FEATURE ARTICLE

E O EkeMonday, January 25, 2016
[email protected]


ANNOUNCE THIS ARTICLE
TO YOUR FRIENDS

A LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUHARI

advertisement

Dear Mr president,

uring your presidential campaign you said, 'You must help me to reform our rotten political system, by getting involved, taking responsibility, and working together as a team'. This letter is my attempt to help you in the task to reform the Nigerian political system and make Nigeria better.

I wish to commend you for the effort to confront corruption by holding those who are involved accountable. To help in this regard, I would like to draw your attention to a list of Nigerian looters published by Times of London. In that list, you will find the names of many of the people who looted Nigeria so that you can bring them to justice.

What your are attempting is something no Nigerian leader has attempted and for this, you have won by respect even though, I believe that people of your generation should no longer have leadership role in Nigeria because they have failed. You have taken corruption head on and corruption is fighting back by misusing the rule of law, social media and court judgement. Therefore you rightly deserve the support of every well meaning Nigerian.

Under the circumstance, it would seem ill advised to show your contempt for the rule of law and judicial process and attempt to circumvent it because of your good intentions.

A more appropriate response would be to attempt to redefine the rule of law to put common sense and justice at its centre and not the rights of criminals as is currently the case in Nigeria.

In Europe, for instance, they have realised that the law is more on the side of perpetrators of crimes and are doing something to put victims of crimes at the centre of justice.

Nigeria can start by ensuring that no one escapes prosecution for corruption or any crime by changing political party or on technicalities of law and, when the prosecutor makes a mistake, he should only be required to right the mistake and continue with the prosecution.

This and other reforms of judicial process, like separating the post of attorney general and minister of justice will go a long way in helping the fight against corruption and, stopping corrupt politician from escaping justice on technicalities of the law as they seem to be doing at the moment.

I would also like to draw your attention to another form of corruption, which is Executive lawlessness and Power of patronage. This involves the President and governors approving things boards should approve. Changing this will require reform of executive power, which you are in the best position to do at no cost.

It would be a monumental mistake by your good self, if instead of investigating corruption in Nigeria you gives the impression that you are investigating only Jonathan's administration and pursuing sectarian objectives.

Corruption in Nigeria should be addressed in its entirety. The investigation should go back to 1979 for it to be fair. We cannot have a Nigeria, where the Obasanjos, Tinubus Babangidas etc., keep their loot, while the Jonathan's and Maduekes are striped of their's. Selective justice is injustice.

Another area I wish to draw your attention to is the management of the economy. Since your inauguration, the economy has taken a nose dive and the Naira has plummeted. With the continued fall in the price of oil, there is very little the country can do to increase it foreign exchange earning in the short term. I would like to suggest the following remedies

It is my view that what Nigeria needs is an austerity budget, which cuts the cost of government, end wastes and makes savings in administrative cost. This should be followed by making the Banks able to loan to ordinary business men and women to grow their businesses and create jobs. This can be done by bringing interest rate to single digit figure.

The current interest rate in Nigeria is too high and exploitative and no economy can achieve meaningful growth with such high interest rate. Once, the Banks starts helping to grow the economy and creat jobs and stop funding government corruption through irresponsible and fraudulent leading to state governments and national and state assemblies, the Naira will stabilise and begin to appreciate, even in the face of continuing fall in oil price.

I think it is irresponsible to increase the national debt at this time, even though it is claimed that it is for infrastructure investment, without first ensuring that the money will not end, where previous funds budgeted for infrastructure investment ended.

For years, money budgeted for infrastructure investment in Nigeria have resurfaced in private foreign accounts, as private schools, and universities, private jets, Hill top houses, houses in London, Dubai , New York etc., capital used to buy up public assets and in the bank accounts of political parties and some prominent Nigerians. This must one come to an end.

There is nothing in the budget or what the house of Representative or senate has done or said they will do to show that, Nigeria wants to address the problem of institutionalised corruption through irresponsible and fraudulent budgeting like 79 million Naira for presidential haircut, impunity and abuse of power, which are at the heart of the Nigeria problem. I believe that you should look into this and remedy it. Nobody, no matter how big his head, needs 79 million Naira for haircut.

Furthermore, I wish to let you know that only institutional reforms, none selective and none discriminatory prosecution of corrupt officials, good laws and evidence based decisions can guarantee that your good intentions are translated to a better country.

Nigeria needs reforms in the civil service, police force, custom and army, which will end their abuse of power, corruption and deliver promotion based on performance and not years of service and ensure accountability. This is what is obtainable in developed countries. Your government needs to think of the relationship between pay and performance.

Political offices and public service should not continue to be the shortest way to get rich and the politicians should not have the right to fix their pay. Public sector pay in Nigeria should be set by a national pay body, which will have the sole responsibility to determine what every public servant, including political office holders in Nigeria should be paid.

In my view, the current budget will only compound Nigeria's debt problem and bring Nigeria closer to the day it will suffer the fate of Greece, unless it is reviewed.

Anybody who thinks that a country with endemic corruption, pilling up debt, and over paying its politicians is a good thing should visit Greece and find out from the people what they are going through. He who goes aborrowing without addressing corruption goes asorrowing.

Mr president, you also said you will "Bring permanent peace and solution to the insurgency issues in the North-East; the Niger Delta; and other conflict prone states and areas such as Plateau, Benue, Bauchi, Borno, Abia, Taraba, Yobe, and Kaduna in order to engender national unity and social harmony"

In this wise, I wish to draw your attention to the agitation for Biafra, incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu, Barrister Onwuka and many Igbos suspected to be sympathetic to the actualisation of independent state of Biafra and, Igbo bashing by some of your ministers and advisers who wish to impress you.

