I am one of
those that went through the multi page letter written President Jonathan by
former President Obasanjo which has been leading on headlines of national
newspapers nationwide for days now. I must say that being a Nigerian I am not very
surprised at the way Nigerians react to issues. While I was reading the novel-like
message my mind unnoticeably ran out of the page to wondering if President
Jonathan did actually had the time to sit down and go through this because if
me, as lazy as I am and lying on my bed could get tired of the lines then will
the president, with so many tasks and worries do better than me in reading
through this? Anyway let that be left for his aides. I tried thinking just as
Obasanjo predicted I may in the letter, what is Obasanjo looking for?
On going
through I was able to determine the general tone of the letter, it is an
advice, I believe. That is why many Nigerians reject the advice because of the
advisor. I quickly remember it is in this same country that all parents used to
take first position in their primary/secondary school or at least that is what
they told us. Every father will say like “what is wrong with you? Twenty five
out of thirty? The student that took first position does he has a computer brain?
In my days at school I took nothing less than first! Are you my son at all?”.
That is typical of a Nigerian father, though one would wonder if those who had
poor grades in their time were from Cameroon or Ghana as every Nigerian father
took first. Let us just take that scenario to be a parable. Next paragraph.
Be that as it may, we are happy that even though our fathers
may not have done well in their time, but in their conscience they now know
what was/is good, what they were supposed to do, but since they failed in doing
so, they wear the angels garment now and try to teach us good ways so we do not
fall into their ugly path. President Obasanjo undoubtedly is a Nigerian, a
father, raised in a typical Nigerian society and thus he is not exempted from
the typicality. On knowing this Nigerian parent phenomenon, I will not want to
see Obasanjo as an angel, though he may desire to be one now, however, I will
look into the content of the message. I will not join the vast majority who are
ready to list out the mistakes, the actions and inactions Obasanjo did in his
tenure, perhaps they are many, but no, what I want to do is urge president
Jonathan and other concerned Nigerians to look away from the sentiments that
may have driven former president Obasanjo to write the letter, take the message
so inputted in the letter, put in a sieve, shake it well, select the good
points and throw away those ones considered ridiculous. On the allegations
written against the president on the letter, it is the president that knows if
they are true or false, not me, and so in his conscience he can work on making things
better. Let this be so done so that tomorrow, Jonathan will not have to write
the then president about this same thing and so we will not end up attacking, re-attacking
and listing his flaws so we can have a reason to distract the country from the
content of the message and dump his advice to the then president.
In all, I ask everyone to put the interest of Nigeria first
before any regional or party interest. God bless Nigeria.
Victor Emah
Uyo
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