Mr. President, many believe that you cannot read and those
that believe that you can claim that you cannot go beyond three lines. They say
outside of that you can only comprehend cartoons.
I do not share either view. I know you well enough to
concede that when you consider a literary submission of sufficient importance
you have the presence of mind, discipline, health, intelligence and ability to
read through it very slowly and very carefully weighing up every word. And that
is precisely as it should be.
The first open letter that I wrote to you was in December
2015 and the following serves as the second. You will forgive me because this
is a long letter and I am fully aware that your attention span or ability to
keep too much information in one fell swoop may not be as good as it used to
be.
Nevertheless, I urge you to do your best to muster the
courage, energy and intellectual stamina to stay the course and to find the
time out of your busy schedule to read it from beginning to end.
I have written it because our nation is entering into
dangerous and precarious waters and I sense that something will give very soon.
I am therefore constrained to use this medium to bring my observations to your
attention.
Be rest assured that I speak out of nothing but love and
concern for the welfare of the Nigerian people and it is not my intention to
insult you or undermine and disrespect your office but rather to shine the
light of truth on all your activities to assisting and encouraging you to
change your ways.
You will agree with me that, no matter how bitter it may be,
that truth must be told. This is a sacred obligation on our part as leaders and
a matter of duty and honor.
I owe you, the Nigerian people and posterity that much and I
have little doubt that no matter how badly you may feel after reading it,
history will vindicate me and prove me right and one day you will acknowledge
and recognise the profundity, wisdom and foresight in my constant and
consistent criticisms, admonitions and counsel.
Outside of that it is my earnest prayer that the God of
Heaven, whose I am and whom I serve, will judge between you and me.
Your Excellency, please note and consider the following: You
released hundreds of Boko Haram fighters from prison claiming that they are
reformed and a few days later 30 of your citizens are blown up by the same Boko
Haram in Borno state.
Worse still, on that same day,16 members of the same family
and four others were herded into a room and burnt alive by Fulani militants in
Kaduna state.
After these terrible events instead of rushing back home to
stand with your people, you stayed in Addis Ababa, lamenting and crying about
the security situation in Libya and you sent your Vice to a funeral in Nairobi.
Such insensitivity, even by your own standards, is rarely seen.
It took you three long days to finally see fit to leave your
foreign friends, leave Addis Ababa and fly directly to Maiduguri to express
your condolences to the Governor and people of Borno. Even then you could not
muster the courage to go to the town of Auno where the bombing took place but
only to Maiduguri, the capital of the state.
Understandably you were received with boos, jeers and shouts
of “ba ma so” (meaning “we don’t want”) by the crowds that lined the streets
and this was an eloquent testimony to the fact that the entire nation,
including the north that you claim to represent and be a champion of, is fed up
with you and can no longer bear your incompetence and inability to run the
affairs of our nation.
Worst still hours after your condolence visit Boko Haram
attacked Maiduguri itself hitting one of its suburbs called Jiddari Polo.
Their leader, a cowardly creature that can best be described
as a psychopathic, delusional, sociopathic, mentally deranged, murderous,
bloodthirsty, bloodlusting and unconciable monster by the name of Sheik
Abubakar Shekau, even had the nerve to send you a public warning in a recorded
message released to the public after you left in which he arrogantly and
boastfully declared that you must never come back to Borno again or you would
be attacked and that you “should fear and serve God and not cows”.
He added the following, “Buhari thinks he is a General but
God says he is nothing. He hasn’t achieved anything in the sight of God. Buhari
is deceiving the people and playing to the gallery”.
Mr. President, he has sent his message to you and to Nigeria
and we have heard him loud and clear.
Yet most disturbing was not his sheer effrontery but the
fact that the only thing that you had to offer the leaders and people of Borno
state when you got there was a lame and self-debasing question which was “I
wonder how Boko Haram still survives?”
You went further by blaming them for “not taking care of
local security” forgetting that is meant to be your job and not theirs.
In your so-called condolence visit you refused to take
responsibility for your own inaction and failure and instead you sought to pass
the buck to the very victims of terror that you claim to have come to mourn!
You refused to inspire and encourage them and instead you
accused them of, at best, responsible behaviour and, at worst, collusion with
the enemy.
