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MR. PRESIDENT: THE PARTY IS OVER

An Open Letter President Olusegun Obasanjo

His Excellency,
General Olusegun Obasanjo,
President and Commander-in-Chief
Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Aso Rock, Abuja
NIGERIA.

Dear President Mr. President:

The Party is Over

n March 29, 2000, I sent my first open letter to you as a way of extending my belated congratulations to you on becoming the President of Nigeria. That was the second time you were forced against your personal wish and desire to shoulder such a heavy responsibility of leading a country as big and as complex as Nigeria. The first time being after the assassination of General Murtala Mohammed, the late Nigerian Head of State in 1976; when accident of history first foisted on you a leadership you did not prepare for. My letter was frank in the spirit if friendship and brotherhood. Events in the last few weeks have forced me again to write you. Let me say however, my letters have never been against my personal wish or desire. It is a duty I owe not only to myself, but to you as my President whether I like it or not, to Nigerians, to my children, and to posterity; who might ask me what I did when one single man like Lucifer, corrupted the will of God for a great country and people with such a great potential for greatness, but with such an equally great or greater misfortune of having people like you leading them.

Let me first establish my locu standi or justification for writing this letter to you. First and most importantly, I am Yoruba from the South West of Nigeria. You never became a Nigerian President on your own ticket or credential or personal merit as Olusegun Obasanjo, but as Yoruba. The aim of your kingmakers was to assuage the perfidy, the gross and ungodly injustice they did to the Yoruba Race when they deliberately denied a fellow Yoruba of becoming the most and only popularly elected president of Nigeria, after overwhelmingly winning the June 12, 1993 Presidential election. As if that was not enough, while we were all standing aside and look, they killed him in jail.

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You know whom I am talking about; Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, the man you said was not the Messiah that Nigeria wanted. I hope you have realized that it is not you either. You have never hid your disdain and indignation for MKO. Though you rode on the ashes of his ruins to power, you have never recognized or acknowledged his contributions to democracy in Nigeria and to your presidency in particular? I don't know what amount of hyssops will watch your hands clean of his blood, shed by your comrades in arms. Have you thought about why nothing you do has ever been right? Who knows, maybe, that is why you have been falling into one mistake and the other since you illegally assume the office, which he was legally elected to, and yet, you have never one day paid tribute to the man whose blood was used to mold the blocks of democracy, which fruits you are now eating with your two hands. You told the whole world that you are a born again Christian, does the Bible you read, if you do at all, not tell you to give honor to those honor is due? Yes, my Bible tells me so.

Though you and your party have abused, assaulted, and bastardized democracy in Nigeria today, yet, there is no Nigerian living or dead who deserves more honor for the current democratic political dispensation than Moshood Abiola and Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, the two people whose sweats, blood, and sorrow you matched on without your own sweat to the Aso Rock, while they are rotting in their graves. Abiola is not just a Yoruba but from the same Ogun State as you are; so, your sponsors saw in you a perfect fix to right the wrong done to Abiola and Yoruba. Then on the Yar'Adua side, it was his political organization that you hijacked using Abubakar Atiku its leader after they killed him. You know you have no political base or foundation. As I don't want to speak for Atiku, time will tell if you have not betrayed him. I can speak for myself as Yoruba, you have betrayed me, and you have disappointed me and my generation. You have disgraced me and put Yoruba to shame. I don't know who can be proud of you?

Do you know that as Yoruba, you have denied me or any other Yoruba, another opportunity to contest and be president of Nigeria in the next 20 years at the least; because they will always say that Yoruba has had their turn? Mr. President, what does your conscience tells you? If you listen well, you will hear that you have betrayed if not disgraced the Yoruba race. You have never being our representative. You robbed people, who are more competent; people, who are more intelligent and fit as leaders, the chance to be a good ambassador of their race. You have only projected for the world to see, a poor caricature or travesty of the good people of Yoruba Race. There is no shortage or scarcity of knowledgeable, intelligent, witty, honest, and proficient people among the Yoruba in Nigeria. This, you know and many honest Nigerians are equally aware. You know if Yoruba intelligentsias are meeting, you are not likely to be invited. You know if Yoruba politicians are meeting, you will not be there; as you are a self-confessed political nitwit. Your sponsors know you and chose you for who you are, a dummy that will meet their political calculations and expediencies.

