Anenih: Between Opportunism And Common Sense

Comrade Timi Frank

Last Friday, Chief Tony Anenih, Iyasele of Esanland and Board of Trustees   chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), further belittled himself when he tried to cover up for the Jonathan administration in an open letter he wrote to Sam Nda-Isaiah, chairman and publisher of LEADERSHIP Group.
Chief Anenih had written in response to Nda-Isaiah’s January 13 column entitled, ‘Is The President Aware That $ 10.8 billion Is Still Missing?’
Touching on a plethora of issues while defending the missing funds, Chief Anenih tried to outdo the finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the NNPC and the PDP all combined in trying to defend the indefensible. As a matter of fact, at a point it seemed as though Anenih was the chief custodian of the NNPC accounts.
Since there is little difference between private and public letters these days, especially when such letters are meant to ginger public discourse, it is only natural that yours sincerely puts the issue in the correct perpective.
First, it baffles me to see the vigour with which the Iyasele is defending the missing funds. I, and most members of the discerning public, believe that $10.8billion remains missing, for were it not for the alarm raised by the always bold Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, no one would be talking about any missing billions, let alone explaining how it was spent.  The money will just disappear quietly. This has always been the pattern. Not one case of fraud has ever been exposed by the government and no officials punished; the public only gets to hear of missing billions and trillions when business goes sour.
It is, therefore, with great gusto that Nigerians lauded Sanusi’s courage to expose what clearly was a monumental heist of public funds. Nigerians are not fools and need not be told that it took the exposure for the NNPC to go running around, trying to cook up stories to justify the missing $10.8 billion? In any case, is this the last case of     missing billions and trillions? Didn’t Okonjo-Iweala last week reveal that billions of dollars have developed wings in our foreign reserve? Who is deceiving who?
Back to Chief Anenih. It is  worrying that while the minister of petroleum  Diezani Allison-Madueke has deemed it unnecessary to react to such ‘beer parlour gossips’ even when it came from Sanusi, it took a whole PDP BoT chairman to run to their help – a case of weeping more than the bereaved. Is this a signpost that, unknown to Nigerians, Anenih also does ‘audit’ NNPC accounts in addition to that of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), another cash cow like NNPC, which for years has been his exclusive preserve.
Curiously, while ‘Mr Fix It’ has ignored calls on him to account for the over N300billion given him as works minister to ‘fix’ Nigeria’s death-trap roads during Obasanjo’s tenure – and till date he has kept mum,  this  time around, he is quick to throw his hat into the ring in defence of  Allison-Madueke’s opaque ministry. There must be something which has made Iyasele so keen to defend the petro dollar ministry. Assuming (just for the sake of it) that the account of the NPA is so squeaky clean (and I can’t think of any Nigerian who would bet his rags that it is), does it even warrant Anenih enough ground to play the devil’s advocate for the NNPC.
Let it be on record that the missing money, whether $49.8 billion or  $10.8billion, is the property of Nigerians. Yes. And it also needs to be on record that the wishy-washy explanation thrown at us by the NNPC is not acceptable going by the manner it came. It was several weeks into the saga – enough time for the smart alecs in the agency to cook the books.
As it is, against the very vexatious and regional tone that Anenih’s letter took, I am of the opinion that, with the volume of cash missing, the South-South from where both the chief and I come from would have been major beneficiaries if probity and prudence take their rightful place in our nation’s affairs. If work has stalled the East-West road over the years, one can just imagine how far these missing billions of dollars would have gone in fixing that very important road and the plethora of other abandoned projects across the region.
But again, if it took Edo State governor Comrade Adams  Oshiomhole to construct roads in Anenih’s place, including the one that leads to Anenih’s home, which he never did even as works minister, then it will be clear why Anenih is finding it difficult to understand why Nigerians like Nda-Isaiah are vexed at the continuous stench that keeps oozing  from the NNPC and President Jonathan’s seeming unconcern. No serious leader will condone the monumental mess at the NNPC.
How much does one need to steal in China to get hanged? Not more than a million dollars. So if billions get missing and it takes a courageous CBN governor to expose such, and  Mr President is more miffed at the disclosure and would prefer to do away with the patriotic whistleblower rather than plug the leakage in the system that allows un-remitted funds to stay long before being remitted, it only shows how unserious such a president is with the very task of governance.
Even from a position of weakness I now chose to argue that there was no missing funds except delay in remittance, perhaps the president needs the banks to tell him how much interest would accrue to the accounts of any individual or company which puts such billions in fixed deposit accounts, even for three months.
But for Chief Anenih, an octogenarian to whom Nigeria has given so much since the 1980s, it is lamentable that he sees nothing but politics when issues as these are brought to the front burner in our national discourse. It is only in Nigeria that elders like Anenih would continue to have a say in every government in power.
I have wondered what Chief Anenih would like to be remembered for by Nigerians. Is it that he was the best at godfatherism and ‘fixing’ things?  There is more to statesmanship than godfatherism, more so when Anenih can conveniently be said to be a riofaineant (a king without royal powers). If he has found it difficult to match the visible electioneering prowess of Adams Oshiomhole in his home state Edo having failed to pull wool over the eyes of Edo people, it certainly will not be the larger Nigeria that the Iyasele will take for a ride. We are wiser than that.
Elder statesmen do not rush to take up issues on the pages of newspapers, especially when it is not a good cause. Their conduct speaks for them. If Chief Anenih looks in the mirror, he will see why Nigerians will continue to ask for both the missing N300billion of not-so-long ago and the recent missing $10.8billion. It’s as simple as that.

