Open Letter To President Bola Tinubu, by J. Ezike

Sir, almost four years has passed since Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was allegedly re-arrested by interpol in Kenya and handed over to Nigeria. The rationale of writing this open Letter stems from the fact that the IPOB leader has been discharged by the Appeal Court of Nigeria and the violation of that judgement.

In the wake of your controversial ascension into presidential office in 2023, every activist and lover of democracy expected that your regime would grant justice and bring an abrupt end to Kanu’s illegal arrest and solitary confinement. We were expectant that you would order his unconditional release with the belief that his involvement in political activism, the self-determination movement and his efforts to lead Biafra’s resuscitation is reflective of your past activism and campaign for the return of democracy as part of the National Democratic Coalition Movement.

Your party, the APC, was unequivocal in declaring that your government will perform it’s duties on the premise that the rule of law is paramount. You had made a solemn pledge to uphold and respect the rule of law as enshrined in the constitution and other international human rights instruments.

Like most young writers, I was filled with hope that you would exceed our youthful expectations by protecting the freedom of speech and movement of the citizens of Nigeria. We believed that you were in the business of exercising the rights of the people you had been elected to govern. We expected that you would resonate with the Biafran struggle and the argument of our public intellectuals on the dissolution of the 1999 constitution which speaks in some way to the failures of leadership that have characterized the Nigerian political and economic experience.

Since you came into office, Nigeria has suffered it’s worse economic fate. I cannot honestly say that APC had performed better than its predecessors. What has changed dramatically is the gradual collapse of Nigeria’s economy.

Your regime justified our political and cultural debates around the dissolution of Nigeria and its leadership failures. APC, obviously, has no grand ambition to pull Nigerians out of their deep misfortunes. At the moment, the poverty in the country is so fierce precisely because APC’s strategy of governance is a poison to Nigeria’s economy. It bleeds the country without sharp edges and the general consensus is that Nigeria’s economy is on the brink of total collapse.

It is beyond my ability as a writer, to encapsulate in totality the slow-motion breakdown of Nigeria’s economy and the devastating effect on the people. Nor do I pretend to know the stark mediocrity that animates your government and regime. What I do know is that your absolute power is tyrannical, dictatorial and oppressive to the core.

Your power reminds us of Sani Abacha whose past is never forgotten or buried. Abacha’s underlying legacy directly mirrors your own. Today, Nigeria has been deeply divided between worlds of plenty and worlds of poverty; between the extraordinarily rich and the extremely poor.

Sir, you do not seem to understand the desperation and suffering of Nigerians, how your bad leadership has succeeded in twisting the lives and destinies of children in the ghetto, students in schools, traders in the markets and so on. You do not seem to understand how difficult and narrow the path is for Nigerians to survive, how easily they fall into desperation and hopelessness.

I do not think that you are aware that the hardening of Nigeria’s economy dooms us all. This is why I took the intimate effort to write you an open letter, to help you understand the struggle of the people and to include my voice in their echoes for “change.”

Judging by the performance of your power and regime, your idea or definition of “change” appears to be dysfunctional.

Sir, I write you this letter to bring to your awareness the continued illegal arrest of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and the economic state of Nigeria. This country has never been as bad as it is right now. And, as far as I’m concerned, Nigeria will never recover from the economic damages you brought upon it.

J. Ezike can be reached at this email: johnpaulezike1000@gmail.com