First, let me apologize if you consider my decision to use this medium rather unusual. I really wish there were better alternative ways of reaching you directly. Sir, you are faced with enormous challenges on all fronts, just as it is needless emphasizing the fact that as the President, you take the blame for the failures of everybody in your cabinet and government, though you are not a spirit to know what they are doing or be everywhere at a time.
No doubt, this counts among the many irreversible dilemma, which the office cannot be separated from, and which everyone occupying the office of the President all over the world understands, knowing that the office is not a tea party. Interestingly, too, it is also this particular attribute that separates the leader from the uncommon leader, someone who prepared for the challenges inherent in the office, from the one to whom presidency simply happened on, by accident.
Little wonder everyone expects the President to have a little bit of the character of a genius – acting right and with a sense of honesty, all the time; making good decisions, drawing up and pursuing good policies and above all, taking responsibility for actions and in-actions!
Indeed, there is no emphasizing the fact that a country is as good as its President, more so as the buck stops at the President’s desk, willy-nilly. This is why, sir, I decided to write you knowing that you have a role to play in putting a wedge on some of the shameful developments in our nation in recent times.
In the last few months, newspapers have been abuzz with reports regarding the growing crisis of confidence among leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), for which many national leaders of the party have their positions under check; resigned either voluntarily or otherwise.
While one might say the crisis was undeserving of the media blitz it got, being an internal party issue, the development is a bold pointer to the rough road ahead for the PDP as the nation prepares for the 2015 elections. Worrisome as it is, though, it is not the main reason for writing you this morning. Instead, I want to draw your attention to the growing legion of sycophants and jobless ethnic jingoists that have become the face of your 2015 presidential ambition even when you have yet to officially declare desire to contest.
Not only that. I am equally troubled like most Nigerians about the apparent division along ethnic and religious lines in Nigeria. While the roots of this nerve-wrecking development cannot be totally blamed on your administration, it is clear, however, to the discerning that it has risen geometrically in your tenure.
Thirdly, I return to the PDP again. Truth is, the party has fought many battles and made needless enemies than was necessary and like a patient on life support, its leadership, including the Presidency, needs to act fast. And, like some of your kinsmen, who through unguided and inflammatory comments regarding whether or not you plan to seek re-election in 2015 have grossed some enemies for you, PDP is increasingly gaining a notorious reputation that is casting a negative perception on your person. While you have the right to seek re-election and your kinsmen, the right to get your back as their brother, it calls for caution. This is so because with the benefit of history, this method is far too familiar. It is dangerous, particularly when the re-election clamour is coming mostly from your kinsmen while other regions simply give themselves to the ‘siddon look’ approach.
Recall that while former President Olusegun Obasanjo, primed himself for the controversial Third Term bid, the most vociferous of the opposition camps was his kinsmen, who against all odds – losing juicy contracts and board appointments – condemned the move to the point of pulling the strings when it mattered most. This cannot be said of your kinsmen for whom every decision you have made so far is in order. Mr President, this is dangerous and I urge you to sieve facts from fiction.
While they are entitled to their opinion, I am wondering if it has ever bothered you that but for your kinsmen, no region – South-east or South-west – has shown so much passion and dedication regarding your 2015 election plans. Or, if, and when you decide to run, would the votes from the South-south region alone deliver the Presidency for you? Or, if, and when you win, would you become the President of South-south region alone? This explains why, sir, you must move quickly to stop these men with ‘creek’ mentality before they cause problems for you and disappear into thin air.
Worse still, Mr President, I am afraid the unity of Nigeria is under clear threat. It is no longer news that the war on the Boko Haram insurgents, a war right on time though, has further divided the country along ethnic lines. Many, today, blame it all on its handling. But whether right or wrong, it cannot be disputed that Boko Haram emergence also points to the growing disunity in the land. Commendable as the drastic measures so far taken by your government to curtail their activities is, the nation having teetered on the feral zone in the northern region following their acts of terror, you must know that though the battle has been won in the field or almost won as the case maybe, it continues in the mind.
So, no drums as yet, because those who would rather the group continued making Nigeria ungovernable for you now see the ‘war’ as the South against the north or, what a friend simply tagged: ‘President Goodluck Jonathan against the north.’ This is why I urge you to put on your thinking cap and make more friends even from every bad situation. In doing this, you would have extended a handshake of love across the north, and in return, winning over the willing among them as the 2015 elections approaches. Let no one beguile you by way of a noisy support on the pages of newspapers, for, at the risk of sounding pessimistic, the signs are pregnant with surprises. Yet they would amount to a child’s play when compared with the endless internal wrangling within the PDP leadership, the lack of internal democracy and increasing number of battles and enemies of the party. At a time when the opposition parties are mobilizing support, the PDP is neck-deep in destroying itself, ostracising real and imagined enemies of party leaders as if it were an instrument for fighting personal wars.
Truth is, everybody in a party cannot subscribe to party decisions, because as they say, what an old man sees sitting down, a young man cannot see standing up. So, who says he’s infallible? While party leaders may have their way, it does not foreclose dissenting views. Therefore, suspending a member for whatever phantom offences it maybe, would be counter-productive at the end and can only point to dictatorship, especially where such a member was not given the right of say, to defend him or herself. Unfortunately, this seems to be common with PDP leadership from history. Without pretext, Mr President, this should stop. Let the ongoing reconciliatory overtures continue. And, let every hitherto estranged PDP member share in equal and honest treatment. Only this can put PDP ahead of very determined opposition parties in 2015.
• Aiyenigba writes in from Ilorin
