Below is the advice given to our President, Goodluck E. Johnathan by Chief Dele Momodu, Former Presidential Candidate in 2011 and the Publisher of Ovation Magazine.
Life
is a unique combination of want to & how to, and we need to give equal
attention to both. –Jim Rohn
Our
dear Commander-in-Chief, I write to you with a bleeding and sorrowful heart.
These past weeks have been extremely bloody in some parts of Nigeria. Every
time I think of it, I get the feeling that those parts are not part of us. They
belong elsewhere, probably in some remotest corner of the world. Those helpless
and hapless citizens cannot be our own the way that we have allowed them to be
treated. They are total strangers in a foreign land. As such, we’ve not been
able to offer them the protection they deserve and succour they desire.
They
have been manacled, mangled and massacred so mercilessly and ruthlessly.
They’ve been butchered like rams in abattoirs. I’ve seen lurid pictures of
fresh corpses and bodies of innocent victims sent to early graves without
reason. It is as if we have returned to the Dark Ages.
I
don’t know of anywhere else where terrorists are having such a field day
unhindered, unhampered and with such effortless ease at this moment. They are
raiding our villages and towns with uncommon gusto, wanton abandon and without
discrimination. They kill and maim the young and old, men and women, able and
disabled. No one is spared in this gory brutality. Their job is made simple by
protectors who have learnt the art of vanishing into thin air (when badly
needed) and a Leadership whose template is already pre-determined and
predictable.
The
reason for my smug assumption is simple...
I
do not feel a sense of palpable revulsion in us. There is no sign of
desperation to suggest we are determined to do something drastic about this
unacceptable situation. There seems to be no impetus for speed and urgency in
bringing this atrocious bloodbath under control. What we are hearing repeatedly
are mere platitudes, words of ineffective promises broken and hope long lost.
This is most unfortunate.
Sir,
please don’t get me wrong. I’m not blaming you for this unprecedented crisis.
It did not begin under your watch, although some may claim, uncharitably
perhaps, that it has escalated under it. I cannot reasonably suggest that you
are uncaring and nonchalant about this monumental tragedy. I think the problem
is that of miscommunication, as is so often the case with your administration
and this has been amplified by your body language. The problem of this
magnitude requires a more resolute and concerted response. You cannot treat
terminal cancer with Paracetamol. Wars are not just about weapons, whether the
weapons of mass destruction. Words can indeed be more lethal sometimes.
The
Americans have mastered the art of matching words with action. They are not the
only ones. Most leaders nowadays know that mastery of the spoken word is half
way to being a successful leader because that way you inspire and motivate. The
people wreaking this havoc on Nigeria are not spirits from outer space. They
can be talked to. Even if they were spirits we have it in folklore that our
great leaders of yore communicated directly with those spirits by speaking to
them.
Going
back to the problem, I believe that you have two or three options to deal with
grave issue. The first is the instinctive recourse of a village bully and that
is to fight back with superior firepower. However, no one is able to place a
bet that we possess such military advantage, given the way in which these
terrorists have been able to infiltrate even our military establishments and
terrorise the occupants. You have tried this option and it seems that you have
failed somewhat.
The
second option is to negotiate with someone you realise you cannot conquer in a
free and fair fight, because it is obvious that they are fighting dirty and
employing every available means at their disposal, whether sanctioned by the
Geneva Convention or not. You appear to have attempted to utilise this option
by setting up a Boko Haram peace committee to open up some dialogue with this
dreaded group but it seems that committee has gone into coma, if not stillbirth
or dead on arrival. The third option is what is known as the carrot and stick
approach, or fight and play. That is also neither here nor there; even though
it appears that you have not given this approach enough consideration. In fact
it seems you have gone back to the tried and failed approach of deploying a
suspect military might with what is glaringly becoming dire consequences.
I
sincerely sympathise with the condition under which you’ve had to govern, ever
since you became an accidental President. These indeed are not the best of
times for Nigeria or Nigerians. Since you attained power, Nigeria has continued
to meander from one crisis to the other. While it is possible that some
politicians never wished you well some of the problems appear to be
self-inflicted. I think in a genuine but flawed effort to enhance your image as
a leader you recruited the wrong people and wasted too many resources on them.
All you needed was to spend most of that money on building monuments that would
outlive your government. Even your most vociferous critics would eventually
have applauded you. The best punishment to inflict on your enemies is to
continue to succeed and excel. I believe the biggest mistake you have made to
date is playing into the hands of politicians by showing early interest in
going for a second term. If you try your best and deliver on some of your
electoral promises, no Jupiter can stop your forward march.