At a Council on Foreign Relations' meeting recently in New York, USA, you confessed your political bankruptcy and incompetence when you said of yourself before becoming the president: "I came out of prison, I didn't have the political base at first, I didn't have a political party. I have never been a political party man. So I was more or less drafted. And then I had to learn the ropes of what political parties do, how they do it, and then became a political party man, and then be able to put my own stamp on my own political party." Of your Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji, a Yoruba who was right there with you, you said: "I have the Foreign Minister here, who doesn't know his left from his right as far as party politics go and I don't even know whether he knows which party I belong." Unnnnnnnnnnhun!!!!!!! Mr. President.

Do you know that nobody "learns the ropes" of politics in three months and become an effective and efficient president of a country? Ask, President George Bush of America, how long he has been in politics. Maybe, from his mother's womb! By your open confession at an international forum, did you ever realize the amount of shame and disgrace you heaped on yourself, your Minister of Foreign Affairs, a man with 34 years of diplomatic career experience; Yoruba, and Nigeria; with all these celebrations of your ignorance and ineptitude? If I were Adeniji, I would resign immediately on getting back to Nigeria. Or do you see any humor or amusement in these as you unfortunately saw in Ogbeh's letter? If you do, that is a tragedy of unpardonable dimension and proportion.

The second ground for action on my part stems from the fact that I am a Nigerian by the accident of birth and the manipulation of the British colonial overlords who forced the various nationalities into an unholy marriage called Nigeria, and you claimed to be the number one citizen of that Nigeria now. What you do therefore is seen by others in and outside Nigeria as representing the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians unfortunately including me. Let me be simple. If I am from either Cameroon or Benin Republic, I will not care whatever you do or say as a president of Nigeria. But now I have to.

On several occasions very recently, you have grossly misrepresented me in your actions, words, or inactions. I have a right to protest these clear misrepresentations which is what this letter is all about.

Let me start with your unpresidential letter or your so-called response to the letter sent to you by the chairman of your party, Chief Audu Ogbeh. You call yourself a president, and you wrote fourteen pages in response to a four page letter. You were so angry that you did not ethically allow any of those people paid to do your duty works, like Fani Kayode, to write for you. You know how good he is at carrying your shit, apology to Fela. Your just disrobed yourself as a president and remove every letter of Excellency before your name with your own hands. The letter sent to you was in good faith by a concerned party chairman who does not want the country collapsed because of the ineptitude of a president who is the flag bearer of a political party that lacked ideology, bearing, focus, and direction; under which the country has therefore become like a rudderless ship on a tempestuous voyage. Ogbeh's concern was not because he loves Nigeria, but because he loves himself, his pocket, and his party more. He does not want to suffer the same fate that befell him when the last civilian regime was booted out of office for similar misdirection or lack of direction.

By the testimony of your lips, you have confessed that you are not fit to be a president in a democratic dispensation, since you lack knowledge of political party's formation, organization, structure, and functions. In your own words you said: "I came out of prison, I didn't have the political base at first, I didn't have a political party. I have never been a political party man. So I was more or less drafted." That is the tragedy of a nation. How does someone who is not a politician suddenly become an elected president of a politically complex country like Nigeria? The result is what we have been having since 1999. If you were a politician, you would not have replied to your party chairman's letter as you did. It only shows that you are not disciplined politically. Do you realize that at party levels and meetings, Audu Ogbeh is your boss? Yes, the chairman of any disciplined political party is the boss; he presides over the party affairs and not you as the President of the country. He wrote you as a member of his party who happens to be the nation's President. The issues raised were how the indiscipline and lack of integrity of the party is affecting the nation under your leadership. But for cheap political popularity and divisionary tactics, you exposed yourself, your chairman, and your party.

I don't know if you read your letter over or gave it to a true and sincere friend and not a sycophant, or any of those who call themselves your advisers for their meal ticket to read. Did you sleep over it at all after you wrote it? Did you pray and seek direction from God on what to do at all about the letter sent to you? Did you present Ogbeh's letter to God like Hezekiah did when he got his own letter? If only you have done these, God would have directed you better, if you are right with him. If you had shown me, I would have seriously edited it or prevented you from sending it out to Mr. Ogbeh or the press.

What political point do you want to score by allowing a letter sent to you by your party chairman to go to the pages of the media? Information has confirmed that Ogbeh's letter was leaked to the press by the presidency. Could that have been done without your knowledge and consent? No, so, what is the point you are trying to raise? Then, came your Letter of Mass Destruction (LMD). I cannot but ask you again, did you read it over before you signed and sealed and delivered it? I called your letter a Letter of Mass Destruction because it has succeeded in destroying you, Olusegun Obasanjo, your presidency, and whatever legacy you think you might leave behind as a president. It has destroyed your political party under which you rigged yourself to power. It has destroyed Chris Uba, the godfather rigger of Anambra state. It has destroyed Chris Ngige, the ballot robber who has been out and in of the Governor's House in Anambra state. Did you notice that Uba and Ngige shares the same first name of Crisis, I mean Chris? Dear President, your letter has destroyed trust, confidence, and credibility in all the elected members of the PDP all over the country, from the Local Government level to the Presidency. Your letter has destroyed anybody who ever stood for any elective office on the platform of the Political Destructive Party (PDP) including you.