Leadership

THE IJAW CHIEF DOES NOT KNOW WHAT HE DOES NOT KNOW

By Alfred Omolewa

Clark Vs. Tinubu

“No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand… Only fools and charlatans know everything yet understand nothing.”
-Anton Chekhov
One of the most profound observations now becoming a cliché is: “You don’t know what you don’t know”. How true this is of Chief Edwin Kiagboro Clark’s recent observation and conclusion that the Yoruba nation does not have leaders. Obviously, the Ijaw chief has a limited worldview of leadership and, having searched through that limited and flawed prism, failed to find among the Yorubas a persona or personae fitting his own concept of leadership.
But, alas, he does know what he does not know.
The Yoruba concept of leadership is clearly alien to the Ijaw chief’s worldview. He started out as a headmaster and has gotten used to being the man in authority, who lords it over all others, commanding obeisance and dictating what should be and what should not be. Advancing early in life after opportunities to occupy prime government offices, he is held in awe by his people and, being the loquacious and vociferous type, his people have donated to him their collective voice to agitate and advocate for the perpetuation of their kinsman’s hold on power.
That is the type of leader the Ijaw chief was looking for among the Yorubas. But, he does not know what he does not know: the Yorubas are not so!
First, the Yorubas, being so politically, culturally and educationally sophisticated do not need to have one seemingly ‘all-knowing’, ‘all-wise’ headmaster as their leader. It is only those who are pupils, who are not disciplined, who are at the rudimentary stages of cultural and political development that require such leaders. Historically among the Yorubas, the acknowledged and acclaimed political leader is merely a primus inter pares. If the Ijaw chief would so re-condition his concept of leadership (admittedly, a no mean task given his advanced years), he would surely and clearly identify the present leaders in the fold of the Yorubas. But if he continues to search for the equivalent of his headmaster-style leadership among the Yorubas, he will not find it. And, God forbid that the Yorubas regress to that level of de-sophistication where they would need a headmaster to lead them.
Second, the Yorubas have always been led more by ideas and principles than by men such that anyone who courageously, prominently and steadfastly advocates for commonly held and cherished principles and ideas is acknowledged as a leader among them. Given the Ijaw chief’s background, this may be difficult for him to comprehend since there is no equivalent of philosophy from where he stands. We know he is the appointed ruler of his people, but we also know that dead silence will meet any question seeking to know the philosophy driving his leadership. Beyond the fight to keep the spoils of office for his kinsman and his people, what is his leadership about?
On the other hand, the people that the Yorubas have acknowledged as leaders have been men who espoused and made great sacrifices for lofty ideas, ideals and values that are way bigger than them and their people. That is why Israel Oludotun Ransome Kuti did not need to be selected or elected as the Leader of an Elders’ Forum to be recognized and acknowledged as a leader among the Yorubas; his devotion to the cause of the education of his people earned him that.
That is why Olayinka Herbert Samuel Macaulay did not need to have a kinsman installed or preserved as President to find his voice as the leader and advocate for the ordinary peoples of the colonies.
That is why social change advocates like Dr. Akinola Maja did not need any ethnic or parochial motivations to lead the crusade for social rights and emancipation. That is why people like the late Chief FRA Williams became acknowledged as leaders among the Yorubas, not for their lordship over the people, but for the distinction they achieved in their professional pursuit and the application of those distinctions to the service of their people.
Were he a Yoruba man, the Ijaw chief would have no prominent place in leading the Yoruba people, even if he had more wealth and had occupied higher offices that he has. This is because the Yoruba people would not tolerate an opportunist and a hypocrite. He is a leader to the Yoruba people who would fight the cause of the oppressed, whose election was annulled even if the cheated candidate was not one of his own political leaning. He is not a leader to the Yoruba people who would nurse an unconstitutional third term in office. However, when that same man finds his voice in condemning an incompetent, corrupt and self-serving government, he becomes the darling of the principle-cherishing people of the Yoruba race. The Ijaw chief should be reminded that the leaders of the Yorubas are those who led their people to fight the cause of a certain Vice President from another tribe when the powers that be attempted to deny him his constitutional right to ascend the Presidency.
