The President of the United States
President Clinton
White House
Washington, DC.
Dear Sir:
It gives me great pleasure to send you this open letter. I decided to write to you following the recent news that you would soon be visiting Nigeria. With what Nigeria is going through at the moment, your visit may turn out to be the best thing the country needed. A few weeks ago it was published that your schedule of events, while in Nigeria, would include, among others, an address to the joint session of the National House of Assembly. Another news later circulated that you would visit only the cities of Maiduguri, and Port Harcourt - the oil city. At the moment, the news appears to have changed; it is now published that you would visit only Abuja. Really, Mr. President, a cross-section of Nigerians seems to be comfortable with whatever you will do while in Nigeria, as they suspect it will be for the good of the nation. They are however hoping that you will seize the opportunity to speak passionately and frankly to Nigerians; especially, to some of the so-called leaders who, obviously, seem to be operating with their reasoning faculties suspended.
Please permit me to state here that your plan to address the legislature is very desirable at this point of Nigeria’s democracy. And allow me to add that your proposed visit to Maiduguri is praiseworthy. At least it is a break from the pastime of every white dignitary that had visited Nigeria in the past. Moreover, since Kaduna and Kano, the hubs of northern Islamism and neo-colonial power, are smoldering in the embers of religious war dubbed Sharia; and since the feudalists’ medieval fancy foot-walk display known as “durbar dance” could as well be mimicked in Maiduguri, Nigerians will have no qualms about the city taking over from Kano and Kaduna. Equally, your visit to Port Harcourt will be very important. In fact if Your Excellency were to visit only one city in Nigeria, Port Harcourt is the one. The reason is because the city is the capital of Nigeria’s oil wealth, which of course is milked by the G-8’s Paris Club creditors.
Mr. President, I have had some inexplicable concern about your visit to Nigeria since it was announced. Somehow, as I reflected on your person and your achievements, as a leader, I thought I should caution that Nigeria’s democracy is not cultured enough to benefit from inputs of a political master of your caliber. I also thought that the situation in the country is so volatile that while you are in the country, the men in khaki, whom President Obasanjo has repeatedly warned recently to stay leashed in their barracks, may decide to dare the world and launch another “operation-kill-the-bloody-civilians.” But as I dwelled on these issues deeper, it dawned on me that Nigeria’s democracy needs help to bloom and that it might as well take your visit and tutoring for the diarchy-staffed, and feudalists-powered executive arm to understand they will need the legislature, as a separate arm, along with the judiciary and the press as other arms, for our democratic government to survive. As for the ambitious men in khaki, my fear dissipated as I later envisioned that such barbaric repeat act now would be a way for them to hammer the last nail into their coffin. For as a powerful leader of the free world, with all the sophisticated hi-tech weapons at your command, if you cannot visit a country like Nigeria, where the feudal primates are intensely bickering and inviting pogroms to secure their spoils, then the voiceless in the country were well advised to gird up their loins for the Armageddon.
My intent in this letter is to attempt to acquaint you with the facts on the issues that are convoluting to destabilize Nigeria’s democracy. As a visiting American head of state, the only remaining superpower, what you will do or say to Nigerians will mean a lot. Even though I know that you do not need anybody telling you about what is ailing Nigeria, for the county’s dirty linens have been washed many times over on the world stage; yet, I suspect that a few things bordering on the “Nigerian factor” may not be apparent to you. Henry Adams, in his book entitled Education of Henry Adams, wrote that “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.’’ For what we know of your ability, as a politician, you are capable of affecting the bases of stupidity in our leaders and nation; therefore, if you are to instruct them to change, you must know the true situation of things because truth shut up “…will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.” (Emile Zola.)
Sir, I believe you know that the prosperity you masterminded for America, during these eight years that you have been the leader, has endeared you to so many the world over. With this as a backdrop, your visit to Nigeria at this point in time generates a lot of expectations. If nothing, Nigerians will expect you to speak frankly to their leaders on the issues of the day confronting them. Some months ago on CNN’s Larry King show you were asked to name your 10 favorite heads of state around the world; surprisingly, you named President Obasanjo as your eighth favorite leader and talked fondly of him as being your personal friend. Since that show, I have listened and read much news from Nigeria hoping to hear or read President Obasanjo reciprocating, but to no avail. And I had hoped and watched but failed to see the man reflecting you in his leadership of Nigeria. How I wish he would welcome you to Nigeria by utilizing the encounter to look straight into your face and say it in the friendly line that Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote in his cable to Winston Churchill: “It is fun to be in the same decade with you.”
