I am but a child. And I am not used to talking to Power. I am not among those who brag of their ability to talk truth to Power. I am in the list of those who hide and shiver in the presence of Power.
I am but a child talking to his father. Like a child, I may not know the protocols. I may not observe them, because I believe that in the face of the father the child has liberty to climb on every part of the father’s body, even scratching his body and at same time crying. It is not easy handling a weeping child. Parents know the level of patience and tolerance that come with handling a child that weeps and talks and scratches the body at the same time. The parent pays attention and tries to calm the child. Even when he does not understand the child’s language, even when the child is speaking in tongues, the father makes extra effort to decipher the child’s message and solve his problems.
As a child, the only person we run to and report our problems is the father. When we encounter a bully, the best thing we do is to run to the father and report the bully. We believe so much in the strength of the father. Even when our elder brothers or aunties turn to bullies, we run to the father and report them.
I am saying all this to remind you, Mr. President, yes, our father, that we have no one else to run to in the midst of the bad government we face in the state, led by one of our brothers, who has turned himself to a bully, bulldozing and bullying everyone.
I know they might tell you how everyone in Imo State is happy. I know they might have told you that Imo State has been rescued, and sometimes you see images on the television that tend to prove their false claim. Mr. President, that is what bullies do. They have a way of drowning the voice of the bullied child. But as a father you know how to protect the weak and bullied child from the bully. You know how to decipher the tricks of the bully and save the weak, after all, the real essence of power is to protect the weak from the mighty. That is what I want you to do. That is why I am writing this letter.
Mr. President, as the Christian bible says in Acts of the Apostles Chapter 16:9, you have to “come over to Macedonia and help us”. You do not have to keep quiet while we suffer untold hardship occasioned by a government that promised rescue.
As you visit Imo State today, your very first visit after you won the presidential election last year, they have made arrangements to take you through the streets of Owerri and show you some “wonderful” and “magnificent” buildings. They will take you to Owerri City School and tell you that such is typical of Imo State schools. They will brag that the school is like a university campus. You may be tempted to say that yourself. But that is a façade meant only to hoodwink and sell you a dummy. What they will show you is a smokescreen. It is further from the truth. The truth, Mr. President, is that the education system in the state, like other sectors, is in ruins. We have gone from glory to grass and if we are not careful, you might be forced to single out Imo State and declare a state of emergency in education sector, because at the end Imo State will produce only educated illiterates, without any capacity for anything. Thanks to the hastily announced and unplanned free education policy of the state government. The schools are in worse shape than they were six years ago and the system produces nothing but frustration and anger. This is akin to a keg of gunpowder waiting for the least ignition to explode.
And Mr. President, now that I have mentioned the free education policy, Imo people would want to know whether there is a UBE Basic Education programme begun by President Olusegun Obasanjo and sustained by successive governments until you came in, or not. The Basic Education progarmme offered free education for children in public schools from primary 1 to JSS3. Did your government scrap the programme? Is your government still running UBE? I ask these questions, because we have often been lied to by the bullies that the rescue mission government offered education from primary 1 to the tertiary institution. If this claim is true, it means that, Mr. President, the Federal Government is cheating us blind. How could the Federal Government be running UBE Basic Education and not extend same to Imo State?
Mr. President, I remember watching you on the day of your inauguration on May 29, 2015. You swore to protect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I heard you say that you belong to nobody. Is that true? Can you tell us where in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria a fourth tier government is provided for? Why do we have the fourth tier government in Imo State? Is it a bonus for us?
Mr. President, we want to know whether you are running a federal system of democratic government or some imperialism? I want to know whether you have sacked all the elected 36 state governors and put in place caretaker committees in the states. I am asking this question, because, where I come from, our elders say that the infant goat watches its mother when it chews the cud. What do you have to say about the annexation of the 27 local government areas of Imo State by the state government.
Despite what they might have told you or will still tell you, I want to tell you nothing but the truth. The current government in the state met elected local government officials in place in Imo State. But the government sacked them, like one would sack his workers. Some people have said this was a rape of our democracy. I think they are correct. Moreso, when the 27 local government areas in the state are manned by the governor’s appointees. The 27 local goverments have become a merchandise, given to those who would deliver dividends. The local governments are now ghosts of its old glorious self.
