OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUHARI.
Mr President, Sir,
This open letter is necessitated by issues of urgent national
importance not unconnected with your 3 minute recorded broadcast
to Nigerians this morning where you stated that Nigeria's unity is
settled and not negotiable.
Mr President, Sir, I wasn't exactly born with a talent for political
correctness so I like to assume your permission to pay you the
courtesy of being blunt.
First, I want to register my displeasure that you, a mere servant and
employee of the Nigerian people, could derisively address your
employers and the same people paying your salaries even when you
are hardly at work, as "my dear citizens" instead of "my fellow
citizens".
That derisive opening line in your speech lend more credence to an
already established fact which is that you are an arrogant victim of
messiah complex who sees his people, not as his employers whose
wishes he must harken to, but as lesser mortals and slaves who are
his to do as he pleases. Even Emperor Nero didn't address Romans
in that condescending manner.
Mr president sir, we are not your citizens. We are not even just
your fellow citizens! We are your employers! We are your boss! We
pay your bill. We feed you, Mr president. Talk to us with some
respect!
Mr president, when you told us how you discussed with Ojukwu in
2003 and agreed that Nigeria's unity is non negotiable, what exactly
did you think the reference to the late Biafra strong man would
achieve?
Did you think that line would magically address all the institutionaliz
ed grave injustices in the system which you've made worse with your
open display of tribal bigotry, vindictiveness, raw hatred for people
from a particular section of the country and criminal disregard for
the same constitution you swore to protect??
That you believe the unity of over 180 million people is something
you, a Fulani man and Ojukwu, an Igbo man, can sit in your small
sitting room somewhere in your small village of Daura and
conclusively discuss, says a whole lot about how much value you
attach to the so called unity.
As a free citizen of a free world and one of those paying your
salaries, I find that statement criminally offensive and hopelessly
disappointing. But even more disappointing is the fact that even
after spending billions of our tax money and over 100 days treating
an undisclosed ailment abroad, you seem not to have learnt anything
from your numerous administrative blunders and trailer load of un-
presidential utterances, actions and inactions which in most part, are
responsible for the mess we are in today.
Mr President sir, let me remind you that you, it was, not Nnamdi
Kanu, who resuscitated and fuelled the current Biafra agitation. Even
the activities of the Niger Delta militants were all birthed by your
tact-less, bigoted, vindictive and mostly common-sensically bankrupt
utterances and actions.
And to prove that you are an unteachable ethnic jingoist with an
iniquitious sense of national unity and an atrocitious sense of
governance, all through your 3 minute address,
You didn't tell your employers the kind of ailment that kept you
away from your duty post for over 100 days and gulped billions of
tax payers' money.
You didn't announce measures to resuscitate the economy which
your criminal ineptitude and analogue economic plans largely played
a part in destroying.
You didn't mention measures you plan on taking towards addressing
the grievances of the secessionist groups even when you admitted
some of their grievances are genuine.
You didn't make any assurances towards calming freyed nerves
considering the mood of the country.
You didn't categorically condemn the series of terror your fulani
brethren are visiting on Nigerians. Instead, you played it down as
mere herdsmen/farmers clashes.
You didn't even categorically condemn your siblings (Arewa Youths)
for publicly threatening genocide on Igbos living in the North come
October 1st, 2017.
You did none of the above.
Instead,
You spent almost 50% of your broadcast threatening social media
users and aggrieved citizens who are only asking you to treat them
as equal stake-holders in the Nigeria project or allow them quit this
oppressive union. The other 50% was wasted on tales about your
meeting with Ojukwu where the duo of you supposedly decided on
behalf of over 180 million of us that the unity of Nigeria is non
negotiable.
In a nutshell, you spent over 100 days abroad on medical tourism on
tax payers' money against your campaign promises only to come
back with nothing but a trailer-load of insult, derision and threats
for the same citizens who paid and are still paying all your hospital
bill and salaries even when you were hardly doing any job??
Quite frankly, Mr President, that speech would easily pass off as one
hell of comedy except it was a tragedy.
You've simply proven that you are a man far detached from reality.
It would seem you are still stuck in 1985. Indeed, a leopard never
changes its skin.
Now, my dear president, as one of your employers, Iet me gift you
with some piece of advise:
First, Nigeria is not a nation unless we've all decided to adopt a very
confused and lopsided understanding of the term, "nation". More
importantly, our unity as a people is a farce. It doesn't exist. You
cannot discuss the negotiability or non-negotiability of a unity that
only exist in your imagination.