Mr. President, did you realize that you confessed on the pages of newspapers not only read locally in Nigeria but all over the world that you are an accessory before, or, and after an electoral crime. Let me remind you again how you put it under your signature. After one Olisa Metu persuaded you to meet Ngige and Uba alone in your office, so that they would unwind; "I did and that was when I got the real shock of my life when Chris Uba looked Ngige straight in the face and said, "You know you did not win the election" and Ngige answered "Yes, I know I did not win." Chris Uba went further to say to Ngige, "You don't know in detail how it was done." I was horrified and told both of them to leave my residence." Mr. President, you think that the most logical reaction to the confession of a crime against the constitution and law of the land was for you as a President to tell the criminals to live your residence? Your Inspector General of Police should tell you that it is aiding and abetting the commission of a crime, which in itself is a crime. You just committed a crime. How I wish you start consulting your lawyers before your trial begins, which should be due after your term is over.

What type of President are you? Do you remember you are the number one law enforcement officer in Nigeria as a Commander in Thief, oh, I mean Chief? Do you remember that you sworn on the Holy Bible with one hand raised to God to defend and protect the constitution? Then right there in your residence and in your presence, two people confessed to committing crimes against the constitution and the people of Anambra state and Nigeria, and yet you failed to arrest them. In your very unintelligible illustration, what you did was worse than allowing two confessed armed robbers to walk away from you residence, which has over supply of law enforcement officers. You failed Nigeria and Nigerians; I think you have sinned against God, for negating the oath you sworn in his name to protect the constitution. Yet, you, in your capacity as the President of Nigeria attempted to trivialize such a serious indictment on your integrity and capacity to rule by saying that Ogbeh wrote and you wrote back, so it is 1-1draw. You said that? That is a shame. Do you know the gravity of what you are joking about? A more matured and sober President would have avoided the press for two weeks. Your joke gave more testimony in more unspoken words than your letter that you are not a serious minded person, and therefore not fit for such a serious responsibility as presiding over Nigeria.

President Obasanjo, have you heard the news from the court on your purported victory in Ogun state and by extension the Presidential election? The court said you rigged the election in your own state and the elections were annulled. Does that mean anything to you? Did you have a good sleep that night or a nightmare about you just packing and leaving the Aso Rock Villa by the back door before the end of your term? Let me tell you the implications. It simply means that if it was by means of electoral fraud that you and your party won the elections in your own state, I cannot put my penny on your victory or the victory of your political party in any other local, state, or federal elections without fraud. If the court says you and your party rigged in Ogun State, and Uba says he rigged in Anambra State for Ngige and your party, and again implicitly for you; and INEC, your appointed electoral body ratified all these and other locally disputed and internationally condemned elections, Mr. President, the party is over; your fraudulent game is over. You have no more wool to pull over anybody's face anymore. You and your party are thieves.

You told Mr. Ogbeh that you took judicial notice of some of what he said in his letter to you, to the effect that what is happening under your leadership is worse than what led to the military overthrow of President Shagari government in January 1984. What type of notice have you taken of the court saying that you and your party might have illegally bulldozed your ways to Aso Rock? For me, I already took a criminal notice of that fact. You have now proved that your membership or whatever was your relationship with Transparency International, the anti-corruption international group, was faked or was just a camouflage like your army camouflage uniform. No wonder you recently disagreed with them on the level of corruption in Nigeria under your presidential watch.

Mr. President, I always find it difficult to agree with you. You are found of saying things you either don't believe or not believing what you say. Let me quote your words from your Letter of Mass Destruction (LMD) to Audu Ogbeh: "The greatest danger to any country is putting truth out of favor; extolling evils of lies, deceit, treachery, disloyalty, unpatrioticism, corruption and unconstitutionality..." Who are you talking about here other than yourself? You are like a pot describing the kettle as black. You, as a president allowed two men who confessed to a crime that fits the description of "putting truth out of favor, extolling evils, lies, deceit, treachery, unpatrioticism, corruption, and unconstitutionality" to walk away and are still walking in freedom today. What of those who rigged the elections in your state; do they not fit into your above descriptions? Are you not part of them; my own answer is that you are part and parcel of them, if not the ringleader. Then, you have become the greatest danger to Nigeria today.