This is not just a case of rubbing salt in their wounds but
it is more like blowing them up and killing them all over again. Worse still as
you spoke your Minister of Defence, who sat just a few feet away from you, fell
fast asleep!
Mr. President, I really do wonder whether you have any
feeling or any compassion at all? Has the milk of human kindness stopped
flowing through your veins? Do you know that young students, women, infants and
babies were among those that were blown up in the Auno atrocity?
Yes you issued a statement immediately but you didn’t show
up till three days later and your Vice, who was in the country the day it
happened, never showed up at all and instead jetted out to President Arap Moi’s
burial in Nairobi!
Kindly tell me what the Nigerian people have done to deserve
this level of contempt? Or is there more to it than meets the eye?
Forgive me Mr. President but I am constrained to ask, why do
you love terrorism, bloodshed and violence so much? Why do you find it so easy
to forgive terrorists that are slaughtering your own people? Are you feeding
your spiritual foundation and getting your power from the spilling of innocent
blood?
Meanwhile, your own Chief of Army Staff has told us today
that: “We have defeated insurgency but we are facing the challenge of
terrorism. There is no-where you will not find Boko Haram, even in Lagos here,
there are Boko Haram. In Kaduna there are Boko Haram. There are more across the
North East. Many have been arrested here in Lagos. We have been tracking them.
We arrest them and take them into custody”.
I commend the Chief of Army Staff for his admission of
failure but what he didn’t add was that after taking them “into custody” you
ordered him to release them and even draft some of them into the Nigerian Army
on the spurious grounds that they have repented and that they have been
reformed.
Again the truth is that neither you or him ever “defeated
insurgency” or anything else. Instead you encouraged and supported it! Both of
you have failed the Nigerian people just as I predicted that you would and if
you had any decency or honor you would BOTH resign.
Aside that it takes a very mean, callous, wicked and cruel
President and Commander-in-Chief to release 1,400 terrorists who have murdered,
butchered, slaughtered, tortured and maimed his soldiers and terrorized his
people over the last 5 years.
Mr. President, I am constrained to tell you that some
believe that you are a sadist! They believe that your heart is as hard as stone
and your soul is as black as night.
Relevant and instructive are the words of Mr. Charles Ogbu,
a brilliant writer and essayist who has consistently proved that he is not only
insightful but also deeply profound. Three days after the Auno bombing he wrote
the following:
“Those who are asking for the sack of the Service Chiefs as
a solution to the upsurge in Boko Haram terrorism are missing the point.
Nigeria is not being overrun by terrorists because we have a set of incompetent
service Chiefs or soldiers who cannot fight the terrorists. Not at all.
“The only reason the Boko Haram terrorists are having a
field day is because we have a President and a Commander-in-Chief who shares
the same ideology as the terrorists and as a result prefers pandering to them
as opposed to fighting them”.
He went further: “In fact a betting man would bet that the
only difference between the Boko Haram terrorists killing, maiming and
beheading Nigerians in the Northeast and our President and Commander-In-Chief
is in their name and location. One is named “Boko Haram” and operates from the
bush while the other one is named “Muhammadu Buhari” and operates from Aso
Rock. If we were to remove the cloak of fear of detention by state oppressive
forces, we would all admit they are both pursuing the same goal and doing a
very good job of it. You that is reading this, you know this is exactly what is
happening even if you may not want to publicly say it for whatever reason”.
He concluded by asking: “Who ‘rehabilitates’ and releases
captured terrorists back into the wild at a time the terrorists are still
visiting death and destruction on his country? Even America with her advanced
military doesn’t release arrested terrorists in the heat of the war because the
chances of these terrorists going back into the wild to continue killing are
very high”.
Mr. President, forgive me for saying so but the verdict is
out and Mr. Ogbu has made a valid point. This calls for much soul-searching on
your part.
I urge you to bear in mind that trading in the blood of your
own people and indulging in all manner of barbarity, suppression of dissent,
persecution of your perceived enemies and evil comes with a heavy price.
Every Pharaoh, Sennacherub, Herod, Jezebel and
Nebuchadnezzar has a bad end. Every tyrant, no matter how powerful and highly
placed, will eventually account to God and the people for his brutality and
wickedness. Yours will be no different.
