KWENU! Our culture, our future

Thank you, President Olusegun Obasanjo!

Max Gbanite

New Jersey, U.S.A.

Monday, October 7, 2002

THANK YOU!

I sincerely thought that my last article titled, ‘Requiem for Peoples Democratic Party, PDP will be buried in 2003’ -- published in popular Nigerian websites -- was my last until after the PDP national convention. However, as I pondered the state of affairs in our beloved country Nigeria and after a serious spiritual fasting like you, the Almighty sent angels to rebuke me for not thanking you for all your achievements; both personal and national. Before thanking you, I would first of all like to thank the Almighty God (The Most Merciful) for granting our country abundant blessings, His love, and His mercies; and for revealing to you the prescience on what would happen come 2003, if you don’t tread carefully.

Mr. President: I thank you sincerely for being conferred with a doctoral degree by the Oral Roberts University of Oklahoma for extrapolating the idea of GSM from Vision 2010 construed under the late General Sani Abacha -- which would have been done by any President anyway -- and calling it your own accomplishment. Thank you for making the Guinness World Book of Records for being the first President in the world to have traveled to over 104 countries in three years, searching for an elusive investment that has been trickling in, but disguised as Yoruforeigner investors.

Thank you for being the first Nigerian to have been head of state for three years, a very unsuccessful rich farmer, went to prison, and came out to become President again, and the first to face impeachment. Praise be to God, the Most Merciful! Alleluia. Thank you for accepting the award conferred upon Nigeria as the second most corrupt country in the world. We have truly climbed the ladder since General Ibrahim B. Babangida-led government, when we were ranked around the mid thirties. Keep your head up; at least, our colonial master Britain and United States are within the first twenty.

Thank you for the brilliant decline of the naira: Nigerians abroad, Nigerians in diaspora, and Nigerians in economic exile join me in thanking you abundantly for this fantastic feat. Do you know that during General Babangida’s time we could only get a measly 40-45 naira to the dollar? Then under General Abacha it went up to 83 and stayed there for almost five years. Then came General Abdulsalam Abubarkar, and our currency made it to 100 naira for one US dollars; and he made sure it didn’t pass 105 when he handed over power to you on May 29, 1999. But thank you sir for understanding our lack-of-naira plight: You made it 137 to one dollar and rising!

Thank you finally for exhibiting what some experts refer to as pettiness, inattention, and gross incompetence in the running of our beloved country, Nigeria. It is now very apparent that when you were the Head of State (1976-1979), the vision being carried out was the brain child of our national hero, the late General Murtala R. Muhammed, and you probably would not have been able to do much on your own without the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua orchestrating your moves. I say this because here again the Almighty God used General Babangida (rtd.) and Gen. Aliyu Gusau (rtd.) to make you the President, hoping that you still possess some vision for the country. But your record, as seen by most of us that love the country, is very sad. In short you have failed us and disappointed our children. I thank you for failing, sir.

FLASHBACK

Having thanked you as demanded by the Holy Spirit, I can now state my mind: I remember vividly being present at a well-attended reception organized in your honor by a group of ‘new breed’ Nigerians in 1995 at the Nigerian House, which you attended with your good friend and junior in the military, the late General Joseph N. Garba. That visit was probably your last before you went on a forced vacation to Yola. In that reception, a young brilliant man Ike Michaels illuminated your intelligence when he posited that, for Nigeria to enjoy the influx of foreign investments comparable to Malaysia and the Asian tigers, the government must create an “enabling market environment.” You were so in awe with that word “enabling market environment” that you sought further clarification. The young man stated the following as the indices: Security to life and property guaranteed to both the investors and Nigerian citizens; reduction of corruption in government and in the private sector; stable power generation and transmission to enable investors install and operate their machineries; good telecommunications systems; good roads, rails, and water ways to enable the investors move their products from point A to B; and, finally, a sincere reduction in bank interest rates to enable local business operators to borrow money from banks.