How can there be unity when you, Mr President, went to a foreign
land and publicly promised to discriminate against those who didn't
vote you with your infamous 97%_5% speech?
Where is the unity when you were busy gifting boko haram
terrorists and the marauding herdsmen with a juicy amnesty package
and military protection respectively at the exact time you were, and
still are, visiting the unarmed Biafra agitators with festival of bullets?
Most importantly, Mr President, mentioning "unity" and "non-
negotiable" in the same sentence betrays a very poor appreciation of
the queen's language. If it's unity, then the powers that bind the
parties together must have been birthed through negotiations. In
which case, any talk about the non-negotiability of such unity
becomes the height of conscientious idiocy bothering on the fringes
of lunacy. If it's unity that was a product of force, then it's no unity
at all.
Mr President sir, the clause "our unity is non-negotiable" is an
Oxymoronic expression.
You cannot threaten people of diverse cultural, religious and
language background into nationhood!!!!
Unity cannot be forced!
On your threats to agitators, Mr President, you proved you lack
basic understanding of what the issues are. It is not just the
southeast that is aggrieved, both the south south, south west and
even the North, your own region, are all aggrieved as examplified
by the October 1st quit notice and threat of genocide against Igbos
living in the North. Every section of the country is aggrieved.
Rather than proving you are too bloodthirsty for dialogue, initiate a
workable time-bound plan towards restructuring this country in such
a way to enthrone justice, fairness, equity and merit.
Restructure this British contraption now!
Or,
Watch the whole country collapse under the weight of its own
internal contradictions.
The fastest way of escalating an agitation is by trying to suppress it
rather than addressing the issues that birthed it.
Mr President, sir, I am not unaware of the fact that in the coming
days, we are going to be witnessing more killing of the unarmed
pro-Biafra agitators and series of arrests, abduction and
incarceration targeted at social media users and your political
opponents but I have a message for you, sir, just as we survived
your brutality between 31 December 1983 to 27th August 1985, We
Will Survive You!
This, too, shall pass!
I wish you exactly what you wish Nigerians.
(C) Charles Ogbu
Charles is a social media activist and Columnist with the
Guardian. He peddles words for a living.
This open letter is necessitated by issues of urgent national
importance not unconnected with your 3 minute recorded broadcast
to Nigerians this morning where you stated that Nigeria's unity is
settled and not negotiable.
Mr President, Sir, I wasn't exactly born with a talent for political
correctness so I like to assume your permission to pay you the
courtesy of being blunt.
First, I want to register my displeasure that you, a mere servant and
employee of the Nigerian people, could derisively address your
employers and the same people paying your salaries even when you
are hardly at work, as "my dear citizens" instead of "my fellow
citizens".
That derisive opening line in your speech lend more credence to an
already established fact which is that you are an arrogant victim of
messiah complex who sees his people, not as his employers whose
wishes he must harken to, but as lesser mortals and slaves who are
his to do as he pleases. Even Emperor Nero didn't address Romans
in that condescending manner.
Mr president sir, we are not your citizens. We are not even just
your fellow citizens! We are your employers! We are your boss! We
pay your bill. We feed you, Mr president. Talk to us with some
respect!
Mr president, when you told us how you discussed with Ojukwu in
2003 and agreed that Nigeria's unity is non negotiable, what exactly
did you think the reference to the late Biafra strong man would
achieve?
Did you think that line would magically address all the institutionaliz
ed grave injustices in the system which you've made worse with your
open display of tribal bigotry, vindictiveness, raw hatred for people
from a particular section of the country and criminal disregard for
the same constitution you swore to protect??
That you believe the unity of over 180 million people is something
you, a Fulani man and Ojukwu, an Igbo man, can sit in your small
sitting room somewhere in your small village of Daura and
conclusively discuss, says a whole lot about how much value you
attach to the so called unity.
As a free citizen of a free world and one of those paying your
salaries, I find that statement criminally offensive and hopelessly
disappointing. But even more disappointing is the fact that even
after spending billions of our tax money and over 100 days treating
an undisclosed ailment abroad, you seem not to have learnt anything
from your numerous administrative blunders and trailer load of un-
presidential utterances, actions and inactions which in most part, are
responsible for the mess we are in today.