Anyone that doubts that should consider the plight of the
Sudan’s former President, General Al Bashir. As the great black American Nation
of Islam leader and one of my favourite heroes, Malcom X, once said “the
chickens have finally come home to roost”. This has always been the case and it
will always be the case. It is only a matter of time.
Over the last 5 years, hundreds of thousands have died under
your watch and almost all have been killed by those from your core northern
region. You turned a blind eye to it and even encouraged it.
Today belongs to you but let me assure you that tomorrow
belongs to those of us that you have killed, persecuted, oppressed and treated
with disdain and contempt.
On the 11th of February, at the burial ceremony of the 18
year old Christian martyr Nnandi Michael (the Seminarean that was abducted and
later murdered by Fulani herdsmen) the respected Catholic cleric Bishop Matthew
Hassan Kukah, a man of immense moral authority and intellectual vigour,
courageously admonished you before the entire world, spoke the bitter truth and
reflected the thoughts of millions from all over the country.
Amongst many other things he said the following: “This
President has displayed the greatest degree of insensitivity in managing our
country’s rich diversity. He has subordinated the larger interests of the
country to the hegemonic interests of his co-religionists and clansmen and
women. The impression created now is that, to hold a key and strategic position
in Nigeria today, it is more important to be a northern Muslim than a
Nigerian.”
He did not stop there but went on to say: “We are being told
that this situation has nothing to do with Religion. Really? It is what happens
when politicians use religion to extend the frontiers of their ambition and
power. Are we to believe that simply because Boko Haram kills Muslims too, they
wear no religious garb? Are we to deny the evidence before us, of kidnappers
separating Muslims from infidels or compelling Christians to convert or die? If
your son steals from me, do you solve the problem by saying he also steals from
you?”
He then said: “The Fulani, his (President Muhammadu Buhari)
innocent kinsmen, have become the subject of opprobrium, ridicule, defamation,
calumny and obloquy. His north has become one large grave yard, a valley of dry
bones, the nastiest and the most brutish part of our dear country”.
He added: “Today, our years of hypocrisy, duplicity,
fabricated integrity, false piety, empty morality, fraud and Pharisaism have
caught up with us. Nigeria is on the crossroads and its future hangs
precariously in a balance. This is a wakeup call for us. As St. Paul reminds
us; The night is far spent, and the day is at hand. Therefore, let us cast away
the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. It is time to face and dispel
the clouds of evil that hover over us.
“On our part, I believe that this is a defining moment for
Christians and Christianity in Nigeria. We Christians must be honest enough to
accept that we have taken so much for granted and made so much sacrifice in the
name of nation building. We accepted President Buhari when he came with General
Idiagbon, two Muslims and two northerners. We accepted Abiola and Kingibe,
thinking that we had crossed the path of religion, but we were grossly
mistaken. When Jonathan became President, and Senator David Mark remained
Senate President while Patricia Ette was chosen by the South West became a
Speaker.
“The Muslim members revolted and forced her resignation with
lies and forgery. The same House would shamelessly say that they had no records
of her indictment. Today, we are living with a Senate whose entire leadership
is in the hands of Muslims. Christians have continued to support them. For how
long shall we continue on this road with different ambitions? Christians must rise
up and defend their faith with all the moral weapons they have”.
I assure you that these were not the words of Bishop Kukah
alone but rather the Holy Spirit speaking through him. He spoke the mind and
the oracles of the Living God and you would do well to humble yourself, take
heed and appreciate the Lord’s admonition and counsel.
Let us hope that you disregard the advice of the hardliners
around you, learn from these words and change your dastardly ways though I
doubt that you will.
Whatever the case and whatever you choose to do or not to
do, know this: the die is cast, Caesar has crossed the Rubicon, the horse has
bolted from the stable, the cat is out of the bag, our eyes have been opened,
we have lost all sense of fear and Nigeria can NEVER be the same again.
Mr. President, here ends my counsel to you but let me to end
this contribution with a closer look at the north that you love so much and
that you seek to empower and enthrone forever.
According to the World Bank “87% of poor people in Nigeria
are in the North”. One wonders what 58 years of northern oppression, tyranny,
aggression, manipulation and hegemony over Nigeria has actually done for the
northern masses.
