OPEN LETTER TO PETER OBI Greetings Okwute!
Congratulations on your emergence as a presidential flag bearer of the Labour Party and frontrunner in the 2023 Nigeria elections. I pen this open letter to you seeking clarifications on pertinent issues your momentum seem to be overshadowing. But before I continue, accept my commendations for your efforts so far in Nigeria political murky waters. I sincerely commend your performance in Anambra State as the Governor. Your antecedents are impressive when compared to your colleagues across Nigeria. I was in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka when the revered Dikedioramma Chukwuemeka Ojukwu raised your hand up. I am aware that service became a yardstick for which many Nigerians measured you, and thus youths now want to run in the 2023 election through you. On this premise, I decided to single you out for an open letter. My questions will go beyond the economic sphere where you have proved to be a good manager of resources.
I have followed Nigeria politics especially elections since my days as a kid in community school Mmahu, Egbema. And I am afraid the usual bacteria will attack free and fair election thus denying Nigerians especially youths a leader of their choice. Assuming the evidence of fraud abounds during the voting process, are you ready to stand with Nigerians to see their electoral revolution to a logical conclusion?
On May 23, you published a photo of yourself in front of 10 Downing Street, London on tweeter informing that you went there for a meeting. Immediately you jetted back into Nigeria, you left your former party, the PDP. Your body language, photo and visitation seem a sort of an approval trip. How are Nigerians sure you are not another neo-colonial agent who is more loyal to former colonial powers milking the country at the detriment of citizens? In 2014, the Jonathan Goodluck government had some 500 delegates spend five months deliberating and thereafter passed over 600 resolutions with a 10,335-page report about the political system and future of Nigeria. Unfortunately, the Buhari government jettisoned it. Do you have the political will to dust up and implement it, or alternatively, set up a sovereign national conference?
What is your view on the agitation for a referendum by Biafrans together with the demands from people of Oduduwa, Middle belt and Niger Delta? Honestly, I have not read or heard a strong statement from you condemning the massacres in Kaduna and adjacent States by Fulani land grabbers and jihadists. The migrant Fulani jihadists who are called bandits are now a menace across Nigeria. How are you going to tackle them head-on as one who is now popular to take over if there is a free election? The rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) is a dent on Nigeria's image. The kidnap as against lawful extradition process describes the Nigeria of today. More so, the judicial procedure together with the humiliation of prominent and outspoken Shi'a Muslim leader, Ibraheem Yaqoub El-Zakzaky deserves a statement from frontline presidential hopeful like you. Finally, Nigeria is not secured. Even though life goes on, the country seems to be a big killing field. Terrorism and kidnapping are now very lucrative and more dangerous with security apparatus handicapped. What are your plans for these security challenges, including a porous border?
Ukachukwu Okorie Olumoukachukwu@yahoo.com 16/June/2022