Mr. President, my complaint is too much. But a child only pours his heart to his father. And I know my complaint is not making you sleep. But don’t worry, even if you sleep, like a child doing to his father, I will wake you up and continue my story. This is not about the wailing wailers. It is about the suffering masses. It is about the constitution you swore to protect. Moreover, you had been in uniform, but mow you are in mufti like the rest of us, and you now know the pleasantness of changing clothes everyday and not wearing same cloth all the days of your life. To sustain democracy, we need to breed new leaders. And there is no better ground to breed this new set of leaders than the local government system. I know that you know that many of the leaders we have today in the country were produced by the local government system. The same system that has been raped by our own Governor. If the 27 local governments were to be a female, she would have been rendered dead and perhaps buried before now.
Mr. President, do you actually give allocation to the 27 local government areas of Imo State? Forgive my childishness. I am washing from my stomach. Moreover, my father used to tell us that he who talks too much has seen too much. Yes, sometimes even the child can be the person telling the truth the elders might not tell.
I am asking about the allocation accrued to the 27 local governments of Imo State for six years now, because we don’t hear about it. Can you please tell us if our 27 local governments are still part of Nigeria and receive allocation? Can you also be kind enough to tell me who collects them? Just whisper it to me. I won’t tell anybody. I promise. I won’t tell John. He is a talkative and might tell James his brother. I cross my heart. Just tell me, so that when next the Governor is talking I will do my mouth like this and say bunkum. That is what I do when uncle Uche is not telling the truth. You remember that he was at IICC reading what he said was achievements of the rescue mission; I didn’t want to talk so that they won’t beat me. But I did my mouth lie this and said bunkum.
Mr. President, has the Governor been collecting the allocation for the 27 local governments areas in the state? Is that why he does not want to conduct election for the 27 local governments? Some people said he has been eating the local government money, but I don’t want to believe them. If they are saying the truth, can you help us ask him what he has been doing with the money for six years? In fact, can you help us collect it from him.
Mr. President, I don’t want to talk too much, but my heart is heavy. The other day I was crying because you were not here. Now that you are here I want to tell you this. You see all this people singing and shouting for you, they are not human beings. They are walking corpse. How can a people who don’t have hospitals for six years be human beings? Is it possible? You know it is not possible, Mr. President, but that is what is going on here. We don’t have hospitals. Even the ones we had, John told me it was sold to some of your brothers. But I know John is amibo, that’s why I don’t like him. When he told me that the general hospitals and health centers in the state were sold I did my mouth like this for him, but I didn’t say bunkum. I just said mmmmm! I shut my mouth, so that they won’t say I am amibo. Mr. President, am I amebo?
Mr. President, if for any reason you have catarrh because of the dust here, be ready to go to Germany, because there is no hospital here. That was what I was saying before. Don’t mind what they are saying about new 27 general hospitals. That one na home for rabbits, rats, snakes, snails, scorpions, goats, grasscutters, even crocodiles. Don’t follow them go there because something might bite you, unless you are carrying anti-snake charm. Let me tell you sef, one day my friend Udoka was sick. His mother heard on radio that the government built 27 general hospitals. She rushed him to one of the giant buildings they call general hospitals but she only saw goats and building over grown with weed. Udoka died, and since then nobody has bought even vitamin c tablets from those places. Is it fair?
We have even asked the bullies to return our former general hospitals that way they met them, but they refused. You know, once you swallow money or something it is difficult to vomit it. We have asked them to turn the 27 buildings into cottage industries but they won’t hear. They are praying that all of us will be sick everyday of our life to keep the 27 general hospitals. How can someone do that to his brothers of he is not a bully? Is it not better to build 27 cottage industries so that we will have income and job generating ventures that the spending outfits? I are they hiding something from us?
