By Barr. Dr. Fred. B. Odutola
Your Excellency,
I start my family wish for you on this occasion of your 58th Birthday with this Biblical allusion:
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.-3rd John vs. 2(ESV).
This is the core prayer that my family and I said for you on your birthday morning as it comes at a time that a former Minister of yours is purportedly battling with cancer. Cancer! Yes we know it is a terminal illness and it is not a symptom of good health.
Happy Birthday to you. 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 (20th November, 2011), 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 7 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 The 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 personally was watching 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 the 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 before meeting 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 Dr. 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. To make your matter easier, you had spokesmen who predicted that Nigeria would burn if you were not returned and our Octogenarian elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clarke 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. Your Excellency, don’t be annoyed, that is man for you. Those who shouted Hossanah to welcome Jesus to Jerusalem where the same group who shouted crucify him.
You were also weak in managing your home and putting your wife under check. That she was a month or two older than you is not important, you are the husband and as a Christian, you know you are supposed to be the head of the family. That you allowed her quarrel with the then Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi to degenerate into splitting of the Governors Forum and mass exodus to APC to lay foundation for your loss at the last general election. The same Amaechi became the Campaign co-ordinator for your successor. That you allowed your wife unguarded utterances to pronounce that Na dem dey born troway, we no dey born troway in the North was an ill-omen for the remaining few support you had left in the North of Nigeria. You failed to check your wife’s excesses. It was even glaring on your 54th birthday then when you, your mum and your children were seated in the Chapel and service had gone on for over twenty-five minutes before Her Excellency, Dame Patience Jonathan walked in majestically to her reserved seat only to be told it was time for her to read the Bible passage, Psalm 91. It only showed that in your house Sir, it was the tail wagging the dog and not the dog wagging the tail.
Let this be a time for sober reflection. Reflection on times and opportunities you have had and partly used and partly squandered. I know that you would have been surprised yourself how people under your leadership had squandered riches of this nation. You were not the first one to be so surprised, I know Alhaji Shehu Shagari was equally surprised after his overthrow in December, 1983 that even though he was honest, he surrounded himself with so many dishonest men. If I were you today, I would stand a hot water for coffee, tea as well as water with groundnuts and cashew nuts for guests who manage to come to Otuoke to serve themselves while sitting down to watch CNN News, or “The Prodigal Daughter” or “Rumble in the Jungle”. I wish I could come to join them and they would be very few now that you are no longer in power but there is not airport in Otuoke and I never looked for contract under any government in Nigeria to be able to afford a private jet or helicopter. I could not allow my conscience to be mortgaged. A year ago was when I last shook your hand at the 80th Birthday thanksgiving of General Dr. Yakubu Gowon at the Interdenominational Christian Centre in Abuja (19th October, 2014) and I have not seen you since you became ex-president of Nigeria.
Your Excellency, you need to purge your soul. First, you need deliverance that will severe you from various altars that you have found yourself in the cause of your rulership and in the cause of your seeking re-election. Many of such altars had ungodly fire burnt on them. Secondly, you need to repair the bridges you have broken in the cause of your negative reaction to criticism. Any river that forgets its source will run dry and so is any tree that abandons its root. Reach out sincerely to people like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, among other people who had cause to feel offended by you. Thirdly, reconcile Her Excellency, your wife to enemies she had made and inadvertently had affected you too like Turai Yar’Adua, Rotimi Amaechi among others. It is good to seek peace with all men and holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14).
On a motion of closing, I want to personally thank and admire you for your sportsmanship spirit that made you reach out to your successor even before the final announcement of the result of the election to accept defeat. You did this at a time that people like Godsday Orubebe and a host of others are spoiling for a fight that could have set Nigeria on fire. That is the wisest decision you have made and I am glad that you did. I will forever appreciate you for this and will remember you in prayer that you continually prepare your soul for heaven at the end of days. Happy Birthday, many happy return of the day.
*Barr. Dr. Fred. B. Odutola
eagle5877@yahoo.com
N.B. Fred Odutola was the immediate past Chairman of the United Bible Societies, Africa Area Board. Past Chairman, 400 years of King James Version Bible (1611-2011). He is the current National President of Wesley College Old Students Association. He is a proprietor of schools and has his law practice in Lagos.