Mr. President, you will recall that I wrote
you an open letter on December 28th, 2015
which I sincerely hope that you found most
gratifying, illuminating and helpful. That
was two days before your Presidential
media chat which took place on December
30th. I hereby humbly crave your
indulgence to add an addendum to that
open letter.
That is what this contribution represents. I hope
and pray that this second letter, which will be the
last, will further enlighten you and impart a little
more wise counsel to you that will result in
assisting you to properly appreciate the
complexities of our times. Mr. President it is
pertinent to note that approximately two hundred
and sixty five years ago one of the founding
fathers of the United States of America, Mr.
Benjamin Franklin, said "rebellion to tyrants is
obedience to God".
I am sure that you will agree with me when I say
that he was absolutely right. Just in case you do
not know who Benjamin Franklin was permit me
to point out the fact that he is a man that is
reverred by the American people and much of the
civilised world up until today and he is the
individual whose face appears on the one hundred
U.S. dollar bills that are used till today.
He was a great statesman, diplomat, politician
and intellectual and most important of all he was
a deeply courageous man who was motivated by
his deepest convictions and his christian values
and who was prepared to risk life and liberty and
stand up to tyranny. I guess most Nigerian
leaders have much to learn from him especially at
times like this. Yet thankfully all is not lost and
at least a few of our politicians are beginning to
find their voice and speak out against the evil in
the land.
Permit me to share one example with you. A few
days ago Chief Olisa Metuh, the National Publicity
Secretary of our great party the PDP, exposed the
fact that there was an orchestrated attempt by
your government to intimidate, silence and utterly
decimate and crush the opposition. In open
defiance to what can best be described as this
insidious and sinister agenda he told the world
that ''President Buhari is not God and we will not
worship him".
Whether he knows it or not Metuh has not only
spoken for the PDP but also for the overwhelming
majority of the Nigerian people. Permit me to add
the following words to his timely contribution.
Woe unto those that tremble before men of power
and that worship false gods. Destruction and
perdition awaits those who bow before Baal, who
exalt the servants of Belial, who kiss the ring of
the Baphomet, who say ''Buhari is God'' and who
crawl at the feet of the Lord of the Flies.
Mr. President the point is simple and clear: you
are not God and even though we respect your
office we will never bow before you, we will never
worship you, we will not relent in our efforts to
oppose you and, regardless of your constant
threats and wicked intentions, we have absolutely
no fear of you. This is because our fate and
destiny and the future of our beloved country lies
in the hands of the Living God and not in the
hands of a misguided and tyrannical dictator like
your good self. Injustice, persecution and tyranny
last only for a season.
At the appointed time the Lord will step in and He
will deliver and vindicate the falsely accused and
the righteous captive. He will also avenge the
spilling of innocent blood and He will fight the
cause of the martyrs. With this in mind and
regardless of the dangerous counsel of the
hardliners and extremists that surround you, I
urge you to please take note of the following:
Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky, Colonel Sambo Dasuki
and Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, who are all political
prisoners, must NOT die under mysterious
circumstances whilst they are in your custody.
No matter what your advisers and those in your
inner circle tell you if, God forbid, this were to
happen the fall-out and consequences for your
reputation and your administration would be too
much to bear. This brings me to another issue
which is a cause for grave concern.
Your stated resolve not to obey court orders and
to deny Nigerians their right to bail after the
courts have given it to them is not only an
affront and gratuitous insult to the Judiciary but
it is also a violation of the constitution. I say this
because, unlike military dictatorships, democracy
enjoys and derives its power and legitimacy from
the inviolable and sacred principle of ''separation
of powers''.
What this means is that the Executive arm of
Government, which by the grace of God you head
today, is distinct and separate from the
Legislature and the Judiciary. As head of the
Executive and President of the Federal Republic,
you have absolutely no power or right to interfere
in the processes of the Legislature (which is the
National Assembly) or the Judiciary.
Both have their own rules, regulations and
leadership and the constitution guides them and
guarantees them total and complete independence
from you. As a matter of fact they are charged by
the laws of our land and the constitution to act
as a check and balance on you as President and
to ensure that you do not abuse your power or
subject your people to tyranny.
