Another New Open Letter To President Goodluck Jonathan From An Ordinary Citizen of Nigeria

Infact I must
admit at this
point that am
tired of
reading open
letters, when
will this season
come to an
end, my eyes
are even
hurting, the
ex-president
Obasanjo has
opened the
season I wonder which letter will close it, this is
another open letter from an ordinary citizen of this
country to the president Goodluck Jonathan.
Dear Mr. President,
I am constrained to write this open letter to you
before this season of letters comes to a close.
I will go straight to the issues at stake. Let's start
with the level of toxic-ness in the air, sustained to a
large extent by the attitude of your array of
spokespersons, who today do little more than insult
and dismiss everyone deemed to be an "enemy" of
the President. Just as you have a point when you
said that the easiest way to be deemed
"progressive" is to abuse Jonathan, it has also
become that criticising the President quickly earns
one all sorts of unprintable labels from the your
camp.
Everyone in your camp seems obsessed with the
fact that the world is against you. One adviser
recently accused everyone criticising you of lacking
home training. Another, who made his name
writing brilliant articles that skewered the
governments of the day, recently lamented —
without any sense of irony — that all Nigerian
media is in the hands of the opposition.
There's a siege mentality at work, us versus them. I
can assure you that that is not at all a helpful
attitude to adopt. Let's get one thing clear – if the
Nigerian media seems to be against you, it is
because it has always been that way; always
tending to be deeply critical of the abuse and
misuse of power. At the next Council of State
meeting, you might want to ask your predecessors
about their experiences with the media and the
"opposition".
If the media was unusually "nice" to or tolerant of
the self-styled Evil Genius, Gen. Ibrahim
Babangida, why did he spend so much time
proscribing media houses? If it was nice to Gen.
Sani Abacha, why was his government obsessed
with hounding journalists? If it was nice to
President Olusegun Obasanjo, why did he once
boast that he never read newspapers? The late
President Umaru Yar'Adua earned himself a
reputation as "Baba Go-Slow". Remember the joke
that circulated widely a few years ago, about going
into a restaurant to order amala, shaki and
'Yar'Adua' (where Yar'Adua stood for 'snail').
My point is: I doubt that Nigerians and their news
media are singling you out for ill-treatment. It's not
about you being a Southern President, or a
Christian, or an Ijaw man, it's far more likely to be
about the action and inaction of your government.
Mr. President, step out of the trenches. Your battle
is not against the media, or ordinary Nigerians
wont to express their frustrations and
disappointments. I suspect that your battle is
instead with many of those characters who
surround you, claiming to be friends and loyalists,
but who imprison you within a dangerous Bubble
and delight in misleading you for their own selfish
ends.
I have slowly come to realise how the condition of
power easily sets up the wielders of that power for
incarceration within a Bubble. It's prison without
the uniform and without the realisation that you're
in prison.
In that Bubble, you're cut off from reality, and
people come up to you and say all sorts of things.
They give you lists of your "friends" and
"enemies", they concoct allegations, they worship
you, they call you their Alpha and Omega, the best
thing to happen to Nigeria since 1914; they
endlessly whisper rumours and rumours of
rumours. They will tell you that everyone hates you
because you're from a minority ethnic group. They
will tell you to ignore what "all those yeye
newspapers and critics" are saying.
It's time, perhaps, for you to fight to step out of
that Bubble. Your own long walk to freedom ought
to commence now, considering that it's almost too
late.
We all know that governance is largely a series of
perception games. Thus far, your government has,
like many of the governments that preceded you,
has played those games badly. When people
perceive your government as corrupt, it is because
they see no evidence otherwise. We all saw fuel
subsidy payments rise four-fold during your first
year in power. No one took responsibility, no one
was punished.
When the Ikeja Police College incident happened, it
was an angry you who said the revelations were the
work of your enemies. It was, and is still, puzzling –
did the opposition somehow corner all the funds
allocated to the College(s), making it impossible for
the police bosses to spend their funds responsibly?
Then, there was the aviation industry scandal – and
I've reliably heard that it is only a tip of the iceberg.
The "Oga At The Top" is still sitting pretty, invoking
the "Law of No-Shaking".