You were so enamored by Ike Michaels’ suggestions that you even recommended that he should head the economic section of the group, and you promised to make sure that your influence within the circles of government would be used to send the message across. Well, you are now blessed with the power. What did you do? The young man I was later told brought a very serious investment team to Nigeria to meet with you, but his idea of “enabling market environment” got lost in the labyrinth corridors of Aso Villa. Thank you.

At another reception I attended was organized by Hon. Taofiq Oseni, Counsel General, after you came out of Yola in 1998. You advocated forgiveness for your tormentors; and, in fact, your preachment of forgiveness so endeared most people in attendance that my gracious mother-in-law was in tears. I did not cry because my father has always told us his children to be very careful and cognizant of ‘retroactive resentment.’ You actually proved me right. Immediately you took over, you had your security setup to pick up all your tormentors, some of whom are still languishing in Kirikiri Prison without trial or bail. Is this justice? Whatever happened to your proclaimed total forgiveness and trusting the Almighty God -- the Most Merciful -- with the judgment of those people?

Your next move was to teach the North a lesson. Observers of your moves would agree that you have not forgotten Yola, after all you have done for the north. You fought alongside them to kill Biafrans, you secured the surrender from General Phillip Effiong (rtd.) when the bold, fearless but scared General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu fled Biafra and abandoned his people to their fate; and you handed power back to Alhaji Shehu Shagari and the North in 1979, three years after the first power shift was handed to you in 1976. And the North rewarded you by allowing the Goggled One to send you to Yola? Haba!

Thank you for your forgiveness-vengeance.

STATE OF THE NATION

In July 1999, I attended the first economic summit organized by your administration at the Villa’s Media Center. On that day, your good friend Otunba M.O. Balogun, Chairman of First City Merchant Bank, warned that you must check the nefarious activities of Indians and Lebanese and the impact of their criminal economic activities in the country. You were not happy with his observation; instead, you cautioned that Nigerians must emulate the Indians who have left their country to come and invest in Nigeria. The Bankers in attendance were not so happy with your comments.

At that conference, I submitted that for the economy to be reinvigorated, you must discuss with the CBN governor, who was in attendance on how to reduce the interest rate drastically, and to stop the closing of Peoples Bank -- which rendered over 5,000 people unemployed. I asked that PTF employees be reverted to the Ministry of Works as project monitors, since the dissolution would create further unemployment and other ministries would absorb the lucky ones with connections. Well, that unfortunate exercise rendered over 10,000 people jobless.

The Bankers, mostly chief executives, agreed with my submissions on interest rates. I also recommended that you excogitate a policy that would aggressively pursue the import of Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), how it could benefit the country and spurn exports. Thank you for taking that advice; at least, Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, with Dr. (Mrs.) Aribisala, then Executive Director, took the initiative to hold the first investment seminar in New York in September 2000. The Nigerian-American Development Council, under the leadership of Charles Williams, an American, having been paid close to a billion naira, is still sensitizing Nigerians on the workings of AGOA! Over two years later, the results are neither here nor there.

Mr. President, you swore to us that you will do a good and unbiased job for the country, and we actually believed you. I believed, especially when you started giving high positions to my Yoruba brothers and sisters, who hated the fact that the North, the Southeast, and Southsouth had chosen you as their Presidential candidate. They had sworn by all the deities in Egbaland to scuttle your ascension to that post. Your rewarding their perceived political foolishness was seen by many an act of statesmanship.

Remember that those that voted for you didn’t vote because you are a Yoruba man. Afterall, the same voters once voted for two Muslims as President and Vice President (M. K. O. Abiola and Baba Kingibe) without rancor. But as you face your self-indulged impeachment, your advisers like Mr. Oseni, CAN President Sunday Mbang, Yoruba Council of Elders, and the ethnic militia OPC are all suggesting that you are being impeached because you are a Yoruba man. These people according to George Will, an American columnist, are specimens of what Lenin, referring to Westerners who denied the existence of Lenin’s police-state terror, called “Useful Idiots.” As “Useful Idiots” they failed to tell the truth about the state of the economy or that you may have inadvertently abrogated the Constitution of the land.