Mr President sir, let me remind you that you, it was, not Nnamdi
Kanu, who resuscitated and fuelled the current Biafra agitation. Even
the activities of the Niger Delta militants were all birthed by your
tact-less, bigoted, vindictive and mostly common-sensically bankrupt
utterances and actions.
And to prove that you are an unteachable ethnic jingoist with an
iniquitious sense of national unity and an atrocitious sense of
governance, all through your 3 minute address,
You didn't tell your employers the kind of ailment that kept you
away from your duty post for over 100 days and gulped billions of
tax payers' money.
You didn't announce measures to resuscitate the economy which
your criminal ineptitude and analogue economic plans largely played
a part in destroying.
You didn't mention measures you plan on taking towards addressing
the grievances of the secessionist groups even when you admitted
some of their grievances are genuine.
You didn't make any assurances towards calming freyed nerves
considering the mood of the country.
You didn't categorically condemn the series of terror your fulani
brethren are visiting on Nigerians. Instead, you played it down as
mere herdsmen/farmers clashes.
You didn't even categorically condemn your siblings (Arewa Youths)
for publicly threatening genocide on Igbos living in the North come
October 1st, 2017.
You did none of the above.
Instead,
You spent almost 50% of your broadcast threatening social media
users and aggrieved citizens who are only asking you to treat them
as equal stake-holders in the Nigeria project or allow them quit this
oppressive union. The other 50% was wasted on tales about your
meeting with Ojukwu where the duo of you supposedly decided on
behalf of over 180 million of us that the unity of Nigeria is non
negotiable.
In a nutshell, you spent over 100 days abroad on medical tourism on
tax payers' money against your campaign promises only to come
back with nothing but a trailer-load of insult, derision and threats
for the same citizens who paid and are still paying all your hospital
bill and salaries even when you were hardly doing any job??
Quite frankly, Mr President, that speech would easily pass off as one
hell of comedy except it was a tragedy.
You've simply proven that you are a man far detached from reality.
It would seem you are still stuck in 1985. Indeed, a leopard never
changes its skin.
Now, my dear president, as one of your employers, Iet me gift you
with some piece of advise:
First, Nigeria is not a nation unless we've all decided to adopt a very
confused and lopsided understanding of the term, "nation". More
importantly, our unity as a people is a farce. It doesn't exist. You
cannot discuss the negotiability or non-negotiability of a unity that
only exist in your imagination.
How can there be unity when you, Mr President, went to a foreign
land and publicly promised to discriminate against those who didn't
vote you with your infamous 97%_5% speech?
Where is the unity when you were busy gifting boko haram
terrorists and the marauding herdsmen with a juicy amnesty package
and military protection respectively at the exact time you were, and
still are, visiting the unarmed Biafra agitators with festival of bullets?
Most importantly, Mr President, mentioning "unity" and "non-
negotiable" in the same sentence betrays a very poor appreciation of
the queen's language. If it's unity, then the powers that bind the
parties together must have been birthed through negotiations. In
which case, any talk about the non-negotiability of such unity
becomes the height of conscientious idiocy bothering on the fringes
of lunacy. If it's unity that was a product of force, then it's no unity
at all.
Mr President sir, the clause "our unity is non-negotiable" is an
Oxymoronic expression.
You cannot threaten people of diverse cultural, religious and
language background into nationhood!!!!
Unity cannot be forced!
On your threats to agitators, Mr President, you proved you lack
basic understanding of what the issues are. It is not just the
southeast that is aggrieved, both the south south, south west and
even the North, your own region, are all aggrieved as examplified
by the October 1st quit notice and threat of genocide against Igbos
living in the North. Every section of the country is aggrieved.
Rather than proving you are too bloodthirsty for dialogue, initiate a
workable time-bound plan towards restructuring this country in such
a way to enthrone justice, fairness, equity and merit.
Restructure this British contraption now!
Or,
Watch the whole country collapse under the weight of its own
internal contradictions.
The fastest way of escalating an agitation is by trying to suppress it
rather than addressing the issues that birthed it.
Mr President, sir, I am not unaware of the fact that in the coming
days, we are going to be witnessing more killing of the unarmed
pro-Biafra agitators and series of arrests, abduction and
incarceration targeted at social media users and your political
opponents but I have a message for you, sir, just as we survived
your brutality between 31 December 1983 to 27th August 1985, We
Will Survive You!
This, too, shall pass!
I wish you exactly what you wish Nigerians.
(C) Charles Ogbu
Charles is a social media activist and Columnist with the
Guardian. He peddles words for a living.
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