Obasanjo's Letter to Jonathan: It's Time for Nigerians to Reflect
The
former FCT Minister, Nasir El-Rufai has recently posted on his Facebook
page some of the reflections on Obasanjo’s letter to Jonathan. Read the
full text by the author, Zainab Usman, below [unedited]:
Last
night, I was distracted from concluding my tribute to Mandela which I
started writing a few days ago. This distraction was the lengthy 18-page
open letter (PDF) written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to
President Goodluck Jonathan. I took my time to read the letter described
as ‘historic’ by Premium Times (which broke the story) in detail. For
obvious reasons, this document and its contents have gone viral within
the Nigerian online and mainstream media, public discourse and even the
international media.
What
frightens me deeply about the contents is not the allegations made, but
that General Obasanjo (the President’s mentor) made these grave
accusations. Disturbingly, the allegations only confirm many rumours
that have been going round (most of which I hitherto refused to believe
in) such as:
Clannishness
and ethnic factionalism in government on the part of the President in
favoring his Ijaw kinsmen
principally, and his region to the exclusion
of other Nigerians;
Deliberate
polarisation of Nigerians across a North-South and Muslim-Christian
divide to such a level not seen since the Civil War, to further narrow
political ambitions;
The
President’s tacit support to some of his aggressive kinsmen and known
militants who threaten others for disagreeing with him;
Brazen
corruption and impunity in government on a scale unrivaled in Nigeria’s
post-independence history (the $50 billion unremitted by the NNPC
surpasses the $12bn windfall earnings which disappeared under General
Babangida. This is just one of numerous cases) — crude oil theft and
systematic plunder of the nation’s wealth by powerful people;
Indirect fueling of the Boko Haram insurgency by refusing to take concrete and feasible steps to address it;
Extreme intolerance by the government for any form of dissent by opposition politicians or civil society;
The existence of a clandestine “killer squad of snipers” and a political watch list containing over 1,000 names;
…and many other such allegations.
Where are we heading to in this country!?
Just
on Monday this week, we found out about the Central Bank Governor,
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s letter alleging that $50 billion went missing
under NNPC’s watch between 2012 and 2013. Then on Tuesday, the Speaker
of the House of Representatives accused the President of encouraging
grand corruption. Then on Wednesday, this scathing letter from Obasanjo
was published.
All
this is barely two months after the corruption scandal involving the
President’s close ally, the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah. Nothing
yet has been done about this.
This
systematic plunder of our country’s resources and values is perpetuated
against the backdrop of monumental crude oil theft in the Niger-Delta
and other numerous scandals.
Is
this a country we can thump our chests about? What example are we
setting for the rest of Africa? Is this the leadership that will create a
strong and united country? What future (or lack of) are we building for
our offspring?
True,
General Obasanjo is not at all blameless in all this and he is one
person whose intentions are always, always, ALWAYS suspect. We vividly
recall how his ambition to elongate his tenure beyond the
constitutionally mandated two-terms threatened to plunge the country
into chaos between 2005 and 2007. Perhaps, as the late Whitney Houston
once sung, Jonathan “learnt from the best”.
Yet,
given Obasanjo’s close relationship (as a mentor) with President
Jonathan, it would be extremely naive and foolish to dismiss these
allegations in their entirety.
Say
what you want about Obasanjo, but at the very least, his administration
established a relatively effective EFCC to fight corruption,
established an effective NAFDAC, reformed the Federal Inland Revenue
Service, the Customs service and many other institutions. Where are all
these institutions today? Where is the EFCC today? How many parallel,
overlapping, redundant and toothless committees have been set up to do
the work that the EFCC has been obstructed from doing?
I ask this question, where are we heading to?
As
a Nigerian, regardless of your religion, ethnicity or region, please
ask yourself this sincere question, ‘is this the Nigeria I want, is this
a country I am proud of’?
The
late Madiba, Nelson Mandela expressed his anger at the behaviour of
Nigerian leaders. This is a prime epitome of the leadership Mandela was
referring to.
One
interesting thing to note is that this is a toned down version of the
letter. The original version, according to Thisday newspaper was so
harsh that former Head of State General Ibrahim Babangida advised
Obasanjo to revise it.READ MORE: http://news.naij.com/54185.html