One of the reasons why you are a present and imminent danger to Nigeria is your use of the name of God in vain. In the last one page of your letter, you mentioned God seven times, four of which are in your so-called prayer: "May God continue to bless and prosper Nigeria. In spite of the malevolence of some Nigerians, Nigeria is moving to the cruising level and cruising speed. That is the work of God and what all Nigerians and friends of Nigeria should do is to join hands in hastening the work of God in Nigeria at this juncture. May God help us to help ourselves. I wish you well." Any person who will hide under the name of God and continue to perpetrate evil is as evil and dangerous as the devil. Who is a more malevolence Nigerian than you Sir? You have spent more hours Jet flying all over the world than sitting at your desk at Aso Rock, that you now speak the supersonic language.

You have become member to all churches and dominations in Nigeria, running from one crusade ground and prayer meetings to the other. I have even learned that an American Televangelist and Healer, Benny Hinn is coming to Nigeria to offer prayers for the country at your invitation or at least you are part of the arrangement to bring him. Benny Hinn is an American and as religious as George Bush is, I have not heard that he has attended crusades and prayer meetings organized by Benny Hinn let alone organized one and invited him to the White House. I have not heard that the Televangelist has visited the White House for a spiritual political mission the like of which he has been invited to Nigeria. Do I believe in the power of prayers, yes, absolutely but why do we need a Benny Hinn to come and pray for Nigeria? Is it for God to bless Nigeria or keep our leaders from stealing money or rigging elections? With my due respect to Pastor Benny Hinn, Nigeria has many very capable men and women of God whose prayers for Nigeria can be answered. What we need first is for our leaders to stop their wicked and ungodly ways. How do you expect a righteous and just God to answer the prayers of leaders like you who rigged elections to power only to steal money and oppress the poor? By the time our leaders learn the ways of God, win elections and rule according to his will, we will not need to import a prayer contractor to pray before God answers our prayers as a country. Nigeria is a blessed country but unfortunately with satanic leaders ruling and ruining her. We also need prayers to rid Nigeria of such leaders.

God himself gave his own conditions for answered prayers when he said: "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." Before the same God, the prayers of the wicked are an abomination but the prayers of the righteous will move mountains. Here is a good and accessible God who does not need a prayer contractor. He wants people to call on him directly but sincerely with open and clean hands. They must be people who know him and those whom he knows. They must have genuinely repented and turned away from their sins like stealing or rigging elections and any other forms of wickedness. How many leaders in Nigeria today, including you, qualify for this godly set standard for answered prayer?

The tragedy of those who wear their faith on the heads as caps is that they do so many things with the help and in the name of Satan, but deceive themselves and others but definitely not God, by saying that it is God that has helped them. Not so, as Satan has his own gifts for his own people. It is in the same light that some people, who rigged elections or steals the peoples' money, often go to the churches or mosques for thanksgiving for their new political success or "wonderful blessings' from God. You know as much as I do that most pastors and imams will oblige; knowing that the occasion will bring in more money than other days. If men were God, I will cause thunder and brimstone to disrupt such services to their unknown gods.

Mr. President, you have just lost the morality and authority to continue in office as the President with any effectiveness. The only honorable way out for you would have been to resign as more than ever before, you have now become a lame dock President, without efficiency and effectiveness. I will however want you to continue in office to fix the mess you have created under a supervisory council. I will suggest that you declare a State of National Emergency, and suspend the much abused constitution, dissolve the National and state assemblies and dissolved all political parties, without banning political activities. Forget your so-called Project Nigeria. Forget your so-called National Dialogue as you and your party or its officials, appointed or elected have no more creditability to give this country any sense of direction. You should immediately convey a meeting of eminent Nigerians, who are not members of any political party; one from each state and others representing special interests like labor, religion, students, women, academic, and others as necessary up to a membership of 60. The council will choose its own officials.

Their responsibility will be two folds; to supervise your government with immediate effect. The same structure will be replicated through out the Federation, with one from each local government at the state level and from each ward at the local level. All salaries and allowances of all executive officials left in office including the President will be slashed by half for the up keep of these new supervisory bodies throughout the country. Any official who cannot accept this can quit. All executive officials including local government chairmen, state governors, and the president will act in ceremonial capacities, as they cannot reject the advice of the eminent citizen supervisory councils. All foreign trips by the president and other officials should be suspended indefinitely and immediately except for the best interest of the country or their states.