Given the above attempt to describe the concept of leadership among the Yorubas, the Ijaw chief should now understand why Chief Obafemi Awolowo is eternally regarded as a leader among the Yorubas, nay, among the entire peopleof Nigeria. It was not because he rose to high offices. It was for his courage in fighting for high and lofty ideas at the expense of his freedom, health and reputation. His sacrifice for the educational advancement of his people and for good governance earned him an enviable place in history.
The Ijaw Chief may now understand why the late Chief MKO Abiola, after years of being in the minority section of the political class among the Yorubas became a leadership symbol when he displayed the courage expected of Yoruba leaders to fight for democracy and the rule of law.
The Ijaw chief may now understand that it was not only their advancement in age that earned the likes of Chief Adekunle Ajasin and Chief Abraham Adesanya their leadership epaulets; it was their readiness to sacrifice for their people, to be the courageous voice during a brutal military dictatorship, to identify the right and support it and to spot the wrong and condemn it.
The Ijaw chief may also now understand why Chief Olusegun Obasanjo is now a hero to his people. For, in spite of political differences, he has displayed the character and courage expected of leaders in condemning a Federal administration being run in such a clueless and corrupt manner to the detriment of the people.
Does the Ijaw chief think that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s claim to leadership is simply that he was once elected to the Senate of the Federal Republic or that he performed as one of the most conscientious Governors of Lagos State in recent years? No! It is because of his profile in courage! It is because of his sacrifice for the greater good in good times and bad times.
Who was in the forefront of the global assault on the regime of General Sanni Abacha? Who was the rallying point and strategic voice for all the opposition figures in the dark days following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential elections? Who was the governor that redefined governance after years of mismanagement by the military? Who was the governor with the courage and vision to fight all the way to the Supreme Court to establish the fiscal rights of States in the Federation? Who is the politician with acumen and endurance to organize the political opposition that a democracy surely needs to survive? If the Ijaw chief would answer these questions truthfully, he will find the leaders of the Yo;ruba people.
Indeed, Chief Edwin Kiagboro Clark’s role in recent affairs can only be honestly described as the antics of an otherwise intelligent and respectable elder blindsided by bigotry and ethnic loyalties. Chief Edwin Clark and his other mischief makers belong to that class of men who, in honour of present favours, mischievously distorts history, maligns otherwise honourable men, saying “…with our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?”
In making that mischievous assertion about Yoruba leaders, it is well known that the Ijaw chief was only doing his usual and less than honorable bid to outdo all others in the display of blind loyalty to his kinsman President; he was merely attempting to shoot down the people perceived as being not on the same political turf as his political ‘son’; he was merely playing cheap politics. He was doing all that a leader ought not do. He was doing all that the Yorubas would not tolerate in their leader.
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg address, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what we do.” Aside the ignominious desperate struggle to maintain the hold of his kinsman on power in the face of glaring incompetence, what is this Ijaw chief doing today worthy of historical remembrance?
On the other hand, what are today’s Yoruba leaders doing? They are in the forefront of the fight for justice, for good governance, for the integrity of the ballot box, for real development and for change in a corrupt and dysfunctional polity. They are echoing the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln, who himself paid the supreme sacrifice in his leadership of his people by dedicating themselves to the unfinished work which heroes in the past have thus far so nobly advanced. They are dedicated to the great task remaining before us: that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that the government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish.
If the Ijaw chief would view leadership from this philosophical prism, he will easily identify the leaders among the Yorubas. But, alas, how can he know what he does not know?
-Alfred Omolewa writes from Edo

