PRESS RELEASE/A CALL FOR NATIONAL ELDERS FORUM IN NIGERIA
PRESS RELEASE: Solidarity Visit to the People's General, Muhammadu Buhari
I am here today in a solidarity visit to General Muhammadu Buhari, not as a politician but as a strong collaborator in the search for truth about our country Nigeria.
As a catholic priest and an intercessor after the heart of Our Lady, Blessed Virgin Mary, I and my prayer partners have committed this nation to God in prayer. We have not only prayed for the quick recovery of our dear president, we have also asked God to show this nation the way forward. And by the special support of our Blessed Lady, God has not failed us.
I make this journey all the way from Abia State to Kaduna on behalf of myself and my prayer partners in order to escape the observation of Martin Luther king Jnr. that:
“The hottest part of hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict”.
And to abide by the words of Ellen White that:
“In a world of compromise and half truths; the greatest want of the world is the want of men - men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle is to the pole; men who will stand for the right, though heavens fall.”
The situation of Nigeria currently is and remains a very strong appeal to such men of integrity as described by Ellen White many years ago. And Gen. Buhari is one of such men. I am here to pray you not to relent.
The many contrived electoral failures that have been employed to make a caricature of your divinely ordained vision for and mission in our dear nation must not be mistaken for what they are or represent –the devil’s strategy for distraction. On this ground, I urge you to ignore the temptations which the formation of a Mega Party present to you, and instead revisit your decision to quit ANPP.
The crisis in the banking sector, the presidency and the National Assembly are all contrived, and are intricately linked up with the effort to castrate the other political parties that have provided credible and consistent opposition to the satanic schemes of the Cabal that wears the PDP mask. Leaving ANPP at this point in time portends a very serious threat to the hope you hold on trust for many of us, not as politicians but as citizens who are severely thirsty for change and for responsible leadership. The intention governing the activities of the Cabal is to rid the political field of the timbers and calibers whose intimidating credentials may constitute a strong opposition to the monster who has been positioned to take over government completely come 2011. Even though the credentials of some of these people have been bruised somehow, we as their brothers and sisters must forgive them and lend them a hand of rescue from the PDP concentration camp where they have been held hostage.
The situation currently portends great danger not only for democracy but also for the unity of Nigeria. Today, and for obvious reasons, it may not be a show of disrespect to refer to the National Assembly as a gathering of rich fools and a meeting of nincompoops. And since it is clear that the decision of the majority of them no longer reflect the will and aspirations of the people who elected them but the interests and bias of the Cabal that imposed them on Nigerians, it has become imperative to evolve a medium that will adequately address the many failures of our Constitution before the so-called National Assembly re-cycles the bias and interest of their employers and turn around to impose these on us as a Reviewed Constitution.
It is important to clarify what I mean by PDP. PDP is a democratic project that was stolen at gun point from Alex Ekwueme, Atiku Abubakar and other well meaning prominent Nigerians that made up the membership of the group of the G38 and who sincerely wanted to translate the hope ushered in by the democratic era in 1999 into concrete terms. This noble aspiration which held a great significance for growth and development in Nigeria became a powerful threat to the over-arching pretentious ambition of a man who felt he alone was qualified to occupy Aso Rock for life. Unfortunately for him the peoples’ will compelled him to “step aside”. Everybody thought he had gone home to rest, but instead he went home to mobilize against the people. During the Abacha’s infamous regime, he wore the mask of the K-Squad, created enemies - real and imagined – for Abacha and sold the idea of murder to him as the only option. At the end, Abacha emerged as the fool who killed for his unknown boss. He sold the Third Term Project to former President Chief Mathew Obasanjo through cronies as a self-destruct construct and then presented himself as a true democrat. Unfortunately for him Obasanjo realized himself, became diplomatic, tagged along with him in collaboration with Peter Odili. This time around, he has successfully worked on President Umaru Musa Yar’dua by prompting the First Lady, Alhaja Turai Yar’dua to assume presidential powers and stand-in for her husband instead of standing by him at this critical moment of decision making in the life of this selfless and committed leader incapacitated by ill health. He does this hiding behind Northern interests. As he creates Judases and Brutuses for the ailing president, he alone remains the trusted friend and the only solution to the problem. In as much as we must resist the temptation, as prompted by unevaluated emotions and sentiments, to buy into the foolishness and greed of our own brothers and sisters, we must courageously resolve to save our democracy and federal institutions from further caricature and from being reduced totally to mere instruments at the service of executive rascality.
Indeed, as George Elliot has correctly pointed, no other disposition is a security to a man whose hopes hang on duplicity. In this regard therefore, and in the full and unreserved acknowledgement of the hope and promise you hold for the ordinary citizens of this nation, and the significance of all the regions for the continued existence and unity of Nigeria as one Nation bound in freedom, I hereby ask you to help me deliver this Open Letter to Mr. President, Umaru Musa Yar’dua, together with this call for the meeting of the Council of Elders, for as Prof (Mrs.) Dora Akunyili rightly quoted an Igbo proverb, “an elder does not stay at home and watch the goat get strangulated at the stake.
