The publisher of Ovation Magazine, Dele Momodu, has written
an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari following speculations he may be
seeking reelection come 2019.
In the long letter he shared on the social media on
Saturday, Momosu pleaded with Buhari to perish the thought of continuing in
power.
He begged the President to please go home and rest, adding
that Nigerians can no longer bear the current hardship.
Read full letter…
Kindly permit me to be as brutally frank as possible. As a
stakeholder who made his modest contribution to your emergence as President and
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, I owe you nothing but the truth. I was
not a member of your party when I volunteered to support your mission and
ambition in 2015. I was elated when Nigerians succeeded in chasing away the
profligate and reckless government of the PDP, led by President Goodluck
Jonathan. I was one of those who unleashed terror on that government and I
subsequently presented you with a compilation of my articles in which I
criticised and advised the then President, free of charge. I never expected
that our situation could ever get worse under the APC government that almost
literally promised heaven and earth. But it has become evident that it is
easier to govern by words of mouth than by force of action.
It is indeed shameful that those like me who supported you
so vociferously have become butts of jokes everywhere we go. Sir, I plead with
you to ignore your acolytes who may be telling you that all is well in Nigeria.
My unequivocal verdict, without any fear of contradiction is that things are
very bad. While I will not, in all honesty, totally heap the blame on you,
there is no doubt that your government has been less than competent. I’m
reasonably convinced that you have not availed yourself of the abundant talents
it has so pleased God to endow Nigeria with. Rather, you’ve chosen to saddle
yourself with hungry lions and deadwoods that you’ve resurrected from penury
and oblivion. Leadership should be about managing people and resources. Most of
the people you are working with are already retired or tired and with little or
nothing new to contribute.
It is grossly unfair that it was very convenient for us to
lampoon and scandalise Dr Goodluck Jonathan, yet most of us have remained
funereally silent and unreasonably complicit in the evil that the current men
of power are perpetrating and perpetuating under your watch. Unknown to you
Sir, some people are merely using you to rule by proxy. There is no evidence of
discipline in your team, one of the greatest things you preached so fervently
about in your first coming as military Head of State. Your acolytes are
virtually getting away with murder. Someone, somewhere, sat down with birds of
the same feathers, to conjure and compile the most disgraceful list of
political appointees ever and yet nothing has happened to those who brought
such perfidious insults on our nation. Instead, we are being regaled with tales
by the moonlight to gloss over serious maladies in the polity and damning
treachery against our nation. No serious apologies. No penitence. Only some
foolhardy cockiness from those who will repeat the same nonsense when tomorrow
comes.
Your Excellency, it has become very difficult, if not
impossible to defend the excessive shortcomings of your government, please,
permit my oxymoron Sir. We definitely want you to succeed but it seems some
demons are desperately determined to make you fail by all means. The more your
administration unravels, the more ridiculously hopeless it seems. You have
waltzed from crisis to crisis instead of from glory to glory, as most of us
expected. We thought you truly possessed the magic wand and talismanic effect
to make all our problems evaporate and vamoose in a jiffy. We did not expect to
be regularly mesmerised by impotent excuses galore.
I sincerely doff my hat to your wonderful wife for her rare
and uncommon courage. Regardless of what her detractors may say, she is the
only insider who has been trying to say it as it is. Even if some of her
critics feel she’s seeking for relevance in your kingdom, it is still within
her rights. I’m sure that when the day of reckoning comes, you will remember
and appreciate her timely warnings. Without mincing words, what Madam Aisha
Buhari has been trying to tell you in clear terms is that this government is
swimming in a big foul mess and that you should not be carried away by the fake
adulation and false adoration you see all around you. There is no government in
Nigeria that did not enjoy the services of praise-singers who disappeared as
soon as the government itself collapsed like a pack of cards. Ask President
Jonathan!
I’m aware that your foot-soldiers are already warming up for
the next election. I really do not know what they hope to tell and sell to the
electorate this time, particularly after the colossal failure of the last three
years. I do not see how they expect to fund your campaign without resorting to
the same type of extravagant jamboree we witnessed in the dying and last days
of the PDP’s prodigality. As a result of your decision to contest again, you
are being forced by circumstances beyond your control to compromise and
capitulate on your known principles. Is it not better, and more profitable, to
return home, triumphantly, with your reputation intact than to win a pyrrhic
victory with everything you ever stood for wasted on the altar of vainglorious
aggrandisement? What guarantees do you have that you will win the next election
even if you agree to sell Nigeria to the political gladiators?
