Open Letter To President Jonathan

His Excellency,

Warmest greetings from
my family constituency.  In writing this open letter to you, am not unmindful of previous open mails to you by highly-placed individuals including our respected Baba.  But in using this  open ministry to communicate you is not in any way to spite you and your administration like others did. It was because my previous attempts at reaching you through postage mails were either frustrated by overzealous security aides or ended up in the trash cans through the instrumentality of other administrative staff at the seat of power. Better still, the  mails may have lost in transit to show the poor service delivery of the nation’s postal services.
Be that as it may, as the drum beats for the 2015 general elections gather momentum, I’m constrained to share my views on the state of the nation especially as there are fears in many quarters including USA that Nigeria (the most populous black nation) may disintegrate by 2015, if care is not taken.
And when we consider the precision of US predictions on world affairs and eventual outcome against the backdrop of the wind of break-up of Nigeria by 2015 fuelled by severe security challenges dangling like the sword of debacle, then, many will agree that you are likely to be the last President of Nigerian nation.  God forbid!
Some may justify the break-up of Nigeria, yet others believe that the unity of the country should not be compromised.  My candid advice is that do the best you can to sustain and deepen Nigeria’s unity.  History  is usually unfair to leaders who preside over the break-up of their nations or even households.
The centenary celebration of Nigeria under your administration is indeed a divine privilege.  Many past leaders of the country had wished that they be at the helm of affairs as Nigeria turned 100 years, but providence only smiled at you to celebrate the past 100 years of Nigeria nationhood and also pioneered the next century with promising transformations. It is the wish of many Nigerians that you should transform well, and in doing so, be reminded that “those whose palm kernels were cracked by benevolent spirits should not forget to be honour”.
Now, as you bask in furore over your party’s victory at the Ekiti governorship election, let us not forget in a hurry the controversy of “militarization of elections”.  Of all the elections conducted with the deployment of security agents including the Delta central   senatorial district by-election, none elicited the level of controversy on the roles of the military as the Ekiti poll.  The arguments of the opposition party and your party on the deployment of soldiers for elections are necessary here to understand the way out of the controversy.
APC believes that “election is not war but a civic activity”, and therefore there is need to curtail  your power to deploy soldiers for elections.  At a recent debate at the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, the House Minority leader and the Minority Whip, Hon Samson Osagie, both of APC, argued that your power to deploy troops must be subject to the Electoral Act.  And in a recent interview, Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, who was prevented by soldiers from attending the APC’s final mega rally in Ekiti, also kicked against the use of soldiers for elections.
While your party (PDP) stoutly defended the deployment of soldiers in Ekiti, Olisa Metuh, PDP’s spokesman remarked “the deployment of soldiers for elections in Edo, Ondo and Anambra governorship polls had yielded good results and the outcome had showed that Jonathan administration was committed to free, fair and credible elections”.
There are merits in the argument for and against the notion that Ekiti governorship election and some other past polls were militarized.  Even through, it is argued that “adequate security is necessary during elections”, it stands to reason that police and soldiers should be used such that no voter is defranchised or made to vote at gunpoint.
Militarisation of elections may not be good for our democracy, yet, I can’t agree less with the President  of Nigeria Voters’ Assembly, Mashood Erubami, when he said “I preferred a situation where elections are peaceful due to the present of soldiers to one where elections are characterised by violence orchestrated by political thugs and killings”.
The impeachment of Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and the one dangling over Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State, both of APC, can be interpreted as victims of democracy as a result of the power  game between your party (PDP) and APC.  But another impeachment move from the PDP camp, concerning the Enugu deputy governor, is seen as adding value to democracy. No matter where the impeachment carrot is being shared, it should not hatched and packaged under mischievous politics and acrimony.
However, even when you have kept mute on your re-election bid, your opponents are already jittery, but you close political associates and the top echelon of your party believe that it is only God that can change the handwriting on the wall, and that you stand tall among the possible presidential candidates for 2015.
As you prepare to re-contest and win, please use the second chance, if you win, to make a significant difference for as the song writer says “you will only be remembered for what you have done”.
We are not saying that you should devote 100% of the resources for the development of South-South zone alone.  Far from it. A little to the left and a little to the right is a good bid.
If you transform Abuja and other areas in the federation without tangible development in your zone, you have failed by every sense of the world.
Our dear country is considered to be in the boiling pot because corruption has crippled every strata  of the nation’s economy and her citizens are walking with clutches and there is dim hope of salvaging the situation.  Arguments over  how corruption has contributed to the under-development of our beloved are the delights of the mass media.
Analysts and the Transparency International have identified corruption as Nigeria’s headache with a conservative sum of $400 billion being pilfered from our country by corrupt political and public officials.
While you may be arguing that corruption is overrated in Nigeria and that it is not the country’s most serious problem, permit me to say here that such argument is unnecessary.  What matters most is the efforts of your administration to remove Nigeria from the forest of corruption and ineptitude.
Nigerians want a change in the affairs of the nation, but hope is gradually diminishing that you might not get it right.  The prospect that you are determined for a new breath into Nigerian system was rekindled with the convocation of the National Conference to chart a new way forward. It does not matter whether it is sovereign or not.  What should be uppermost is that at the end of the day, there are prospects that things would change and that the N7 billion or more expended on the conference made of 492 delegates drawn from ethnic nationalities, political representations, professional groups, civil society  groups and other interest groups did not go down the drain.
The news that more than 200 girls of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, abducted on April 14, 2014 by the terrorist Islamic sect, Boko Haram,  will be rescued soon is heart-warming at least to re-assure the people that you are not insensitive  to the incident that has attracted global condemnation and protests.  The outrage is understandable but to politicize the terrorism and horror of Boko Haram insurgency is also unacceptable.
The price of leadership is enormous. But keep hope alive and do the best you can to break the yoke of “making Nigeria ungovernable”.
The transformation agenda of your administration has taken off in earnest with some results in many sectors, but what the ordinary citizens understand about dividends of democracy is the provision of basic amenities – roads, water, power supply and healthcare.  The people need a piece of the action to give them a sense of belonging in the Nigerian project, while the “Ogas at the top” loot the treasury all in the name of service.
We are lost why the re-construction work on the East West Road within the Rivers State axis is being handled in a slow-pace manner.  You may not understand commuters’ nightmares on the road on a daily basis, but completing the road project can boost the electoral chances of your party in the 2015 general polls.
I may have bothered you with several issues in this mail, but my presentations represent the voice of the voiceless in the society.
Thanks.

Samuel Eleonu

President Goodluck Jonathan