Mr. President, if you have not seen dead people for a long time now, you are looking at them now. How can people live when they don’t have a future? Is that one living? Bunkum! Don’t mind the road they claim they are building. They just patched them up because of your visit. And let me tell you, they have patched these roads several times but they go bad again. These roads were constructed by them, but they don’t do quality roads. They like China made products very well, so they like to give us China roads. Sorry, Mr. President, when I say China roads I don’t mean the roads were built by Chinese. China road is what we call the Governor’s roads, because they are not of good quality.
Mr. President, please tell Governor to remove all the roundabouts, squares and centers he is busy with. Moreover, I think you need to ask our Governor what he is doing with our money. We have asked them but they won’t answer. Help us look into his pocket and see if you will see the bailout fund there. Sorry, I didn’t know when I mentioned bailout fund. One of my friends, Precious Nwadike of Community Watchdog newspapers talked about bailout fund but since then his house has been on fire. I learnt they want to put him to prison. Bunkum!
Yes. I was about to forget something. I heard you are fighting corrupt people in the country. But please tell your people to help us unravel the mystery behind JPROSS. JPROSS is a construction company, we were told, that ran away with our money. Please, Mr. President, help us track JPROSS and put him behind bars, like you did to Nnamdi. Let him not be released. In fact, any Judge who tries to release him should be probed and prosecuted. If JPROSS is a spirit, please bring all the Pastors and bishops and prophets and apostles and imams together so that they can bind and cast him away until they deliver our money from him..
Mr. President, if they allow you walk the streets of Owerri, you would be walking on the tears of people. You see, I didn’t want to tell you this but it slipped my tongue. I have been asking God to help me control my tongue sometimes. You see, Mr. President, our houses have been destroyed and we are forced out of them for no fault of ours. We don’t have anywhere else to go than to walk on the streets and weep. Can you ask the Governor why he is doing all this? Even the water pipelines and cables have been destroyed, not minding that we do not have water in the state. It is six years now and we have not had water to drink.
On the other hand, Mr. President, yesterday, December 4, 2016, I saw a picture of you dutifully washing the Nigeria Green White Green flag. Like other children of my kind, I believe that a cloth bought and used since 1960 might be dirty. In fact, it might be very dirty, considering that the flag has been stained with blood, so much that one might find it pretty difficult to see the white part of it. We are aware that it requires washing. But what I don’t know is whether the washing would take a lifetime to do. Are there no detergents in the country to help wash the flag quicker? Are there no washing machines? Are there no drycleaners to assist and get the flag washed? Mr. President, as you sit down one place washing the stained flag, is it not obvious to you that other things require your attention? Will you sit down all day long washing? Is it not proper to get up and put your muscle into the washing and get it done and do other things? Even a mother who spends the whole day cleaning the house while the family suffers hunger does not get the praise of her husband and the children.
Also, John told me that he was travelling to Lagos with his parents when he saw that the Head Bridge was blocked by some people he called Python Dance. I didn’t understand how python will be dancing in Alaigbo when we are not a zoo. Please, Mr. President, take those pythons back and put them back to the zoo, where pythons stay.
I used to see pythons in the zoo, not in Igbo land where real people live. Please, if it is a joke, I think we have laughed enough. The play is over. Let them go back and leave us. We are humans. We are not trouble makers. I remember when papa used to bring a toy-python home. And whenever anyone of us cried he would use it to frighten us to keep quiet. But it was many years back, and not even real pythons. Please, children like me don’t like to see pythons, especially those that dance. It is human beings that dance during Christmas. I remember when I used to join them dance in my village. So, if you want to see real dance, I can bring my friends to dance. But please take the pythons back. They should stop dancing.
Before I close this letter and wait to write you again, let me wish you happy stay in Igbo land. We have everything you may want. We have beautiful women. They are well trained and can cook too. We have ofe owerri. Please enjoy our ugba na nkwobi. Enjoy our palm wine, and if you want to take some home, we will make it ready in two seconds. Also, Mr. President, eat plenty of our garri and take some home. It is what we have that we give.
Enjoy your stay in Owerri, and remember that we are peaceful people.
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
Leave a comment