President Goodluck Jonathan: HISTORY BECKONS: DRIVE THIS COUNTRY FORWARD, BOLDLY
First published: 10 March 2010 at 16:39
CHARLES WEBBER COLLECTIVE
103, Olu Obasanjo Road , Port Harcourt
wenendawali@yahoo.com, willsiniruo@yahoo.com, 08033100102, 08037094007, 08055024600
08.03.10
His Excellency, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GCON)
The Acting President and Commander-in-Chief
Presidential Villa, Abuja
Your Excellency,
HISTORY BECKONS: DRIVE THIS COUNTRY FORWARD, BOLDLY
We are impelled by the times and devious machinations that currently try the soul of our country, Nigeria , to write you this open memorandum.
As Nigeria reels under the trickery of a desperate cult addicted to political power and its spoils, conscience calls on the predominant moral majority of the people to speak up and invoke the sovereignty of popular will. This, in the hope that men like you who hold their sacred trust of authority will be emboldened by equal conscience and the swelling solidarity of the people to do those things that are right by God and Country. And the heavens will not fall, for even the most avaricious and treacherous of men cannot bring down the heavens that were made by the Perfect Creator.
The Yar Adua Tragedy: Parrallels and Contrasts
It is now 105 days today since some functionaries of state and their cohorts have held President Yar Adua hostage, shielding him from the country and citizens he swore to preside over in good faith. In total disdain of the Constitution and the national interest, they have fanatically resisted every effort to enforce the Constitution, to smoothly transmit power whilst the President receives deserving medical care, and to avoid leaving the country in needless suspense and abeyance. Two weeks ago, they reportedly sneaked President Yar Adua into the country, in contrived darkness, backed with suspect military manouvres, and with neither your knowledge nor superintendence as the Acting President and Commander-in-Chief.
The insubordinate spokesman of this treasonable enterprise, Segun Adeniyi, then further assaulted the injured sensibilities of 150 million Nigerians with his impertinent reference to the Ag President as Vice President. Two weeks on, these apparatchiks have allegedly blocked the Ag Head of State and other Officers of State from seeing the reportedly ill President. This tale beggars belief! But even this is surpassed by the reported rudeness of twelve Ministers, including Ufot Ekaette, Sam Egwu, Rilwan Lukman, Godwin Abbe and Abba Ruma who naming themselves The 12 “Wise Men” had the temerity to warn you against removing Ministers and otherwise queried your powers as Ag President. Obviously, they would hate to lose the power to award juicy Niger Delta contracts or administer the Post-Amnesty billions, to say nothing of bogus fertilizer deals and sharing of oil blocs. Yet, these Ministers of dubious value to public good do not have a licence to such naked insolence. To start with, they betray a lack of true nobility in not knowing what every wise child knows: let others call you wise. The Bible describes such characters aptly in Romans 1:22: “Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools”. This rascality in high public office is the curse of Nigeria , and it would be tragic for you, Ag President, to portray any incapacity on your part to excise this cancerous trait in public life.
The medical cases of numerous world leaders have been handled transparently in contemporary times. The cases of Fidel Castro of Cuba, Yasser Arafat of Palestine, Ariel Sharon of Israel, Pope John Paul II, Vice President Dick Cheney of the US, former President Bill Clinton (last month), and President Barack Obama (last week!) reveal the voodoo mindset of the sycophants around President Yar Adua .
The cult’s morbid obsession is comparable in its ignominy to, or worse than, General Babangida’s annulment of the June 12 elections, General Abacha’s abortive attempt at life presidency (one loud proponent of which is a Minister in your cabinet: Ojo Maduekwe), and President Obasanjo’s lust for an unconstitutional third term in office. These are negative precedents and parallels for a new Nigeria . May God give you the wisdom to shun these inglorious examples and to remember, in the resonating words of Condoleeza Rice, that “the Presidency is bigger than the President”.
Action: Your Excellency, it is the health and the safety of President Yar Adua as citizen and as President that are at stake on the individual level. These are matters of public interest as well as of national security. We submit that you lack an option to succumb to restrictions imposed by pseudo-loyalists that have garrisoned themselves around the President. Instead, you have the national security obligation to personally ensure the best provision and protection for the President, via the instrumentality of your exalted office. What if one of the privileged few that cordoned off the President decides to manipulate his presumably delicate condition, possibly to fatal effect, either for personal gains or just to create havoc? Can you in good conscience plead the defence of not being granted access by mere operatives or private persons? Will it avail you that you refrained from acting so as not to appear ambitious? You have a duty, Sir, and not a choice in the matter.
These considerations are without prejudice to our publicized stand that President Yar Adua should now resign or be removed from office for incapability. Nigerians hope the Executive Council and our Parliament will have the good sense to still act.
On the corporate level, at stake are the integrity of the Presidency as the highest institution of governance, the evolution of democracy, and the continued existence and stability of Nigeria . The chicanery of the last 105 days has threatened all these. It is your solemn duty to your country to employ the full instrument of your current office and the State to ascertain the culprits in this tragedy and bring them to book, to serve as deterrent against future misadventures that may even be more daring. This is no time to leave things to chance and fatalism. This is time to take decisive action.
Going Forward
As the culprits in this mindless game continue their attempt at controlling the Government of Nigeria by proxy, in brazen violation of Section 1(2) of the Constitution, horse trading is now the order of the day in the halls of power. Vincent Ogbulafor, National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, has led the nabobs of negativism (apologies to Spiro Agnew) in signaling that the ongoing negotiations for power and mortgaging of democracy are all about sectionalism, zoning, sit tightism and other ulterior considerations. Rather than make a sensible contribution to governance in his apparently poorly understood position, Mr Ogbulafor is more interested in declaring that only candidates from one part of the country can vie for Presidency in 2011. It is such utterances that make PDP, Nigeria ’s ruling party, appear unruly. Perhaps the Electoral Commission should not bother to conduct presidential elections in disqualified parts of the country, to save costs.
