Foday Samateh, writer most skilled.  I always enjoy his write-ups.  I guess
this will do whilst still awaiting Maafanta to publish Sam Sarr's response
since censorship i believe is no go area at that paper..

http://www.maafanta.com/fodaysamatehresponsetovictor

A Response to Victor Ofuonye
By
Foday Samateh

I know it’s an open season for criticisms on Foroyaa; some of it justified,
if not deserved. But Victor Ofuonye’s purported rejoinder, “Foroyaa,
Preaching Xenophobia in Style,” should be nominated for a golden globe for
fatuous, highfalutin spiel. He is the personification of projection,
calling others what he is himself. His unwarranted, wanton diatribe gives
away two things. He has a longstanding grudge against Foroyaa and he
latched onto to an imaginary opportunity to settle a perceived score. He is
at the same time screaming for Yahya Jammeh’s attention by assigning
himself the task of taking on the most steadfast and principled opponents
of the flattery-chasing misfit of a squatter at the State House. Yet, this
self-proclaimed genuine and professional journalist has the temerity to
tell us who is the true masquerader.

Modou Nyang challenged him to pinpoint which part of the anodyne editorial
smacked of xenophobia to prove his otherwise scurrilous charge. In spite of
all his pompous quotations and references to the Constitution, the UN
Charter and International Conventions, Nyang also rightly pointed out to
him that he has no right to a right of reply since he wasn’t any subject or
object of any grievance the editorial might have caused. One would expect
“any journalist worth his salt” (his words) to answer the challenge
head-on. But even the inimitable pillorying of him by our man in London,
Lamin J. Darboe, would not disabuse Victor Ofuonye of his calumnious desire
to make a name for himself by doubling down on name-calling and trafficking
in libel after libel after libel.
Foroyaa should not appease this arrogant fool by publishing that rubbish of
his rejoinder on the unfounded claim that he is entitled to a right of
reply no matter how many times he howls and squeals for attention. As a
journalist, he is free to write a column in his paper about the supposedly
offending editorial. Foroyaa shouldn’t bend its editorial guidelines and
polices just to accommodate Victor Ofuonye just because he is Victor
Ofuonye. He needs to know that Foroyaa has withstood and survived a lot
more for a long time before this attention-seeker arrived on the scene, and
the paper will remain a beacon of information and enlightenment long after
this “poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage...is heard
no more.”

Since it seems now is the winter of our discontent for ten questions and
“facts,” I have my own ten for Victor Ofuonye:
1) As the self-acclaimed master of language, define xenophobia to us mere
mortals and explain how it applies to the Foroyaa editorial.
Which sentence or word in that editorial even remotely hints at xenophobia?
Quote it please.
The editorial isn’t about you, and you aren’t an official of either the
Nigerian or Gambia government. So how can you claim the right of reply?
What makes you think that Foroyaa couldn’t do without a paltry sum from the
Nigerian High Commission for advertisement after being independent all
these years?
What’s your obsession with money and funds since they have no connection to
any concept of xenophobia, your professed prime beef with Foroyaa?
Of all the serious and grave matters that can preoccupy a professional
journalist in The Gambia for a lifetime, why is impugning the character and
integrity of Foroyaa and the good people publishing it your cause célèbre?
You accused Foroyaa publishers of being politicians masquerading as
journalists. Don’t you think they must be very bad masqueraders? Long
before you arrived in The Gambia, we’ve known that they are politicians who
practice journalism to inform the public about burning issues of the
country. What’s the crime in that? Since you make so much about rights,
isn’t it their constitutional and democratic right to be politicians and
practice journalism? You also accuse them of having a hidden agenda.
Nothing is hidden about their agenda. We know what it is from the start.
And while we are at it, which newspaper in the world doesn’t have an
agenda? Which interest group in the world doesn’t have an agenda? Even
Mother Theresa had an agenda. The Pope too has an agenda. Retire the tired
cliches, please, for something original that can exercise our imagination.
You prefaced your unprovoked attack on Foroyaa bloviating about your
enduring career as a professional journalist in Nigeria and then The
Gambia. And so what? Are we supposed to be awed and stoop in salutation to
our knees like a nation of lilliputians at the giant feet of Victor
Ofuonye, the Man Mountain? Talk about “crass,” “cynical,” “conceited,”
“narcissistic,” “insidious” and “self-important” “high-priest” of ego. We
may be a small country and in spite of Yahya Jammeh’s stupefying craziness,
fooleries and skulduggeries, we are not lacking in talent and we are not
easily impressed, especially by self-promoters. No, we are not xenophobes,
either. We very much love Achebe, Saro-Wiwa, Soyinka, the Kuti brothers,
Fawehinmi, and other truly accomplished Nigerians. And we have no quarrels
with General Obasanjo and His Excellency Goodluck Jonathan.
How arrogant and vain can you be, after only eight years in The Gambia, to
tell us that the well-regarded and peerless patriot and Pan-African, Sam
Sarr, and his colleagues are frauds and xenophobes? How arrogant and vain,
really, can you be Victor Ofuonye, to try making a name for yourself by
besmirching the reputation of our incorruptible vanguards for freedom and
democracy?
How dare you avail yourself the good name of Chomsky for slander? If the
prophet of the Left is residing in The Gambia he will be writing articles
in Foroyaa, among all the papers including yours, to complement and
reinforce the thankless job of Mr. Sarr and his colleagues. On mentioning
Ayi Kwei Armah’s “The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born,” haven’t your
impeachable behavior and vilifications reminded us why both the title and
the theme of that celebrated novel still ring true?

While waiting for answers to my questions, I am pleased to inform this
Victor Ofuonye that The Gambia owes Sam Sarr and his colleagues monuments,
not venom. Despite our disagreements and differences with them on some
other matters, we respect and adore them. They are our heroes and icons and
he is doing himself no favors by disrespecting and insulting them,
especially without cause.


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