Ogundana Michael Rotimi: Open Letter To President Buhari. Sir, You May Have To Dissolve The Peace Council

Your Excellency Sir,

This is the first open letter I will be writing to you since your inauguration as the President and Commander In Chief of The Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I will go straight to the point and won`t bug you with the facts and figure that you already know. Right now, you have become facts and figures yourself and there is no information that you are not preview to.

Sir, those that voted you and believe in you hold you in high esteem because of your level of integrity, discipline and courage in handling issues. Since you became the president, you have painstakingly taken your time to take every decision you have made. You have deliberately not appointed your ministers and other members of your cabinet because you want the best hands and less partisan Nigerians to work with you.

As you will recall Sir, the reasons why Nigerians voted en-masse for you are for you to wage war against corruption, recover stolen funds from corrupt person or group of persons that have plundered the nation and for you to reposition the nation on the path of excellence. These are the things they believe you can do which informed their decisions to vote for you. This is the more reason I believe you have been careful of the caliber of people you place in sensitive positions and in committees.

However, you are human, and the very fact that you are mortal makes you inevitable to mistakes. But it is one thing to make a mistake; it is another thing to keep making it.

On the transition of the National Peace Committee for the 2015 General Elections to the Peace Council and retaining its members, Sir, sorry to say this, you shouldn`t have. You should have dissolved the committee. My reasons are not farfetched; going by your stance to have credible and non-partisan Nigerians in positions and committees, the National Peace Committee should have been dissolved. Because some of the men that make up the Committee are not honorable men.

Honorable men do not protect the interest of a few corrupt persons at the peril of the innocent impoverished majority. Honorable men do not shield the wicked from the wrath of the law. Honorable men do the right thing with power and don`t abuse it.

Some members of this committee have proven times without number that they cannot speak truth to power and cannot be trusted with leadership. This should have informed your decision to dissolve the peace committee.

There is nothing peaceful about the Peace Committee if all they do is to seek peace for some corrupt golden few than for the vast majority of Nigerians that have suffered heavily from the burden of corruption.

For any group as highly placed as the National Peace Committee to resort to seeking soft landing for corrupt person(s) is another obvious reason why the committee should be dissolved.

Again, Sir, some members of the Peace Council do not believe in probing a democratically elected government like that of your predecessor. It shows that you do not share the same ideology with them. Hence, you cannot work with them. You believe in probing so long it`s done legitimately without trampling on individual`s rights. It is the more reason why you should dissolve the committee Sir!

Furthermore, the National Peace Committee has done its duties by ensuring peaceful elections. They can now stand down and let you do the job Nigerians elected you for. This is to salvage the country.

Moreover, Sir, some members of the peace council are stunt loyalist to your predecessor. They will do anything within their power to protect him from the jury. Besides, you cannot expect such committee that is loyal to your predecessor to perform transparently without external interference from him. This is why it is paramount on you that you dissolve the peace council.

According to Bishop Kukah’s he said: “Our commitment is not to intimidate or fight anybody, the former President’s commitment and what he did still remain spectacular and I think that President Buhari himself appreciates that. So our effort really is to make sure that the right thing is done.” The questions are: what did Dr. Goodluck Jonathan do that remains spectacular that warranted such statement? He lost an election and conceded defeat, what is spectacular about that? Or what is spectacular in running a corrupt driven government with so much impunity? You see Sir, the Peace committee are not working for you and are not working for Nigerians. They are not for you and they are not for Nigerians. They are for their Hero, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan!

Aside from the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III and the Primate of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Most Revd. Nicholas Okoh. Sir, people like Bishop Kukah, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and Gen. Abubakar Abdusalami (rtd.) are the more reason why you should dissolve the Peace Council! These men are not honorable men their antecedents speak for them.

Of course Sir, I would have gone on and on, on why you should consider dissolving the Peace Council but I wouldn`t want to consume much of your time on this, so that you can also attend to other pressing issues.

It is with these reasons that I call on you to dissolve the peace council and constitute yours yourself if you need one.

 

God Bless Nigeria.

Ogundana Michael Rotimi is a Nigerian Biochemist, Socio-economic & Political Commentator, and Public Speaker. He tweets @MickeySunny.

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Muhammad Malumfashi: Dear Peace Committee…

Peace committee? Someone asked, are we at war? Looking at the men. Peace? Let me not talk about the S/A weapons and private jet here. But need to say Abdussalam is over-stretching himself and his committee. After his recent closed-doors meeting with the President, one might ask what does he want?

I know that both parties signed the ‘Peace accord’ before the March 28 general elections. Elections have come and gone, Jonathan Goodluck congratulated the winner, outcome was respected by both parties, then a smooth transition. I don’t know if it was ever part of the deal not to fight corruption in anyway. So what does this committee want again?

Pardon looters? No way! Thank God Mr. President’s response was ‘No mercy! And trial of these thieves to begin soon!!’ reiterating his irrevocable commitment to wipe out corruption and simple stealing.

It couldn’t be happier than this. If Nigerians wanted any pardon or whatever would have voted Jonathan so that he can pardon other Alamiyeseigha’s brothers and keep visiting corrupt and convicted politicians even in their jails. Now things have changed, the goats have started to feed on dry leaves and dead grasses. Stealing is officially corruption therefore thieves must go to jail. Baba Go Slow and steady, but don’t compromise as one Former Nigeria’s Permanent representative said:  ‘do justice to ALL!’ If there should be any pardon shouldn’t it be the man sentenced to months in jail for stealing vegetables? If there can’t be a presidential pardon for the young man that stole tiger mini generator why should there be any for the one who stole $6bn? Selective justice is another form of injustice.

So behind the doors someone told the president that this is not a military government, I’m not sure if he needs to remind the President of that if democracy is all about rule of law. But if their meaning of democracy is another form of kleptocracy, it’s something different. Where was he, when they were looting our billions daily, when funds meant for fighting war were siphoned, when trillions were diverted to their own generation accounts in the name of subsidy. Which part of the constitution was suspended before they raped us in the day light? Is that his definition of democracy? Government of the thieves for the thieves, by the thieves? No more!

Surely this is democracy and their will be nothing as a ‘secret’ tribunals like it happened in ’84, Decree #2 which allowed politicians to be in detention for up to 3 months without any charge, trial or bail. The anti-corruption bodies will be allowed to do their job regardless of personality or party affiliation this time around and thieves will be duly convicted in a court of law with prosecutable evidences.

Last month PMB visited the US, met with Obama and Loretta Lynch (the state attorney general of Justice) to discuss all on how to prosecute Nigerian oil thieves and recover stolen money from banks abroad. Slowly and steadily! Who’s even in a hurry here? They can continue to lie peacefully on their sick beds, for now!

If the committee went to beg the President to slow down from his Go slow. The show just started, one can grab his popcorn, it’s movie time! In a matter of weeks we’ll get to know those who short-changed our country. I heard they didn’t went their for that. Better!

Elections are over, we had a peaceful transition, contrary to many predictions of doom sayers, thanks to that Heroic call from Jonathan Goodluck. Now Gen. Abdussalam Abubakar (rtd) and his committee should allow President Buhari kill corruption before it kills Nigeria. Carry on Baba Go slow!

Dear peace committee, you have done your job, Well. Let PMB do his. See you next elections.

Muhammad Malumfashi is on twitter @Ya_waliyyi

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates