Opinion
Open Letter To President Buhari | By Charles Ogbu
Mr President, Sir,
This open letter is necessitated by issues of urgent national importance not unconnected with your 3 minute recorded broadcast to Nigerians this morning where you stated that Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable.
Mr President, Sir, I wasn’t exactly born with a talent for political correctness so I like to assume your permission to pay you the courtesy of being blunt.
First, I want to register my displeasure that you, a mere servant and employee of the Nigerian people, could derisively address your employers and the same people paying your salaries even when you are hardly at work, as “my dear citizens” instead of “my fellow citizens”.
That derisive opening line in your speech lend more credence to an already established fact which is that you are an arrogant victim of messiah complex who sees his people, not as his employers whose wishes he must harken to, but as lesser mortals and slaves who are his to do as he pleases. Even Emperor Nero didn’t address Romans in that condescending manner.
Mr president sir, we are not your citizens. We are not even just your fellow citizens! We are your employers! We are your boss! We pay your bill. We feed you, Mr president. Talk to us with some respect!
Mr president, when you told us how you discussed with Ojukwu in 2003 and agreed that Nigeria’s unity is non negotiable, what exactly did you think the reference to the late Biafra strong man would achieve?
Did you think that line would magically address all the institutionalized grave injustices in the system which you’ve made worse with your open display of tribal bigotry, vindictiveness, raw hatred for people from a particular section of the country and criminal disregard for the same constitution you swore to protect??
That you believe the unity of over 180 million people is something you, a Fulani man and Ojukwu, an Igbo man, can sit in your small sitting room somewhere in your small village of Daura and conclusively discuss, says a whole lot about how much value you attach to the so called unity.
As a free citizen of a free world and one of those paying your salaries, I find that statement criminally offensive and hopelessly disappointing. But even more disappointing is the fact that even after spending billions of our tax money and over 100 days treating an undisclosed ailment abroad, you seem not to have learnt anything from your numerous administrative blunders and trailer load of un-presidential utterances, actions and inactions which in most part, are responsible for the mess we are in today.
Mr President sir, let me remind you that you, it was, not Nnamdi Kanu, who resuscitated and fuelled the current Biafra agitation. Even the activities of the Niger Delta militants were all birthed by your tact-less, bigoted, vindictive and mostly common-sensically bankrupt utterances and actions.
And to prove that you are an unteachable ethnic jingoist with an iniquitous sense of national unity and an atrocious sense of governance, all through your 3 minute address,
You didn’t tell your employers the kind of ailment that kept you away from your duty post for over 100 days and gulped billions of tax payers’ money.
You didn’t announce measures to resuscitate the economy which your criminal ineptitude and analogue economic plans largely played a part in destroying.
You didn’t mention measures you plan on taking towards addressing the grievances of the secessionist groups even when you admitted some of their grievances are genuine.
You didn’t make any assurances towards calming freyed nerves considering the mood of the country.
You didn’t categorically condemn the series of terror your fulani brethren are visiting on Nigerians. Instead, you played it down as mere herdsmen/farmers clashes.
You didn’t even categorically condemn your siblings (Arewa Youths) for publicly threatening genocide on Igbos living in the North come October 1st, 2017.
You did none of the above.
Instead,
You spent almost 50% of your broadcast threatening social media users and aggrieved citizens who are only asking you to treat them as equal stake-holders in the Nigeria project or allow them quit this oppressive union. The other 50% was wasted on tales about your meeting with Ojukwu where the duo of you supposedly decided on behalf of over 180 million of us that the unity of Nigeria is non negotiable.
In a nutshell, you spent over 100 days abroad on medical tourism on tax payers’ money against your campaign promises only to come back with nothing but a trailer-load of insult, derision and threats for the same citizens who paid and are still paying all your hospital bill and salaries even when you were hardly doing any job??
Quite frankly, Mr President, that speech would easily pass off as one hell of comedy except it was a tragedy.
You’ve simply proven that you are a man far detached from reality. It would seem you are still stuck in 1985.
Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Oriental Times.
Sanusi
August 25, 2017 at 9:41 am
chai this aboki generation has power ooo, chai mumu aboki na better meaning nao it means my friend, wow as we gather here and always condem them & on the race run they superceed us even in the population within africa them pass us ooo, chai nna for nja too na them plenty pass ooo, na wa oh so is a blessing in nigeria and africa to be aboki oohh because na them the rain pass our own tribe that only exist nigeria.
Sanusi
August 25, 2017 at 9:22 am
biafoolians agitators since buhari return the has come down, where is Nk with biafoolian touts making noise in the streets, let him come out & lead the crowd for protest, you all biafoolians open your eyes before Nk will couse the reduction of the biafoolians new generation population, Nigeria stand united & the unity is not negotiable just as the president said, you treating the peace of over sixteen million population with war & on the process you organise touts & hopeless men of biafoolian republic and give them uniform then you called them Bss, while you biafoolians sit there & compare rebel militants in the uniform with hisbah or islamic police, boko haram massob ipob isis alqaeda all has the same focus, God has crown a king AND ORDAIN HIM TO RULE OVER YOU what is the big deal there? go back and look at the map of the republic of biafoolians then you will see that they are not up to become a country on their own, although Nk mentality has map benue & kogi to be part of them chaaaii this ppl are totally blind who do you think can give you the northern part of nigeria as part of biafoolish haa think well ooo even rivers state is not part of biafoolish remember what happen during the civil war when the ogoni race deny biafoolians, also remember akwa ibom is not part of biafoolish, also cross river is not part of biafoolish couple with the niger delta self proclaim republic too, hail great Nigeria I am proud to be Nigerian not biafoolian.
Sanusi
August 25, 2017 at 8:47 am
What a pity shame om you all your agitating for biafoolian or biadooms biafran generation, that only existed in a social media & through or propaganda, is just a mere dream that can never be achieve, do you think united nation will biafools referendum without calling Nigerian government for its opinion, do you think Nigerian state only exist within the circle of Nigerian map, Nigeria has international God fathers /back up from the west south east and the northern world, Nigerian government doesn’t fold its hand watching miscreant biafoolians agitator thwarts it’s existence, So you all biafoolians agitators should take note that has already meet with leaders of where so ever you depend on, As you all defend on only israel & the Us couple with united nation, only God can fight for you not human , even your so call leader so much relied on the israel dont forget that igbo took their blood to israel for DNA after claiming that they are jews but the DNA result shows that you are not even associated to the israelite so please be wise in anything you are doing, the biafoolian agitating can only lead the race retard from the level where their political God fathers has taking them, if you really want to actualise biafoolian republic just come out and said we are no more part of the great Nigeria & quitely start operating your the existence of self proclaim biafoolian republic of dooms, stop making pointless agitating that can not improve the igbo race, remember ojukwu did the same thing and fail, & after that time nigerian government are sleeping they have fortified to the international standard, this is the Modern Nigeria not the old Nigeria, or do you think when ojukwu fought he doesn’t have the international back up he has everything but finally failed, so remember who sleeps earlier wake up earlier ,
Stephen Ibe
August 22, 2017 at 1:09 am
Intellect par excellence!!! God bless Charles Ogbu.
Power belongs to the people and not Buhari, who is and should only be presiding (President) over our collective decisions.
Kamara Fredy Fredy
August 22, 2017 at 12:46 am
Buhari is an idiot, a tribalistic and religious bigot, how dare you refer to millions of biafrans calling for self determination irresponsible? You are the father of hate speech and you will not escape from the consequences of your ignorant and foolish public address, we will never run away from asking for our rights to freedom, even if the last option is bloody, so take note you imbecile, cus animals like you should not be addressed as a president.
Everestus Chidozie Brendan
August 21, 2017 at 9:38 pm
Buhari threat is making things worse. Igbo man can never give up what he is sure that is his right because of threat. Buhari really don’t want peace in Nigeria. We Igbos are not Yorubas. His threat is even encouraging us the more to agitate. Let’s watch how it goes. With this his threat some Igbos that are in support of one Nigeria will now turn to support Biafra agitation. You people don’t know Igbos life. The more threat from Nigeria government the more people accept ipob. Threat can never change anything but will make things worse. Nigeria and it’s citizens are all fools. I’m a biafran take note
Christopher Ochini
August 21, 2017 at 9:01 pm
Correct
Michael
August 21, 2017 at 8:57 pm
Tell the old man
Ejiofor Chinedu Lambert
August 21, 2017 at 7:17 pm
Pmb doesn’t read oriental time. So, it’s an open letter to iPod, PDPs, Avengers, oduduwa, bokoharram and massob.
Okerie Musa Ayo
August 21, 2017 at 7:13 pm
Charley boy next time use Hausa language write what ever you want to write to buhari
Nigeria Independence Day Parade - NYC
August 21, 2017 at 7:00 pm
Cool info so much this is really good