Signed
Rev. Fr. Kenneth Evurulobi
March 2nd , 2010.
A CALL FOR ELDERS FORUM IN NIGERIA
LIST OF WINNERS OF NATIONAL LOTTERY / NATIONAL HONOUR.
S/NO
NAME
AWARDS/HONOURS
REMARKS
001
Chief Mathew Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo
Founder of Modern Nigeria (fmn)
Member, National Elder’s Forum (NEF)
Chief Obasanjo put his life at stake for this nation. The fact that he had to opt out of the “AGREEMENT”despite the huge risks involved so as to reverse the direction to which Nigeria was heading is a testimony to this. The Third Term Project was a dubious project floated by PDP and sold to Chief Obasanjo. Those who conceived the third term Project never ever wanted it to work but employed it as a tool to discredit, destabilize and destroy Obasanjo’s credentials and records so as to reduce him to a victim at their mercy.
In other words, the Third Term was conceived with huge national resources to put Mr. President out of favour with the people and hand him over, as a guilty criminal to a cabal at whose mercy and command he must, from then henceforth, submit himself, otherwise…
Obasanjo merely tagged along with them because that alone seemed to be the only alternative to a Satanic Presidency designed after the vision of a Saddam Hussein – at the heart of this vision is a terrorist and terrorized state with tentacles in Africa, and cutting across the globe. Obasanjo’s blatant refusal was not meant to be a conscious betrayal against Atiku Abubakar and other party loyalists, but a courageous and sincere effort expended in the enthronement of a higher and more superior good - National, Regional and Global Security. For instance, it was the Cabal who pitched Atiku against Obasanjo, and then played Atiku into the hands of Ribadu.
Obasanjo truly knows more than anybody else that Yar’dua was chronically sick but that he never would die. Yar’dua is not corrupt.Yar’dua, as of then, was not of the IBB stock. With the PDM at the background, Yar’dua enjoyed a massive Northern Support. Goodluck Jonathan shared the same qualities with Yar’dua. Now, the reasoning was that if IBB, hiding behind the North to pursue his selfish ambition to return to Aso Rock –a pet project he has nursed over the years, decides to quicken the death of this kinsman for his own selfish ambition, then the presidency will automatically and naturally fall into the waiting hands of the South South. Thus, as far as Obasanjo was concerned, the North could keep the presidency but not in the hands of a terrorist like IBB. To be sincere, Obasanjo was not fighting IBB for his own selfish reasons. After all, he had every reason to be grateful, and loyal to IBB – the release from prison and the elevation to the Presidency. But in doing all these, it was IBB who was discovered to have not been honest. Obasanjo’s experience with Abacha forced him to come to appreciate the realities of state terrorism and the implications of this for the millions of Nigerians out there. Being the soldier he was, he fought on, and with the courage and dedication of people like Ribadu, Akunyili, etc, he managed to inch forward. It was discovered that the Killing Machine employed by late Gen. Abacha was in existence before him and its roots go far beyond the Abacha saga. Gen. Abacha merely borrowed it to hunt imaginary enemies. It is unfortunate that Yar’dua has played Nigeria back into the hands of this fraudulent parentage.
One thing Obasanjo did not understand was that the “AGREEMENT” which he signed under severe and deadly oath was a Mystical Document which cannot be reversed, unless the SEAL was broken and destroyed. Thus when Obasanjo got a copy of the Homily I preached at CIWA Chaplaincy on 01/01/2006 titled “Mary: Mother of God And Mother of Us All In Nigeria” as a security report from Peter Odili, he was relieved. Obasanjo and Odili fast tracked the total destruction of this AGREEMENT. From the 6th-8th July, 2006, this document was destroyed. It is the role Peter Odili and Chief Obasanjo played in the destruction of this document, more than any thing else, that is the reason for their present ordeals. Their fate, as different from and opposed to that of Ibori and Kalu, is the fate of all who are directly or indirectly opposed to state terrorism and Satanism. Just like the sacked Bank Chiefs, they may be guilty to a very high degree but then they belong to us. The cabal is taking over the final institutions in Nigeria . The sacked Bank Chiefs must be allowed to return to their duty posts and be given the opportunity sustained by careful monitoring to put their houses in order. Mrs Cecilia Ibru is unjustly marked “X”. Who actually has She offended?
