An Open Letter to My President – By Clarius Ugwuoha

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By Clarius Ugwuoha, RIvers, Nigeria – July 24, 2011 – I appreciate the enormity of responsibilities you are saddled with. It is therefore, with utmost deference that I write, fully aware that the Nigerian State polled you to power in one of the freest and fairest elections in history.

So far, you have striven to maintain utmost decorum, to tow the path of supremacy of the rule of law and to be fair by all and sundry irrespective of political leaning. You are unruffled in the midst of weighty aggravations, taking everything in equal stride.

The Security of the Country is, however, evidently critical. This was not unexpected. Despite amnesia, we can vividly recall that there were open reports in Nigerian dailies before the presidential election, to the effect that should a certain candidate fail to wrest the presidency from you, the incumbent, hail would be let loose on the Nigerian people. Does anyone need a soothsayer to divine out that Boko Haram was either formed by some disgruntled politicians in the North or was conscripted as a ready tool of destabilization?

Your calmness of mind in the presence of grave provocations is a virtue that has become unsettling – unsettling in the sense that it is sending the wrong signals to the terrorist community, that Nigeria is a safe haven, a conducive fanatics’ cell in the cast of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The recent unconfirmed report that Al-quaeda was seriously considering Nigeria as a base to launch attack on Western Nations is a gaping reality of the perception of Nigeria elsewhere.

Mr. President, recall that Boko Haram sect stiffly rebuffed the Amnesty offered them by Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State. Reports in the media that ex-Governor Mohammadu Danjuma Goje of Gombe state and Governor Isah Yuguda of Bauchi state apologized to the intransigent sect leaves many Nigerians stunned, with a feeling of gross demystification of governance. That a democratically elected governor would be tendering apology to an outlawed sect thereby surrendering the apparatuses of state and the very insignia of power to miscreants, is the height of political perfidy! What informed such demeaning step? What signals does that send to the civil society? That Boko haram is invincible and inviolable, insulated from the levers of power! That the members of the sect can operate with impunity having been appropriately consecrated by the very elect of the people! But then, Mr. President, as the overall head of the Nigerian state, you have a duty to take these prominent Nigerians to task.

Mr. President, Sir, we could easily adduce from the ill-advised apologies that these governors suddenly realized that Boko Haram was peopled with or enjoyed the direct patronage of the top echelon of Nigerian society; or, on the other hand, that Boko Haram was to be feared for whatever mortal harm they could inflict on the most guarded of Nigerian citizens. Either way, Mr. President, are we resigning to the omnipotence of Boko Haram, or is a democratically elected government in place to restore civil order?

These are times for sober reflection. That a bomb actually exploded in, of all places, the Force Headquarters, does not help our cause. It is a demonstration of acute penetration of Nigeria by the mafia. In more civilized climes, the Inspector General of Police, whose hallowed chambers were thus desecrated, would have honourably resigned from office, if but to re-instill confidence in fellow Nigerians! But instead Alhaji Hafiz Ringim was busy talking tough and redeploying officers. There was the disquiet among Nigerians that Mr. President, in the face of such serious security infraction in the very heart of Nigeria would have swept the security leadership of the country with a gale.

There is a clear plot, Mr. President, to destabilize your government, hence an urgent need to rein in on the arch plotters, who are legal entities and known to all and sundry. Do not tarry until the infractions assume intractable proportions. The State Security Services, the EFCC, the Armed Forces and the police should come up with a clear and aggressive strategy to dis-empower the hoodlums and restore order in Nigeria. Do not maintain any sacred cows. By now, it must be crystal clear to you that most of those arrested and released, most of those offering you seemingly sensible pieces of advice are behind the travails of the Nigerian state and everyone is looking up to you to rein in on them effectively! Do not surrender our mandate like Goje and Yuguda. Stand up to the situation, Nigerians are waiting to queue behind you.

Clarius Ugwuoha, a public affairs analyst, writes from Ezeali palace in Egbema

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