At 42 years, as an independent country, international observers intent on investing in the country are being told by leaders of your party, PDP that there is no enabling environment for economic activities. Senate President Anyim P. Anyim, a PDP stalwart, started by saying, “We erred, we gave little when much was expected from us. Today, we must, all of us learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of our fathers to chart a new course for the nation. We must learn to make sacrifices for the survival of the country.” House Speaker Gali Na’Abba had this to say, “I will like Nigerians to take note that the increasing spate of violence, especially of political nature, will not serve the interest of our democracy, rather it can only truncate our democratic system. Let me, therefore, call on all Nigerians to eschew violence and disregard persons or groups that encourage violence.”

STATE OF SECURITY AND IMPEACHMENT

Mr. President, The Daily Trust, Wednesday, August 12, 2002 wrote: “The face-off between the PDP National Chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh and the Senate President, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, is far from being over as the Senate President has cried out that his life is in danger, even though the disagreement has been settled.” Thank you for your feeble investigation of a threat to the number three man in the country.

Mr. Samson U. Ichigboja, an ANPP stalwart was murdered in Kogi State on July 6, 2002 in what has become a recurring nightmare of politically motivated violence.

Alhaji Ishiaku Mohammed, UNPP Vice Chairman North Central, was murdered last month in his house in Kano, prompting General Babangida to lament the state of security in the nation or, rather, the lack of it.

The Chairman of PDP in Kwara State was murdered in June, 2002 while working hard to deliver his party mandate.

The Chairman of Nigeria Bar Association in Anambra State and his wife were murdered in the most gruesome manner in September 2002 because he disagrees with powerful people’s policy of suffering the masses.

18 Students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka were carelessly gunned down while taking their exams in May/June. Many others have died in other higher institutions across the nation from Cross River State, where 22 were killed, to Ondo and Ogun States; all at the hands of errant cultists who have become ‘merchants of death’ on campuses across the country.

Recently, Hon. Nduka Irabor, a member of the House of Representatives, almost lost his life to hired killers at his country home in Agbor. Distinguished Senator Lekan Balogun escaped assassination after decamping from AD to PDP.

Recently the UNPP Vice Chairman for North West was almost killed by hired killers. What about the unknown and unemployed/employed innocent civilians murdered daily in the hands of gainfully employed armed robbers. I say “gainfully employed” because robbery and hired killers seem to be the only lucrative business available to university graduates and unemployed youths.

Our late Attorney General Bola Ige is not yet resting in peace because his known-but-unknown killers from higher ups in government have not been arrested. Even Prof. Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate, who was quoted by Nigerian newspapers as knowing the killers, has yet to give the police their names or be interrogated by the SSS. Governor Bisi Akande of Osun State, who promised to reward his constituencies with names of the killers if they vote him back into office, has not been invited by the SSS for questioning. But Ige’s associates and friends led by Chief Faroumbi (without Afenifere) have promised to have a veritable birthday bash to honor the dead man, instead of staging a protest party to get the killers.

The OPC, the ethnophobic militia that terrorizes people in and around Lagos, never staged any persistent protests to unmask Ige’s killers; instead, they stage anti-impeachment protest marches against a President that once ordered that they should be shot on sight for their terrorist acts against non-Yoruba indigenes living in Lagos.

Mr. President, let me be the first to congratulate you on your seriousness in fighting crime and for shaming Americans for having the temerity to advise their citizens that Nigeria is unsafe for them to visit or do business. Thank you again, sir!

In September 1999 World Bank summit held in Washington, DC, I remember raising security as a serious impediment to foreign investment at a luncheon organized by FSB Bank, attended by Vice President Atiku Abubarkar. He agreed with me and promised the would-be-foreign investors in attendance that government would do something about it. When you later came in November of the same year, you acknowledged to me when we met that the Vice President already delivered my implicit message and that your administration would leave no stone unturned in the fight against insecurity.

In April 2000, I met your Vice President in Biu, Borno State, when he was accorded the title of ‘Shettima Biu.’ I raised the same issue when I had a chance to talk briefly with him, and I noticed that he traveled with a full military battalion from Yola to Biu, to avoid embarrassment from the robbers that cross our borders from the neighboring countries of Cameroons, Niger, and Chad Republic.