Executive shortcomings
As of this moment, the Nigerian Senate has lost its second leader in 14 months, and the executive is openly accused of masterminding the coup. Within this period, the Sharia legal system which was illegally introduced to the northern states, without executive action, got unshakably entrenched and may tear the country asunder; and executive indifference to injustices heaped on some Nigerians is so glaring that some citizens are no longer certain of the existence of a united Nigeria. I know these issues are those you would work tirelessly to resolve if you were confronted with them in America. It is therefore expected that you would, according
to Shakespeare in All’s Well that Ends Well, “Keep thy friend under thine own life’s key.”
The ambitious northern Moslems are now planning to extend Sharia to the southern states. In the past 30 years, Nigeria witnessed their success in dipping the Koran in the southern seas - just as they promised. These people are reportedly now planning to bribe unnamed nitwits in some of the southern states that will implement Sharia in their states. And they might yet succeed, because of the “Nigerian factor.” This is based on the reasoning that, among others, the person with money in Nigeria rules, irrespective of whether the money was acquired ethically or not. In Nigeria, a moneyed person belongs with the elite; the educated-poor, and the
moneyless are scumbags - mere serfs. A point of reference for this is the attempt by the executive to return the former speaker, a pardoned ex-convict who forged his age and certificate, to the Lower House.
After the hand-over of power last year, one of the promises that the executive made to the people was to let the economy revolve around the people. The executive further promised to shrink the government lean, efficient, honest, transparent and friendly; and stressed the devolution of power to the states, allowing the center to function mainly as the facilitator. But what the executive seems to be operating now is the Nigerian system of old time democracy. The government is bloated. And the feudal lords and ex-419ers are now recycled as the elites whose opinions on how to run the country are priceless. So far the dividend of democracy is yet to reach the populace; and as the people are waiting, poverty is biting hard into their bones. The executive is now telling unemployed Nigerians that the economy will pick up as foreign investors arrive with their technology to set up shops. This of course is what should be expected from a leadership by elites who have passed their usefulness. Mr. President let Nigeria know how America acquired technology. Assuage them to know that there are Nigerians all over the world that have acquired the know-how to industrialize Nigeria, if the feudal apologists will allow them.
One issue President Obasanjo has pursued tirelessly is that of debt-relief for Nigeria. According to the news now in circulation, it is said that you will put to rest the issue of debt-relief that Nigerians are very particular about. The fact is, with the trade bill for the Caribbean and Africa that you signed to law, poor countries in Africa can only benefit if they are relieved of the crushing debt. While it is hoped that what you will tell Nigerians will be a solution indeed, agitation by Nigerians for relief from the mammoth debt owed the G-8 appears to be well founded. Based on the recent catch by the World Bank, where some capital project loans were misappropriated by some of the World Bank’s officials, Nigeria should not be required to pay the killer debt. It seems like the World Bank and the IMF are the twin institutions now perpetuating the new form of colonialism, which is to make the poor borrower-countries dependent by keeping them indebted. So whenever the banks advance credits to the poor countries, some of their officials will turn around, in collusion with leaders of the borrowing countries, and repatriate the facilities to Western economies, leaving only the promissory notes with the poor borrower-countries.
And the preceding brings me to another issue, Mr. President. It is surprising that in any situation requiring leadership, primarily from black people, white people seem to prefer the nonentities and spineless among them; but when it involves whites leadership, the most brilliant whites are picked, like in your case. This invisible plot informs the military rules that continued for so long and pauperized Nigeria. What the military did in the country since independence from Britain in 1960 was an abomination. In spite of the billions of dollars earned from crude oil export, Nigeria went bankrupt as the military armed robbers transferred the nation’s wealth to Western Banks under the watch of the World Bank. Some of the moneys were transported to countries with money laundering laws, but no authorities said a thing about the illegality in those countries. That Nigeria cannot probe IBB up to now is because the guy probably avoided the banks and used his official planes to transfer his loots. This may explain why trails are lacking to prove where he hid the moneys. That man who opened the Central Bank of Nigeria to Schmidt and Minton (foreigners!) to access in the name of buying back some questionable debts, is now walking around a free man - in fact, a king!
