AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR
Aso Villa, Abuja
Nigeria.

Dear Sir,

BEFORE IT IS REALLY TOO LATE FOR ALL OF US

It is with utmost regard and respect for the exalted office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which you presently hold that I write this letter. I want to affirm that I, as a citizen of this great Nation by birth, do hold the irrepressible right to offer timely advice to you as President knowing quite well the gross implications that your actions and inactions can have on my future aspirations and hopes.

I was personally dazed to read the contents of the letter sent to your office from the former President Olusegun Obasanjo GCFR dated December 2, 2013. While that letter was received with utter surprise from many quarters, keen observers of the polity realized from the tone of that letter, that it could well become the de facto starting point for an unavoidable revolution if the issues raised therein are not very well addressed. Your initial silence on the said issues was quite ominous; it was the kind of silence which initially vindicated the former President. I am sure you have heard of the saying that ‘silence means consent’ somewhere along the line of your years of experience.

Dear President, if we will be true to ourselves, I must make it clear to you that your ‘attack dogs’ who now pride themselves as ‘attack lions’ did a very rash job in giving adequate response on your behalf. I, as well as many other Nigerians, felt you could have paid a huge debt of honour by promptly responding to such issues of National Security in person. It was better late than never though, as the reply you tendered on the 22nd December, 2013 left many Nigerians savouring your writing prowess and the well-crafted manner in which you offered your much awaited response.

In a bid to refresh your memory and lay a good foundation for the recommendations I intend to make to you sir, I should be quick to remind you of certain weighty allegations that the former President levelled against you. I would love to summarize them below:
He accused you of certain actions that could promote ethnic divisiveness by your seeming inability to curb the careless utterances of your kinsmen on 2015.
The former President seems to find you culpable in the controversial acquittal of Al-Mustapha by the Court of Appeal. He seems to think he (Al-Mustapha) would never have walked free from those allegations except he had some Federal weight thrown behind him.
On issues of the economy, Baba believes you are somehow mishandling the NNPC culminating in the outcry of Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi over the non-remittance of oil revenue to the federation account.
On National security, he accused you of being incapable of curbing the Boko Haram menace in the North while making it clear that certain actions and inactions of yours are promoting the menace.
On PDP crisis, he accused you of promoting the current crisis in the PDP in a bid to outlaw every force or person who might be opposed to your 2015 agenda.

Despite the vast array of accusations he did bring forward against your person and your government, I find these five listed above being of the weightiest proportions and capable of fuelling the breakdown of law and order. However, I received your reply with a certain degree of satisfaction at the very first thought. On a second thought, I realized the responses you gave to these allegations are quite insufficient towards dousing the tension already generated in the hearts of Nigerians. I admired the literary beauty of the text but somehow was not satisfied with the responses you gave, I simply feel you can do more.

I believe, as a staunch supporter in fairness and justice, that the utterances of certain kinsmen, in the mix of Asari-Dokubo and Edwin Clarke are shouting caution. When people from your ethnic extraction begin to make such derogatory statements, it reflects a desperate move by your people to keep you in power beyond 2015 even if Nigeria has to crash and burn in the process. Northerners could make such crash and burn utterances and we will understandably see the frustration they feel at having to concede the Presidency to a minority tribe again in 2015, but when your tribal people makes such utterances, it reeks of power greed and demonic desperation. This aura you must avoid by all possible means. Charity at least begins at home.

I followed the Al-Mustapha case from the years of President Olusegun Obasanjo as Commander-In-Chief and I came to realize the Federal High Court which pronounced a death sentence on him, found incriminating evidence against him. However, when a Federal Court of Appeal controversially sets free that one who was already sentenced to death, it becomes a question of a possible judicial incompetence, or a most likely political interference. Whatever the problem might be of the two, I find that the Federal Court of Appeal has become the home of magic. I here remember Aregbesola vs. Oyinlola which was a judicial magic of never-seen-before proportions and I beg your attention towards addressing a possible decay in this arm of government. In Al-Mustapha’s case, I believe if the blame truthfully lands on the Federal High Court due to incompetence, you should take pro-active measure to avoid such gross incapacity in the future. If on the other hand the blame lands at the doorstep of politicians directly or indirectly deriving power from you, I feel you should take decisive steps to stop such actions capable of rubbishing the trust that common men have in the judicial system as the last hope of the common man.

When Sanusi Lamido came up with a letter to your office reporting NNPC’s failure to remit oil revenue into the federation account, a mild drama ensued. If Lamido Sanusi comes out wrong, that will be a serious incapability on his part for failing to know enough about an account under his watch. If NNPC turns out to be wrong, it will mean a serious case of corruption in the organization or in the Executive. Whichever way it goes, I believe either Lamido Sanusi or NNPC has to bear the brunt on this one. One of them must be culpable, one for incapability and the other for corruption. On this matter too, you certainly need to show Nigerians the real colour of truth. And to call your attention to the bogus claims by Mallam Sanusi that he was misinterpreted, Nigerians have refused to believe that fabrication and are waiting for concrete evidence that he was truly misinterpreted. That evidence, the proof of that media misinterpretation, has to come from you.

