Letter to Mr. President

By

Wada Nas

wada@gamji.com  

http://www.gamji.com/wada.htm

The President,

Federal Republic of Nigeria,

Sir,

Greetings of the season and happy Sallah, Xmas and New Year in advance. I write you this letter with great sympathy for our country and its poor talakawas, who, in the will of Allah, massively voted for you in the belief that you are the awaited Messiah, committed to freeing them from the pangs of poverty, to which they have been subjected for a very long time.

In voting for you they reminded themselves of your message to President Babangida that he should allow his administration have SAP with a human head and face. This was the tonic that made you the man they could trust. They placed so much hope in you that inspite of their dislike of anything remotely connected with the military, they went ahead to ditch civilian Falae in your favour

To appreciate this hope and confidence in you, think of what greatness they made of your party, the PDP, which followers adore as ‘the biggest party in Africa’. Today it has the largest number of elected officials at all levels, courtesy of their love for and trust in you. Going by the massive vote they gave your party in all the elections, I can say, without fear of contradiction, that never has Nigerians trusted a leader as you.

Mr. President Sir, when we situate this trust against the background of some of your policies, and in some cases, inaction or indifference, I worry that their confidence in you may wane. Permit me to cite a few examples. According to reports, you have concluded plans to hike fuel price by 100% next year. Your Excellency, do you honestly believe that this would serve the greater interest of the vast majority of our talakawas at a time when poverty is messing them up? You may agree as some of your advisers do, that doing so would bring more money into the coffers of the state for more development. The question is how much of such funds have you been releasing in support of numerous projects pleading for execution? At whose expense would this fund be generated? What is the logic in generating huge resources that would leave in their trails the pains of hunger, unemployment, insecurity, deprivation and societal neglect among others.

As if this fuel hike policy is not worrisome enough, you have also concluded yet another plot to deny the people the opportunity to own cars and other means of transportation. I hope you would not take offence if I describe these as two evils aimed solely at the massive poor of our society whose number would become the greater victims.

Mr. President Sir, you know the state of our transportation sector. There is just nothing to write home about. Inspite of your insistence that you don’t want vehicles beyond five years old on our roads, most of the vehicles in use today by private commercial transporters are in the region of twenty years old. When this killer policy comes on stream even this would be luxury for them.

Worse, millions of stakeholders would be thrown into the jobless market and you know the consequences; social deviation of various colours. You are therefore gearing us towards greater incidences of violence in future, and , ofcourse galloping poverty, the two, themselves greater evils.

Sir, in the name of the security of our great country and the interest of its massive poor, I plead with you to reconsider these policies. This is more so because the people never placed so much hope and confidence in you for the purpose of making them poor, or making life more unbearable for them, creating more insecurity problem, but for the whole purpose of bettering their living condition. Whatever those at the corridors of power may tell you, the truth, sir, is that those anti-people policies would diminish your standing before those who had hoped that you are their messiah. Believe more in their feelings sir than in the rhetorics of close associates who may not tell you the true situation on the ground. Remain the very man of the people they hoped you to be. Be stead fast as their father and guardian angel.

Your Excellency, you set up the Oputa Panel for the purpose of reconciling all Nigerians so that our people could learn to forgive even as they may not forget. It was a wise decision you took, and so you deserve commendation

However, I have an observation to make. It is curios, sir, that while you are seeking to reconcile Nigerians through Oputa, at the same time, you are not prepared to reconcile with other citizens such as the Abacha family and the Bamaiyis. If indeed it is true that your intention of setting up Oputa is to reconcile Nigerians, then you should demonstrate this by reconciling with those citizens who ‘offended’ you and some of your associates. It sounds contradictory that while you are pursuing this noble policy, you are at the same time harassing the Abachas, the Bamaiyis as if they don’t deserve reconciliation with you and other fellow citizens.

This glaring contradiction is what makes many believe that you are unforgiving and practicing vendetta and vengeance against your perceived enemies. This may be completely wrong, but bearing in mind your unwillingness to reconcile with them, while pursuing the policy of national reconciliation, such an observation cannot be reasonably faulted. In the light of his we can say that Oputa is for selective justice designed for others, excluding those who offended you.