OsunDefender

8-year-old hero who saved six declared honorary firefighter at funeral

Tyler Doohan was credited with saving the lives of six of his family members when their mobile home went up in flames last week.

By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News

The 8-year-old New York state boy who died while saving the lives of six people in a roaring trailer fire was laid to rest Wednesday — complete with his own fireman's helmet and the title of honorary firefighter.
Mourners from across the country flocked to Fairport, near Rochester, to honor Tyler Doohan, a fourth-grader at East Rochester Elementary School.
Tyler raced through his grandfather's trailer home in suburban Penfield early on the morning of Jan. 20, alerting friends and family to a raging fire.
He was crediting with saving the lives of six people — including two other kids, ages 4 and 6.

But then he went back in to the inferno to try to rescue his grandfather, who used a wheelchair because he'd lost part of a leg. They never made it out. They were buried Wednesday with a third victim, his step-great-grandfather."Compassion has no end, and community has no boundaries," said Phil Buderic, basketball coach at Silver Lake College of the Holy Family, who traveled with his team all the way from Manitowoc, Wis., to serve as pallbearers at Tyler's funeral after being touched by the story.Penfield Fire Chief Chris Ebmeyer declared Tyler an honorary firefighter, presenting a personal fire helmet during the service at St. John of Rochester Catholic Church, NBC station WHEC of Rochester reported."Tyler needed to be honored in a way that would reflect what he did that morning," Ebmeyer said, marveling at the "courage (and) heroism he displayed for such a young individual, at 8 years of age.""Tyler proved there is good in everybody,” the chief said.

Fire companies cross the country also added Tyler's name to their duty rosters in tribute Wednesday, the photos scrolling for page after page on the Facebook account of Firefighters Worldwide, an international firefighters community based in Mechanicsville, Va.
But Denise Alfieri, Tyler's fourth-grade teacher, said she would remember him as "the quiet boy who sat in the front row” and loved math and drawing.
"Tyler, I will miss you every day," Alfieri said. "To be honest, I still look for you to walk through those doors, just to see you smile one more time."

NBCNews

A MUST READ AND FOOD FOR THOUGHT. OPEN LETTER TO THE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (CAN)

Sirs,

I will not express any pleasantries, for we are clearly in unpleasant times - apparently the worst - in the life of our nation Nigeria since the end of the civil war in 1970. However, I express my love, which serves as the board from which this epistle jumps from.

Being the association that represents the bulk of Christian believers in Nigeria, which seem to also serve as the voice of these same believers, I am compelled to write and draw your attention to the ominous silence of this association to the steady drift of this nation into the abyss.

The political temperature of Nigeria has risen to the point of burning the top cylinder gasket that holds the beautiful mix that makes this nation work. This is made so by the apparent selfishness and desperation being exhibited by the political class, especially those of them closely associated with you. And this selfishness and desperation have combined to create a climate of insecurity and fear among the people hopelessly suffering the consequences of misgovernance, which has been feathered and furthered by your apparent lack of rebuke.

