By Colonel Gboluga Erosumi MOSUGU (Rtd)
I begin this article with some confession: I didn’t know whether the heading above should be an official title or the names, or combination of names, of the occupier of the highest political office in the land.
The reason for not knowing is simply because the many variants of the usable names in publications, certificates, affidavits, passports, etc., are at least four in the public domain.
Choice of the names to use, were it not for my confusion could have been an easy task if these names could have been those traceable to one particular state of the Federation.
The state of origin is not where one was born, is living, that conferred by legal or official procedures of naturalization.
One’s state of origin is the state where either or both of one’s parents come or came from.
Again, the title bearer referred to in this write up is associated with, or connected to, four out of the thirty six states in Nigeria.
So, okay, what truth did our president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces tell the world?
The president, as a Defendant, told Ms Nancy Maldonado, a District Judge, in faraway USA, that the damage he would suffer would be impossible to mitigate if his academic records were released… that there is harm in allowing discoveries on issues and documents outside the diploma… that the release is sure to cause him severe and irreparable damage.
With what is now known, after the release, about the President’s academic records, and on the conclusion of the case in the Supreme Court of Nigeria, it is clear to all and sundry, including bootlickers (appointees), hangers-on (business partners), the obsequious (family members), etc. that unmitigated, severe, irreparable damage and harm has been caused and is being suffered by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I have not mentioned nationalities, or results ‘acquired’, no, paraded, from nonexistent schools, or from academic institutions not attended but, from which results for admission/acceptance were presented. Wait, social security number… stop! NYSC… NO!! So, many no-go areas till this day.
Please, where an “f” was indicated or filled in the space for Sex __ , in the form he filled, let the sixth letter of the English language stand for “frigid”, or “forced”, or “faithful”, or “frustrated” (choose any of the four, to replace ‘female’, please).
The Supreme Court has legitimized the declaration and outcome of the election, and citizens may have moved on, but the questions unanswered still ring loudly, and therefore, nothing has been laid to rest.
Are the subjects requirement to study for an Accounting degree science based?
How come results submitted when applying were not verified?
And what sort of alma mater writes two conflicting letters – one authenticating the President’s certificate and another discrediting it? And should technicalities allow condonation of an alleged Identity theft, or a forgery, or perjury, etc.?
The damage and harm will continue to be more severe and go deeper, until the real truths are admitted or confessed.
I, for one, do not envy the President, in this situation, for any man with a huge burden and/or smelly baggage of this nature sure has a soul that gets embittered, turns gradually demented, before being inevitably lost in the end.
For the sake of the President’s personal well-being, and that of generations of unborn Nigerians, my advice is that the President should do what is right for self and country.
Even as the advice might not be heeded, since, generally speaking, the black man does not read, I nonetheless humbly recommend that the article, ‘Right thing to do’, should be read in the online dictionary of perfection at www.1520isthe ideal.com
Advisory herein is hoping that the President’s team will be able to collectively and constructively think before deciding to allow the “king” to continue going all over the world stark naked.
Last word:
Telling
Incurable
Nigeria
Untruths
Begetting
Ugliness.
PS. What documents will be submitted, by him, as a candidate, to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for the 2027 general elections?
Epilogue.
The President and Commander-in-Chief, was he not the same person that governed Lagos State from 1999 to 2007? The Executive who initially claimed he attended the University of Chicago?
Just imagine how much more developed Lagos State could have been, in those eight years, if personal integrity, that would have had truth and honesty as foundation, was the lead of its head or governor.
Was this the “student” who started going on ‘sabbatical’ from the denier secondary school in Ibadan to a (then) yet to be established one in Lagos?
Why, as an escape, is there always a fall guy, whether a deceased Senator or an unnamed university clerk? Why is there no sense of personal responsibility?
How come the search for a former secondary school mate or Youth Corper colleague is still on? Was…? Did…? Where…? Could…? Were…? Endless. Damned!
Strange what a morsel of currency, no, a mess of pottage, can do to some Nigerian, being a former critic, now turned an avid defender, staunch supporter and ardent follower or bootlicker.
Are things generally going higher, and becoming better for the President, considering that for sixteen years after the end of his tenure, as governor, there is no specified, identified and measurable, assessable source of income?
Sure impossible to obtain a confession from him. Remorse not ever going to be shown on these matters. Was the president not the person who once said, “I don’t believe in one Nigeria”, when he was out of power, on exile? How come now, that he is having an unrestricted access to our common patrimony, there is a new song, of “Renewed Hope”, being ‘screamed’? If that statement, of not believing in Nigeria, made by him, was not apologized for, nothing else concerning Nigeria would be regretted. You can take this assertion of mine to the bank from whence those bullion vans came.
For now, or probably, maybe the next seven plus years, the President is the head mason, leading the ‘labourers’, but is this structure – the Federal Republic of Nigeria – not one being put up on quicksand?
So how did we, Nigerians, get here… to this sorriest of passes? As a general statement, we got here by worshipping filthy lucre. Who is to be blamed? Do we all not have mirrors? Get in front of yours, that’s who!
This my country, Nigeria, will survive. The end of those who don’t wish her well to be ignominuos. The ugly, bitter, and painful truth, when admitted and confessed, sets free. Nigeria will rise from the ashes.
An office assumed on the altar of falsehoods, and/or half-truths, no, I dare to rephrase this… Is a life with titles but without honour worth living? When we are gone, won’t we all be remembered by what we have done?