Odili did not contest for the Presidency but for the Vice President. However, his presidential posture was meant to be used as a bargaining slot with North. Unfortunately, Ribadu came calling on him in a response to the call of duty but more on the promptings of Northern Elements who suspected that Odili had been favoured by Obasanjo to the discredit of the North , and Obasanjo knew the stuff Ribadu was made of. When Obasanjo and Odili saw the danger posed by Ribadu’s intervention(Ribadu is a finely refined, determined, unstoppable and totally dedicated cop who wanted to make a strong impact doing his job), they scampered for safety, piped low and surrendered to providence instead of to IBB. Herein lies the truth about the emergence of Yar’dua as Mr. President. The North cannot authentically claim that Obasanjo intended to dupe them by imposing Yar’dua on them. Even if such a claim could be sustained, the North had the opportunity to reverse this using the Presidential Election Tribunal but they all kept mum. Unfortunately, spurred by an insatiable geed for power more than the regalia of the Messiah he is wearing now, Rotimi Amaechi could not be realistic with the turn of events at the eve of the 2007 Elections. Left on his own, Yar’dua would have successfully completed his tenure and would be healthy enough to re-contest. Because time was no longer on the side of the “I”, he had to move fast in order to stop Yar’dua. Yar’dua was poisoned piecemeal by piecemeal. In the latest arrangement that was mistaken for the execution of an Islamic Agenda (steps to Islamization of Nigeria), a Saudi Doctor was recruited to rest the Yar’dua case so as to create room for a true, fearless, courageous and dedicated Islamic Jihadist to emerge. It was intended that after the “act” , Yar’dua would be brought home to die but the result of the act was more, very much more than bargained. It did not kill Yardua clinically only but also resulted in a facial collapse. Again, I am forced to admit that Turai does not know the real faces of her sons-in-law. Against the background of Turai –poor Turai_(I am becoming emotional), it is important to note that when moles are planted around you, you hear only what they want you to hear, and see only what they want you to see and believe only what they want you to believe. This is the function of moles.
002
Chief Anthony Enahoro
NEF
Chairman, NEF.
003
Chief Gani Fawehmni
NEF
Honoured, even in death. The Gani Chambers can take up this assignment on behalf of their Principal.
004
The President of Afenifere
NEF
005
Chief Wole Soyinka
NEF
006
007
008
009
Prof Tam David West
NEF
010
NEF
011
NEF
012
Justice Chukwudifu Oputa
NEF
013
Chief Emeka Odimegwu Ojukwu
NEF
014
Mr Raymond EKPU
NEF
015
Justice Muhammed Lawal Uwais
NEF
016
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
NEF
017
Msgr Mathew Hassan Kukah
NEF
018
The Sultan of Sokoto
019
The President of Ohaneze
NEF
020
The President of CAN
NEF
021
The President of ACF
NEF
022
Mr Femi Falana
NEF
023
024
025
026
* The National Elders Forum (NEF) is a body of distinguished elderly Nigerians who are noted for their courage, integrity and passion for the twin issues that are involved in the building up of a stronger, viable and functional Nigeria as a federal state –regional interest and national unity.
* Each of them is encouraged to look across the length and breath of Nigeria and pick about twelve other people who, in their estimation possess the necessary qualities as stipulated above, and then together with these special twelve, do a total and exhaustive review of the 1979 and 1999 Constitution respectively within a space of Six calendar months after the inauguration of the NEF. A referendum must be held to this effect.
* Armed with a copy of the Reviewed Constitution and having discharged his “other -selves”, each member of the NEF is now to return to the General Meeting of all the NEF members where a Central Working Committee (NWC) of the NEF as appointed by the Chairman Chief Enahoro and headed by Justice Muhammed Uwais, with Justice Chukwudifu Oputa as Secretary would be constituted. Membership of the NWC must be pegged compulsorily at 9. Their job is to do a comprehensive reconciliation of the different copies of the Reviewed Constitution, and reduce everything to one copy. This is the copy of our New Constitution. This must be done within (3) three months.
* Nine weeks to the 2011 General Elections, Gen. Muhammed Buhari should be invited for a dialogue which will, among other things, consist in convincing him to adopt the New Constitution as the Nigerian Constitution on assumption of office as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
* Convincing him to accept and sign the ministerial nominee list as given by the NEF.
* Resource Control must be pegged at 30% .The tenure of elected office holders must be pegged at 4 years for federal, state and local government respectively.
* Immediately after the Inauguration of the NASS, one of the first motions to be moved on both floors of the NASS is that of the Review of the Constitution. A joint Committee for the review of the Constitution is inaugurated with 12 members and 24 members each respectively from both houses and given 3 weeks only to do their work. The Committee is now to invite NEF for assistance and advice. The Reviewed Constitution is handed over to them by the NEF, with which they return to the House where the Reviewed Constitution is signed into law. Each member of the NEF is to be remunerated with N20m while each of his “other selves” is to be paid N5.5m. This money should be built into the budget through the NASS and made to reach the beneficiaries by being built into the official fund released to the Constitutional Review Committee of the NASS. The elders deserve some honour, and their work, if excellently done, will save the elders from the merciless sentence of history and embarrassment they would face in their encounter with future
generations.@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@2
OPEN LETTER TO MR PRESIDENT TO MR UMARU MUSA YAR'DUA
Rev. Fr. Kenneth Evurulobi.C.
Amuke Village
Isiahaba Autonomous Community
Isiala Ngwa South L.G.A.
Abia State.
September 15,2009.
His Excellency
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua
President and Commander-in-Chief
Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Dear Mr. President,
RE-BRANDING THE BABYLONIAN EXPERIENCE?
