Nothing is more harmful to a new truth than an old error’ – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
In all our history, this is the darkest side of Nigeria’s crescent moon. Too opaque for even the best of prophet to have had a forecast of our arrival at this junction of national confusion and demeaning destination. The entity has not before now harboured these multitude of dispossessed, deprived, exploited, insulted, assaulted, abused and worse still, ignored people, who at the pleasure of their oppressors and abusers are called ‘citizens’! All over the world, citizens own their countries! In Nigeria, government functionaries, their allies and those that have advantage of power and position own Nigeria and all therein. The recent altercations through letters between former President Obasanjo and the incumbent, President Jonathan is the latest confirmation of a country out- of hand of a people!
When the former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote his epistle to President Goodluck Jonathan, he heavily relied on the current happenstance. He wrote as a student of the PRESENT! When President Goodluck Jonathan replied, the PAST became his most potent reference. He wrote as student of History. Now, there is a dialogue between the PAST and The PRESENT; and the FUTURE is endangered by two men who had and have historic spaces to change their country for better but betrayed and betraying it! Nevertheless, no hiding place for either of them! That will however happen on the condition of active citizenry.
In my reflection on these Letter Writers and their letters, i will not waste my precious time on the ‘destruction of PDP’ as alleged by Obasanjo and Jonathan’s response of putting the blame back to Obasanjo. Both men had made the task easy. The combination of Obasanjo’s allegations against Jonathan and Jonathan’s allegations against Obasanjo’s regime are enough proofs that Nigeria does not deserve the Party that produced them as Presidents. With the long lists of’ high profile murder’ under Obasanjo as reeled out through Jonathan’s response and the unabbating blood letting or ‘Low Profile Murder under Jonathan as alleged by Obasanjo, it is better for PDP to die than for Nigerians to be rushing violently into ignoble graves! May the party’s soul, if it ever has one, rest in peace!
The response of President Jonathan to allegation of corruption levelled against his government by Obasanjo is isolatedly embarrassing and self-indicting. Relying on history of corruption under Obasanjo’s regime and specifically referring to Halliburton’s and Siemen’s scandals amounted to saying that your corruption is bigger than mine. Aside from this, if President Jonathan knew this much about corruption under Obasanjo, why have n’t he taken any action since? With this ‘smart’ response, President Jonathan has given credence to Obasanjo’s allegation that corruption is walking naked on the street of Nigeria without him doing anything about it. In deed,he enlisted in the Army of his own enemy through this response! Let me remind President Jonathan that a Presidential Committee of Enquiry headed by MR. Mike Okiro was set up at the height of Halliburton Scandal. Where is the report? He ought to have used the report to prosecute indicted persons rather than making it a reference material in his Library, waiting for a day like this for usage in a response to the like of Obasanjo’s letter.
Today, the same Mike Okiro has been appointed by him as the Chairman of the Police Service Commission; so what is MR. President using to fight corruption if he could not use fact from Okiro’s findings, if any? Self – congratulation over an anti-corruption job poorly done will not help the President. The mind boggling Oil Subsidy scam, the Stella Oduah Gate, the Farouk Lawal –Otedola Gate, the smouldering Oil Revenue scandal in CBN’S Sanusi’s letter to MR. President are instances that will continue to make his claim of fighting corruption a huge joke that he may need to share with marines.