Mr. President, it shall be well with you if you can help to recover Nigeria’s looted funds. As you address this issue in Nigeria, let President Obasanjo know that being elitist may not cap it all in the looted funds recovery effort. Persuade him to understand that merely throwing the search open only to so-called well situated lawyers, cannot achieve much. Wonders could be achieved by promising even 1% commission to any bank messengers, clerks, etc. that can give information to recover any of the loots. This was the situation in Switzerland, where security guards caught some bank’s officials as they attempted to shred the ledgers that contained the names of some holocaust Jews who saved moneys in their bank.
Senate probe and the resultant danger
Based on events now, it just may happen that by the time you arrive in Nigeria the Senate may be in quandary, and the Lower House may so lack in credibility that the entire National Assembly will have been rendered irrelevant. If this happens, Mr. President, that will be it for your address to the joint session of the legislature.
Earlier, I mentioned that some issues bordering on the “Nigerian factor” might not be clear to you as an outsider. These issues are not visible, but they are incendiary. They incubate in the hearts of Nigerians; often, meddling with their instincts. As Nigerians talk of democracy, as if it means anything to them, the “Nigerian factor” informs better their understanding of the workings of the system. The book of Proverbs covers this issue properly, as it summarizes that “The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.”
The Senate recently concluded a probe it conducted to weed out corruption from its fold, but the outcome revealed the deeper gulf that continues to threaten Nigeria’s unity. The probe revealed that Nigeria is backward today, and may ever remain so, because the people’s hearts are bitter due to intense tribalism, hate, pettiness, illiteracy and jealousy among the ethnicities. These bugs appear to have directed the recent Senate probe and the reactionary outcome. And I think it is fair to present you at this juncture with some raw facts on the probe, to enable you to either allude to, or speak on, during your joint session address to the legislature. The Igbos whose sole contribution allowed in the current dispensation is to lead the Senate, appear so far to be incapable of producing a president. A week ago, the Upper House enthroned the third Igbo indigene Senate president in 14 months of the institutions existence. The Igbos, I must tell you, sir, are erudite and well accomplished comparatively. But, by the look of things, they are wanting in the Senate’s leadership role. Like Tacitus once said, the Igbos have probably continued to fail because they have been negating “reason and calm judgement, the qualities specially belonging to a leader,” or they simply do not care, probably, about the wisdom of Lord Byron in The Two Foscari, which advises that “…when we think we lead we most are led.”
Mr. President, in the latest Nigerian Senate probe, which led to the impeachment of an erudite Igbo personage by the name of Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, the bungling was unprecedented in history. Assuming Chuba actually stole or duped the Senate the way Nigerians are led to believe, how the senators conducted the probe hinged on the “Nigerian factor.” That impeachment, which simply assassinated Chuba’s character, shows the continuing powerlessness of the Igbos in the Nigerian polity. While I so much prefer anyone caught looting the government now to be crucified, the guilt should first be established through constitutional means, without crudity and beyond reasonable doubt. In Chuba’s impeachment, the senators seemed to have taken the law into their hands and adjudged the man guilty; like in the case of the biblical Nabob, who was adjudged guilty because he had nobody.
Chuba’s alleged excesses were so serious but unconstitutional for the senators to probe on their own. The Nigerian constitution whose principles the senators swore to abide by forbids them from probing criminal matters that concern fellow senators on their own. They are required
by the constitution to shift all criminal matters to the executive or the judiciary. According to legal
reports, the constitution allows the Senate to probe its own only on matters of parliamentary privilege violation. There is no question that the “Nigerian factor” meddled to justify the probing of the Senate president by his fellow senators, who at best were his adversaries.