I am compelled by the circumstances of my ABDUCTION on the 9th of July, 2006 to comment on the topical issues that currently dictate the direction of government in Nigeria.
Around 1997, and in anticipation of the 1999 General Elections, the surprise and embarrassment that greeted those of us in AbiaState at the sudden abduction and disappearance of men with hunchback has given way to the entrenchment of terrorism. Many states of the Federation had their peculiar share of this sinister story in their own different ways. And with the powerful institutions of government put at the service and disposal of terrorism, corruption (which wore the face of 419sm during the Ibrahim Babangida administration) was ceremoniously enthroned, personified and decorated with national awards. The power and influence wielded by such persons like Tony Anenih, Orji Uzor Kalu, James Ibori, Ibrahim Babangida, Chris Uba, to mention but a few, in government, would not permit a dissenting voice. The conscious efforts expended to frustrate the determination and courage of worthy citizens and ambassadors of our dear nation like Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and Mallam Nasir El-Rufai respectively are strikingly remarkable as stringent warning signals to other citizens who are nursing the intention of stepping into their shoes. Regardless of this, I however, think that we Nigerians know our heroes.
Mr President, it is interesting to know that today, you have found out that Amnesty marks the beginning of the solution to the problems of the Niger Delta as a region plagued by terrorism. It might interest you to note that it is not only in Niger Delta, MASSOB, OPC and Boko Haram that terrorism finds its greatest concentration. Those who stole billions of naira realized from the sale of crude oil and squander billions of Tax payer’s money are worst terrorists than hungry and angry youths who destroy oil installations. Is it not therefore logical that you extend the Amnesty programme to all the kidnappers and corrupt officials across the nation, and even, to the thieves that are trying to hide behind the sincere but unguarded zeal of Lamido Sanusi to steal the fruits of other people’s labour.
All through the duration of the military governance until the fateful turn it took with Abacha, millions of Nigerians including myself were always changing their inner wears as if they were a baby’s napkin. Those of us who have very weak or no backbones at all were hysterically fidgeted until God intervened. We all were happy and heaved a sigh of relief, not actually because we were going to become millionaires overnight, but that at least, the women could feel free to do their gossiping when they go to do their hair at the salon without nursing the fear that the walls have ears. And the men could feel relaxed sipping their beer at the beer- parlour without thinking that there had been a thunderbolt just because a fellow out there sneezed or coughed. This smile has vanished from the faces of many Nigerians, and in place of it, anger and frustration have taken over. This annoyance arises not only out of the fact that billions of naira have been wasted building democratic and electoral toys, but also that majority of Nigerians do not believe and have never believed in any government in Nigeria.
For them, the government they hear of is a mere phantom in their mind that is so indifferent to and has no relevance to their development and does nothing to alleviate their suffering. At best, they are astute diggers of an unmanned goldmine. No one needed to add insult to their injury or inflict fresh wounds, or recall to them the enormity of their helplessness and hopelessness by startling them out of their cocoons except for something serious like democracy. Their time needed not be wasted either, for any minute wasted during the day may cost a family the only pure water pack which the children would need so badly for an only meal of sipped garri in a wealthy country like ours.
Indeed, Nigerians have managed, unaided but rather threatened by their own government, both past and present, to trek the deserted, rough and hostile road to freedom and survival.
The administration of former President Mathew Olusegun Obasanjo raised the hope of an average Nigerian but then, the former president made a lot of mistakes. The gravity of these mistakes was deepened further by the Third Term debacle. Nevertheless, despite his numerous weaknesses as a human being, Obasanjo nursed and worked towards an authentic vision of Nigeria that became a big suspect to oppressors who swore that such a Nigeria can never be born otherwise their own trade will collapse unceremoniously like a pack of cards. The many betrayals suffered by the former president can be explained by the resolute fight he put up and his insistence on becoming the Head of his own government – the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and his stubborn refusal to accept the status of a mere appendage to an over-arching pretentious ambition which a demon-infested party allocated to him. Had he accepted this especially as this relates to a Satanic AGREEMENT, Obasanjo would have been made to become the darling of most Nigerians, including the party called PDP.
As the President, Obasanjo was actually a man in a serious dilemma. Like Odewale in Ola Rotimi’s play “The Gods Are Not To Blame”, Obasanjo’s destiny as Mr. President was already written in lurid idioms before he came to power – a good child born by an Evil Genius. To be the president he was supposed to be and move Nigeria forward required that he disengages from his godfathers and destroy everything about their vision and mission, and then turn around and marry democracy-the mother that gave birth to him. Giving his background as a soldier and the pretensions of his party, that marriage was a process and highly incestuous. Obasanjo did not shy away from this but instead made a bold effort to embrace his destiny. Despite the embarrassment, shame and scandal, the Owu Chief told everyone who cared to listen that the devil- the Evil Genius, was bad.
