The matter I have to convey to you is so compelling enough that I do not have the luxury of observing protocols. From the above title, Mr. President, you can discern that the issue has to do with the state of the nation under your watch and your acts of omission and commission that have brought us as a people to the edge of the precipice.
Desecration of the constitution
In Rivers State, over five million Nigerians live under a state of military dictatorship imposed by you. You took that decision in disregard of several provisions of the constitution and without recourse to the precedence set by similar situations in the country. Constitutional lawyers have pointed out to you that the law does not give you the right to suspend elected representatives of the people of Rivers State even if you are constitutionally allowed to declare a state of emergency in the state under certain conditions.
Now the people of Rivers State do not have the constitutional privilege of representation and accountability through those they elected. They are instead ruled unconstitutionally by the military proxies you imposed on them.
Mr. President, have you stopped to consider that the constitutional and legal representatives you suspended in Rivers State include the millions of votes you got from the state during the last elections? By unconstitutionally suspending the constitutional order in River State, you have also suspended the votes you got from that state which logically and ipso facto calls for constitutional action against you.
Again, Nigerians have noticed with alarm that you have crossed the constitutional boundaries of separation of powers by subsuming both the National Assembly and Judiciary under the Executive branch which you lead. Nigerians have seen how both independent arms of government have become pawns in the trajectory of governance, making laws and judgment occasionally not to advance the course of constitutional democracy. If the National Assembly and the Judiciary were up to their constitutional responsibilities, the travesty of democracy used to twist both institutions in Rivers State and in other cases, would not have happened. It was precisely to guard against this that the framers of the constitution borrowed this principle of separation of powers from the United States and inserted in our constitution.
You are waging war against the economy
The economic reforms which you introduced without consultation with critical economic and social stakeholders are in reality inflicting mass poverty on Nigerians. The withdrawal of subsidies on petroleum products with attendant inflationary spike and falling purchasing power as well as the massive taxes not matched by any commensurate qualitative increase in production and services have resulted in many Nigerians becoming increasingly impoverished. Your other policies such as the devaluation of the naira have also devalued the worth of trade and commerce, killing industrial production and raising the cost of living and doing business. You and members of your team have continued to reel out figures of economic progress that are at variance with the reality on ground, and which even the IMF and World Bank have criticised.
You have indeed subjected Nigerians to an unprecedented economic punishment.
It is a well-known fact that Nigeria’s political ecosystem is one of the most vibrant in Africa in reflection of the country’s diversity. But in the space of two years since coming to power, you have proceeded with an action plan that is destroying this vibrant and diverse political ecosystem which has been the hallmark of Nigerian politics. You now appear to be using political tactics including to destroy the opposition parties from within, using especially the anti-corruption agencies. All these are being done with the intentions of destroying your political opponents and their parties.
We all thought and condemned late President Muhammadu Buhari for his nepotism and proclivity for regionalism in appointments and direction of his policies. Your government, however, has gone beyond the pale in these matters. Overwhelmingly, your appointments have been drawn from the South West of the country, where you come from, suggesting a lack of belief in the unity of the country.
Nigerians have observed that you have chosen and surrounded yourself with a cabal of people who appear to push for complete capture of Nigeria’s political and economic space to the disadvantage of other regions in the country. Some members of this cabal are so provincial to the extent that they are unable to think and relate with people and other areas of the country. They are decidedly uncomfortable having persons outside their ethnicities in the inner circle of your presidency.
Mr. President, it is one of the ironies of Nigeria that you were elected to lead a country whose unity you once reported said you never believed in. You were reported in ThisDay of April 13, 1997 to have said so. In a normal country where consequences are enforced for acts and statements of the nature you made, you should not have been brought near the leadership of the country. The least that the authorities should have done is to have declared you ineligible to contest or hold any political office in the land. But today due to our preference for political correctness and appeasement rather than allowing due process of law you are now ruling over Nigeria.
This is coming from the one who you believes without any question in the unity of Nigeria.
END
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