Sir, I’m pleading with you in the name of God, the Merciful
and all-powerful, that you don’t need two terms, or eight years in power, to
prove your greatness. Nelson Mandela spent only one term in power and retired
to superlative glory as the world’s most respected and revered and idolised
statesman. Robert Mugabe spent about four decades in power, yet he returned
home in total infamy and unenviable disgrace. It is a lesson of life that we
must all learn, sooner rather than later, that man shall not live by power
alone. I know my preaching is not likely to touch you and your hardened
supporters but, at the very least, I want it to be on record that I spoke
publicly, out of genuine love and concern, while you were being goaded on by
those who stand to gain more if you win a re-election next year. For most of
those asking you to continue, by fire and by force, it is always about their personal
agenda and survival. They know their political careers would come to a
shuddering halt and abrupt standstill should you fail in your bid to come back.
In their desperation to come back at all costs, they are going to do exactly
what PDP did, or even much worse. What moral authority would you then have to
justify the continued detention and harassment of some of the PDP operatives
accused of wasting government resources on Jonathan’s truncated re-election
bid. Who amongst us can in good conscience say in the market place that you won
the last election on pure merit and that no substantial government funding went
into your campaigns.
This year promises to be an interesting one. You will soon
discover how treacherous human beings can be when some of those hailing you
today as the authentic messiah begin to show you their true colours. Our
country is bleeding dangerously while some over-pampered politicians can only
think of winning elections by hook or by crook. The quality of your appointees
in recent time points to how directionless your government has finally become.
In a country overflowing with so many amazing brains and talents, it is
incredibly shameful that those are your best representatives for our country.
The easiest way for a leader to fail is to continue to attract those much worse
than himself. Conversely, the best way to succeed is for a leader to recognise
and attract and surround himself with those much better in all aspects of human
endeavour.
This does not erase or take anything away from the leader
but it actually enhances his personality and how he is perceived by everyone.
The late sage of blessed memory, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was a veritable example
of how a leader can effectively tap into the collective brains of some geniuses
and add to his own in a way that makes him appear super-human.
Nigeria has never been in short supply of whiz kids at home
and abroad but Nigeria started dying when our leaders stopped respecting merit
and preferred to enthrone mediocrity. The truth is mediocrity begets further
mediocrity. The few good leaders in your government have not been able to
display their wizardry out of fear and trepidation that some cabal would mark
them out and hack them down so ruthlessly. It is a sign of the times, that the
courage, astuteness and brilliance that made them stand out in the political
crowd has suddenly taken flight and they are now little more than wimps in your
insipid government. The bureaucracy in Abuja is enough to suffocate and
disorientate any fertile mind.
If I were in your shoes, I would consider that it is not too
late to groom and propel some of the best brains in APC or even those living
beyond the shores of Nigeria to succeed me. You do not need to look far in this
regard but I will not make any suggestions today, lest it be misinterpreted
that I am touting any particular individual as a worthy successor. I’m
reasonably convinced that you have worked very hard and seem to have reached
your peak. To God be the glory. In a country of nearly 200 million people, God
has been too kind to you. Apart from former President Olusegun Obasanjo, no
other Nigerian has been given a second chance so miraculously. You will be able
to justify this unmerited favour by leaving Nigeria much better than you met
it. The only way you can do that in the next remaining year is to sacrifice
your own personal ambition and hand over the country to proven and tested
modern and cosmopolitan technocrats. The world has moved beyond the
backwardness that we are being saddled with in Nigeria today. The world expect
us to be the true giant and leader of Africa not by words but in deed.
My appeal to you is to urgently do a self-assessment to
determine and decide on whether you are what Nigeria needs at this time and age
for our country to join the comity of other nations in their march towards
technological advancement, political stability, social security and economic
prosperity.
With all due respect, Sir, if your answer is yes to the
above, you may go ahead and contest but if in all honesty, the answer is no, my
prayer is that you will find the courage and selfless spirit to quit the stage
while the ovation is loudest. That in itself would be a deserving legacy. I’m
watching and waiting for your patriotic decision with bated breath.
Thank you, Mr President, for your usual attention and kind
consideration of my latest memo to you, albeit so early in the year.’
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