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| Femi Fani-Kayode |
Mr. President, you will recall that I wrote
you an open letter on December 28th, 2015 which I
sincerely hope that you found most gratifying, illuminating and helpful.
That was two days before your Presidential
media chat which took place on December 30th. I hereby humbly crave your
indulgence to add an addendum to that open letter. That is what this
contribution represents.
I hope and pray that this second letter,
which will be the last, will further enlighten you and impart a little more
wise counsel to you that will result in assisting you to properly appreciate
the complexities of our times.
Mr. President it is pertinent to note that
approximately two hundred and sixty five years ago one of the founding fathers
of the United States of America, Mr. Benjamin Franklin, said "rebellion to
tyrants is obedience to God". I am sure that you will agree with me when I
say that he was absolutely right.
Just in case you do not know who Benjamin
Franklin was permit me to point out the fact that he is a man that is revered
by the American people and much of the civilised world up until today and he is
the individual whose face appears on the one hundred U.S. dollar bills that are
used till today.
He was a great statesman, diplomat,
politician and intellectual and most important of all he was a deeply courageous
man who was motivated by his deepest convictions and his christian values and
who was prepared to risk life and liberty and stand up to tyranny.
I guess most Nigerian leaders have much to
learn from him especially at times like this. Yet thankfully all is not lost
and at least a few of our politicians are beginning to find their voice and
speak out against the evil in the land. Permit me to share one example with
you.
A few days ago Chief Olisa Metuh, the
National Publicity Secretary of our great party the PDP, exposed the fact that
there was an orchestrated attempt by your government to intimidate, silence and
utterly decimate and crush the opposition.
In open defiance to what can best be
described as this insidious and sinister agenda he told the world that
''President Buhari is not God and we will not worship him".
Whether he knows it or not Metuh has not only
spoken for the PDP but also for the overwhelming majority of the Nigerian
people.
Permit me to add the following words to his
timely contribution. Woe unto those that tremble before men of power and that
worship false gods.
Destruction and perdition awaits those who
bow before Baal, who exalt the servants of Belial, who kiss the ring of the
Baphomet, who say ''Buhari is God'' and who crawl at the feet of the Lord of
the Flies.
Mr. President the point is simple and clear:
you are not God and even though we respect your office we will never bow before
you, we will never worship you, we will not relent in our efforts to oppose you
and, regardless of your constant threats and wicked intentions, we have
absolutely no fear of you.
This is because our fate and destiny and the
future of our beloved country lies in the hands of the Living God and not in
the hands of a misguided and tyrannical dictator like your good self.
Injustice, persecution and tyranny last only for a season.
At the appointed time the Lord will step in
and He will deliver and vindicate the falsely accused and the righteous
captive. He will also avenge the spilling of innocent blood and He will fight
the cause of the martyrs.
With this in mind and regardless of the
dangerous counsel of the hardliners and extremists that surround you, I urge
you to please take note of the following: Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky, Colonel
Sambo Dasuki and Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, who are all political prisoners, must NOT die
under mysterious circumstances whilst they are in your custody.
No matter what your advisers and those in
your inner circle tell you if, God forbid, this were to happen the fall-out and
consequences for your reputation and your administration would be too much to
bear.
This brings me to another issue which is a
cause for grave concern. Your stated resolve not to obey court orders and to
deny Nigerians their right to bail after the courts have given it to them is
not only an affront and gratuitous insult to the Judiciary but it is also a
violation of the constitution.
I say this because, unlike military
dictatorships, democracy enjoys and derives its power and legitimacy from the
inviolable and sacred principle of ''separation of powers''.
What this means is that the Executive arm of
Government, which by the grace of God you head today, is distinct and separate
from the Legislature and the Judiciary.
As head of the Executive and President of the
Federal Republic, you have absolutely no power or right to interfere in the
processes of the Legislature (which is the National Assembly) or the Judiciary.
Both have their own rules, regulations and
leadership and the constitution guides them and guarantees them total and
complete independence from you.
As a matter of fact they are charged by the
laws of our land and the constitution to act as a check and balance on you as
President and to ensure that you do not abuse your power or subject your people
to tyranny.
Mr. President I watched you on your media
chat the other day and I am constrained to tell you that you not only abused
your power but that you also crossed the line with some of the things that you
said.
For example you have no right to tell the
courts how to administer justice and who and who not to grant bail. Again you
have no business to tell the legislature which laws to pass and how to run
their affairs.
Again you have no right and neither do you
have the power to pronounce any Nigerian citizen guilty of any crime unless and
until a duly constituted court of law has done so.
You cannot be the prosecutor, judge and jury
in any criminal proceeding and this is especially so when you initiated those
proceedings and you are the accuser. To attempt to do so is not only
unacceptable and irresponsible but it is also heartless and unkind.
The fact that most of our senior and
respected lawyers have refused to tell you this simply because they are scared
of you or because they are looking for patronage from your government does not
mean that what you are doing is lawful or acceptable. What you are doing is
morally and legally reprehensible and it is unacceptable in any democratic and
civilized society.
In the same vein you have no right to try to
stop members of the opposition or the general public from criticizing you or
condemning your obvious failings. Mr. President criticism, opposition and
dissent are the lifeblood of democracy and without accommodating and tolerating
them you cannot claim to be a democrat.
You have no right to attempt to cower or
intimidate the fourth estate of the realm, which is the media, or attempt to
pervert and corrupt the Nigerian public with daily doses of lies, falsehood,
deceit and propaganda which is being duly and dutifully administered by your
Minister of Information and your numerous media aides.
All these things give me and millions of your
other subjects concern yet it doesn't stop there. Perhaps the most disturbing
example of your sheer insensitivity was your reaction to the question about
Igbo marginalization during the media chat.
In response to that question you asked
"who is marginalizing who" and went further to ask "what do the
Igbo want?"
Mr. President I wish to remind you that it is
an incontrovertible fact that in just seven months your government has
succeeded in marginalizing the Igbo more than any other Federal Government in
living memory and certainly since the civil war.
This is a record that you ought not to be
proud of. What the Igbo want is fairness, equal rights, equal representation,
equity and respect. They also believe that they have the right to determine
their own future and make their own choices.
Mr. President I do not believe that this is
this too much for them to ask given the fact that they have contributed,
perhaps more than most, to national development and integration in the last
forty five years.
It is not too much to ask given the fact that
no less than three million of their people, including one million innocent
children, were slaughtered during our civil war in the name of keeping Nigeria
one.
I have no doubt that you will remember this
very well Mr. President given the fact that you were one of those that
prosecuted that war and fought in it.
You will also remember the brutal mass murder
and the war crimes and crimes against humanity that were perpetrated against
the unarmed and defenseless Igbo civilian population of Asaba in 1968 when over
one thousand of them were rounded up, taken to the town square and shot to
death for no just cause.
The soldiers that carried out that
unspeakable act of cowahopeful that you do not take offence at my admonitions
and counsel. I speak only out of concern for the fortunes of your
administration, your reputation and out of love for my country. God bless
Nigeria.
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