Therefore, we urge that your appointments and consultations also reflect the pivotal role of the progressive civil society, and not only embrace ultra-conservatives and the constituency of ex-this and ex-that. The Wole Soyinkas, Olisa Agbakobas, Tunde Bakares, Salihu Lukmans, Femi Falanas, Tony Urantas, Najatu Muhammeds and Uche Unyeaguchas of Nigeria cannot be good only for pro-democracy protests and risking their lives. The progressive tendency of Nigerian society should be amply represented in governance. For example, excepting Mrs Mariam Uwais, your Presidential Advisory Council hardly reflects this non-tribal constituency, and seems to be stuffed with too many profiteers and too few professional minds.
We then suggest that you focus on the following priorities in your limited timeframe:
1. Electoral Reforms: This is a low hanging fruit, if you can muster the will to actualize the proposals of the Uwais Electoral Reform Committee. You could constitute a task group out of the original Uwais Committee, to engage with the National Assembly to expedite enactment of the proposals into legislation.
2. Power: It is time to think out of the box, if necessary. Assemble the best cognate professionals - engineers, economists, lawyers, etc - to work with Government to speed up the National Independent Power Plants programme. They may conduct a holistic review of the structure and sustainability of the NIPP transactions, aiming to remove bottlenecks, without disrupting ongoing work. And states should be allowed to distribute power, so some states can pursue self-sufficiency, relieving the national grid to serve other states better.
Finally, we advise that you instigate real progress on the Domestic Gas Masterplan, including imaginative funding arrangements and the community issues without which it will be a grand failure. Domestic gas utilization is our key to industrialization in the 21st Century and you can provide the impetus.
3. Niger Delta: President Yar Adua showed uncommon courage in initiating the Amnesty Programme. But the post-arms surrender phase is plagued by insincerity and lack of clarity. This phase of rehabilitation and development needs to be fast tracked, participatory (so many committees, but too much secrecy at the moment) and well funded; alongside the full implementation of the Ledum Mitee-Niger Delta Technical Committee’s report. Then, please release to the Niger Delta Development Commission the over N300 billion owed it by the Federal Government as statutory contributions.
To mark a leap in Government’s attitude to true federalism and to mineral producing communities, we suggest you promptly present for the National Assembly’s approval, under Section 162(2) of the Constitution, a revenue allocation formula in which 25% will be disbursed on the basis of derivation.
There is need too to employ innovative means of improving governance in the region, at state and federal levels. The abysmal performance of local governments obtains because the Federal/State Governments are very bad examples, with few exceptions. The biggest problem in the region is not the seeming breakdown of order but the protracted breakdown of governance.
4. Health: President Yar Adua’s frequent medical trips abroad are a perfect metaphor for the shameful fact that this country has no healthcare plan. We urge that you direct the Minister of Health to produce a Comprehensive Healthcare Plan, including a penetrative national health insurance proposal, and present to the nation before the 30th of April, 2010 for robust public input, after consideration by the Executive Council.
5. Constructive Engagement of the Military: Nigeria needs an integrated plan for professionalizing and constructively engaging its Armed Forces in the development process. The military in many countries is involved in building roads and credited for advances in technology. Besides the development dividends, this will boost military morale and military-civilian relations.
6. Infrastructure (Roads, Roads, and Roads): That the carnage on our death-trap roads does not move our governments is shocking. We urge you to impress Nigerians with aggressive road development. Relevant agencies should be asked to require contractors to work day and night, as part of a new road works culture. With appropriate logistics and security, this will deliver roads in shorter time and create jobs. Then the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission should be directed to present a short-medium term plan for popularizing PPP/PPI (Public-Private Partnerships/Private Provision of Infrastructure), as these tools are now not only global best practice but unavoidable in the contemporary economic order.
7. Poverty Reduction, SME Development and Job Creation: The Executive Council and the Economic Management Team should devote time to these cross-cutting issues and produce a harmonized framework for tackling them in ways that even the non-experts amongst our citizenry can measure. Specifically, the Governor of Central Bank should be required to present a quarterly Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Development Report that will form a key indicator of the Governor and CBN Management’s performance.
WHICH NORTH, WHICH SOUTH?
From Yola to Yenagoa, poverty is palpable. Governments are not keeping faith. Opportunists are quick to exploit the bogey of a North-South divide which in no way addresses the pathetic reality of innocent children condemned to the beggarly life of almajiris in Northern Nigeria, nor the abject poverty in the midst of plenty in the Niger Delta, nor indeed the existentialist conditions in the Southeast, despite the famed Igbo spirit of industry. How do we address the lack of safe drinking water in the North, South, East and West of Nigeria? Has the historical accident of having more Presidents from Northern Nigeria translated into provision of basic amenities even in that region? In what part of Nigeria is there security of life? Life has become short and brutish for the vast majority of Nigerians. This must be the national discourse, and you must not let the plundering elite of both Southern and Northern extraction assault your sense of purpose with their agenda of vile and vested interests.
Your Excellency, you still enjoy the unprecedented goodwill we alluded to in our full-page position on the state of the nation in the Thisday of 24th March, 2010 (p 12). But you can only sustain it by riding on the public mood and taking bold, positive action. May God give you the PROTECTION, wisdom, courage and grace to impact your country and generation with an unforgettable legacy. For, indeed, History beckons.
For Charles Webber Collective:
D Captain-Briggs Chinedum Ile Iniruo Wills Wenenda Wali Mbanugo Omezi
Eddy Igbedion Enize Ogio Kwashi Thompson