Much as I feel ashamed that Chuba, whose name alone conjures pride for some Nigerians, for they have heard his name since their formative years, it wouldn’t matter to anybody if he is shot for stealing. But how can Nigerians accept that senators who themselves were soiled for collecting money up to 43 percent over the limit of their approved allowance can probe their own in good faith and convict him? For the crime so probed, all the senators are culpable; and before impeaching Chuba, the senators did not even debate the probe result! The worst is that the so-called educated have accepted Chuba’s impeachment, forgetting the precedent so established. Of all the billions that the past leaders looted, from IBB to those recycled by the executive, Chuba is now the fall guy. Now that he is impeached, will it be appropriate for the anti-graft commission to re-probe him? And if such probe returns a not-guilty verdict, how can Chuba’s reputation be repaired? The presidency was openly accused of plotting Chuba’s impeachment. The coup succeeded, but the wild injustice is looming. This challenges the Igbos as a people; henceforth, maybe they should really shut up and become a nation of saboteurs that are ready to sell their souls for naira in matters affecting their survival.
The main point that the Senate has defeated as a non-issue in the probe result, Mr. President, is that of the Rule of Law. It was the biblical Moses who first asserted that “man must be ruled by law.” It was true then for the Israelites in the wilderness; it is true today for the Americans and other progressive nations of the world; except, in Stone Age Nigeria! And this is so in spite of the fact that some Nigerians, like Mr. Gani Fawhenmi, Dr. Ransome-Kuti, and the NLC leadership, etc., have openly demanded for the rule of law in the shoddy probe. If the Senate, as an institution where laws are made for the nation, cannot respect the rule of law, where is the hope for the voiceless in Nigeria’s democracy?
Sharia fall-out
Mr. President, I made a reference at the onset to the fact that an imminent religious war might have precluded your visit to Kano or Kaduna. Since the hand-over of power by the last junta, the country has been visited with so much. As soon as the Hausa/Fulani North - a region that ruled Nigeria since her independence in 1960 - saw that its people who once boasted that they were born to rule Nigeria forever were never again going to nurse such dream, let alone ruling the country forever, they changed the tune and brought in their Islamic laws dubbed Sharia. The Sharia laws imposition, as seen by a majority of non-Moslems in Nigeria, is akin to secession as it subordinates the constitution and secularity of Nigeria; thus, conferring on the northern states that have legalized Sharia, a sovereign status in the corporate State of Nigeria. Treasonable?
Sir, I beseech you, hold court on Sharia while in Nigeria because you probably will make the difference. And here are the facts: Not long ago, Igbos were yet again massacred by Sharia proponents in the city of Kaduna. In many other cities in northern Nigeria, every non-Moslem walks around with the fear of Sharia-induced pogrom that seems to hang on the horizon across the region like a dark, suspended cloud in defiance of gravity. The government appears unable to arrest the situation, and is not even suggesting any solution to bring hope to the country. The northern Moslems are attempting to use the Sharia issue to unite their people for political
reasons. First they tried to use it to invite another military take-over, but as that is still being incubated by their bloodletting and dim-headed soldiers, they tried to incite instability; for this, their target was again the Igbos.
As for the Igbo people, only God would know the reason why a republican people like them, who are ubiquitous with their commerce, many of them not necessarily wanting financially, would hope to live in a wild country like Nigeria where their achievements whipping up feelings of hate for them from their fellow countrymen, without adequately intimating their God to fight their battles and protect them like the biblical God of the Israelites did. The Igbos are always bloodied by the northerners; and it seems their blood is desired by the witch-heads of Islam, who can only maintain the potency of their spells with the Igbo people’s blood in their stomach.
Before the Sharia-induced massacre, so many Igbos were killed that it is now reasonable to accept that the northern gods preferred their blood, unlike the biblical Isaac’s blood that God preserved and blessed. (And Nigerians are suffering for this, though they don’t understand.) From 1945 to this year, there has been an annual ritual, in the guise of riots, which has been perfected for the massacre of the Igbos. And these killings of a particular ethnic group of citizens never bothered the authorities in Nigeria. This silence gives the impression that the government supports the evil acts. Despite the constitutional provision which stipulates that Nigeria is a secular nation, the vice president, the speaker and some of the supreme court’s chief justices - all of them leaders who swore to protect the constitution - are all Sharia proponents.
Igbos’ fate and pressure groups agitation
Dear Mr. President, the matter of the Igbos in Nigeria is as untoward as it is insidious. It is a problem that seems to gladden the hearts of the feudal lords of Nigeria. According to John Milton in Paradise Lost, a nation as hateful as Nigerians are to one of their own , among them “…never can true reconciliation grow, where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep.” Since the last civil war, Igbos have been in the hate books of Nigeria, almost officially! For every national issue, Nigerians must gang up against the ethnic group.