This brings me to a related issue. Mr. President, sir, you are perhaps not aware of a few instances of illegalities being committed in your name by some of your key officials. In your ongoing personal war against some citizens, your officials have been directing the Central Bank of Nigeria to order the closure of their accounts with some commercial banks, without any court order telling officials of the Bank that the order is from above. Yet you are operating a system based on the rule of law but disregarding the need for due process and legality in the conduct of public affairs. No matter how much such citizens offended you, sir, you are duty bound to respect the law in dealing with them so as not create the impression that you are indeed a thorough going dictator in civilian dress.

Mr. President, I want you to bear in mind that tomorrow we may not be there. I want you to think deeply over this and the added fact that while you set up Oputa to look into the issue of human rights violations you are at the same time violating the rights of others. Such a double standard brings out clearly the other motives for setting up the commission. I hope this impression is wrong, but in the face of observable facts, the thinking stands to reason.

I honestly, sir, do not wish to comment on the next issue; that of nepotism, but at the same time, I believe, it needs to be brought to your attention even for the sake of the future. The insinuation has been strong that, of your six or so police zonal commanders, in the rank of AIGs, five are from your own side of the divide. In addition, of the five AIGs at the Headquarters, three are said to be from your own side, all of whom are occupying the most strategic positions there. There is also the insinuation that where your own is not the state commissioner of police, the next in rank is yours. Some of these stories may not be true. Nevertheless, you need to look in to them. Personally I do not see any offence in a particular tribe occupying all key positions in the force or in any establishment for that matter.

 As you know, my personal wishes are secondary to the position of the constitution on such matters. And since you are leading a constitutional order, it is only necessary that you try as much as possible to go by the rules. This is what democracy is all about. Let us hope, sir, that when circumstances change tomorrow no one would be pointing accusing fingers alleging nepotism.

Your excellency, I cannot end this letter without pleading with you to take more than a passing interest in the planned attack on Ilorin by the OPC, which you claimed to have banned. We do not want to add this peaceful town to the list of cities that have been engulfed in one crises or the other. We have shed so much blood that we don’t want a little drop any more. Unfortunately OPC is yet to be satisfied with the butchering of humans that it has been conducting since your coming to power. Sir, if OPC/Afenifere want to add Kwara State to the planned Oduduwa Republic, which Dr Adegbite gladly warned against, do kindly ask them to also add to the forthcoming republic those portions of our neighbours where the sons of Oduduwa reside. Then they should hands off the Ijaw portion of Ondo State and surrender same to the Niger Delta. I hope you will be kind enough to remind them accordingly.

Recently, I had reason to defend you when some people insinuated that nepotism was shown in the award of National Honours this year. That your state alone got 17 or so, while many have one or two. I honestly don’t know how true this is, but I reminded them that it is one of your reconciliation projects. You know Nigerians, they read meaning into virtually everything, and this one can’t be an exception. I didn’t find it worthy of your attention, but then…..you know.

How is project 2003 going on? I overheard some people up here saying that they are going to invite the Niger Delta people for the purpose of requesting them to field a presidential candidate come 2003. In their thinking this is the only way of ‘dealing’ with you in 2003. Please find time to talk to Marshal Harry and Edwin Clark to talk things over. Honestly there is a fancy among the Young Turks here about extending hands of political fellowship to the South South people. When I verify the details, I will get back to you without any hesitation.

Before then, sir, please try and find out why they are shifting ground so soon after you were the only person they could trust. A trip to Gboko and Zaki Biam may give you a clue after which you get in touch with the Northern ‘fundamentalists’.

Sir, I know you don’t give a damn about sports, let alone beauty contest. But you will agree with me that Miss Nigeria added international glamour to the name of our great country recently. If only you could pay more attention to Mali, I am sure that the Eagles would add more on that. Please leave as one of your legacies that the Eagles won the Africa Nations Cup during your time. Shagari did it, as also Abacha. So why not join them?

Please, kindly read this letter before embarking on your next round of foreign trips. Wishing you safe journey.

Yours

Wada Nas