Thus attempts to cut a summary picture of former President Mathew Olusegun Obasanjo’s eight year rule without a deep and sincere appreciation of a rewarding effort expended by him to assemble together the dismembered skeletal parts of a dying nation, redefine the vague and disadvantaged concept of national unity, giving it a new face, as well as invented a formidable fighting machinery from disparate forces to sustain this unity and move the nation forward, will show only the torso of a local and international gangster.As a prisoner just released from Abacha’s gulag,what other resources had OBASANJO as he assumed the mantle of leadership except his undiluted zeal for the unity of Nigeria- a need that was so critical at that time. To begin with, how many Yorubas are happy with Obasanjo? He had to destroy A.D., de-mobilise NADECO, Afenifere and O.P.C. so as to spare some oil for the wheels of the Nigerian nation. If Obasanjo did this to his kinsmen, then those who are committed to authenticity as members of the different ethnic groups may grudge as human beings who they are, but they must also be realistic when such necessary diplomatic pinches excite their nerves, forcing their arms be squeezed. Again Obasanjo was a man of many predicaments. To be objective, no matter the credentials Obasanjo paraded, as far as the average Igbo man was concerned consciously or unconsciously, Obasanjo was already very guilty for the role he played during the civil war. To the man from South South, it was now time for Obasanjo to compensate them for their loyalty (or betrayal against Biafra?) during the civil war. To the Northerners, Obasanjo was a lackey they put on the saddle, and so must remain that way. To the South Westerners, it was now their turn to re-live the Awolowo days for the Yoruba tribe. Obasanjo proved all these geo-political zones wrong, except the Igbos. Along this line, one has to remark that, in the murky political waters and slippery diplomatic terrains marked along strong ethnic antiphons, such mistakes are not unpardonable since they are unfortunate fall-outs of credible and responsible governance. However, the level of Obasanjo’s success cannot be correctly measured without reference to the scandal of a Yar’dua, not as a person per se but as a product of electoral fraud. And ambushed from all sides by the perfected satanic schemes of the Evil Genius, did the Owu Chief have any viable alternative to the inauguration of a Satanic Presidency except a Yar’dua?
The case of Peter Odili, former governor of RiversState is so pathetic. To have not believed that the deafening sounds of sycophantic drums that entertained the former occupant of the Brick House would have some sinister reverberations has come to prove fatal. Indeed, the truth is that those drums subtly escaped, in the most cunning way, the rays of suspicion including the watchful eyes of the State House of Assembly and the subtle intelligence that go with the apparatus of state power. What a shame! Peter Odili may not be the thief Rivers people are looking for as you are not the target of the frustrations and anger of many Nigerians. Peter Odili’s story is like that of an unreservedly generous beautiful woman. Such a lady would always have difficulties establishing her innocence even when she is not guilty. At this point, suffice it to mention that Rotimi Amaechi is, without prejudice to Apostle Paul, a lonely latecomer to good governance in RiversState. This truth can only be appreciated by discerning and matured minds.
And there is yet no peace in RiversState and by implication in the Niger Delta and in the entire nation except if the people have resolved to accept the peace of a grave yard as offered by the Vikings and their old Boys, or as implemented by PDP in strict accord with the Vision of Satanists.
Hence the real lesson of Obasanjo’s tragedy, and of course that of Peter Odili is that the fatal combination of nationalist zeal on the one hand, and a frolic experimentation on the people’s will on the other hand produces a taste too bitter than the stuff treachery itself is made of. While the former signifies a prodigious reward which Obasanjo and Odili have acquired respectively by a stint of hard work over the years as statesmen and social crusaders, the latter depicts a criminal proclivity that is born and nourished from the guile and bluff employed to oil the discredited wheels of a mischievous political party. Nevertheless, a correct evaluation cannot ignore the numerous contusions inflicted on the imposing Obasanjo and Odili personality respectively, neither can anything excuse from responsibility for the conurbation of a kleptocratic clique which grew around them. The difference between Obasanjo and Odili is that while the former, as a soldier (soldiers never die) usurped the place of a national exorcist and wielded the big stick threatening fire and brimstone (plus holy ghost thunder), the latter as a civilian and a democrat took the path of dialogue forgetting that, even though human beings can and must dialogue with one another, no one dines and dialogues with the Devil as personified by the Evil Genius and his cohorts. Dialogue is the most authentic mark of a true democrat. But then dialogue provides for some common basic principles that are shared together by the parties involved despite their mountainous differences and crippling disagreements. These basics must be seen to harbour and nurture the inescapable ingredients of justice and freedom without which no authentic dialogue can be said to have taken place.
Thus, emphatically, as a product of Obasanjo’s seemingly criminal maneuvers, you represented not only an alternative to a Satanic Presidency but also, in principle, a strong rebuke to it. Again you were a symbol of honesty, availability and service. As the former Governor of Katsina State, your achievements in this regard are a loud testimony. But as a Mr President, there seems to have been an eclipse.
