Oxford blues and bad blood

Out of the blues, both Fela Ransome-Kuti (the late Afrobeat music legend) and Ambassador Patrick Dele Cole have become the toast of Oxford. A new TV show, “Oxford Blues and Bad Blood”, is being shot in the serene ambiance of Oxford University, England. It has developed a cult following – way beyond evergreen classics such as “That Was The Week That Was”, “Monty Python”, “Peter Cook and Dudley Moore”, “Downtown Abbey”, “Game of Thrones”, “The Goon Show”, etc. It has totally eclipsed the “Frost Programme” which was the brainchild of David Frost (7 April, 1939 to 31 August, 2013). He graduated from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he cut his teeth as a member of the “Cambridge Footlights” performing group before finding fame and fortune as a journalist, comedian, writer, satirist, media personality and television host.

The brains behind “Oxford Blues and Bad Blood” have come up with a winner that has stunned audiences beyond Oxford and Britain. Its main theme is Fela who is adamant that Patrick Dele Cole should have consulted him before recommending him (Fela) for national honours or having hospitals, nursing schools, eye clinics, dental surgeries, parks, airports, universities or cities named after him. He does not want to have anything to do with the National Theatre at Iganmu, Lagos. He considers it as the symbol of military authoritarianism as reflected by the roof which is designed to look like a soldier’s cap/beret.

Every episode shows the inimitable Fela Ransome-Kuti castigating Patrick Dele Cole! Even from his grave our beloved Fela is still protesting. He is not ready to settle for a truce.

In the first episode, Wole Soyinka was featured threatening that his new book is the nastiest book he has ever written. (Soyinka is Fela’s first cousin and a long-time friend of Patrick Dele Cole). “My new book will draw blood,” Soyinka says.

According to reports, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has vowed to “draw blood” with his latest book, InterInventions. The book, he said, would be his “vengeance” against “unprovoked assault of public lies” directed against him. The popular playwright and essayist, who spoke at the formal inauguration of The Wole Soyinka Foundation, a retreat haven for writers, described InterInventions as “the nastiest book” he has ever written. The 130-page work, InterInventions, Between Defective Memory and Public Lie, A Personal Odyssey in The Republic of Liars, was presented to the public at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta, by the Edo State governor, Adams Oshiohmole.

The second episode devotes a great deal of space to former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, declaring very stoutly that he is not in the least bothered by insulting criticisms. Indeed, he keeps thousands of them in storage at the “Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library”: “I enjoy insults, I archive them in my library,” says Obasanjo.

Reports have it that former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said that it was a form of pleasure to him when he was being insulted as a sitting president by his critics or perceived political opponents. To show that he enjoyed the ‘fun’, he said all those published insults were kept in the archives at his presidential library.

“If you visit the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library in Abeokuta, you will find thousands of archived newspaper comics and columns meant to spite and insult my person even as a sitting president. No individual or group of people was ever queried or jailed or repressed for expressing this freedom. Rather, I encouraged them because I derived fun and pleasure from the humour as I know who I am and nobody needs to tell me who and what I am not,” Obasanjo is quoted to have said while presenting his keynote address at the first international conference of the African Studies Association of Africa entitled “African Studies in the Twenty-First Century, Past, Present and Future”, at the International Conference Centre of the University of Ibadan.

The third episode was a throwback to Patrick Dele Cole’s article “Why Buhari Should Apologise”. It is set as the counterpoise of the lengthy public apology on CNN by Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair. He attended St. John’s College, Oxford University.

On CNN, Tony Blair finally said sorry for the Iraq War – and admitted he could be partly to blame for the rise of Islamic State. The extraordinary confession by the former prime minister comes after 12 years in which he refused to apologise for the conflict. Blair makes his dramatic ‘mea culpa’ during a TV interview about the ‘hell’ caused by his and George Bush’s decision to oust Saddam Hussein.

In the exchange, Blair repeatedly says sorry for his conduct and even refers to claims that the invasion was a war ‘crime’ – while denying he committed one. Blair is asked bluntly in the CNN interview: “Was the Iraq War a mistake?” He replies: “I apologise for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong. I also apologise for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime.”

Challenged that the Iraq War was “the principal cause” of the rise of Islamic State, he said: “I think there are elements of truth in that. Of course you can’t say those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015.”

The admission makes a mockery of the statement in the Powell memo that Blair would “demonstrate [to Bush] that we have thought through ‘the day after’” – a reference to the consequences of invasion. However, the bloody chaos in the region continues to this day. And in a separate development, former Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett has revealed that he challenged Blair before the war about avoiding chaos after Saddam’s downfall.

Without any provocation whatever, US Presidential candidate, billionaire Donald Trump, launched an unguided missile at “Oxford Blues and Bad Blood”. He expressed his deep disgust for Africans by referring to them as lazy fools only good at eating, lovemaking and thuggery. Speaking in Indianapolis, Trump, who is also the Republican presidential torchbearer, reiterated his promise to deport Africans, especially those of Kenyan origin including their son Barack Obama.

It has sent the rating of the TV series skyrocketing.

J.K Randle