Mr. President, you will recall that I wrote you an open letter on
December 28th, 2015 which I sincerely hope that you found most
gratifying, illuminating and helpful. That was two days before your
Presidential media chat which took place on December 30th. I hereby
humbly crave your indulgence to add an addendum to that open letter.
That is what this contribution represents.
I hope and pray that this second letter, which will be the last, will
further enlighten you and impart a little more wise counsel to you that
will result in assisting you to properly appreciate the complexities of our
times.
Mr. President it is pertinent to note that approximately two hundred and
sixty five years ago one of the founding fathers of the United States of
America, Mr. Benjamin Franklin, said “rebellion to tyrants is obedience to
God”. I am sure that you will agree with me when I say that he was
absolutely right.
Just in case you do not know who Benjamin Franklin was permit me to
point out the fact that he is a man that is reverred by the American
people and much of the civilised world up until today and he is the
individual whose face appears on the one hundred U.S. dollar bills that are
used till today.
He was a great statesman, diplomat, politician and intellectual and most
important of all he was a deeply courageous man who was motivated by
his deepest convictions and his christian values and who was prepared to
risk life and liberty and stand up to tyranny.
I guess most Nigerian leaders have much to learn from him especially at
times like this. Yet thankfully all is not lost and at least a few of our
politicians are beginning to find their voice and speak out against the evil
in the land. Permit me to share one example with you.
A few days ago Chief Olisa Metuh, the National Publicity Secretary of
our great party the PDP, exposed the fact that there was an
orchestrated attempt by your government to intimidate, silence and
utterly decimate and crush the opposition.
In open defiance to what can best be described as this insidious and
sinister agenda he told the world that ”President Buhari is not God and
we will not worship him”. Whether he knows it or not Metuh has not
only spoken for the PDP but also for the overwhelming majority of the
Nigerian people.
Permit me to add the following words to his timely contribution. Woe
unto those that tremble before men of power and that worship false
gods. Destruction and perdition awaits those who bow before Baal, who
exalt the servants of Belial, who kiss the ring of the Baphomet, who
say ”Buhari is God” and who crawl at the feet of the Lord of the Flies.
Mr. President the point is simple and clear: you are not God and even
though we respect your office we will never bow before you, we will
never worship you, we will not relent in our efforts to oppose you and,
regardless of your constant threats and wicked intentions, we have
absolutely no fear of you.
This is because our fate and destiny and the future of our beloved
country lies in the hands of the Living God and not in the hands of any
misguided and tyrannical dictator. Injustice, persecution and tyranny last
only for a season.
At the appointed time the Lord will step in and He will deliver and
vindicate the falsely accused and the righteous captive. He will also
avenge the spilling of innocent blood and He will fight the cause of the
martyrs.
With this in mind and regardless of the dangerous counsel of the
hardliners and extremists that surround you, I urge you to please take
note of the following: Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky, Colonel Sambo Dasuki
and Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, who are all political prisoners, must NOT die under
mysterious circumstances whilst they are in your custody.
No matter what your advisers and those in your inner circle tell you if,
God forbid, this were to happen the fall-out and consequences for your
reputation and your administration would be too much to bear.
This brings me to another issue which is a cause for grave concern. Your
stated resolve not to obey court orders and to deny Nigerians their right
to bail after the courts have given it to them is not only an affront and
gratuitous insult to the Judiciary but it is also a violation of the
constitution.
I say this because, unlike military dictatorships, democracy enjoys and
derives its power and legitimacy from the inviolable and sacred principle
of ”separation of powers”.
What this means is that the Executive arm of Government, which by
the grace of God you head today, is distinct and separate from the
Legislature and the Judiciary.
As head of the Executive and President of the Federal Republic, you
have absolutely no power or right to interfere in the processes of the
Legislature (which is the National Assembly) or the Judiciary. Both have
their own rules, regulations and leadership and the constitution guides
them and guarantees them total and complete independence from you.
As a matter of fact they are charged by the laws of our land and the
constitution to act as a check and balance on you as President and to
ensure that you do not abuse your power or subject your people to
tyranny.
Mr. President I watched you on your media chat the other day and I
am constrained to tell you that you not only abused your power but that
you also crossed the line with some of the things that you said. For
example you have no right to tell the courts how to administer justice
and who and who not to grant bail. Again you have no business to tell
the legislature which laws to pass and how to run their affairs.
