A Memo to President Jonathan – By Lawrence Okezie Odoemelem

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MEMO
TO:PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN
FROM:Lawrence Okezie Odoemelem
Subject:At a time like this…

Dear Mr. President,

President Jonathan and UN Sec-General in Aso Rock, Abuja

I am greatly disturbed by your recent adventure into this six year single
tenure debate barely three months after you were sworn in as the 14th
President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of
Nigeria.

Your interest in this bill at a time like this could be likened to the
attitude of King Nero who fiddled while Rome burned. Mr. President, in
case you have not noticed, Nigeria is burning!
In these days when the public safety in Nigeria is imminently threatened,
with Boko Haram and armed robbers getting more and more audacious. With
electricity supply still a distant dream, with men and women perishing
daily on Nigerian roads that are now death traps due to their terrible
state, with our young male graduates resorting to all manner of crimes and
the girls selling their bodies for nickels and dimes as prostitutes
because of joblessness. Sir, tinkering with the constitution ought to be
the least of your priorities at a time like this.
Mr. President, harsh opinions are being formed of you because of your
perceived interest in this bill as even your die-hard supporters are
beginning to doubt the probity of your intentions. I do not share their
doubts. I believe you to be upright, single-hearted in your desire to
rescue the country in the hour of her utmost need without after-thought of
the personal consequences to yourself.

At the moment, your sympathizers among Nigerians here in the United States
are nervous and sometimes despondent. They wonder whether the order of
different urgencies is rightly understood, whether there is a confusion of
aim, and whether some of the advice you get are pure and not selfishly
motivated. We read that you did not even find it necessary to visit Lagos
after the disastrous flooding that claimed hundreds of lives a couple of
weeks ago. That was a complete PR blunder.

Mr. President, it does not require a rocket scientist to pitch that the
first order of business on your assumption of office should have been
policies and projects that would bring immediate relief to long suffering
Nigerians. It is logical that only after winning the trust and confidence
of Nigerians, that you will have the driving force to accomplish long-
term reforms that may involve constitutional amendments.

Your Excellency, remember how you divinely ascended to this exalted
office. You have made yourself the trustee for every Nigerian regardless
of tribe or creed that seek to mend the evils bestowed upon them by
reasoned experiment within the framework of the existing social system. If
you fail, hope and rational change will be gravely prejudiced throughout
these groups, leaving orthodoxy and revolution to fight it out. But if you
succeed, new and bolder methods will be tried everywhere, and we may date
the first chapter of a truly new Nigeria from your accession to office.
This is a sufficient reason why you cannot afford to fail.

Sir, you must lift then the weight from the heart of Nigerians. Let them
breathe free once more. Extirpate the blighting curse, a living threat
throughout long years past, that has smitten at last with desolation a
land to which God had granted everything but wisdom and justice. Give back
to the nation its hope and faith in a future of peace and undisturbed
prosperity.
Mr. President, I humbly submit that you stay away from this single tenure
debate for now because you will not come out of it smelling of roses.
With utmost respect
Lawrence Okezie Odoemelem
PR & Marketing Communications Consultant
Houston, TX
Email: [email protected]
Lawrence Okezie Odoemelem

Seven Stones Inc

9900 WestPark Dr. Suite 238

Houston, TX 77063

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