United Kingdom Based Energy Lawyer
OPEN LETTER TO GOODLUCK JONATHAN: SAVE THIS HOUSE FROM FALLING!
Dear President Jonathan,
As Martin Luther King warned, “these are revolutionary times”: Like the Arab spring, the ‘Nigerian Harmattan’ seems to be blowing. All over the country men and woman, young and old, are revolting against an old system of exploitation and oppression. In the scorching sun of failed leadership a soothing river of self-help has sprang forth. A people thirsty of fruitful governance have found an assuaging spring in the streets of protests.
Out of the womb of a cruel polity new aspirations of justice and truth are being born. The frustrated and angry people of Nigeria have risen up as never before. The people who have long lived in depression have found their voice. That voice has eased them the weight of a despair that once held them back. It echoes their recent awakening: that because of complacency and their proneness to adjust to injustices the trustees of their commonwealth have for long taken them for granted while brazenly treating themselves to lavish grandeur.
In that thunderous cry for liberation we have seen unison in the voices of a people otherwise polarised. The literate, in their robust erudition, and the illiterate, in some of the most shocking ignorance, have met at a common crossroad: that in the prevailing socio-economic circumstances in Nigeria your fuel subsidy removal policy does not affirm what is best for them.
In this time when sectarian aggression is ripping apart the fraying thread that binds us in the gloomy search for nationhood. In this time when your inertia had so strengthened the mongers of sectarian hate and the embers of discord were being profusely fanned, the people have found an accord in the revolt against your policy. But I know that the underlying fabric of unity remains badly ripped. The unison you see on the streets of protests is one of convenience. Hate is still brewing in the land. You have not attended to it. In this time when hate has not been doused it is dangerous for the people to be on the streets.
President Jonathan, our country is pregnant with a chaos of diverse ramifications. Leaving the people on the streets is like inducing the birth of that chaos. Mr President, save this house from falling! Budge to our demands, at least in the interim. Heed the advice of the houses of parliament however inchoate their resolutions.
In the days of not too distant past when you were the second fiddle, when you strolled the corridors of power but didn’t have access to its inner chambers; in the days when darkness, only less tick as the one now gathered, covered the land because the captain of the ship of state, lying frail on the sick-bed of Arabia, left the masses incommunicado. For a quarter of a year the Nigerian ship, unmanned, was cruising to a wreck. It was these same people who you now call ignorant and overly impressionable who raised their voices in the cry that a cabal had treated you with contempt. In a loud shout that summed up the sincerity of a people their forthrightness saw to it that what fell to you was given to you. You became Acting President and with the demise of your boss fate had taken you to a height you never dreamt of. Fate had so magically lived out your name –Goodluck. From that moment a myth had intertwined your persona.
And exploiting that uncommon opportunity you presented yourself for their re-endorsement. In your campaigns for election you connected yourself with their lowly stations of life and wove the story of your unmerited ascendancy into their collective and individual dreams. With some of the dexterity this nation had never seen they stood behind you to take you to where you currently sit. But now you refuse to listen to them.
In these protests, may be you are banking on outlasting the masses you once sang sweetly about the days you had no shoes. But be minded that you are now faced with the fact that Nigeria’s tomorrow is in your hands today. In this unfolding conundrum of nationhood and history there shouldn’t be such a thing as being too heady. Posturing is still the thief of peace. History often leaves men who had the chance to make themselves celebrated statesmen to be caught standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. President Jonathan here is your opportunity. But more than just your opportunity, here is our future. You must act with the fierce urgency of now.
Reverse the fuel subsidy removal policy. Re-work the subsidy to a model that will be totally phased out in a graduated manner over a 3 -5 year period. Focus on security. Win the trust of Nigerians by cutting the huge costs of governance and by dissociating with the inequities of corruption and proceeding against it. Throw your weight on the power sector. Achieve meaningful progress there. That sector is a magic wand that is able to make you the darling of Nigerians is you fix it for them.
You have disappointed Nigerians but there is still opportunity to write your name in a golden plaque of history. But if you fail, history will pronounce anathema on the man who had no shoes but who lost his heart when he got power. The chance is now yours, but the fate at stake is larger than you, it is that of a hundred and eighty million people. Please hearken to wise counsel.
Anozie Awambu
UK Based Energy Lawyer. "