I believe it would be a grave mistake to dismiss the protest in East Nigeria and seek to suppress it with force, extrajudicial killings and intimidation.

Nnamdi Kanu, Barrister Owuka and other Igbos detained without trial are expressing the anger Igbos feel at the way we have been treated in Nigeria since the end of the civil war in which you also played no small part. It would be very wrong to focus on what Nnamdi and co said out of anger, instead of the grievances that compel them.

Igbos have been marginalised and continue to be marginalised in Nigeria. Since you claimed during your press conference that you do not know that Igbos are marginalised, I would like to draw your attention to some of the evidence.

According to the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, "The Igbo people of Nigeria have made a mark in the history of this nation. They led the first successful military coup which eliminated the Military and Political leaders of other regions while letting off Igbo leaders. Nwafor Orizu, then Senate President, in consultation with President Azikiwe, subverted the constitution and handed over power to Aguiyi-Ironsi. Subsequent developments, including attempts at humiliating other peoples, led to the counter-coup and later the civil war. The Igbos themselves must acknowledge that they have a large part of the blame for shattering the unity of this country.

Having said that, this nation must realise that Igbos have more than paid for their foolishness. They have been defeated in war, rendered paupers by monetary policy fiat, their properties declared abandoned and confiscated, kept out of strategic public sector appointments and deprived of public services. The rest of the country forced them to remain in Nigeria and has continued to deny them equity.

The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have conspired to keep the Igbo out of the scheme of things. In the recent transition when the Igbo solidly supported the PDP in the hope of an Ekwueme presidency, the North and South-West treated this as a Biafra agenda. Every rule set for the primaries, every gentlemanīs agreement was set aside to ensure that Obasanjo, not Ekwueme emerged as the candidate. Things went as far as getting the Federal Government to hurriedly gazette a pardon. Now, with this government, the marginalistion of the Igbo is more complete than ever before. The Igbos have taken all these quietly because, they reason, they brought it upon themselves. But the nation is sitting on a time-bomb.

After the First World War, the victors treated Germany with the same contempt Nigeria is treating Igbos. Two decades later, there was a Second World War, far costlier than the first. Germany was again defeated, but this time, they won a more honourable peace. Our present political leaders have no sense of History. There is a new Igbo man, who was not born in 1966 and neither knows nor cares about Nzeogwu and Ojukwu. There are Igbo men on the street who were never Biafrans. They were born Nigerians, are Nigerians, but suffer because of actions of earlier generations. They will soon decide that it is better to fight their own war, and may be find an honourable peace, than to remain in this contemptible state in perpetuity. The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have exacted their pound of flesh from the Igbos. For one Sardauna, one Tafawa Balewa, one Akintola and one Okotie-Eboh, hundreds of thousands have died and suffered. If this issue is not addressed immediately, no conference will solve Nigeriaīs problems."

While I do not agree with the sentiments Sanusi expressed and how he characterised Igbos' intentions and misinterpreted Igbo motives about the civil war and its antecedent, he makes a point Nigeria cannot Ignore.

What Nnamdi Kanu and co are reacting to is what Sanusi attempted to encapsulate and it would be wrong to ignore what Many Igbos and Nigerians are saying. Enough is enough. Igbos want to live in a fair and just Nigeria, where they will not be discriminated, and marginalised by Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba Oligarchy or in a country of their own.

It cannot be business as usual. The ill treatment of Igbos in Nigeria must now end and the redress of the injustice against them must begin. This is the only way to ensure that Nigeria remains one.

The fact is that all Igbos know that Igbos are marginalised and discriminated against in Nigeria because of the civil war. This is an injustice that can no longer be ignored. Those who ignore it make Biafra inevitable.

When Boko Haram started, the likes of Sanusi, now Emir of Kano defended them and gave the world a narrative that it was caused by poverty. They also stopped America from classifying Boko Haram as a terrorist group and floated an Islamic Bank. Even though the whole of north Nigetia is under sharia, no one says the north does not want to be part of secular Nigeria.

This hatred and discrimination against Igbos in Nigeria must now end. It is dubious, in fact, immoral and outright preposterous to justify discrimination and injustice against Igbos as a result of the civil war. No man who claim to know God can justify it and be acceptable to God either as a Muslim, Christian or any other religion that believes in God.

I would therefore plead with you to release Nnamdi Kanu and all Igbos in detention as a result of protest against the marginalisation of Igbos to end the Biafran protest and , then enter into negotiation with authentic Igbo leaders on how to address the marginalisation and discrimination against Igbos in Nigeria with the view to achieving a settlement that will give the regions greater autonomy to develop at their own pace. It is never right , in a democracy, when the executive determines whose liberty is denied. It is usually the clearest sign of autocracy. You should leave the court to determine their fate, that is what secular democracy is all about.

I would also like to say that while the dividend of electoral victory is rightly the mandate to govern, it should be unacceptable and unlawful to misuse it to pursue personal, ethnic and religious vendetta against a people because of who they and how they voted.

Yes, the victorious party has the right to positions in government. However, to use it to marginalise a group because they voted for another party must be wrong, immoral and unlawful.

A government is elected to govern for all and not just for those who voted for it. It is therefore your responsibility to remedy the injustices against Igbos and I urge you to rise to the occasion by showing leadership.

I look forward to your fair and timely response and do hope that you succeed in making Nigeria great. As long as you act in fair and lawful manner, without religious or ethnic bias, you will have my support and the support of all those who want the Nigerian experiment to succeed.

Thank you

Yours sincerely

advertisement
IMAGES IN THE NEWS