This body will also be responsible for the immediate conveying of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) and its decision on a new structure and constitution for the country shall be final or subject to final approval in a national referendum organized by the council. The SNC shall approve new political parties, electoral bodies as agreed upon. All reorganizations including new elections, census, and National ID cards should be completed between 2005 and 2007 for a new elected government to take office.

All the Supervisory Councils shall have legislative powers and advisory executive powers. It can always call for memoranda on any issue at its control with a view to carrying the members of the public with it in its decisions. This is an opportunity for Nigerians to take their destiny into their own hands. This is an opportunity in a life time to do without shedding a drop of blood, what the colonial and military lords could not do in almost 100 years. That is, to determine the way forward for Nigeria, under a constitution made by Nigerians for Nigerians for the first time. To those who might say this will be unconstitutional, then, you can tell them that they should realize that the present arrangement in equally unconstitutional or without one at all.

Please also tell the military to keep its guns in its armories, as Nigerians no longer need them to help in settling political disputes. The civilians can now take care of themselves. The military in politics like you has become a pain in the neck of Nigeria. It has ruined Nigeria more than it has ruled her. The current crisis is a hangover of years of military in politics in Nigeria; otherwise, what qualifies you as the democratically elected President of Nigeria, a man who cannot win his local government election without rigging. Any soldier interested in politics must be ready to put down his uniform, and swim in the clean waters of politics, which you did not do. If it is money that qualifies anyone to rule, he must explain how he got the money since it is no longer acceptable to steal the peoples' money and come back to use it to buy their votes to power. Then what is the fate of those who are more qualifies but have had no opportunity to steal money?

Did I forget about Audu Ogbeh your chairman? No, he is just not my problem. He is not a public official even of the same status of a local government counselor. He was never elected to any office except by your party which is just like any private company in Abuja. In spite of his faults, I can still tolerate him for being the vessel that God is using to expose electoral frauds and illegalities in high places in the country now and how our leaders have compromised principle, integrity, and godliness in spite of their holier than thou attitudes. Ogbeh did not swear to defend and uphold the constitution of Nigeria but you did. When criminality and unconstitutionality were right there at your door steps, it is you and not Ogbeh that failed and faltered. Ogbeh is just an epitome of the decay and perfidy your party represents. Nigerians should identify all its elected members and prevent them from rigging future elections or from contesting again for lack of morality and integrity, which should be the head cornerstones of the next political dispensation.

Sometimes ago, a fellow Yoruba responding to one of my articles on you, wrote and accused me of being too harsh on you, being a fellow Yoruba who is the President. He angrily asked me in Yoruba language with a rage of anger than could be felt even on the pages of the paper: "Kini Obasanjo gba lowo e" meaning 'what did Obasanjo take from you', apparently insinuating that you, President Obasanjo did not deserve any criticism but praise from me or other Yoruba. In my immediate response, I said, you took my pride of identity and integrity away as Yoruba. You also took from Nigeria and Nigerians especially his lovers and admirers, hope and good governance. Say what you will, I will never praise you until you can earn my praise. Let me add now, that you have given us shame and disgrace, with the latest revelations.

Mr. President, what I hate most, is people like you, stealing, lying, and cheating in the name of God. You called people like me who criticize you "false prophets." That is unfortunate, as your true friends are those who can look you in the eye and say no, especially when are wrong even when you don't want to hear that. I would rather be your enemy and a friend to Nigerians because I have found out that friendship with you is enmity to Nigeria. Your enemies and enemies of Nigeria are those including your prayer contractors or the real false prophets, who are deceiving you saying: "The Lord is with you." No, the truth is; the God of the Bible is not with oppressors, cheaters, and dishonest people. This is what God says through one of his true prophet; Jeremiah:

"Among my people are wicked men who lie in wait like men who snare birds and like those who set traps to catch men. Like cages full of birds, their houses (and mouths) are full of deceit; they have become rich and powerful and have grown fat and sleek (from stealing people's money and the wealth of the nation). Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it, they do not defend the rights of the poor. Should I not punish them for this?" "Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done- burn with no one to quench it, declares the LORD." Does this pinch your heart or conscience? (Italics mine).

With your more than one million Naira income a month, you don't need to be wished a Prosperous New Year because you have too much prosperity already. There is something however, you may not have in abundance right now, which is happiness; since not all prosperity leads to or brings happiness. So let me wish you a very happy New Year. I also wish you a change of heart, I mean repent, and really be Born Again in the New Year. I mean being Born Again in the Jesus' real, true, and godly way. I hope to see you when next I am in Abuja. Hope your Christmas was too bad because of all these mess around you? Anyway, that is the law of sowing and reaping.

Best regards and with all my love,