Open Letter To My President By Utum Eteng

My dear president, though I have for some time since after your inauguration President and Commander in-chief of the Armed Forces resisted the temptation to write this open letter to you, but each time I resisted or procrastinated on the matter, the spiritual urge in me becomes more serious as negative events kept unfolding each day particularly in the National Assembly.

My President, permit me to remind you that your victory at the polls following PDP defeat brought joy and great expectations to the common man. I hope you will live up to these expectations.

May I also remind you that the respect Nigerians have for you as a person before now did not just start. It all started right from your days as the Military Head of State who gave Nigeria a direction. It has always been my expectations that you will invoke your discipline mantra of old to deal with the insubordination in the APC now. Some of us have always hoped that you will bring hope to the hopeless and helps to the helpless. Nigerians voted for the APC thinking that our public officers will for once imbibe the culture of change.

I am compelled to write this open letter to you following recent happenings in the APC (a party of hope for the common man), the APC majority National Assembly and the leadership of the APC. You are the official leader of the APC in government and the fountain of hope for the APC. You know the hard work and energy you and Bola Tinubu put together to manifest the APC which eventually is the ruling party at the national level with majority states in Nigeria.

I recall vividly without equivocation those simple and elementary actions and steps former President Jonathan neglected to address which later led to his defeat. He procrastinated and delayed until he allowed the state governors to behave as emperors and acted with impunity. You recall the public boast of the PDP soon after it was defeated, that it will take back power from the APC in 2019. Its leaders including the out-gone president Jonathan are not pretending about it. They have soon after the success of the joke they tried to have Saraki Senate President rebounced back into action and have gone back to the drawing board to re-strategize.

It is important to point out that for now, the bulk of the finances of the country is still much in the deep pockets of these former PDP public officers, and because of the poverty level Nigerians were subjected to, they are manipulating the system with less efforts but with our money to daze the APC in the National Assembly. It is expected that both the APC and President Buhari will be challenged to stamp their feet on the ground to re-enact APC authority.
Sir, I repeat without further equivocations that, as a party man and our President, the events happening in the National Assembly should interest you to the extent that you should not leave anything to chance howsoever. I again repeat loudly and clearly that, the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Senator Ekweremadu of the PDP as the Deputy is not a good omen for both the APC and the presidency. The success of your Administration is invariably that of the APC. That Saraki emerged Senate President with the open display of PDP support is enough sign to any reasonable man that he who pays the piper dictates the tunes. That again, Saraki should have the boldness to throw to the winds again the APC agreed positions of the leaders in the Senate is enough to accept the fact that the spirit of APC is kept in abeyance as far as Saraki is concern. It is like the PDP and some persons in the APC particularly some overzealously ambitious PDP decampees and traditional presidential aspirants have an agenda different from what the real APC wants to achieve. Whether it is liked or not, from recent happenings, it’s like the PDP has settled to use some APC members to destroy the party having argued that the APC is like a gathering of strange bird follows.

My dear President, it would not be wrong to opine that, the PDP has settled to sabotage your administration knowing fully well that in a democracy the legislature would normally play important roles for you the President to succeed. Sir, would you be surprised to hear that the PDP is ready to use some of this same faithless APC members to challenge the list of ministers you shall present? It is not a good thing that the APC admitted some PDP decampees into it fold.

I am not aspiring to become one of your ministers but I urge you in the name of God to name your ministers, advisers and assistants quickly. They will assist you handle this challenging situation. David Mark as Senate President was the pillar of the PDP in and outside the Senate while it lasted, the APC cannot secure for now such commitment from Saraki and some of its Senators. They cannot hold forth for the party now, yet no member of the Senate got to the senate as an independent candidate. Every elected member came to the National Assembly on the platform of a political party which by convention and law is supreme. It is wrong and suspicious for Saraki to continue to have alternative list for positions meant to be occupied by the APC leadership. This is a challenge to the authority of the party that brought him to the Senate, it must be resisted at this early times. The APC must be bold to discipline it members now with the help of the President.

Permit me to emphasize the thinking in some quarters that, PDP pulling down the APC for its boldness to challenge it to a defeat would start with acts aimed at discrediting Bola Tinubu before his APC members. I wish to reiterate that whether anybody likes it or not, Tinubu remains the pillar of the APC in its formation and President Buhari would remain the pivot the APC should revolve around to consolidate.