DIVERSION AHEAD: OBORAH’S WAY

One of the ways that Oborah has survived the questioning through the years is by use of diversionary tactics. Oborah downplays issues by distracting focus or diverting attention away from key matters or important things; usually by intensifying the side-issues, the unrelated, and the trivial.

The common variations of diversionary tactics employed by Humphrey Peter Ouko Oborah include: "hairsplitting," "attacking a straw man," "red herring"; and emotional attacks (ad hominem, ad populum).  Humor and entertainment ("bread and circuses") have also been used as pleasant ways to divert attention from major issues.

Oborah's arguments are almost always flawed as they are based on a falsehood. A little education may help lots of people recognize the common diversionary tactics. This is necessary to ensure that you get the answers you are looking for and not fall for his useless tricks. We will look at examples of Oborah's diversionary techniques that have been used to keep this DALC monkey business going.

1. EMOTIONAL ATTACKS (Ad hominem, Ad populum)

This is Oborah's favorite technique and has been adopted by the DALC students who cannot argue against issues presented against DALC. For example, it is a fact CAM/OXIM courses are not accredited by the government in the UK. When you confront Oborah with these facts, he knows he cannot prove the facts wrong. So he attacks the man. This means that Oborah will discredit the person who presents the facts and the popular attacks are fashioned along the lines of.

"Who sent you to say that? Do competitors pay you?" these diversions are aimed at diverting the argument onto the credibility of the person who raises the query. Other diversionary attacks include "You are jealous of our Success so you want to tarnish our name", "These are the former staffs that are angry that I fired them for stealing from me" and  "These are rumours spread by students that I discontinued".

 These kinds of arguments make the shallow thinker go with the new diversion even though that is not the issue at hand.

For example, the actuarial science prospectus that DALC presents is copied from the Kent University. Confronting Oborah with that information will result in an answer that goes on and on about jealous competitors, angry staff and lazy students.  Keep your eye on the ball and you will realize that Oborah has no answers to any of the issues raised. He simply diverts the arguments.

 

2. HAIR SPLITTING

 

Isn't Humphrey Oborah famous for breaking a simple argument to a downright ridiculous level the way a child does. He does this by finding meaningless issues and making them the main aspect of the argument. For example, if you strongly confronted him on an issue as a student. He picks on a trivial issue and make it the focus of the argument. For example, when confronted with the issue of accreditation, he chooses to focus on the students' lateness in submission of assignments, manner of dressing, hairstyle etc to dismiss the matter raised. This is one of the most common ways Oborah deals with queries raised by students. He simply raises a random trivial issue with the student and works the molehill into a mountain. As a result, the main question goes unanswered.

 

3. HUMOUR AND CIRCUSES ("bread and circuses")

 

Sometimes when H is faced with questions, he chooses to create a circus out of the whole issue. This diversionary technique arose from ancient Rome where politicians gave the people handouts and petty amusements when they did not perform their duties. Oborah has employed this technique to a good effect especially when dealing with the young students.

 

Humour: - When questioned about the suspiciously short time that DALC students take to complete a "Masters" course. He may respond in humour and make a big joke out of the whole thing. Oborah's typical response would be, "You are still in the 80s where getting a masters means you have to be 45 years and have streaks of grey in your beards. Do you think we care about the grey beards? I don't even have grey hair myself. Heheheheh!!" The issue in this case was the extremely short period that it takes for one to get a degree through DALC's system.

 

Humphrey Oborah is also a master of the circus aka entertainment. If you look at the DALC calendar, the most important even is the DALC weekend where Oborah entertains students for four days nonstop. The inner circle students can drink as much as they want on Oborah's account at K1 and when the students assemble at the fisherman's camp. It's a sex and beerfest that Oborah gleefully bankrolls with uncontrolled abandon.

 

Ironically, students who wallow in Oborah's circus are actually drinking from their parents pockets and they worship Oborah for it. I bet a big number of them are too dim to even consider this a possibility. Check this out, I steal from your parents and then take you out and give you a heavy treat. What Do you say to that?

 

 

4. ATTACKING A STRAWMAN

 

This is a  method in which author will claim their opponents hold a position they do not in fact hold, and then attack that position. Humphrey Ouko Oborah is a skilled user of the strawman. If you asked him Oborah about:

• The past collaboration with the Irish International University
• The photographs where he poses as a councilor in the Irish University gallery
• His 21 research papers 

He will quickly claim that you have an agenda which could be anything he chooses from jealousy, business rivalry, revenge, village disagreement and then go ahead to attack that agenda. The imagined agenda is the strawman. In sum, when Oborah responds to all queries with claims that these are driven by jealousy, he is creating a straw man. He then attacks the straw man with a vengeance saying he is not cowed, he is stronger than you think; he is going to sue the jealous people etc. Still, he will not have answered the question as he will be busy destroying the straw man.

 

5. RED HERRING

 

This technique is also known as Digression, Misdirection, and False Emphasis. When faced with a particularly tough question, Oborah loves to digress mostly through the use of strange analogies and stories. For example he likes the "Malaysia and Kenya were at par 30 years ago story" to answer tough questions. He will simply tell you that Malaysia is ahead because they were innovative.

 

This could be in response to a query on the recognisability of CAM/OXIM are really good. Recently when asked by a student if CAM/OXIM qualifications were legitimate, he went into a long story about how the engineering department at the University of Nairobi has lifts that do not work. He then started telling the student that she had been a very good girl and a model student who should be emulated by others.

 

That is total digression, stick to your question and you will find out (if you haven't) that Oborah is nothing but a trickster.

 

In closing, be watchful of Oborah's words. Whenever he answers a question, is he diverting attention from your point: to focus on competitors, seek sympathy, to laugh etc? Get the answers you need and do not be fooled by Oborah many diversionary gimmicks.