An Open Letter To President Mohammadu Buhari…Call Your Brothers To Order If You Mean Well For Nigeria - By Linda Nneji

Dear President Mohammadu Buhari,

When there were strong indications that the All Progressive Congress APC will have you as their presidential candidate in the 2015 general elections, most of us who have seen and read what your person stands for; prayed so hard and wished it would not come to pass. For my generation, the killing of some Youth Corp Members and over 700 other Nigerians by your blood- thirsty supporters due to instigating statements attributed to you and your inability to call them to order so as to quench the bloody violence; is enough to disqualify you from being a President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What more can be said when one reads your escapades during the Biafran war and your regime as a Military head of State where you trampled on the rights of some Nigerians and this eventually led to their death. To be honest Mr President, your like should be facing charges on crimes against humanity rather than be bestowed with the highest office in the land.

Be that as it may and against the wish of a good number of conscious Nigerians, you either by hook or crook became the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. One still wonders why your Government is yet to unravel the circumstances behind the “mysterious inferno” that killed the 2015 Kano INEC REC (Mikaila Abdulahi), his wife, children and siblings? Are those lives not worth the attention of your Government or have you seen them as some sort of collateral damage? Anyway, that is by the way Mr President. 

You have been the President of our Multi-ethnic and religiously diversified Country for almost two years now and to say that you have not disappointed my likes is an understatement. Let me not go into your unlawful detention and trampling on the legal rights of some perceived members of the opposition parties in the guise of fight against corruption or even the detention of those who are speaking out against the inhuman treatment of the Nigerian system against their race which has been worsened by your regime. I do not even want to go into the killing of unarmed Biafran protesters in their hundreds by your soldiers even while they are finding it difficult to fight the boko Haram terrorists, a.k.a your “misguided brothers”, to a halt. At most, they captured a flag and Quran and are even more interested in establishing grazing lands for their castles across the Country. My concern however, Mr President is the escapades of your blood-thirsty brothers ever since you became the President.

Yes, I mean the Fulani herdsmen. From Nimbo village Uzo-Uwani LGA in Enugu State (where they carried out the bloodiest attack in the South East) and Ndiagu village in Nkanu West in the same State (where they killed a 6 month pregnant woman by ripping her stomach apart and a 26 year old Seminarian); to Ogbunike village in Anambra State where many were killed and “our friend” the Police could not respond to the distress calls of those that were able to escape until the attack was over, Okposi in Ebony State where four young men were sent to their early grave, Irete and Akokwa both in Imo State and Ozu Item in Bende LGA as well as Arochukwu both in Abia State. This is how your blood-thirsty brothers have been marauding from one State to the other in Southeast, feeding their cows on the farms of their victims, threatening to conquer them and occupy their Lands, raping those they deemed fit to and killing others. 

For your brothers, their cattle worth more than human lives, a philosophy which your likes have helped to deepen in their thoughts by your utterances which are suggestive of someone with no regard for the sanctity of human life. It might as well interest you Sir, that this is one of the major reasons for which people like me fought against your presidency and the governorship ambition of Owelle Rochas Okorocha of Imo State who is obviously sentimental to the course of your people. I still vividly remember one of those articles where I made it known that your Presidency will heighten the morale of the blood- thirsty Fulani herdsmen in our Country and they will perpetrate more evil in the land because they have one of their own in power and one who is obviously in support of their course, whatever that is.

Be that as it may, some of us wanted to keep mute and let you run your Government as you deemed fit after all, we saw it all coming, we warned and we have also paid the price of being opposing voices BUT the recent massacre of Christians in Southern Kaduna by your blood- thirsty brothers and your most condemnable silence over this; is too hard to swallow. I could not just look at the gory pictures of their escapades in Southern Kaduna. Those were human beings like you and I and they have every right to live. 

Their only crime is that their religion and yours with that of your blood- thirsty brothers are not the same. Mr. President, I have always seen you as an ethnic and religious bigot as well as an unrepentant military dictator and you obviously have not disappointed me but I do not want you to keep proving me and so many others who hold the same view, right anymore. This is because you are doing so at the expense of human lives and by inflicting pains on those you are unfortunately presiding over their affairs.

Did you really understand the meaning of “I belong to nobody and I belong to everybody” or did you obviously make that statement just for the sake of it? You have not lived up to this statement one bit but starting by calling your blood- thirsty brothers to order would be a right step in the right direction of being the father you should be to all Nigerians irrespective of ethnicity and religion. 

Do you also know that some of these people who have fallen victims to the ‘madness’ of your brothers; supported your ambition and Government while some others maybe relatives or kinsmen of those who did OR is your mind just so fixated on your acclaimed statement “…will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of sharia in the Country…”? Mr. President Sir, call your blood-thirsty brothers to order not for my sake or the sake of my likes but for the sake of those who believed in you even against all odds. Save them from shame and total disappointment.

Thank you Sir.

Linda Nneji

A Concerned Citizen Of The Federal Republic Of Nigeria