Letter to President Goodluck Jonathan by a Concerned Nigerian Letter to my President: By all means, Please avoid a ‘Gbagbo’ treatment! Sir, I know this missive from me to you is at a risk. I am aware of the fatwa issued by your very passionate aide that anyone who engages in any communication that is perceived as disrespectful to your person shall be arrested. This aide had once ennobled you to the status of Jesus Christ; there is undoubtedly so much veneration of your person! I am also aware of the immense pressure you are in to allow the Directorate of Security Services (DSS) deal, with utter ruthlessness, anyone that is not favourably disposed to your continued reign on the Throne. The Nigeria Police Force, according to the Police Act in section 9(4)&(5) and also the constitution in Section 215 (3), is under your operational control! All these powers can make any Human being assume oracular status. I am therefore aware of your venerated position as the Principality in the Nigerian nation space. This fact is not lost on me that, in terms of what you are capable of doing (with impunity), you are more powerful than the president of the United States of America! Sir, you will now appreciate the ambivalence I struggled with to finally write this letter to you. I look back into our recent history and, with relish, remember the late Anglican Arch-bishop, Rt. Revd. Joseph Abiodun Adetiloye. He is fondly remembered for his many letters to the Late Nigerian Head of State, General Sani Abacha. It was a period of extreme human rights’ abuses and inconceivable cloud of darkness over the land. But in extreme show of inimitable courage, this cleric pushed through his letters. In one of the letters, he admonished the military junta thus: “Don’t ‘sergeant Doe’ yourself!” Suffice to say that, at this time, men had their courage failing them and would prefer to keep sealed lips to the atrocities in the land. It was at that time that the Junta planned to transmute from a military President to a civilian president. All the five political parties in the land had surrendered to the Junta’s suzerainty over them. Needless to say that Sergeant Doe died after he failed to see the need to read the times correctly. Let me hit at the point directly now. You came into the office of the President, first by default in May 2010 when your predecessor and Boss, President Umar Musa-Yar’adua, died in office. There was a tiny cabal –comprising of the close associates of the former – that attempted to block your being acknowledged as Acting President. There was unity among the divers peoples of Nigeria to fight that injustice. I remember that, on 14th January, 2010, General Muhammadu Buhari, together with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, submitted a letter to the Senate President for your being sworn in as acting President. After becoming substantive president by default, you started pummeling your enemies, the little but powerful cabal, that once delayed your appointment as acting President, with very insidious ethno-religious propaganda. Being the first Southern Minority to seek the highest political office in the land, you preyed on these sentiments, coupled with some political gerrymandering as the incumbent president, you won convincingly at the 2011 presidential polls. That was the crescendo of your popularity among the Nigerian people. Suddenly, you started taking very unpopular actions that estranged you from the people. Ex-militants started having more unfettered access to you than official aides and ministers of state. Aside spending (without appropriation) $16 Billion on fuel subsidy, your New Year message to Nigerians (after your election) was a 150% hike in the cost of fuel. It took widespread protests by the people before the hike was reduced to 49%. Of course, this reduction did not prevent the spiraling inflation on goods and services in the land. You started showing hubristic dispositions to matters of corruption with your body language tacitly approving the deafening spate of shady deals by your cabinet members. You promised to employ a sizeable number of our youths in your electioneering campaign in 2011. Nigerian Immigration Service (under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior) brought out advertisement for Job vacancies. The first thing was that, away from the previous practice before your administration, the Immigration department was blanked out of the recruitment process by the ministry of Interior. Furthermore, each applicant was charged one thousand naira. Eventually, the Ministry bungled the process and caused the death of nineteen young Nigerians, whose only iniquity was that they were unemployed. Despite the hoopla that was made, the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro, is still sitting pretty in his position with no form of recrimination. We were told that Mr. Moro was introduced to your cabinet by a powerful ally, whose friendship you are willing to subsume your responsibility to the Nigerian people for. Our constitutional provisions provide for oversight function of the National Assembly with a view to gauging compliance with appropriation law. But with utter disdain for the rule of law, members of your cabinet have, lately, spurned invitations by the Federal Law makers. You have as your media aides a band of spin doctors with adversarial disposition. The critique of your administration by Citizens was often shot down with cruelty. No Nigerian, however respected, is spared the literary assault of your men in the defense of your administration. It is often said that it is iniquitous to beat a baby and forbid same from crying. Indeed, your policies and actions have drawn anguish