Again you have no right and neither do you have the power to
pronounce any Nigerian citizen guilty of any crime unless and until a duly
constituted court of law has done so. You cannot be the prosecutor,
judge and jury in any criminal proceeding and this is especially so when
you initiated those proceedings and you are the accuser.
To attempt to do so is not only unacceptable and irresponsible but it is
also heartless and unkind. The fact that most of our senior and respected
lawyers have refused to tell you this simply because they are scared of
you or because they are looking for patronage from your government
does not mean that what you are doing is lawful or acceptable. What you
are doing is morally and legally reprehensible and it is unacceptable in any
democratic and civilized society.
In the same vein you have no right to try to stop members of the
opposition or the general public from criticizing you or condemning your
obvious failings. Mr. President criticism, opposition and dissent are the
lifeblood of democracy and without accommodating and tolerating them
you cannot claim to be a democrat.
You have no right to attempt to cower or intimidate the fourth estate
of the realm, which is the media, or attempt to pervert and corrupt the
Nigerian public with daily doses of lies, falsehood, deceit and propaganda
which is being duly and dutifully administered by your Minister of
Information and your numerous media aides.
All these things give me and millions of your other subjects concern yet
it doesn’t stop there. Perhaps the most disturbing example of your sheer
insensitivity was your reaction to the question about Igbo marginalization
during the media chat. In response to that question you asked “who is
marginalizing who” and went further to ask “what do the Igbo want?”
Mr. President I wish to remind you that it is an incontrovertible fact
that in just seven months your government has succeeded in marginalizing
the Igbo more than any other Federal Government in living memory and
certainly since the civil war.
This is a record that you ought not to be proud of. What the Igbo want
is fairness, equal rights, equal representation, equity and respect. They
also believe that they have the right to determine their own future and
make their own choices.
Mr. President I do not believe that this is too much for them to ask
given the fact that they have contributed, perhaps more than most, to
national development and integration in the last forty five years?
It is not too much to ask given the fact that no less than three million
of their people, including one million innocent children, were slaughtered
during our civil war in the name of keeping Nigeria one?
I have no doubt that you will remember this very well Mr. President
given the fact that you were one of those that prosecuted that war
and fought in it.
You will also remember the brutal mass murder and the war crimes and
crimes against humanity that were perpetrated against the unarmed and
defenseless Igbo civilian population of Asaba in 1968 when over one
thousand of them were rounded up, taken to the town square and shot
to death for no just cause.
The soldiers that carried out that unspeakable act of cowardice, brutality
and barbarity were under the command of your professional colleague,
the late Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed. Mr. President that
was a dark, shameful and ignoble chapter in our history which still cries
out for justice and reparations.
Needless to say the pain of such horrendous events and numerous others
that the Igbo have been subjected to by the Nigerian state and those
that control it over the last fifty five years still haunts them.
The truth is that regardless of the obvious contempt that you have for
them the Igbo will continue to insist on justice, fairness and on having
their rights respected in our country.
If you refuse to address their numerous and legitimate grievances and
you refuse to treat them with the understanding, sensitivity and
compassion that they deserve, the agitation for self-determination,
secession and the yearning for the establishment of a new nation called
Biafra will wax stronger and stronger until it reaches dangerous and
irresistible proportions.
That is what you are toying with Mr. President and if that were to
happen be rest assured that the Yoruba would take a cue from it and
so would the people of the Niger Delta. It would effectively signify the
beginning of the balkanisation of Nigeria.
Whether you and those with your world view like to hear it or not, that
is the bitter truth. May the Ancient of Days grant you the wisdom,
knowledge and understanding to accept it and to do something about it.
May the Lord of the Universe give you the foresight and the insight to
appreciate the fact that Nigeria cannot survive a second civil war.
Mr. President I sincerely hope that you do not take offence at my
admonitions and counsel. I speak only out of concern for the fortunes of
your administration, your reputation and out of love for my country. God
bless Nigeria.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/president-buharis-media-chat-and-the-words-of-a-tyrant-fani-kayode/

U will live long kayode

I am interested in this, I'll be back to comment