You will recall that I did warn you in August 2011 in my long article 'As the Church Slept...' (The first series of it) of the consequences of your partisanship in that year's presidential election of which you adopted and vigorously campaigned for president Goodluck Jonathan in your churches and other areas of influence. You will also remember that I advised you to make sure this government works to succeed so that the integrity and honour of the Christian faith is not diminished, because there was nothing successful in the tenure of Goodluck Jonathan as governor of his state, Bayelsa other than massive corruption, a fact you people woefully and stubbornly refused to consider before plunging the church and the entire nation into this avoidable calamity, which is in dire conflict with the biblical instruction that says "Let every man's work speak for him." However, by the current mess the country is thrown into now, and by your loud silence over the mess, it is clear you have not heeded my counsel, which could also mean you care less about how the corporate image and integrity of the Christian faith is being muddled by your "favourite politician" the president. You seem not to understand that whatever he does shall be deemed as springing from a "Christian behaviour" or attitude, and I am compelled to ask whether you people in CAN lack shame or are not ashamed of the unprecedented corruption and insecurity being perpetrated by this regime whose worth is no more than the worth of broken dry leaves carried in a whirlwind?

There are so many scandals bordering on corruption and insecurity, which should have drawn from you appropriate rebuke and demand for comprehensive disclosures, but you chose to be as silent and as dumb as a graveyard in the desert. Instead, all you seem to care about is your continuous odious relationship with these same charlatans who only mention God with their lips but despise Him in their hearts and actions.

If you have not thrown away your Bibles you will not have missed how the Men of God in the Bible were a torment to the (unrighteous) rulers of their time. Those Men of God served as the conscience of their nation with the people always running to them to seek reprieve from oppressive tyrants, but in your own case you seem to have become accomplices in the campaign of plunder and rape of the common wealth of the people. Your consciences appear to have been "seared with hot iron" as the Apostle Paul would say, and without any sense of shame and rebuke you all seem to gladly open your altars to these same liars and thieves to stand and mock God and to further ensnare your followers with their lies! No one among you seem to have the courage now to "speak truth to power" but you would rather "speak truth according to power" as a wise man somewhere appropriately put it. Your altars are no longer points where fire is spitted to convict evil in the land, rather they have become points from which "messages of comfort" are spewed for our thieving rulers and other vandals that throng worship places for fun and recognition, and little wonder there appears to be no change in the land that can be attributed to convicting messages from the altars and pulpits.

You may not know it, but shouldn't you have figured out the danger of politicising your altars or pulpits? Already, you have wittingly or unwittingly set up the next political campaign to be on religious basis exactly the way you and your favourite politician did in 2011, and the danger is you are now setting up your innocent followers for any unpleasant consequences after the election if its outcome turns out to be considered as flawed like it did in the past. And considering the desperation of your favourite politician, president Goodluck Jonathan, there are signs already that he will not mind using crude and crooked means to assert himself in power, including the use of killer snipers (Obasanjo has not been certified mad by a competent doctor to have made that allegation), and you may have conveniently forgotten that up till now he has not bothered to even visit to commiserate with your followers who lost lives and properties in the 2011 fiasco after you have goaded them to vote for him because he goes to church.

We have had church going leaders in the country like President Nnamdi Azikiwe, Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, Gen. Obasanjo and President Obasanjo, but none of them ever made government policy announcements in church in honour of the secularity of the nation and in recognition of the sensitivity of religion in our polity, and in the same manner none of their Muslim counterparts ever made any government policy announcement in the Mosque. And I am very sure now that if any Muslim politician goes to any Mosque to campaign or make any similar announcement you will be the first to come out smoking hot against the person. Of course, evidences of your double standard and hypocrisy abound. Are we taking in vain the Golden Rule set by the Lord Jesus Christ that says "Do unto others what you want them to do unto you"?

You also seem to have kept quiet over the Boko Haram conundrum. Is your silence occasioned by the realisation that this Boko Haram nonsense has always been a "Boko Haram" contrivance set up to disorganise and depower a particular part of the country and to blackmail certain persons considered hostile to, or more popular than your favourite politician? Let me clearly warn you that the evil conspirators behind the magnification of this Boko Haram madness shall be duly exposed and punished by the LORD God Almighty with an "overflowing measure" of punishment before this year 2014 ends! The time has come when the Lord God Almighty will clear His Holy Name from the filth filthy politicians have rubbed on His Name!