in our souls; we are forbidden from crying out because your aides are also around to refuse our tears from being visible to you. For more than six months, over hundred and fifty school girls disappeared from the love of their parents because Terrorists abducted them. Initially, you tried to debunk the story and tried hard to suppress it. The reality of the situation is that the last Christmas was bleak for the families of these girls because, as the Yoruba say “it is better to report of a dead child than a missing child.” On the score of protecting our lives, we are not sure of your commitment to this as the President/Commander-in-chief of the Armed forces. The other day, there was a massive bomb blast in Nyanya, Abuja. You visited the sight and showed a mournful, sardonic look when you saw the gory sight of splattered blood and dismembered bodies of the dead at the bombing site. Some of us started changing our minds that, ‘at last, there will be some commitment to the prosecution of the war on terror.’ But we were dead wrong; the day following, you were in Kano in an illegal campaign rally and dancing deliriously with no iota of sobriety for the pains of the people you are leading. What befuddled many watchers was that you did not order postponement of the event because of the unfortunate act of terror in the land then. The question is: would you show such insensitivity if any of your close relations was involved in that tragic incident in Nyanya? I recall that about a week ago, you lost your younger sister; the earlier schedule for the inauguration of your Presidential campaign committee was shifted by one day! Sir, let me freely share with you a piece of information: in December, 2012, the acolytes of General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) were putting together arrangements for his 70th Birthday party on the 17th December, 2012. Indeed, Bishop Matthew Hazzan Kukah was already contacted as the guest speaker; caterers had been contacted and mobilized. Suddenly, the former Kaduna Governor, Mr Patrick Yakowa and the former National Security Adviser, General Andrew Azazi, were involved in a fatal helicopter crash in Bayelsa state. General Buhari cancelled the Birthday lecture in a manner that portrayed the true statesmanlike spirit in him! Sir, having been boxed into a cocoon by your making, you have now found it necessary to come out to seek out the same Nigerian people you do not ‘give a damn’ about their welfare. Why? It is time for another election! Unfortunately, the overwhelming opinion among the people is that you have failed in discharging your responsibilities as the President to them in the last four years. In this period, however, a former Nigerian leader (with antecedents of patriotic love for the fatherland) had sold himself to the people. In the various geo-political zones of the country, there is growing popularity of this Patriot. His name is General Muhammadu Buhari. The latest endorsement of his candidacy came from an unexpected source – the heart of the south East- and from a Christian cleric. This is symptomatic of the damaging bruises of disappointments that the Nigerian people (irrespective of tribe and religion) have suffered in the last four years under your administration. Sir, please, let me draw a parallel of your stewardship with that of the former Ivorien President, Mr. Laurent Gbagbo. Like you, he is well educated as a Historian and with knowledge of physics and Chemistry. In 2000, he became President of Ivory coast through popular will of the people. But in 2010, he would not allow the will of the same people to be entrenched in an election in which his opponent, Alassane Ouattara, was adjured the winner. He was egged on by aides and his wife to refuse to accept the people’s verdict. As a historian, he failed to be guided by the lessons of history on leaders that chose such perilous paths. He plunged his country into needless civil strife through vain ambition. His wife, Simone Gbagbo, will now face charges of crimes against humanity. Meanwhile, Laurent Gbagbo and an associate, Charles Ble Goude, are already in the ICC’s detention center in the Netherlands. The three, for their selfish profiting, plunged the country into a civil war in which 3,000 people died. All these happened because Mr. Laurent Gbagbo became too enamoured with the alluring vanities of Power and did not know when to rein in his insatiable lust for power and the overbearing influence of his alter ego. Sir, I have freely shared this story with you because, despite your mistakes in the governance of our country, you are still at the threshold of history. You have an obligation to yourself and the entire Nation to allow the democratic will of the people to be freely expressed and respected at the February 14, 2015 presidential election. Generations of Nigerians shall speak fairly about you as the President who truly allowed the entrenchment of deep democratic values in the country by simply travelling back to his home town after he losing an election. Indeed, there is a greater weight of glory that this statesmanlike disposition confers on you than being a second term chief of state! Undoubtedly, history beckons on you as you resist all temptations to tamper with the will of the people. You are aware that Nigeria has become the cynosure of all eyes for its strategic importance in the African region. The global community is desirous of a peaceful, free, fair and credible election in Nigeria. Let me thank you for your attention Sir. May God bless you more and more Sir. Rotimi Fashakin (Engr.)
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 17:00:48 +0000
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