Happy Birthday! Last year it was celebrated in Aso Rock and now you probably have it in your Otuoke home; no condition is permanent. Power is transient and highly ephemeral. The last one must have been very noisy as so many well-wishers and favour-seekers would have come with various gifts and cards so much that you would not have space to place them. Four years ago when I was invited to your birthday at a time you turned 54, I gave you the best gift ever, THE GOLDEN JUBILEE BIBLE, though it may look insignificant before the ordinary eye. I was then the chairman of 400 Years of King James Bible Celebration.
I have been one of your most ardent admirers. I actually campaigned for you pro bono to become the President in 2011 among the elites who I was in contact with and my staff in office because an educated middle aged man (just seven months plus older than me) would be ruling Nigeria. If it was element of good luck that made you succeed President Musa Yar’Adua, it was our votes that brought you in 2011, not rigging. But what did you make of our mandate? You did not want to offend people and step on bad toes. You even said that you were not a military president like Obasanjo, when you were reacting to the latter’s advice on Boko Haram menace that was just rearing its ugly head then. I wept. I wept because you forgot that you were not only President of Nigeria but also the Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces. It then reminded me of the submission of John Maxwell that, Good luck can place you in a position of authority but competence will keep you there. You were not bold enough to face those who said that they would make the country ungovernable for you. Boko Haram tested waters and saw that it was a conducive atmosphere to grow until they took away the Chibok girls. Your wife responded with ‘Na only you waka come, Chai, Chai, dia is God o’, shedding crocodile tears in the fashion of an amateur Nollywood actress, oblivious of the international media that graced the conference.
President Barack Obama sat through the end of Osama Bin Laden with his service chiefs at that ungodly hour of the night. It was on his order that the operation was carried out in Pakistan and after he confirmed the death of the terrorist and had given the order that the corpse be dumped in the sea, he went forward to make a statement that terrorists could run but not hide and that wherever the terrorists are, tormenting US citizens and the world, US would chase and bring them to justice. What a way to prove that he was not just the President but also the Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces. That was an example that you would have followed.
I personally brought your invitation to State House, Abuja for the Prayer Breakfast in Addis-Ababa Ethiopia before the African Union meeting in January, 2013. I was then chairman, Africa Area Board, United Bible Societies. You were in Addis-Ababa and in the past, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, one of the founding fathers of Prayer for Africa, had always attended. I was there when your ‘boys’ were informing you on phone that only one head of state had arrived and then only two… until the prayers were over and the President of Benin Republic said the closing benediction. You never came and I felt so bad because you would not ask who has God blessed before He chooses to bless me? It was a full house prayer breakfast, but you were conspicuously missing. Thank God for people like Oby Ezekwesili who attended to keep Nigeria’s number significant at this event. You were later seen going to Israel for special prayers, Redemption camp and lastly before the Obas in Yorubaland with their scepters on you. Scepters from different shrines? Then I knew that like the Biblical Saul who went to the witch of Endor, God would not share His glory with anyone.
King David of the Bible was successful because he surrounded himself with men of valour. You were surrounded with highly infinitesimal men of valour but more of sycophants, boot-lickers and men and even fake prophets who told you that all was well when nothing was well. Anyone who dared criticize you was perceived as an enemy and your political Godfather, OBJ became an elder who behaved like motor-park tout. You had spokesmen who predicted that Nigeria would burn if you were not returned and our Octogenarian elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark who was helping you abuse Obasanjo as a meddlesome interloper. The same man has now resigned from PDP because of your inefficiency; such is life. He was further quoted as having not benefitted anything from your rulership but some of us know that his Medical Doctor wife who failed to clinch a Senatorial seat in Ogun was the chairman of the Board of Federal Hospitals.
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