Your Excellency Sir,
It was with profound humility and heartfelt gratitude that I received the news of your decision to bestow upon me our great country’s highest honour, the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, GCFR, alongside my running mate at the 1993 presidential election, Alhaji Babagana Kingibe, as GCON, as the acclaimed winners of that historic election. Since the announcement was made I have been inundated with calls, messages and visits by family members, friends, associates and Nigerians in general, some of who congratulated me for the rare honour done me as they see, and rightly so, this honour as the just and fair culmination of my personal, collective and long struggle for the emancipation of Nigerians from abject poverty, injustice, insecurity, massive infrastructural decay, endemic corruption and such other sociopolitical and economic malaise that have bedeviled our nation from independence but which has become worse in recent times without any hope to turn the situation around.
While many have continued to congratulate and rejoice with me, many more have asked if I would accept the honour considering that the principles and vision that compelled me to throw my all into the murky waters of Nigerian politics despite my globally acknowledged success in business have continued to elude our good people and nation. If anything, ‘Hope’ which was the slogan of our campaign then has been totally obliterated from the psyche of Nigerians today. Our people from all walks of life threw away their fault lines, jettisoned their ethnic and religious differences and voted massively for us in that election, even though it was a Muslim/Muslim ticket, as an indication of their resolve to confidently and firmly place their hope in me, a man they saw as one of them and freely associated with, for a better nation. I have therefore spent the last few days in solemn reflection and sober consultation with my Creator on the right decision to take at this time.
All my life, I have always stood for justice, equity and fairness to everyone irrespective of tribe and religion, virtues that are not difficult to see in my businesses. The truth is that our country has never been so divided as she is today under your watch. Recall that the same goodwill that attended my election in 1993 was again on display in 2015 when Nigerians decided to also place their hope in you for a better nation. When you came on board as president of our dear country, I had no doubt whatsoever in my mind that you had all it takes to rebuild the nation and move it forward from where you met it and even create an atmosphere where it would be possible for Nigerians to vote for a Christian/Christian or Muslim/Muslim ticket without much ado.
As a man who had also suffered the infamy and incurable pain of being incarcerated without due process, I am most grievously reminded of my own past grim situation during the military era at a time I seem to be healing with several Nigerians unlawfully held in custody nationwide. It is sad that although I believed you to be a born again democrat having ruled as a military dictator in the early 80s, your actions towards our constitution and courts are, to say the least, an affront to the rule of law, and an indication that you still carry the traits of dictatorship 35 years after. Never has our democracy been so threatened by officials of government than it is happening now. To say that your selective obedience of court orders leading to the illegal and protracted incarceration of fellow citizens is the greatest threat to our democracy is to state the obvious. The Sambo Dasuki and Sheikh El Zakzaky cases are two classical ones.
Jude Ndukwe