Why are you also very quiet about the contrived lockdown in Rivers State? Are you also not courageous to tell the clear aggressor to stop the nonsense? Isn't Rivers State located in the "Christian South" which should have attracted your care and concern? Or is there any part of the "Christian South" that should be destroyed for the benefit of your favourite politician just as the north-east of Nigeria? Is your silence due to the allegation that quite a good number of you were heavily "dashed" some very huge sums of cash for the unwise endorsement of 2011? Can you see why the Bible in Proverbs chapter 15 verse 27 says "He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live"? And if you have noticed a lot of Nigerians disenchanted with you over your clear romance with these rogues in power, it is because the Bible has said it in Proverbs chapter 29 verse 24 that "Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and betrayeth it not."

Receiving cash or material gifts from rogue politicians or businessmen will muffle your voices from rebuking them, and, moreover they don't give such gifts for any good; it is so that they can buy your conscience and voices. Proverbs chapter 17 verse 23 says "A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of judgment." If your voices and consciences have not been bought by "the wicked", Nigerians need and desire to see you doing what Proverbs chapter 27 verse 5 says: "Open rebuke is better than secret love."

History and the coming generation will not forgive you if you fail to stand up to compel positive change in Nigeria, for they will read about how you slept and colluded with those destroying their nation. And most importantly, remember that you will be expected to give account of how you discharged the mandate of being "the light and salt of the world" before the Lord God Almighty! But at that time the LORD will not be seated on The Mercy Seat but The Judgment Seat!

Sharon Faliya Cham,
Abuja, Nigeria
February 2, 2014

Oba Ovoramwen reappears in an epic movie to be released soon

By Fidelia Salami

Oba Ovoranmwen died in 1914 in Calabar 100 years ago. His death coincides with the year of amalgamation of Nigeria by the British government, thus to clear misconception surrounding his reign and to also mark the centennial remembrance of the late monarch; a top film producer in Nigeria, Mr. Lancelot Imasuen, is set to release a movie titled, ‘Invasion 1897’.
http://www.bronzefm.com/category/news/entertainment-news/title/?article=35

The position of Iyoba of Uselu

In Uselu which is the official residence of Edaiken who is the eldest son of the reigning Oba and the heir apparent to the throne, there is Egua-Iyoba {Iyoba Palace}, where the reigning Oba’s mother officially residence. As is customary in Benin kingdom, reigning monarch normally confers the Iyoba title on his mother. When this title is confirmed by the oba, the Iyoba moves to her residence at lower Uselu where Eguae-lyoba is established.

Oba Esigie started this tradition probably to forestall the conflict that would have arisen between his mother and himself over the exercise of political power. An almost independent domain of the Queen mother was therefore carved out for her.

Thus it has become strongly -established in Benin tradition that a year or two after the coronation of every Oba, he invests his mother with the title, lyoba (Queen mother) and sends her to reside at lower Uselu in Eguae-lyoba (Palace of the Queen mother). If it happens that the mother dies before the coronation of the son, the body is preserved for a year or two after the coronation to enable the Oba confer the title lyoba on her and later bury her at Eguae-lyoba.

More often than not, the oba’s mother {or Queen mother} moves to her residence at uselu before the title is conferred and confirmed on her. In this are of uselu, there are various residence occupied at one time or the other by various Iyobas. What really happens is that each Oba builds a residence for his mother within the area of Uselu generally referred as Eguae-Iyoba.

To assist the Iyoba to officiate in her Eguae {or palace}, the Oba grants her a privilege of recommending to the oba people who she wishes to be conferred with specific titles peculiar to her palace. When approved these titles are then conferred on the incumbents. At the demise of an Oba’s mother {queen mother}, the Iyoba palace becomes her last resting place hence all over the area called Egua-Iyoba there are sepulchers which have been more or less converted to shrines in memory of the various Iyoba who have so far been buried at Uselu.....