The inattention to this problem by your government prompted me to write an article titled ‘National Security and Intelligence Under Democracy, and the way Forward’ first published by TODAY Newspaper, February issue, Hotline Magazine, April 8, 2001, Abuja Newsweek, June 2001 issue, and a follow up interview with New Nigerian, July 2001.

On July 12, 2000, General Jemibewon (rtd.), then Minister of Police Affairs, and I appeared on National Television Authority’s ‘Tuesday Night Live’ program -- anchored by Frank Olize -- to again discuss the security issue and proffer solutions. On July 17, 2000, I appeared on AIT television program ‘KAKAAKI’ -- anchored by Mac Amarere --to discuss this security epidemic and offer workable solutions. However, I was made to understand that your IGP then did not want free advice from an American-based expert. Funny, but thanks anyway! If after three and half years in office the country’s security is worse than when you took over, what guarantee to lives and property are you giving to foreign investors then?

The impeachment imbroglio that is overwhelming you today could be traced to what the ‘Future seer/Overseer’ Tunde Bakare had predicted, prompting your security apparatchiks to arrest and detain him in Lagos. They forgot that the Holy Bible forbids the harassment of the anointed. The man could have since then gone into serious fasting for his prediction to come to passé.

As a kid in primary school, we were told that what goes around comes around. I have always marveled at the wisdom of that statement. I say this, sir, just to remind you of all the dangerous moves of legislator’s impeachments credited to your office, which appears to have perfected in the art of installing and uninstalling people in office since the inception of your regime. I remember all the movements of “Ghana-must-go” bags at Hilton Hotel Abuja, during the tussle to determine who would be the Senate President and the deputy. I was there, and I witnessed the manipulation by your PLO and advisers.

I was also at the Eagle Square during the manipulated selection of Engr. Barnabas Gemade over Chief Sunday Awoniyi, as the preferred choice for PDP chairmanship. I also learnt about the ouster of Gemade, making room for Chief Audu Ogbeh.

When Dr. Okadigbo became the Senate President after the removal of Chief Evans Ewerem, you set the machinery of impeachment against Okadigbo in motion. The irony of it all was that you even graced the opening ceremony of his official residence at Apo village, only to spearhead his removal days later. Thank you.

Since your PLOs constantly used the naira as an art of settlement to lobby for your bills in both legislative houses, they inevitably set the precedence of corruption at the highest level of government. It is then no wonder that you were hit with the order to resign or be impeached by the House, you were heard telling the entire nation that they were joking, that they wanted was money, and they would keep their mouths shut. Good for you! Unfortunately, the “Useful Idiots” in your advisory teams failed to alert you of the 17 impeachable offenses you were being accused of breaching. How memories fade so fast.

Remember in 2000, Distinguished Senator Arthur Nzeribe listed only 12, and nearly lost his life for it. Why it took the (dis)honorable members of the House two more years to wake up from the slumber, only you, Mr. President, knows. After all, the Almighty God told you before you announced your ambition to continue in office at all cost!

Your office was credited for making all sorts of moves including bribing members of the House to impeach their speaker Gali Na’Abba, and even recently, moves were being made to impeach the Senate President Anyim P. Anyim through the powers of naira. This is what I call “Apo Village Standoff,” a classic case of an old woman plucking mouth-watering spinach vegetables to eat, whilst the spinach vegetable is equally planning to purge the old woman’s stomach. Why are you afraid of being impeached when your office has done so to many people, and it is still seen doing it?.

CONCLUSION

Mr. President,

Can you honestly say that you have been truthful to Nigerians in the manner with which you conducted the affairs of the country constitutionally? Why are workers owed salaries, especially junior workers and teachers? Imagine Nigerians working in embassies abroad being owed salaries, and their rents are overdue for months. Is this good for the image of the country, when your ministers come to America to have lavish weddings fit for the Queen of England for their daughters, attended by your wife?