Since the return of the democratic era in 1999, probing and discerning minds have not ceased to be rattled at the huge patronage PDP has enjoyed despite the scragginess and deficiencies that inescapably define her ideologies and policies. In actual fact, PDP’s programmes and policies have been discovered to be scandalously and notoriously cosmetic and hypocritical. PDP is a carricaturesque picture of justice and freedom. It is a decorated swallowing grave for real nationalists, true statesmen and committed democrats. It is a political Babylon. Against this background, permit me to fall back on Lenard Hand who said that “motives have easily accredited the credentials of questionable proposals”, and thus admonished that “no one should overlook to rebuke and rebuff those whose convictions are due to the un-resisted bias of their interests”.
The reason for the huge patronage which PDP enjoys today is not far-fetched. And I implore you not to allow this deceive you. Clandestine integrity often times consciously or unconsciously describes the fabrics mediocrity is made of. And when it is allowed to covet undue privileges to itself, it constitutes the greatest miscreant to good judgment. At this point, it is only an introspective mindset which holds the key to a jubilant personality defrocked of questionable credentials and safe from the heat of public odium. For someone who forms an integral element to an impious but authoritative affirmation, the burden of the proof of authenticity becomes an issue of manifest commitment to practical inundations which can, often times, be misconstrued as a sublime expression of jaundiced affection, as, for instance, in the case of the former president.
Again, the tangential appreciation of the lofty significance of our status as free beings and the implication of this for existential decisions must have to be regarded as an irascible energy which transforms us into unrepentant though unconscious victims of mediocrity. Unless this appreciation is full, the story of life and everything it stands for is reduced to a scatting oration or at best becomes a long introduction to an incandescent ontology. Between slavery and freedom, the score for human action must be persuaded to emerge.
Benard Lonergan is one of my elderly friends in the priesthood, though unfortunately, I did not meet him in person before he died few years back. Nevertheless, I must say, without any fear of contradiction that I have been a regular visitor and researcher in his powerfully influential literary domain. In one of such visits, I engaged him in a dialogue on the definition of the term “authenticity” through the instrumentality of two editors – T.J. Farrel and P.A. Soukup. He defined it as the precarious and ever-developing state of a human being reached only by long and sustained faithfulness to the transcendental precepts. These precepts are: Be Attentive; Be Intelligent; Be Reasonable and, Be in Love. Lonergan, however, distinguished a two-fold authenticity: a minor authenticity of the person regarding faithfulness to the tradition that nourishes him or her; and a major authenticity that is able to justify or condemn the tradition itself when the failures of individuals become the norm.
More so, the height attained by the most obedient and humble person who is standing outside the embrace of freedom is only the gold-coated side of the coin of a canonized cowardice. Consequently, every authentic subject of obedience, no matter its nature, even one which claims to belong to the divine hierarchy, is always and must necessarily be found to be an author, or co-author, or at least, an astute defender of the solemn dictates of freedom. Such a subject cannot stand outside the ground of freedom but must be an insider because the accredited facilitators of freedom do not and cannot survive outside the environment governed by freedom itself. For this reason, I pity you, Mr President. You are a Saint – a man tutored in the school of frugality and selfless service but unfortunately surrounded by highly corrupt loyalists, terrorists, unknown wolves and unseen foes. Corruption is futuristically volcanic in its eruptions and highly corrodes the structures and edifices of society. The harm done is more grave than the visible effects of violent attacks on oil installations. If the anti- corruption war had been vigorously pursued, the re-branding exercise would have been in order. But as it stands today, corruption thrives with vigour. The harm done is more grave than the visible effects of violent attacks on oil installations.
PDP(People’s Democratic Party) is harbouring more dangerous terrorists and militants than those found in the creeks of the Niger Delta, in the hinter lands of the South East, and those outlandish types wearing the face of cultural and religious revivalism in the South West and in the North respectively. PDP represents the contradictions, rottenness and bloody systems which many in this nation including Dele Giwa, NADECO, Gani Fawhenmi and your elder brother Alhaji Shehu Musa Yar’dua died for. Our people say that he who sells the puppy and buys the pussy cat still has a squatting animal to contend with. And worst still, as former U.S. president Mr. Roosevelt correctly pointed out, no man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb.
Mr. President, you may perhaps be aware of the fact that:
· Many hard working men and women in Aba and other cities in Nigeria are fleeing to the villages only to meet those in the villages fleeing also – to nowhere. Terrorism wearing the faces of corruption, kidnapping, cultism and militancy is what greets all of us not only in the creeks of the Niger Delta but also in all facets of our life as a nation. At the end, the common man is the helpless and defenseless victim.
* A 14/18 seater bus driver pays his way through, to the Police from Owerri to Port Harcourt, and or from Port Harcourt to Owerri, per trip at the cost of N900.00 (excluding the money paid to Agbero as loading fee) for no other reason than that the Police has a trigger-ready gun to shoot at sight some imaginary highway criminals, yet the police cannot come to our aid when the real armed robbers strike because the Police does not have enough ammunitions and there is no fund to take care of logistics arising there from. We all had thought that toll fees had been built into the pump prize of petroleum products as taxes.
* Decisions about our individual and collective destiny and the destiny of our national institutions are taking and ratified in an occult meeting by professional Satanists before they can be made a subject of white-washed public discussion already designed to be unproductive.