Decision 2015: Memo To The President

By Dapo Thomas
My dear President, the release of the election time-table by INEC must have triggered a lot of pressure on you from well-meaning Nigerians like Mama Peace and co. to hastily declare your interest in the 2015 election so that work can begin in earnest. I support   the Pressure Group because the task ahead of you and your party is herculean and I doubt if this can be done in just one year. Therefore, there is no more time to waste on whether or not you should go for another term. I feel it is my responsibility as a citizen, and also as a friend, even though we have not met before, to offer you my personal advice in this crucial period of decision making.
Without any equivocation, I will tell you straight that you should go for the second term because it is your constitutional right to do so. And besides, you are more than qualified. Are you not a doctor? The fact that you are from a village in Bayelsa called Otuoke does not make you a village doctor. You are indeed a Ph.D holder; a real doctor who knows book and also knows how to read speeches flawlessly, fluently and perfectly.
Don’t mind those mischief makers in my neighbourhood who gossip about your pronunciation of some technical and difficult English words. They are just jealous of your achievements. They are not happy that of all the “shoeless boys” in the country, you were the only one favoured by Providence to become the President.  By the way, must we all speak English like the Oyinbo people? Wetin concern Ijaw man with grammatical niceties and lexical formalities? Idea is need. Abeg let’s proceed.
Mr. President, I am seriously encouraging you to contest because of your wife, Madam ‘Damned”, nay, Dame Patience Goodluck who had invested so much resources and energy into the 2nd term project despite her health condition. Do you want all her Abuja rallies and women parleys to be in vain? Why must you deny her the opportunity of completing her two terms when others before her enjoyed such luxury.
Sorry, that was a mistake. The two first Ladies before her, never completed their two terms. Fate, not Patience, prevented them from completing their terms. Stella Obasanjo died two years into her own second term (Oct. 2005) and Turai’s husband died prematurely in May, 2010. Now that your wife is called Mama Peace; she needs more years to settle the crisis she caused in Rivers State when she was “Mama Trouble”. How do you expect her to solve the problems of Rivers State in one year? The crisis in Rivers State, if you must know, is a very big project that cannot be abandoned. She wants to carry her load herself. Also, Mama Peace wants to take her peace message round the globe, especially to all the troubled spots of the world.
My President, remember that you have other women that you have to protect and save from shame and disgrace. You still have Stella Oduah, your Minister of Aviation, the one that her detractors want to pull down because she is very beautiful, attractive and very hardworking. Some useless boys in my neighbourhood are peddling rumour that she is “very close” to you. Sir, I don’t know what they mean but I am sure it is not what I am thinking. Because of space and time, I won’t want us to waste much time on the meaning of “very close”.
But it is because of this “very closeness” that you have to consider her so that the two of you can become “very closer”. Is it even their business to determine family ties? Why will people not mind their business? Is it not the responsibility of “Mama Peace” to determine who is “very close” to her husband? Useless boys of no fixed address (SSS please note).
As for Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, the Finance Minister, she does not need much protection. She is well connected internationally.
But you still need her to stay with you for 4 more years to resolve her waiver palaver with The Punch otherwise, she will just pack her baggage and go back to World Bank or is it “Wrong bank”; that bank where development means different things to different countries and different continents. She also has enemies and detractors that will mock her if you don’t run: the Abuja lawmakers who think she is too arrogant. Well, it is left for you Mr. President to determine whether it is not noble to seek 2nd term in order to save the face of an “arrogant woman”.
The last of the women in Jonathan’s life, as one disrespectful writer wrote recently, is Diezani Allison-Madueke, the oil chaperone whose diligence and efficiency have helped Nigeria in making a lot of money that we save in the Sovereign, or should we say, Suffering Wealth Fund (SWF). If people are saying there is stability in the oil sector and that Nigeria is a very rich country, I think the credit should go to this angelic woman. Through her honesty, transparency and accountability, Nigeria is what it is today, a wealthy gaunt. Though some envious and idle women in my neighbourhood are attributing her shining body and beauty to Nigeria’s oil money, when did petrol become anointing oil that the woman will now be using it to cream her body? They should know that her beauty is a gift of nature and not oil money. Those who are complaining of missing oil money are traditional trouble makers like Rotimi Amaechi and his Nigeria Gossip Forum (NGF).  And who in Nigeria is taking them serious? If a “holy Diezani” says our money is not missing, why should we say she is lying. Do beautiful women lie? The same envious jobless women in my neighbourhood are also saying: “there is something going on” between you and this respectable angelic woman, Sir, what else could be going on than “good rocking”, sorry, it was a slip of biro, good working relationship? She also will want you to go for 2nd term so that she can continue to enjoy this “good working relationship”.