Boko Haram on that hand is a National crisis that does not really take its roots from the incapability of government, but from the defect in the principles governing most Northern societies. A vast majority of those young people involved in this menace were former Al-Majiris who found the insurgent group as a solace to their sufferings of previous years. They were gullible because they were hungry, foolish because they are poor. Their problem is not related to education, it is related to poverty, extreme hunger. If this menace of Boko Haram will ever be curbed to the roots, your government must take pro-active measures to alleviate poverty and eradicate hunger. By poverty alleviation I do not mean those political window-dressings, I mean serious poverty alleviation programmes that reaches into the core grassroots.

If we take into account the current trends in the Peoples Democratic Party, especially the unguarded utterances of the current National Chairman of the party, one will wonder if you are not indeed culpable in the crisis rocking the PDP. It is not a tenable excuse for you as the National leader of the party to claim that Alhaji Bamanga Tukur is acting without reverence to your office and has never had to take instructions from your person; no Nigerian will believe that excuse. The recent ill-managed crisis with the G7 Governors is an attestation to the fact that the internal crisis resolution mechanism of the PDP is currently grounded. If you must restore confidence in your person as the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, you must make immediate moves to reconcile all aggrieved party members who feel disenfranchised and bring everybody back together to a round table of brotherhood. To achieve this feat, I do not believe Alhaji Tukur has to be removed; I believe his vocal instrument only need to be tamed.

In discharging my responsibilities as a citizen of Nigeria to the government of my country in offering advice that is timely and constructive, I wish to put on record that there are various actions your government has taken that should be reviewed. One that quickly rushes to my mind at this time is the National Pardon granted to DSP Alamiesigha who was convicted of corruption within and outside the shores of the country. His show of shame when his trial in United Kingdom began (that act of disguise as a woman), strongly disqualifies him from the list of people who deserve such Presidential pardon. I beg not to assume you forgave him because he was your former boss, rather I want to give you the benefit of all doubts that you will very soon review the actions and come forward with a resounding apology to all Nigerians who feel slighted by that ill-conceived action of your government. If it was magnanimity, it went too far and if it was pity, it was a wasted one.

Let me at this point make known to you the mindset of most Nigerian youths towards your person and your government. When you came on board, we all identified with your vision, we saw hope in the promises you made and on why we so supported your aspiration, it is plainly because you represented a bridge between the old and the young. Now however, we are feeling terribly disappointed that till date, you are still defaulting in your promises to the old and the young. We have not completely written you off though, for we believe there is still much time to make amends and come to live up to the expectations that we placed on your shoulders. The likes of Jude Imagwe might tell you your government has no problem with youths, I must caution that you tread carefully in listening to people like Jude for they have lost touch with the real constituency that made them.

I must sincerely on behalf of those ‘lucky’ winners of your YOU-WIN programme appreciate your efforts towards youth development even though the programme reeks of selectivity and prior anointing. I believe if your government has to contribute to the development of youths, the efforts must go deeper and reach to the youths who are under-privileged and have no connection to the federal might. Poverty alleviation needs to reach the educated and uneducated alike, the disabled and the able, the local and the enlightened and all community of youths alike. Giving ten million naira to a very minute few of the youth population does not do justice to the serious poverty dealing with Nigerian youths, it infact makes mockery of it. If you want to help us, you should think of creating jobs, encouraging the growth of the private sector through ACCESSIBLE support to Small and Medium Enterprises and any other far-reaching interventions which you may find all-encompassing. I believe I speak the minds of Nigerian youths on this and you can verify my claims.

As I conclude, I do not believe we should blame you for the allegations raised against you by the former President; rather we should pity your situation. As a graduate of his school of thought which teaches despotism and styled dictatorship, one can only believe you cannot be better than your master. As a young leader who still has years ahead of him, I will just advise that you try and modify your core values and deliver the much needed dividends of democracy to the average Nigerians. You can do better than your predecessors if you work harder at being the beacon of hope that Nigerian youths see you to be.

While we should not blame you for how bad you may have done so far, I will advise you do not be embittered by the former President’s outburst. I believe he suddenly repented from his ‘old’ way of doing things because as Wayne Calloway, the CEO of PepsiCo said, “nothing focuses the mind better than the constant sight of a competitor who wants to wipe you off the map”. He believes your actions are geared towards eradicating his political legacies and rubbishing his National leadership status. My advice to you on this is to re-build his confidence in you, make him understand that you intend to make him proud. Just as a father can influence a son, I believe a son too can influence the father. Help OBJ face the haunting memories of his past, the mistakes he made as President, help him forgive himself and help him re-establish his elder statesman status in the earths of Nigerians who believed in him too at first. He was bad but we believe he changed, so let us all accept our father and help him re-settle into the Nigerian society.

With this letter, I believe I have done my duty to you as a follower, my duty to my country as a citizen and my duty to the society as a representative who probably self-anointed himself to air the minds of the people. I beg that you consider all that have been said and urgently resolve all issues raised. We can do better in this country for God is on our side and we sure cannot fail.

Receive the assurances of my best regards.

Oderinu Adedayo Tolulakin