Mr Muhammadu Buhari, the self-styled president of Nigeria has kept me thinking since Monday 21, August. I broke this silence when I woke up this morning and the words of the Kongi Master (Wole Soyinka) kept ringing in my cranium “the man dies in all who kept silent in the face of tyranny”.
To be clear I have never been a fan of Baba. Even when he was seducing the young with the sugar-coated ‘Change’ mantra, I told those who cared to listen that a man who truncated and devastated Nigeria’s historic effort to stutter back to a democratic state after a genocidal war and several years of military dictatorship cannot be more democratic than Idi Amin of Uganda. Even when he was harping on corruption; re-echoing the western narrative of Africa and her leaders, I contended that he was blank ignorant of what the word corruption meant. Mr. Buhari, corruption is far larger than embezzlement of public fund. Even as you are recovering stolen public fund, you are sitting at the headquarters of corruption through corruption for corruption and enabling your surrogates and allies to further on corrupt practices. I have many things to say to you but I am deeply worried at these words of yours:
“In 2003 after I joined partisan politics, the late Emeka Ojukwu came and stayed as my guest in my hometown Daura. Over two days we discussed in great detail till late into the night and analyzed the problems of Nigeria. We both
came to the conclusion that the country must remain one and united. Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable.”
Mr. Buhari, to your surprise, I believe you as to your representation of the late Ikemba’s opinion about Nigeria’s unity. I believe you because he made it clear to Ndiigbo even before the civil war; he worked and fought for the unity of a negotiated Nigeria. Mr. Buhari, you, majority of your northern brothers and some of my southern compatriots, even my kits and kin are victims of the wrong narrative. Another surprise for you, Mr Buhari is that Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu (Ikemba Nnewi, Ezeigbo gburugburu) never fought Nigeria; never was against the unity of Nigeria. Ojukwu fought injustice especially the kind that was meted out to southerners mostly of the eastern extraction during the late 60s. Ojukwu wanted a united Nigeria where rule of law, justice, equity and fairness reigned supreme. Ojukwu, the most civil African, born out of time, diagnosed the Nigerian problem with unerring accuracy, was ready to forgo the hurt of thousands of his people already killed in a mindless massacre and went for negotiation and dialogue. At Aburi, the erudite Ojukwu got a good bargain for Nigeria not Biafra that caught the admiration of Gen. J. A. Ankrah and appealed to the reason of Col Jack Gowon. Corruption in Nigeria is a British contraption. Once more after the Aburi accord, they played their antics and the narrative changed. Ojukwu did not wage a war against Nigeria; he fought a monstrous injustice and hydra-headed corruption that has kept Nigeria stuttering for more than a century.
Mr. Buhari, Ojukwu, the master negotiator, who knew the art of the deal before the rise Donald Trump cannot say these words: “Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable”. What on earth is non-negotiable? Even your brothers of the Boko Haram sect are negotiating their lives everyday; that is their right. Negotiation is what we do everyday even before we eat; we negotiate our food. Mr. Buhari, wake up from the illusion of an entity called Nigeria which the same Emeka Ojukwu had described as “an amorphous conglomeration of people busy pretending to be a nation” (Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu,, Because I am involved, 1989). This denial you live and express is delaying the take off of the greatest nation on earth, one way or another. Let your 'Change' change your negative and deadly narrative that makes generations of slaves out of the freeborn. If you do not negotiate Nigeria now, you will be displaced by an implosion that will send everyone forcefully to the drawing board. This is no time to bask on the frenzy of false propaganda and bitterness of our misunderstood past.
Mr. Buhari, look out from the windows of the villa and see the world moving on a rocket speed while you are sitting behind the wheel clogged by your decades of bottled up anger and rancour for a generation that did you no wrong. Allow the rays of reason to shine through your iris shrunk by a belief without redemption. Lying against the dead is totally un-African.
Mr. Buhari your poor understanding of politics and the Nigerian situation made you believe you can solve the Nigerian existential problem with Emeka Ojukwu sitting in the comfort of your country home in Daura? No wonder then you put your life on the line to become the Nigerian president, perhaps to enjoy a Nigeria whose problems you have all solved. You sold yourself as the messiah; where is salvation? Do I need to remind you that Emeka Ojukwu was a private citizen by 2003 like yourself then; what has your discussion to do with the sensitive situation that ogles you in the face as a president? South-easterners looked up to Emeka Ojukwu for leadership in 1967 and he was an excellent leader; Nigerians look up to you for leadership in 2017, live up, Mr Buhari.
Your chronic jaundice has made you understand Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as Ndiigbo; you are mistaken. Even Nnamdi Kanu has said he is not Igbo; he is Biafra. I understand his rhetoric but see beyond it with me, Mr Buhari, that seccesion is consequent upon your kind of rhetoric that denies Nigerians the right to negotiate their corporate co-existence and wellbeing. Nnamdi Kanu does not like secession, he hates injustice, marginalization and the likes. Elsewhere I gave Jack Gowon the title ‘Mortal Enemy of Nigeria’, even now he has not seen that he waged a war against Nigeria and eliminated the best of Nigerians of his time. I dare say that Nnamdi Kanu loves Nigeria more than you, Mr. Buhari. If you love Nigeria, Mr. Buhari, be her hero; rescue her from the hands of ravenous rapists who have subjected her to decades of assault; cease the lure of joining forces with them. #Ilovenigeria, #trumphatebuhari, #negotiatenowordie
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