by Saatah Nubari

I find it funny that OBJ decided to write an 18 page letter, but it’s all good because when he does die, his epitaph can now read “He wrote an 18 page letter, 81 pages short of Mariama Ba’s “so long a letter””

I have never been a fan of letter writing. The few times I tried to perfect the art, was when I had tried writing love letters to a girl I had never met. The girl in question was a neighbor, and their security guard conned me into believing he was actually delivering my letters, just so he could get some sachets of squadron dry gin—or if he succeeded in conning the senses out of me, he could get a bottle of stout.

Well we happen to be in an era of writing letters without envelopes—some people prefer the fancier name of “open letter”. I seriously have never heaped blame on any elder who decided to pass across “vital” information in letter form without the usual interval of using an envelope in conjunction or collaboration with the post office. I happen to respect former President Olusegun Obasanjo a lot—don’t get me wrong; this respectful respectfulness (shout out to Hon. Patrick) is borne out of the title: Former President added to his name and nothing more.

That the former President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces decided to write a letter out of his “overt” love for Nigeria without going through the Post Office shouldn’t be a big deal. After all, the roads leading to the Post Office in his state cannot be said to be in a very good condition, so why go there when he can obviously plug in an MTN modem and do the needful. I’ve read so many open letters this past week, whose contents can best be described as harboring so much hateful hatefulness, hopeless hopelessness, purposeless purposelessness, senseless senselessness—before I go on, I pay all respectful respectfulness to the author of all –lessnesses; Hon. Patrick, sorry sir for not properly citing these words.

What caught my eye in all these letters was not their content—yes! Not their content. It is quite unfortunate that Nigerians, both the literate and too literate, have decided to NOW create their own cliché: “don’t look at the messenger, listen to the message”. Well, I have a scenario for you.  Can you imagine Lawrence Anini raising an alarm that the spate of armed robbery in Nigeria is nerve-wracking, and he is raising the alarm because he wants the police to step up the fight and do something? Seriously? Are we this demented or does being a Nigerian take its toll on us and drains us of all aptitude to be reasonable? Let’s get back to the matter at hand. Like I said earlier, what caught my attention was not the content but the container. It will be utterly disastrous if we, as individuals decide to take a toxic dose of sheer recklessness and listen to the person behind this letter. I agree that pertinent issues were raised in the now famous/infamous 18 page letter. but isn’t it funny that the person raising those issues was in office for 8 years and contributed in excess to the same pertinent issues divulged in the letter? I’m a Christian, and I know God said something about forgiveness—but please, I repeat, please he didn’t say we should forget.

Should I raise the issue of snipers been trained in North Korea, or his accusations that there is a political hit list? I don’t know about you, but my memory is pretty intact and not yet infected by acute dementia. During Obasanjo’s 8 years as president, politicians fell in broad day light—as in killed in broad daylight. Have you forgotten Marshall Harry, Bola Ige and the rest? Well, you don’t need a doctor to diagnose you of dementia, just answer my questions and you can do a personal diagnosis accurately without the usual 9 years of studying medicine. Should I talk about the issue of internal democracy in PDP during Obasanjo’s 8 years? Try asking Audu Ogbeh, Ayim Pius Ayim, Orji Uzor Kalu and Rotimi Amaechi—yes you heard me right, ask Rotimi Amaechi too, and check if he has “k-leg”.  Should we compare Obasanjo’s 8 years to Jonathan’s 4? Ask the people on the train from Lagos to kano what they think. Ask me who now enjoy a little improvement in power supply, ask that Enugu business man who just flew from Enugu International Airport to China. Have you tried asking those Almajiri’s who now have schools? Have you asked any of these questions? Or are you just being blinded by hate and ethnic intolerance?

I’ve noticed that Nigerians are lazy when it comes to doing research, and finding the right information. I’ve noticed that when it comes to national issues, most people prefer the phrase “I am neutral”. What people fail to understand is that neutrality in itself is vain and non-existent. There is a heaven and a hell, there is no in-between. There is good and bad, there is no in-between. There are truth and lies, there is no in-between. I see neutrality for what it is which the covert art of concealing ones bias. Very few people are this gifted. You might be wandering what connects neutrality to the issues raised here, well, that’s what it’ll boil down to in the end.

I personally don’t blame us for our short sightedness, we’ve clamored for positive change for so long that we fail to see behind the veil of every false change. That IBB, Buhari, OBJ, Tinubu and co will one day unite in the guise that they want to change Nigeria for the better and my country men will see good in it disturbs me. We’ve been fooled for the past 54 years of our existence as a nation by this same set of individuals whose god-like appetite can only rival the Almighty God himself. We either change backwards or change forward, the choice is ours. And we might also choose to “forgive and forget”, but I’ll choose to “forgive and NOT forget”

I find it funny that OBJ decided to write an 18 page letter, but it’s all good because when he does die, his epitaph can now read “He wrote an 18 page letter, 81 pages short of Mariama Ba’s “so long a letter””

Well, I’m just happy that the former president is not a contributor to WAEC, just imagine giving his 18 page letter as a WAEC English question, the failure would have been massive.

Lest we forget, Nigeria is too important to be left in the hands of letter writers.

Well, I’m sorry for writing this and I apologize to anybody who feels offended by any word, phrase, sentence or paragraph in this article.

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Saatah Nubari tweets from @SaatahNubari

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.