rhetoric. First of all, its not gonna happen. Its not gonna happen because it will be contrary to character for the Tea Party to apologize for inflammatory and insensitive comment. It is akin to demanding an apology from the Ku Klux Klan for harboring a sense of white supremacy. Its just not gonna happen. Nobody apologizes for being whom they are. Indeed, nobody should. If the hen abandons her rallying cackle, how does she fend for her flock? Second of all, any apology extracted from the Tea Party for extremely horrendous behavior is simply no apology. Such coerced retraction may carter to our psychological healing, assuming that we are genuinely hurt, a point I will return to shortly, but it is arguable that such retraction is preceded by a genuine remorse. Ted Cruz and the Tea Party taboo are winning for as long as we continue to blow up the cyber blog eco chamber with this frenzied campaign for a symbolic apology. I have long discovered that there are two brands of American politics. There Is the Obama progressive politics, which is about doing big things to make a difference in the lives of ordinary Americans. This brand of American politics is about offering affordable healthcare to Americans; reaching out to fellow humans who have taken refuge in shadows and giving them the opportunity for open existence through immigration reform; shielding American kids at school from the lunacy of the rampaging gunman through common sense gun control legislation; and expanding voting rights to all Americans. The other brand of American politics cannot stand the idea of common Americans having access to healthcare, and will therefore do anything, including shutting down the government and voting for America to default on its debt obligations. It not only wants American boundaries electrified and booby-trapped, to kill opportunistic migrants, but also wants those living in shadows to be further refuged in darkness. This brand, in cahoot with the National Riffle Association, cares no hoot about the daily massacre of American kids in the sanctuary of their classrooms by sick gunmen. Rather than encourage and expand voting rights and opportunities to all Americans, this brand wants to deny it to poor minority groups, by demanding papers of voters and shrinking voting days and times. That, my friends, is the Ted Cruz and Tea Party brand of American politics. Thats just the way it is. The nose numbing stink from the skunk is not on its furs, it is in its marrows. So, to think that a coerced apology from the Ted and Tea Party for crude and sour comment changes the fundamentals of these essentials is in itself apology deserving. It is apology deserving because those who have persisted on this apology campaign accomplish just but one thing: they not only advance the Tea Party cause, they also sustain it. They do both because for as long as Ted Cruz is in the news for anti-human, anti-immigrant, racist, and reprehensible behavior, for that long does his campaign war chest blossom. Has anybody cared to look at how much the wacko bird has raised from his even wackier nihilist constituency? This Texas hero, like many of his ilk from the lone star border enclave, is an aberration that is sustained on a reverse universe. And that universe is Texas where the wacko bird perches on the rumps of his acolytes as he luxuriates in their effusive ovation. Now that we have waved away the intruding kite, lets chastise the chicken for wandering too far outback. Nigerian email scammers! Whats wrong with that? Do they exist? Have we made such comment ourselves? Have some of us been victims of such scams? Yes is the answer to all. So, is it the message or the messenger? I doubt it is both. I think it is the messenger. I would have also argued that it is the timing and context, but I have not read any of these apologists make the timing and context argument. I have not read any demand for apology framed as a repudiation of Cruzs opportunism in using Nigeria as a comic fodder in his failed shutdown comedy of errors. Instead, I have read far too many defensive blogposts of how not all Nigerians are email scammers, a claim Cruz did not make. Had Cruz said email scamming Nigeria, it would have been a different story. So, why are we giving wings to this wacko birds publicity antics, and in the process increasing the zeros in his campaign bottom-line? How many of us really believe in the apology demand we are making on Ted Cruz as a matter of standalone objective principle? Had New Yorks Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer used the all-too-suddenly controversial phrase, Nigerian email scammers, would anybody have paid attention? Would any Nigerian patriotic feathers have been ruffled? Had Ambassador Ade Adefuye used the same phrase, would he have stirred the hornets nest? Or is this about my stupid child is my stupid child, not yours to call? I think it is. I think that unless this fast becoming phony apology train is reined in, it may be headed on an ironic course of unintended consequences. Apart from pulling up at Ted Cruzs and Tea Partys station to pick up their fanatic donors, this train, in its choo-choo jalopping, may be drowning out a unique opportunity for a more constructive discussion. Yes, Ted Cruz gaffed on the political trail, but in classrooms and auditoriums around the world, students and scholars in international finance spend entire class periods talking about the letter from Nigeria. One only hopes that some of these patriotic apologists have not been originators of these sham and scamming epistles. At a time when the Jonathan government is toying with the idea of a national conference to chart a better course for the Nigerian state, it may be a better use of energy and talent to include the subject of Nigerian crimes that reach the walls of the globe. Somebody tell me: just how credible is this demand on Ted Cruz to apologize for acknowledging the fact of Nigerian email scammers, when there is a simultaneous breaking news of pirates attacking a U.S.