* A 14/18 seater bus driver from Eleme Junction, Port Harcourt to Eleme Town pays a compulsory fee of not less than N900.00 to touts at Eleme Junction everyday he goes to work and, at the same time, the security of your fellow citizens are abandoned at the mercy of these hoodlums not only at Eleme Junction but also at the different strategic junctions across the nation. This however is said without prejudice to NURTW.
* An average University student (both male and female) in Nigeria is compelled to belong to one secret campus cult or another before he/she can be given the opportunity to study in peace (?) and graduate properly.
* `Thousands of Nigerians are dying everyday from simple curable diseases because the hospitals lack the necessary affordable equipments and drugs. In addition to this, the government cannot afford to pay just wages to qualified medical personnel because the funds that have been mapped out for this is used for a costly medical trip overseas and to handsomely remunerate thugs, kidnappers, cultists and clairvoyants for some “special duties” carried out on behalf of and with the resources of government.
* Many Nigerians sustain serious injuries and die prematurely as they grope their way through thick DARKNESS not only in their different homes, offices and shops but also in our federal, state and community roads respectively where portholes and gutters have assumed the status of ready-made graves. Have you taken time off to inspect a constituency project (for instance, water, health, education facilities) executed by any member of the National Assembly and then compare the quality of the job with the amount that was voted for it.
* In Abuja at Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent just behind your window and in the different cities across the nation, some lovely/handsome, intelligent and promising but frustrated young boys and girls (not professional harlots) are being turned into harlots, lesbians and homosexuals in an Islamic/Christian country as the only condition for them to be taken care of with our natural resources that are concentrated into the hands of the privileged few both in government and in business. These privileged few(without prejudice to hard earned wealth and reputation) come in dazzling posh cars to pick their preys and take them to their tastefully furnished castles, yet after everything, some of them never return alive. Many of these children who think out an alternative are those stranded or serving out different jail terms in Italy, USA, London, China, Bangkok, UAE, Libya, Turkey, etc. Others are the crowd of hawkers and the disengaged okada riders on the Nigerian Streets. In the estimation of these vultures these young boys and girls are not fit to live in decent houses, go to good schools, make use of good roads and earn dignifying salaries but only fit to decorate the beds and quench the bestial appetites of the privileged few who have converted our natural resources to a private property. While many of these children are trooping into the labour markets from the Universities and apprentice shops, others in their millions are helplessly and hopelessly trapped between the out-gates of the secondary schools and in-gates of the post secondary institutions, and yet there is nothing for them. No jobs. No food. No security. No hope. Our industries are closing down daily. Nothing,except pornography, cultism, militancy, thuggery, harlotry, Yahoosim and 419sm.
* In the different federal ministries and institutions, workers cannot afford a biro, or at best, a biro costs as much as N500.00 in their Accounts Book – courtesy of corruption.
Mr President, do I need to enumerate further? I do think that enumerating further on these would make you sick all the more. Today, help may be at a distance. Security may be on the drawing board. But Mr. President, HOPE is an imperative. Man lives in hope, otherwise, he is as good as a corpse. 80% of Nigerians are walking corpses before your very eyes.
Mr. President it might interest you to know that, even as I hold Marxist ideology in total disdain, I am not unaware of the excesses and over-arching pretensions of capitalism. However, I am a stubborn believer – a belief born out of strong convictions, in Social Justice. Social Justice is an imperative for any society aspiring to growth and development.
Terrorists and militants are not worth dying for, they are worth fighting against. Whatever form, shape or size they assume, and wherever they are found, they must be denied every form of legitimacy and be compelled to take responsibility for their actions.
What is needed in Nigeria- a need that pokes its fingers on the face of every citizen – is a kind of functional rationalization, structuralization and stabilization that will have the power to bring people down from the pinnacle of illusion and deception to which PDP has satanically catapulted them to the scandalously neglected realities in the moral, political, social, cultural, economic and spiritual life. In this framework, things formerly valued in a decadent society may become targets of our disapproval especially as we conquer the grips of ignorance and become more conscious of the effects of terrorism, occultism, corruption and despotism. Obasanjo towed this path courageously but with a certain intolerable pride hanging over his head like an albatross.
During the Polish struggle for liberation, Rev. Fr. Jerzy noted that “if we lack freedom, it is because we submit to falsehood. It is because we don’t expose it, don’t dispute it each and everyday. We don’t try to rectify it. We remain silent, pretending to accept it. That’s how we come to live in falsehood”.
Forgive me, Mr. President, for my temerity. It is just that this is where the search for the truth has made me stand. Am I to blame! To love truth sincerely, writes Lenard Hand in an article titled “Democracy: Its Presumptions And Realities (1932), means to pursue it with an earnest conscientious, unflagging zeal. It means to be prepared to follow the light of evidence even to most unwelcome conclusions and as well have the courage to accept them; it means to labour earnestly to emancipate the mind from early prejudices, to resist the current of desires and the refracting influences of the passions, to proportion on all occasions, conviction to evidence, and to be ready, if need be, to exchange the calm assurance for all the suffering of a perplexed and disturbed mind. To do this is very difficult and very painful, but it is clearly involved in the notion of earnest love of truth.