Mr. President I watched you on your media chat
the other day and I am constrained to tell you
that you not only abused your power but that you
also crossed the line with some of the things that
you said. For example you have no right to tell
the courts how to administer justice and who and
who not to grant bail.
Again you have no business to tell the legislature
which laws to pass and how to run their affairs.
Again you have no right and neither do you have
the power to pronounce any Nigerian citizen
guilty of any crime unless and until a duly
constituted court of law has done so. You cannot
be the prosecutor, judge and jury in any criminal
proceeding and this is especially so when you
initiated those proceedings and you are the
accuser
To attempt to do so is not only unacceptable and
irresponsible but it is also heartless and unkind.
The fact that most of our senior and respected
lawyers have refused to tell you this simply
because they are scared of you or because they
are looking for patronage from your government
does not mean that what you are doing is lawful
or acceptable.
What you are doing is morally and legally
reprehensible and it is unacceptable in any
democratic and civilized society. In the same vein
you have no right to try to stop members of the
opposition or the general public from criticizing
you or condemning your obvious failings. Mr.
President criticism, opposition and dissent are the
lifeblood of democracy and without
accommodating and tolerating them you cannot
claim to be a democrat.
You have no right to attempt to cower or
intimidate the fourth estate of the realm, which is
the media, or attempt to pervert and corrupt the
Nigerian public with daily doses of lies, falsehood,
deceit and propaganda which is being duly and
dutifully administered by your Minister of
Information and your numerous media aides.
All these things give me and millions of your
other subjects concern yet it doesn't stop there.
Perhaps the most disturbing example of your
sheer insensitivity was your reaction to the
question about Igbo marginalization during the
media chat. In response to that question you
asked "who is marginalizing who" and went
further to ask "what do the Igbo want?"
Mr. President I wish to remind you that it is an
incontrovertible fact that in just seven months
your government has succeeded in marginalizing
the Igbo more than any other Federal Government
in living memory and certainly since the civil war.
This is a record that you ought not to be proud
of. What the Igbo want is fairness, equal rights,
equal representation, equity and respect.
They also believe that they have the right to
determine their own future and make their own
choices. Mr. President I do not believe that this Is
this too much for them to ask given the fact that
they have contributed, perhaps more than most,
to national development and integration in the
last forty five years? It is not too much to ask
given the fact that no less than three million of
their people, including one million innocent
children, were slaughtered during our civil war in
the name of keeping Nigeria one? I have no doubt
that you will remember this very well Mr.
President given the fact that you were one of
those that prosecuted that war and fought in it.
You will also remember the brutal mass murder
and the war crimes and crimes against humanity
that were perpetrated against the unarmed and
defenseless Igbo civilian population of Asaba in
1968 when over one thousand of them were
rounded up, taken to the town square and shot to
death for no just cause. The soldiers that carried
out that unspeakable act of cowardice, brutality
and barbarity were under the command of your
professional colleague, the late Head of State,
General Murtala Mohammed.
Mr. President that was a dark, shameful and
ignoble chapter in our history which still cries out
for justice and reparations. Needless to say the
pain of such horrendous events and numerous
others that the Igbo have been subjected to by
the Nigerian state and those that control it over
the last fifty five years still haunts them.
The truth is that regardless of the obvious
contempt that you have for them the Igbo will
continue to insist on justice, fairness and on
having their rights respected in our country. If you
refuse to address their numerous and legitimate
grievances and you refuse to treat them with the
understanding, sensitivity and compassion that
they deserve, the agitation for self-determination,
secession and the yearning for the establishment
of a new nation called Biafra will wax stronger
and stronger until it reaches dangerous and
irresistible proportions.
That is what you are toying with Mr. President
and if that were to happen be rest assured that
the Yoruba would take a cue from it and so
would the people of the Niger Delta. It would
effectively signify the beginning of the
balkanisation of Nigeria. Whether you and those
with your world view like to hear it or not, that is
the bitter truth. May the Ancient of Days grant
you the wisdom, knowledge and understanding to
accept it and to do something about it.
May the Lord of the Universe give you the
foresight and the insight to appreciate the fact
that Nigeria cannot survive a second civil war.
Mr. President I sincerely hope that you do not
take offence at my admonitions and counsel. I
speak only out of concern for the fortunes of
your administration, your reputation and out of
love for my country.
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