-flagged oil platform supply vessel off the coast of Nigeria and kidnapping two Americans? Is there a bigger and better pitch to Tea Party donors than calling their attention to this frenzied apology demand from Nigerians and juxtaposing it with this Captain Philips reload - Nigerian version? The world thought it was Somalia. Truth is that while piracy has gone down drastically of the Somali coasts, it has gone up 30% in Nigeria! That is worth apologizing for, folks. Ambassador Ade Adefuye should consider sending some apology to Secretary Kerry! Finally, and to be clear, Ted Cruz is an idiot. He does not deserve a sit in the US Senate. But we must be careful lest we play his game, on his turf, according to his rules. I may have been among the first Nigerians to react to his buffoonery, but I did not delude myself thinking that he needed to apologize. One thing I did do: urge Nigerians in Texas not to vote for bigotry in the next election. Below is my Facebook wall reaction, excuse my coarse language, and good night: Heres a comment from a sitting United States senator: The Nigerian email scammers have been a lot less active lately; they have all been hired to run Obamacare website. That is the wacko bird from Texas, the Canadian born, hostage taking, political terrorist, Ted Cruz. Note that I have called him a terrorist, and I dare him to sue me for defamation. Heres what I think, folks: this bigoted bumbling idiot is a curse upon this land. And until he is thrown out of the senate and chased miles away from public offices, this country may never know peace. This emef is not only delusional, thinking he could become president, he has also shown himself to be afflicted with a diseased and deceased racist mind. For this scamp to choose Nigerians as targets of his disgusting scalawaggery, after shamefully losing his self-promoting shutdown scam, shows just how undeserving he is of a seat in the US Senate. Nigerians in Texas must rise to hold this fool accountable for this insult. Nigerians in Texas must know that any vote for this fool in coming elections is a vote for bigotry. It is time to throw this charlatan out of office. Enough already! /Odenigbo Sent from Dr. Ozokes iPad On Oct 25, 2013, at 5:29 PM, john okolonta wrote: Nigeria demands apology from Ted Cruz uchenna October 25, 2013 No Comments By Uchenna Ekwo The aftermath of the recent political dysfunction in Washington orchestrated by Texas junior Senator Ted Cruz is reverberating across the shores of United States as Nigerians pile on the Republican senator for comments largely viewed as disparaging of that country’s reputation. In a statement in Washington, Nigeria’s top diplomat in the United States, Professor Ade Adefuye demanded an apology from Senator Cruz for making a reference to what he called “Nigerian email scammers” during a critic of the technical glitches that followed the roll out of America’s Affordable Care Act. “For a start we are shocked that a high profile Senator of a country which is at the forefront in building a peaceful and stable world in which nations and peoples treat each other with mutual respect could be engaged in an act which offends the sensitivities of an important component of his constituency”, Ambassador Adefuye stated. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas Dr. Sylvester Okere, Executive Director, Africa Leadership Council Professor Ade Adefuye Ambassador, Head of Mission Embassy of Nigeria Washington DC The statement couched in diplomatic speaks noted what it termed “the constructive contributions which Nigerians have made to economic, social and political lives of Texas especially in the Houston area” pointing out that while every country has its own share of law breakers to use the activities of few as an opportunity to cast aspersions on the integrity of a country and its people is not only unfair but also excessively offensive. Whereas it is not the practice of any Nigerian diplomatic mission to interfere in the domestic affairs of our host countries, the Ambassador maintained that the country would not sit back, fold her arms while a “politician assaults the integrity of our country and people in the process of appeasing the base instincts of a few misguided elements in his constituency”. Senator Cruz’s comments have also been criticized by Continental African Leadership Council and the Nigerian-American Leadership Council. In an interview with The CMPI Journal, Executive Director of Continental African Leadership Council and member Advisory Board of Maryland Nigeria Sister State Program, Dr. Sylvester Okere condemned what he termed intemperate remarks of the junior senator who has no knowledge about Nigerian people. Dr. Okere was of the view that Senator Cruz’s disparaging remarks confirmed a larger narrative of contempt for black people especially Africans in the United States. He cited the historic Bernie Maddoff scandal pointing out that no Nigerian government or African government insulted the people of United States for the scam of the century otherwise called the ponzi scheme. In a VOA interview, Executive Director Sam Okey Mbonu demanded a full explanation from Cruz saying that “It is certainly not the most responsible statement from a United States senator”. “We believe that partisanship has its limits and one does not establish credibility on a national platform by running down a section of the American community.” Okey Mbonu said some Nigerian Americans would consider the joke offensive. “It is certainly insensitive,” he said. For a senator who perhaps has some medium-term plans for being in the public for a long period of time, Mbonu concluded that those kinds of comments should be well thought out. The Texas-based KTRK broadcast station says a spokesman for Senator Cruz reacted, saying the senator was “making a joke based on the official term of a commonly utilized type of scam.” He said the senator did not mean to be offensive. Share About Author: uchenna Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. 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Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 04:54:46 +0000
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