Since independence mass poverty, terrorism, religious
bigotry, ethnic hegemony, Islamic fundamentalism, arrogance, born to rule
syndrome, the worship of cows, ignorance, disease, hate, racism, feudalism,
pedophilia, child marriage, VVF, gender inequality, male chauvinism, the
persecution of Christians, the suppression of women, corruption, deceit, greed,
ingratitude, a sense of entitlement, tyranny, insensitivity, bloodshed,
genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass murder and gratuitous violence have all been
deeply embedded in and associated with the core north.
Worse still, according to UNICEF, if Nigeria were to ever
break up the core north would be the poorest spot on planet Earth. I guess this
is why northerners keep screaming “one Nigeria” and threatening the lives and
liberty of those that do not share their view.
Without Nigeria they would be groping in the dark, wobbling
on their feet and literally starve to death. All this yet they insist that they
were “born to rule” and that southerners and Middle Belters were “born to
serve” them and be their slaves!
Professor Yusuf Dankofa of the Faculty of Law at Ahmadu
Bello University who happens to be a northerner himself put it in very clear
terms and spoke the bitter truth when he wrote the following: “I think the
north is only interested in power and nothing more.The sweetness of power and
the allure it brings is what appeals to them and not work. If not, how can a
region be so decimated by its own internal contradictions and trudge on as if
the region is not regressing.
“In the face of calamity, what you see is eerie silence,
since power is with their elites who are thoroughly dependent on public
treasury to survive.The poor too draws happiness from the fact that power is in
the hands of their elites even if they will die of poverty and insurgency. We
are happy that power is with us even though we don’t know what to do with
it.This mindset will definitely lead others to seek to move out of the union.
You can’t slow down your own progress and those of others and expect them to
clap for you”.
Dankofa is absolutely right! What a people! What a country!
Yet I do not blame the core northerners: I blame southern and Middle Belt
politicians and leaders who have refused to unite and who have failed to resist
them and stand up to them over the last 58 years.
The history of our nation records that there were a few
great men of remarkable courage, extraordinary fortitude and immense valour
that not only did their best but were also gallant, fearless, selfless and
outstanding in their quest to deliver our people.
Some of them were martyred and others were jailed whilst all
suffered an unprecedented and unbearable level of humiliation and persecution.
Yet despite it all they continued the struggle.
They identified and understood the problem and fought hard
in their respective ways to fix it and deliver our people from northern
hegemony, domination and bondage but sadly they all failed. The new generation
of southern and Middle Belt leaders must NOT fail because this is the last lap.
For our generation failure is NOT an option.
We have no choice but to use all lawful and non-violent
means to break the yoke of subjugation, servitude, slavery and bondage and to
succeed in our quest for total liberation. If we fail to do so future
generations of our people shall NEVER be free again.
We need the prayers of the saints and the fasting and
supplications of the intercessors, the Prophets, the men and women of God and
the Body of Christ! We need the Holy Spirit of the Living God: the El Shaddai,
the Elohim and the Adonai. We need the Man of War, the Comforter, the Lord of
Hosts and the Ancient of Days!
We need a great deliverer: a Moses, a Joshua, a Caleb, a
David, a Cyrus, a Samson, a Gideon, a Jeptha, an Esther and a Jehu all rolled
into one. We need men and women of courage to pick up the gauntlet, take up the
challenge and lead us in this great and cataclysmic battle and this monumental
struggle.
We need to close ranks, build bridges among ourselves and
forget past hurts, past disputes and past disagreements and agree to be totally
and completely united.
Finally, we need to look within ourselves and firmly resolve
that it would be better to live a short life and die as free men than live a
long one and live as slaves. We fight not for ourselves but for future
generations of our family, our lineage, our loved ones and our compatriots.
God forbid that they should have to live through the hell
that we had to suffer called Nigeria: a land where the accursed rule over the
blessed and where slaves ride on horseback whilst Princes and Kings walk around
in bare feet.
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Well done Sir!. Thank you for this great wisdom write up, I only pray to God to have mercy on Nigeria/Nigerians, I also pray for unity and that initial love that bound Nigerians together irrespective of our religious and tribes, may God rekindle all our hearts with fresh love from above, and give Nigeria/Nigerians everlasting peace of mind, and may those who doesn't wish Nigeria/Nigerians well rot with their 10th generations in hell amen.
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