In
seeking to secure another term in office, you have allowed some people to amass
enemies on your behalf. They did not know or understand how to persuade people
with reason and dialogue as demanded by democracy. The same lack of knowledge
and understanding has led to the approach adopted in dealing with the Boko
Haram threat. Every little disagreement is amplified and elevated to the level of
fisticuffs. Every critic must be stricken down and criminalised by the
attack-dogs. They dissipate energy on irrelevant things while the roof is on
fire. The weight of your performance would have counter-balanced the burden of
terrorism.
But
it seems your guys have pre-occupied themselves with fighting every imaginary
enemy. This is what has led to the implosion and conflagration in you party
PDP. As if that was not bad enough, Boko Haram has defied all your war
strategy. As a matter of fact, the menace has quadrupled while we are being
told we are winning the war. How, I often wonder.
I
decided to write you after watching your last national broadcast because it
dawned on me that we are sending the wrong signals not only to our citizens but
also to the rest of the world. I’m addicted to watching international news
channels, as I am sure are a lot of Nigerians, and I have since discovered that
five animals dying would attract bigger treatment than 50 Nigerians being
killed. Whilst we cannot blame the foreign journalists, we must of course blame
our own attitude to crisis management. The reason for the cold shoulder of
international journalists to our national tragedy and grief is because of our
own seeming indifference to monumental disasters. Perhaps, it is due to natural
and spiritual defects in how we respond to issues and communicate when under
pressure.
I
had tuned in to your broadcast last Wednesday with the anxious hope that
finally you were going to speak extensively and comprehensively about reinvigorating
your war against terrorism, in the wake of the killing of about 50 innocent
students and the massacre of several more in Yobe. I was mortified when your
opening lines started about what has become the new obsession for your
Administration – the Centenary Celebration. I really don’t know who your speech
writers are but they did their worst that night. You missed an opportunity to
reassure the nation about any serious intent to take the war to the doorstep of
those who won’t allow others to rest. I could imagine how a President Obama
would have started that speech in respect of the same breach of American
security:
“On
Sunday, we lost 50 students to terrorists who invaded our Unity school to
spread their campaign of hate and division. They burnt down the school and
levelled it to the ground. On Monday, the same gang of killers invaded a
village in Yobe and shot at everyone and everything in sight. Many of our
citizens lost their lives. I have summoned a meeting of my service chiefs and I
have instructed that the Army and Airforce immediately go after these guys and
pursue them to their holes. They shall have no hiding place. We shall unearth
them from every hiding hole. It is unfortunate that this is coming at a time we
are celebration our hundred years of nationhood, when our very union is at
stake and we are doing everything to cement that unity. It is ironic that these
people chose to attack one of the very symbols of our togetherness, a Unity
School.
“I
have decided to scale down the centenary celebration. We shall now use the
occasion to celebrate our brothers and sisters who lost their lives to these
senseless and unwarranted killings. Never again would agents of darkness be
allowed to roam our streets with the freedom they refuse to grant others.
America will not go to sleep and allow this nonsense to have any impact on any
of our citizens. My National Security Adviser has been mandated to report the
latest developments to me on hourly basis. My heart reaches out to these
victims and their families. Michelle and I offer our condolences to a grieving
nation. We promise to do everything possible to protect innocent kids who are
the future of this country. We must all resolve to say Never Again. God bless
America!”
The
centenary speech that you prepared had been overtaken by events and you should
have realised this and immediately changed tack. I’m sure your fellow leaders
were aghast to see that everything went on as normal without any sign of
national mourning. Are we for real? I wish to appeal to you, Sir that something
must change urgently. Please, don’t dismiss this as an unsolicited intervention
from political opponents. Let me emphasise that this is not coming from APC. I
am not a member of that Party. I’m only a concerned Nigerian who does not want
you to fail no matter what your advisers tell you otherwise. This is the role
I’ve played most of my adult life. I know if you succeed there will be a
brighter future for me and my children. No country can succeed in an atmosphere
of perpetual strife.
If
you fail all of us from similar background would have been put to shame. When
tomorrow comes and we say illiterate rulers ruled and ruined Nigeria, we’ll be
reminded that a PhD holder also misruled and destroyed Nigeria. If we blame
Northerners for the underdevelopment and terrible woes in Nigeria we are going
to be asked if the Niger Delta became a Dubai under your tenure. Don’t be
deceived by those telling you sweet things today. They are not your true
friends. Your well-wishers are your constructive critics who can tell you as it
is and not those deceiving you that they will commit suicide if you don’t
declare your interest in running for the second term now. We know them very
well as soldiers of fortune that are always available to serve potential
customers like you.
May God help you at this
very difficult task
Source: Olufamous
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