Sir, in order for you to successfully address the issue of Nigerians staying together, I think you should know the facts. Given your age, I know that when Biafra was declared, you most likely had nothing to do with it, since you probably were very busy then with your education. In 1966, a civil war visited upon Nigeria partly because of the killings of the Igbos in northern Nigeria. Because Igbos seceded and declared the republic of Biafra, other Nigerians ganged up with international powers, which included Britain and USSR, to starve the people dead. Even the deceased President Nixon called the starvation conspiracy Genocide. You see, sir, as soon as the war ended in 1970, the Nigerian government conducted a mock-integration and proclaimed to the world that they gave the ex-rebels money to start life with. Igbos were given twenty pounds, and only to any of them that left money behind in Nigerian banks before fleeing to Biafra. No matter the amounts Igbos left in the banks, they were given twenty pounds in
exchange. A lot of Igbos returned to start life all over in Nigeria broken up, homeless, and with
no source of livelihood.
Throughout the war period, no world power denounced the starvation program deliberately perpetuated on the people - even though this was regarded as a serious war crime by the UN. When Britain and France tried to reduce Germany’s population through starvation during and after the Second World War, people reacted despite the fact that the Germans were the aggressors. Igbos fought in self-defense and were visited with the war crime of starvation, among others, but the world didn’t wink. Today we are hearing about the UN demanding more than $700 million as penalty for lesser crimes committed upon the people of Bosnia.
Many Igbos today have not recovered because of that war, and may never recover forever. Only recently did Nigeria try to pardon some of the soldiers who were in the Nigerian army but got drafted into the war through no fault of theirs. And a lot of these people have died because of the poverty that the government forced upon them. The civil war now appears to have sealed the Igbos fate to the northerners as the worst people that they have to hate. And, as other Nigerians are always bonding with them, since they fought the war together, the northerners have become a very powerful people, irrespective of their barbarism. So as the Igbos have been completely removed from the Nigerian leadership equation, the northerners have continued to exhibit unquestionable excesses. They now constantly check the Igbos, by killing and maiming them through organized pogroms, whenever they try to rear up their heads.
Unknown to other Nigerians, for thirty years while the northerners ruled Nigeria, as they had successfully eliminated the only threat - the Igbos, they looted the entire country away to Europe. Through the Central Bank, and camouflaging with brown-paper bags, baskets, Ghana-must-go bags, suitcases, etc. they transferred the people’s moneys to wherever they were able to hide the loots. The true situation of things seems to have now opened up to the South-South people, whose oil wells produced the petrodollars that the northerners looted.
The theft that the northern feudal lords and their military progenies instituted, as they ruled Nigeria, has now made the owners of the crude oil in the southern oil cities to demand for control over their black gold. To-date, the people’s agitation seems to be a sure fire that must burn. In the past, when cocoa and cotton were the main foreign earners for Nigeria, the government returned 50 percent derivation fee to the farming regions. But since the advent of oil export, the owners of the resource whose ecology has been badly damaged and their people exposed to acid rain, which can send them to their early graves, have been looted and left in the cold. And these people are now up in arms, agitating for equity. Mr. President, there is none better qualified to speak to Nigerians on oil business and sharing of the earnings. America has crude oil. Like other industries, the oil industry is privately owned; yet, the American federal government is better off through the taxes and royalties it collects from the industry.
Sir, the control of the people’s resources in Nigeria is another serious destabilizing issue in Nigeria. The pressure groups agitation is real and must be addressed. Please take time to tell the Nigerian authorities how it is being done in America. Bring it to their knowledge the attendant evils of trying to overlook the goodness of a limited government - a system that the federal government would not get involved with running businesses; thereby, allowing Nigerians to think of getting rich through private initiatives and ventures. Mr. President, be bold to tell President Obasanjo, your friend, to reconcile Nigerians now that time is in his favor. Tell him to be transparently detribalized, and always do the right thing so that in the end he will be able to speak to posterity and claim in the words of Neville Chamberlain that he “…preserved peace in our time.”
Bon vo-yage and Godspeed, Mr. President.
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