Also, Nigerians did not elect him to tell them the story and history of conflict and terrorism. We have many Historians who can do that better. His duty is to solve problems handed over to him by his predecessors. Military barracks are being attacked by Boko Haram, sectarian crises are ravened in Oturkpo, Benue and others. Primate Jasper Akinola, former Head of the Anglican Church has just been rescued from Kidnapper’s jaws; just as Sesan Ogunro, the Managing Director of Emnent Advertising was killed by Assassins in front of his family members in Lagos few days to Christmas. Not to talk of poor and helpless Nigerians who died in hundreds on daily basis. The promise MR. President made to Nigerians was a promise of ‘Breath of Fresh Air’; not that of stench odour! Not that of the type that is now ceaselessly flowing from the shed blood of fellow Nigerians. Every violent death of any Nigerian is a vote of no confidence on the President and his capacity to deliver the ‘Breath of Fresh Air’ he promised. The promise of a ‘Breath of Fresh Air’ presupposes that President Jonathan recognised the fact that there was no ‘Fresh Air’ in Nigeria while making the promise during his campaign trails. Accusing his predecessor of being guilty of the same problem he has so far failed to solve does not discharge him of his responsibilities neither a tidy way of keeping avowed promise.
Unlike former President Obasanjo, am not that privileged to have intelligent report that Snipers are being trained the Abacha way; i however agree that ownership of the Presidency has been hijacked by some selfish characters ( not all Niger Deltans) in the Niger Delta. They have appropriated our President and made him smaller than a President of a country he is.
Up till today, the place of origin of Murtala Mohammed that President Jonathan profusely referred to in his letter to Obasanjo is still shrouded in controversy. While almost all indicators point to his Kano origin, some Nigerians still claim he was from Auchi axis. To me, this is how a President’s origin should be treated. A President should on no account be reduced to a mere Balyesan or a Niger Deltan. This is what is going on in the case of President Jonathan. He should in all efforts resist this attempt that could ultimately diminish the ethos of Presidency by calling the characters involved in this unsavoury trade marking to order. Such insinuation is at the root of ethnic crises across African States. The current Rwandese President, a friend to our President recognised this in re-building Rwanda and has managed it so well so that there is prosperity of peace in Rwanda today.
The Devil himself quoted words of God in the Bible. In the wisdom of Jesus Christ, He did not see that as invalidation of the purity of the word of God. Even some gullible Nigerians are providing alibi for the President that Obasanjo’s letter to Jonathan was a Kettle calling Pot black. That is a shallow argument. The business of Nigerians is to ensure that their own cup of tea is not turned to black by both dirty kettle and pot!
See who is talking (?) is not a wise state craft in directing the affairs of a country. In our salvation as aq country, the voices of Judas and Jesus must count! Jesus died to save us but i wonder how the remission of sin without the shedding of Jesus would have been possible without the acts of Judas Iscariot!
The error of Obasanjo in the past as Head of States/President might have harmed his new Truth about Jonathan; all the same, it can never become Jonathan’s ‘alloccutos’ for not rescuing Nigeria from sinking. He should not rely on Obasanjo’s past, part of which produced him to ignore the warning; ‘Before It Is Too Late’. Nigeria is greater than the host of errors that both him and Obasanjo represent. As in the words of Edmund Burke, he should know that ‘ no pride erects stately monument which repair the mischief which pride had produced, and which adorn a country out of its own spoils.’
Recently, i also wrote an open letter to my colleagues. In the letter, i shifted the blame of my addiction to seeking knowledge in a country, where might is right to my upbringing. I affirmed in the letter that ‘all am doing now is my father’s fault. When his mates were dealing in Oil Wells, he opened Bookshops and ensured i stayed there during holidays. His mates were bringing home cookies for their children, all that my father brought home were copies of ‘DAILY SKETCH’ and ‘ DAILY TIMES’. He told me that KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! He did not envisage that a day will come in Nigeria when POWER WILL BE KNOWLEDGE. The time that my father did not foresee is here with us; but it is too late for me to abandon my father’s lessons, even though he is dead. This is the promise to a worthy father am bound to keep’. Neither Obasanjo’s epistle nor Jonathan Letter to his godfather will separate me from my father’s life lessons. More so that Aristotle, the ancient Philosopher’s concept of ‘Philosopher – King’ fits into my father’s priceless lesson. Blessed are the people and nation that have more of ‘Philosopher –Kings’ than sheer Letter Writers who opened dialogue between the Past and the Present in order to lay mine for a future they never believe in!