The Niger Delta struggle is genuine and overdue especially given the corruption that is rocking the boat of leadership in Nigeria. Amnesty presupposes guilt and criminality. Accepting Amnesty requires, first of all the admission of criminality and guilt whether this is done implicitly or explicitly, consciously or unconsciously. Also, if amnesty plus some peanuts from the Federal Government in the form of few roads to be amended and few scholarships to be awarded serve the needs of the moment, would they also appease the hunger for justice of future generations of Niger Delta Youths when these peanuts expire as they must surely. Or have these Youths not been labeled criminals and proved guilty already, and put at the mercy of the Federal Government even before they are born with a natural quest for justice? If MEND is committed to the Niger Delta struggle and has found out and thus regret the faulty methods it has employed in the course of the struggle, it should not be talking about amnesty and monetary inducements. It should rather be talking of a ceasefire in anticipation of a dialogue with the Federal Government of Nigeria. I therefore pitch tent with Alhaji Asari Dokubo, and call upon government to deal decisively with terrorists, militants and kidnappers.
The most effective and authentic re-branding of our sick and decaying country which serves at the same time as an incomparable alternative to an insipid amnesty palliative can only be brought about by a Constitutional Review, not as dictated to a national assembly that has the shape of the gathering of rich fools and the meeting of nincompoops but something in the neighborhood of a Sovereign National Conference. The Niger Delta problem like many other problems plaguing the nation is a constitutional issue.
The fact that one owns a good job or a thriving business or works in an oil conglomerate, earns fat salary and drives big air-conditioned cars along streets ravaged by poverty does not mean that one is safe. Until basic demands of security are addressed, nobody is safe, not only in the Niger Delta but also in every part of our dear country except one sings their praises or join them or keep mum as the case may be. Even at this, what one gains is a graveyard peace. How long shall we keep quite?
The political riddle which PDP is peddling around in Nigeria has nothing to do with Amnesty and Re-branding. It is about the most dangerous threat to security – national, regional and global security.
Moreso, to be a good information officer requires that such a person be well informed. Well meaning Nigerians are beginning to show great concern about the deteriorating credibility of this great and beautiful angel who walks the streets of Nigeria wearing the personality of Dora Akunyili. Between Dora Akunyili and the Nigeria that is the vision of PDP, who actually is re-branding who?
Mr. President, I am surprised that I set out originally to encourage you in few words but has ended up writing a letter reminiscent of Mariama Ba’s “So Long A Letter.” Would your tight schedule and the PDP hawks around you oblige you a moment’s reflection on this long essay? If not, then may your leadership eyes catch these few admonitions:
* Princes master their feelings to fulfill their duties. Others bend their heads and in silence accept a destiny that oppresses them.
- Mariama Ba
* Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave.
- George Bush
* The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it.
- George Bush
* The call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery. Liberty will come to those who love it.
- George Bush
* We are confident that the desire for freedom, even when repressed for generations, is present in every human heart. And the desire can emerge with sudden power to change the course of history.
- George Bush
* Before history is written in books, it is written in courage – the courage of honorable soldiers; the courage of oppressed peoples; the courage of free nations in difficult tasks.
- George Bush
If only it is possible for me to swim to the creeks! I desire to have audience with those of my brothers whose passion for the truth has driven them into the deserts and oceans. I desire to parley with Asari Dokubo in his struggle for freedom and self-determination, for, even though we are greatly differed in method, we are strongly united in spirit. If only my name can be found worthy to be written in MASSOB’s register as an instructor on how the law of the land can be kept even as we pursue our goal for freedom.
My strong and unhidden sympathy is sponsored by the fact that Nigerians must be encouraged to demonstrate greater resoluteness in their effort to come out of this monstrous Babylonic Umbrella into which PDP has forced all of us into in Nigeria.
Or do we go ahead re-branding this babylonic experience?
This letter is not an invitation to military intervention. It is rather a rebuke to such thoughts and a symbol of acknowledgement of the democratic sun that is breaking into the Nigerian hemisphere. We can only experience peace and build a stronger Nigeria when the beautiful rays of the democratic sun are allowed and encouraged to shine with all its brightness on the Nigerian soil.
The truly certified copy of the List of The Winners of National Lottery is God’s signature of hope through Our Lady, The Blessed Virgin Mary for our dear nation. The target is the 80% of disfranchised Nigerians. Without this List the entire programme becomes an overthrow of a cabal and the enthronement of another.
In the full consciousness of my glaring and incapacitating weaknesses and failures even as a Priest; in the full awareness of the tragic fate that is and has always been the lots of authentic fighters of freedom; and in the painful mood of the loss of our Senior Partner Chief Gani Fawehmni in the arcane Chambers of Freedom; but more importantly, propelled by the call to duty as a priest in the Catholic tradition,
I remain,
Yours Faithfully,
REV. FR. KENNETH EVURULOBI. C.
September 15, 2009.