I am tired of talking about Jonathan’s women as if our President is only protecting women. Before people start thinking I am being mischievious, let me show your detractors, that your second term is also in the interest of men who are “very close” to you., I can mention my good friends, Reuben Abati, Sanya Awosan, Bolaji Adigun now Bolaji Adebiyi and my big brother, Doyin Okupe. Some people (not in my neighbourhood this time around) are calling them all sorts of names “attack dogs”, “defence wolves”, “desperate hyenas”, “terrorist tigers” and “Jonathan’s pets”. With all these names that my friends are being called, I won’t be surprised if they were considered in the millions that you voted for the animals in your Zoo at Aso Rock? Don’t people have better names to call them? Why dogs, wolves, tigers, hyenas and pets.
These people sef.  I am intervening on behalf of my friends by asking you to run for second term. As Bamanga Tukur begged you in his last days in office, “please save my friends from disgrace and joblessness”, and if for nothing else, pity them for what people call them.
Mr. President, Rotimi Amaechi is enough reason for you to run again or you want to create the impression that you are running away from him. As far as I am concerned, that boy is too disrespectful, stubborn and disobedient. He needs to be dealt with. If you decline to run, he will now call another rally tagged “The Fall of Jonathan” where he and his militant supporters will now be dancing to celebrate your fall.
By now, you must have heard how ecstatic they were when Bamanga Tukur was presidentially eased out of office to Railway Line. It was because of Amaechi and his men that Tukur was running to Madam and you to save him from disgrace. Now that you have sacrificed Tukur, why do you need to sacrifice yourself again?
How do you want Nyesom Wike to feel if you do not run again? Wike has been very wicked to Amaechi and his supporters because of you. He has, with the support and assistance of the hypocritically efficient Joseph Mbu, fought Amaechi to a standstill in Rivers State. Certainly, Wike will become weak morally and psychologically while Mbu will be booed by Amaechi’s men once you announce that you will not run. Please, don’t disgrace your trusted aide and an efficient police officer that is causing insecurity in Rivers State with the zeal and the passion of a hired killer.
Sir, don’t forget to also consider your achievements in the PDP. You sent Bamanga Tukur packing; PDP now have other affiliates or subsidiaries namely APGA, Labour Party and DPP; PDP lost 5 State governors and 37 House of Reps members to the All Progressives Congress (APC) and is about to lose 17 or 19 PDP Senators to the same APC. Those who say you have destroyed the Party are not being sincere.
You are only trying to instill discipline in governors who talk to you as if you are their houseboy (apology to Jeremiah Useni). And if they don’t understand that, tell them PDP is only undergoing a destructive reconstruction with the objective of achieving unstable balancing. My President, why should you feel satisfied spending only 6 years in power when you can spend 10 years? People like Ghadaffi, Mobutu Sese Seko, Hosni Mubarak, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Robert Mugabe and Bashar al-Assad were/are in power for more than three decades. Why should yours be different? Are you not an African leader like these people? Did Obasanjo not seek 3rd term? Don’t let them exploit your gentleness and quietness to deny you a legitimate claim to 2nd term. It does not matter whether you have something concrete to show for those years or not, at least, you have enjoyed yourself for 10 years as the President of the most populous Black African nation in the world.
For all these reasons and more, please run Mr. President. If possible, sprint like Usain Bolt towards 2015 with tactical retreat. It is your decision. It is your ambition. You should act and decide according to your volition.
As for those snippy boys and nosey women in my neighbourhood, don’t worry about them because I will soon stop hearing their nonsense talk. I assure you that I am leaving that contaminated neighbourhood very soon, probably before the next coming of Christ, before they infect me with their “gossip flu” and put me in trouble with our very friendly and civilized security agencies.
TheSun