On Rivers State Government: Letter To President Jonathan, By Adeolu Ademoyo Dear President Jonathan, When state matters intensely worry private citizens, we are inclined to look at you–as president– straight in the face and say the truth in public letters to you. I was home briefly with one of my kids and I am back in the Diaspora. From my interaction with fellow Nigerian citizens and just listening to what our nation has become, I could see that many of us are losing that human capacity to be shocked by the acute absence of governance and the descent to barbarism in the affairs of our nation under your watch. However, as a citizen who has invested in the Nigerian project and given my generation, I refuse to abandon that capacity to be shocked. My generation saw Nigeria’s promise. We hope to renew that promise in spite of the odds, which the mis-governance under your watch symbolizes for our nation. You will permit me to say one or two things about the human capacity to be shocked. The capacity to be shocked is a human agency we humans need in order to change our environment. I do know that part of the strategy of the so-called elite to which you belong is to rupture that agency and take it out so that your class of elite can have absolute sway and inroad in implementing the dark vision of your class for our nation. Hence, I refuse to lose that human agency to be shocked for we must continuously be invested in the capacity to say NO to evil. This is because the consequence of the loss of that agency is more tragic than what you and the PDP are inflicting on us. I hold intensely to my capacity to be shocked as a motivating tool for change, as I implore fellow citizens not to lose this for we must have this capacity to be able to resist and democratically say no to the impunity and lawlessness of your party –PDP-and your class. Mr. President, the present matter is the descent to anarchy and barbarism by the PDP in Rivers state under your watch as its national leader. This barbarism is with respect to the “sacking” of an organ of the Nigerian state-the Rivers state house of assembly by five members of the assembly of 32 members. And given her subterranean meddling in the affairs of the Rivers state government, your dear wife, Patience Jonathan, is directly involved in this slide to a state of nature in Rivers state assembly. Finally, your Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, has given police backing to this lawlessness through the partisan and unprofessional involvement of Rivers sate police commissioner, Joseph Mbu, in the affairs of governance in Rivers state. I will state the facts as they are especially for the benefit of our youths and children both at home and in the Diaspora. Nigerian children both at home and in the Diaspora will then be left to make their judgment on the crudity, vengeance and incompetence you have brought to manage the affairs of our nation and the Nigerian democracy Sir, when the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria unlawfully took out a plane leased by Rivers state government, which is an inseparable unit of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the PDP, and your administration said nothing about this crudity and illegality. No one has apologized to the Rivers state government, no one has apologized to Mr. Amaechi the governor, on FAAN’s crudity and open subversion of law. Nyesom Wike is a minister of state for education in your administration. In service of impunity and wanton disregard to a four-year electoral mandate of Mr. Amaechi as governor of Rivers state, Mr. Wike openly works against the Rivers state government and Mr. Amaechi. This impunity was given an open stamp recently during the visit of Mr. Obuah- the PDP chairman in Rivers state to you. During this visit, Mr. Obuah openly cast aspersion on the symbol of the Nigerian state in Rivers state-Mr. Amaechi. You, President Jonathan, as the national symbol of the Nigerian state, stood and in warm embrace received the crudity which Mr. Obuah heaped on Mr. Amaechi who is the symbol of the state in Rivers state through the electoral mandate of Nigerian citizens in that state. Mr. President your warm reception of the crudity of Mr. Obuah is ominous. During Mr. Felix Obuah’s visit to you, you made veiled reference to your dispute with Mr. Amaechi. You passed un-presidential, side and snide remarks about people in Rivers state, “who speak with both sides of their mouths”. (See Premium Times July 4, 2013). I am not sure such divisive and personalized statements befit the position of a symbol of state that you are supposed to be. It can be argued that those statements provided the ammunition for the infliction of barbarism on the Rivers state house assembly by Mr. Bipi who swore by the name of your wife-Mrs. Patience Jonathan-during the slide to the state of nature. Using the Nigerian police as a backup for this subversion of our nation’s constitution, Mr. Mbu the Rivers state commissioner of Police, has literally and substantively turned himself to the chief security officer of Rivers state. On this one, Mr. President, I am at a loss for words. Excuse me sir; Mr. Mbu does not have the mandate of Nigerian citizens in Rivers state. Mr. Amaechi has that mandate. Mr. Mbu is appointed, Mr. Amaechi is not an appointee. Mr. Amaechi is the face of the Nigerian state in Rivers state. Electorally, Mr. Amaechi is given a job to do by Nigerian citizens in Rivers state. This is so elementary, that Nigerian children will be shocked at the complicit of your Inspector General of Mr. Abubakar and vicariously you –in Mr. Mbu’s open subversion of the symbol of Nigerian state in Rivers state-Mr. Amaechi. Mr. President, given your vicarious liability to Mr. Mbu’s lawlessness, impunity and rudeness to the Nigerian constitution, I put it to you that this is not a good way to make Nigerian children home and abroad learn the ethics of democracy. Finally, I am at a loss on how to say this to you because I am a parent and a husband. I choose deliberately to write as a common folk