Your Excellency, it appears your tongue seems to put you into trouble very often. Apparently you did not follow your prescription for controlling our tongues as you have written in your book ‘Sermons from Prison’. You wrote:

“The tongue is the most eloquent and useful part of our body in working for God and humanity. And yet used negatively, the same tongue can hinder the development of our Christian life. Lies slander, gossip, tale bearing, falsehood and backbiting are sharp words that kill slowly or promptly. Perversity, corrupt and ungodly talks separate us from God. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire and is itself set on fire by hell. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. Our tongue can contribute to an atmosphere of peace, friendliness and harmony.”

What I think you should do, sir, is not to resign or allow yourself to be disgraced out of office because of your tongue. You should and must apologize to your God for taking Nigerians for a ride and for allowing your “useful idiots” to misadvise you on the state of the nation, by telling you that you are the best thing that has happened to Nigeria. They have caused you calamitous damage. Their uncleansed tongues appear to have cost you your divine blessings. Your God appears to be angry with you for manipulating PDP to suit your whims, and for attempting to manipulate the voters’ act of 2002 to suit your ambition.

Those who confuse you by saying that your impeachment is suicidal are political fools. And those who promise to fight to finish with you in the event of your impeachment are the same toothless bulldogs that said the same thing to Chief MKO Abiola. You must ask yourself; what did they do, how many of these sycophant-jokers protested and demonstrated their support for you when General Abacha sent you to Yola?

The irony of this all is that the well-educated and richly endowed Yoruba Council of Elders has introduced an infantile approach to dialogue by threatening the country. Why haven’t these Yoruba elders sought the wisdom and collaboration of Northern, South Eastern, and South-southern elders to assist them in seeking an amicable solution to the problem, since you have all of a sudden transmuted to being a Yoruba President? They did not vote nor support your presidency in the first place.

However, you again have demonstrated your trust in the North by asking General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd.) -- the king maker, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd.), Alhaji Shehu Shagari, and many other notables like Alhaji Ibrahim Damcida, Ahmed Joda, and others from the East like Sen. Nzeribe, Chief Alex Ekwueme, and all your Igbo Ministers to mediate your plight and help stop the impeachment from going through.

These are men with serious and impeccable integrity from the same North and East that your Yoruba people are accusing of attempting to destroy democracy. The North and the East must be the axis of goodness; as for the West, your guess is as good as mine. The Yoruba Council of Elders must show maturity and accept whatever verdict falls out of this impeachment drama. As for the other militant groups, Nigerians would not fold their hands and watch them destroy the country. Violence is not theirs exclusively.

Your best option for the nation is to sacrifice your second-term ambition by negotiating with the legislators; most of them are from your party, they must rescind the impeachment order, and you on the other hand must withdraw from contesting the election in 2003 and accept your four years as a blessing from God.

If you take this high road, you would have exalted your name again in the annals of international greatness. The world would recognize you forever for sacrificing your personal ambition for the betterment of democracy. This act alone would reverberate throughout the international community and strengthen our nascent democracy. Our children would remember you as the President who relinquished power; once in 1979 and again in 2003. Please ditch the idea of “I-dey-kampeism.”

If you recuse yourself from contesting the 2003 election, you will have enough time to implement the Election Act 2002, reevaluate all the state primaries for fairness, and conduct free and fair elections. These acts would douse all the political tensions in the country. Truthfully, nothing has moved positively in the country since you announced your reelection ambition in April 2002. Even the budget is not implemented. The only business that is thriving is murder-for-hire industry. For this abysmal failure, a true statesman would recuse himself. The presidency is not like primary school, where you stay back for a repeat if you fail a class; no, in any decent democracy, you fail, you fail out.

Your withdrawal from 2003 election would give you the opportunity to ponder honestly the challenges posed by the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Howard Jeter when taking questions on the future of Nigeria come 2003, he asked: “Will the process be peaceful? Will the new government have a vision of a new Nigeria? Will the government make provisions for a safe and secure environment? The world is watching.” The answers to these questions posed by the Ambassador lie with you Mr. President.

Thank you in advance for your withdrawal from 2003 election, and for making the right decision for the betterment of the country and democracy. The world is indeed watching.