Meanwhile, that same government wastes no time
pushing Prof. Bart Nnaji out for "conflict of
interest'; and hounding the Central Bank of Nigeria
Governor, Sanusi Lamido, on the unproven ground
that he "leaked" a letter to the President. Perhaps,
you will be able to explain to us how a Sanusi has
managed to embarrass your government to a
greater extent than a Stella Oduah.
With scenarios like this, you shouldn't be surprised
that Nigerians are angry and confused.
If you stood where Nigerians stand, and gave the
affairs of your government a proper consideration,
you'd probably – hopefully – come to the same
conclusion. That something is just not right
somewhere.
The tragedy is that someday, maybe in 2015, or
2019, you will step down from the Bubble. Your
eyes will "clear", and like Obasanjo, you will
become an advocate of good governance. Perhaps,
you will even write longwinded letters (or emails)
to your successor complaining about corruption
and about how the international community is
deeply worried about Nigeria.
And we will be forced to remind you of your own
time in office, and wonder aloud what it is about
the water in Aso Rock that turns occupants into
this strange species of Homo Sapiens.
Perhaps, you would like to backtrack a little, to the
beginnings of your Presidency. To the
circumstances in which you, an underdog of
underdogs, came to power. When you were at the
mercy of the "cabal" that ran Nigeria in the
absence of a then ailing President Yar'Adua.
I, like millions of other Nigerians, was angered by
the antics of that cabal, at how you, the sitting
Vice-President, was treated. You were kept out of
the loop, humiliated. I recall joining protest
marches in Lagos and Abuja, calling for an end to
the shameful state of affairs that kept you away
from taking charge of Nigeria. We didn't do it
because you were an Ijaw man, or because your
loyalists "mobilised" us to march for you. We did it
because it was the right, sensible and decent thing
to do.
Recall the promise and potential with which you
came to power. A Nigerian President who came
from outside the hegemonic contraptions that have
run Nigeria since independence. No one doubts
that your victory in 2011 was legitimate; those
elections, while not perfect, were the most credible
we had seen in almost two decades. I recall
describing your appearance on the social media in
2010 as a "breath of fresh air" – a mantra that
eventually became one of your campaign themes.
The question to ask yourself is: What happened?
How did we get here, where the name "Jonathan"
has become a byword for goofs and gaffes, for
complete helplessness in the face of oil theft and
corruption?
In trying to answer that question (and maybe,
there are some answers above), the least we
expect is that you will try to make amends.
Because that is all that will really matter, in the
long run. You will probably need to sacrifice some
of those Untouchables in your cabinet. There's
news of an impending cabinet reshuffle. Go ahead
and do it. Surprise us.
You will also need to do something about your
communications set-up. Your achievements – and
they do exist (these might form the basis of
another letter) – deserve to do better than get lost
amidst the din of mindless propaganda and
abusive language flowing from your spokespersons
and aides.
You would need to come and meet Nigerians where
they are – sadly trapped beneath layers angry
cynicism – to directly tell them what you've been
doing, what you're currently doing, and what you
plan to do in 2014. A handful of Presidential Media
Chats per year will no longer cut it; not in these
dire times.
You will have to face up to the difficult questions
that Nigerians are asking, and answer them
yourself. Go on TV, get on radio, get out there on
the social media. You can no longer continue to
depend solely on a battery of spokespersons
speaking dangerously off-the-cuff, hyper-excited by
the sounds of their own intemperate voices.
The siege mentality has to go. You're not the first,
and will not be the last, Nigerian President to feel
beleaguered. It is the nature of the task. And,
considering what they receive in compensation and
benefits for the job of ruling or misruling Nigeria,
our politicians should generally learn to take all the
heat, or leave the kitchen.
I have written this letter in genuine concern. I am
not currently a member of any political party, and I
do not have anything personal at stake in this
brouhaha – no bids for a marginal field or NIPP
power plant or import licence that might possibly
be affected by the way things play out. I do not
hate you.
I am simply an ordinary Nigerian, concerned about
the direction in which our country is headed;
concerned about seeing that Nigeria gets the
highest quality of governance that is reasonably
possible, considering our very complicated
circumstances.
Thank You.
By Tolu Ogunlesi

Sent From David Aniemeka