on the street. As a human and as an African, my commitment to the family as the bedrock of human society is unequivocal. So I am positively cautious when it comes to family matters. But when family matters are not properly defined and they are made to impact negatively on public governance, citizens must be on the alert for something is morally amiss. Sir, Patience Jonathan is your wife and you are husband to her. With respect to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that is where it stops. But your wife has not stopped there. Mrs. Jonathan is using her privilege as your wife to wrongly step into state matters. While she has the right to campaign for you, she does not have the right to subvert our nation’s constitution and our faith. She needs to caution herself. State matters are no family matters. When your wife steps out into the public as one of your campaign managers, she loses the status of even the questionable “First Lady”. Nigerian citizens will take her on as a common partisan campaign manager. And that is sound and legitimate. Today, your wife is implicated in the crude attempt by five members-led by Mr. Evans Bipi – out of a thirty two member of Rivers state House of Assembly, to impeach the speaker Mr. Otelemaba Amachree. Sir, Mr. Tukur the PDP national chairman; Mr. Obuah the Rivers state PDP party chairman; Mr. Nyesom Wike your minister of state for education, and your wife, Mrs. Jonathan are all invested in this slide to a state of nature in Rivers state. The evidence of this is in print. For example, Mr. Tukur said Mr. Bipi’s five-member group, who wanted to impeach the speaker, and who “elected” Mr. Bipi as “speaker” are exercising their constitutional right. On the other hand, Mr. Bipi implicated your wife when he gave reasons for his group’ descent to state of nature. Mr. Bipi said your wife is Jesus Christ on earth. In claiming that your wife is Jesus Christ, Mr. Bipi has raised fawning and sycophancy to a dangerous level. More importantly it means you our President is now married to Jesus Christ. In other words you and your wife are gods in human flesh. In view of his previous partisanship on your behalf, we will expect Mr. Ayo Orisejafor, the president of Christian Association of Nigeria to make a faith statement on this. Is this Christian? Beside the faith implication of Mr. Bipi’s transfiguration of your wife to Jesus Christ, I find Mr. Bipi’s crudity shocking. The reasons Mr. Bipi and his four colleagues claimed for their crudity and their open subversion of the Nigerian constitution in attempting to sack the Rivers state house of assembly is significant. Mr. Bipi did not say he has a problem with the House of Assembly. Rather his target was Mr. Amaechi-the governor. And Mr. Bipi gave two reasons, which are captured on video (see Premium Times July 13, 2015). Mr. Bipi said he and four others sacked the house of assembly because Mr. Amaechi “insulted” you and your wife. In other words, Mr. Bipi wanted to create a constitutional crisis in our nation because, according to him Mr. Amaechi “insulted” you! Mr. Bipi never told the nation the nature of Mr. Amaechi’s “insult” to you and your wife. Mr. Bipi never told us which part of the constitution makes this “insult” a constitutional offence. This is a serious matter for our nation Mr. President. In view of her connection to Mr. Bipi, it is now obvious that your wife-Mrs. Patience Jonathan- has become a major problem in our nation. Mr. Bipi has on tape said your wife is her benefactor. A few weeks ago, your wife visited Rivers state and was at an event with Mr. Bipi. Shortly, after Mr. Bipi and four others invaded the Rivers state House of Assembly. It is obvious that in meddling in state matters as one of your campaign managers, your wife acted on your behalf and Mr. Bipi acted at the behest of your wife. History is recording all these as part of the era of your presidency. While those who said that you should call your wife to order have their reasons, I differ slightly on this matter. My view is that you and your wife are insulting the intelligence of Nigerians in using the noble institution of family to abuse our nation’s constitution. You are turning democracy to rule of persons rather than rule of law. The two of you –husband and wife-need to call yourselves to order. Finally, from your warm embrace of Mr. Jonah Jang the impostor “chairman” of the Nigeria Governors Forum, to your deployment of Mr. Wike your minister of education to cut down Mr. Amaechi, to your statements during Mr. Obuah’s visit to you, to your wife’s use of Mr. Bipi as a battle axe to cut down Mr. Amaechi the governor of Rivers state, it is obvious that your hands are written all over the induced Rivers state crisis. I put it to you that your strategy is to declare a state of emergency in Rivers state and take out Mr. Amaechi. Mr. President, look Nigerian citizens and children straight in the face and deny this. The so-called crisis has the footprints of your re-election bid in 2015. What is worrisome in all these is that you are conducting serious aggression and assault against reason and simple arithmetic truth. In the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, your assault on reason turned 16 governors to majority in a 36 member NGF. In Rivers state, your party PDP turned five members led by Mr. Bipi into majority in a 32-member state House of Assembly. President Jonathan, is this aggression against reason and arithmetic truth what you and your party PDP will do in the 2015 elections? As a teacher, if you are in an arithmetic class with Nigerian children will you say 16 is greater than 19 (NGF case) and five is greater than 27 (River state house of assembly case)? This must be a strange arithmetic. This is a strange democracy. Nigerian citizens are watching. Nigerian children, home and abroad, are watching. With this oddity, you have already defined your tenure, your presidency. Thank you. Sincerely, Adeolu Ademoyo ([email protected] ) is of Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 18:00:32 +0000