Letter To President Jonathan – By Al-Mustapha

Your Excellency, I bring you good tidings. I want
to thank you for this generous gesture of yours
which has made it possible for me to breathe
the air of freedom again, and to reunite with
my family, especially my wife Hafsat, who had
dwelt in her own prison throughout my
incarceration.

I decided to write you this letter the very first
day I learnt that you had made up your mind to
set me free. That was weeks before my eventual
release. I know some of my words will sound
unpalatable; but I am a soldier in whose
squadron flattery is hardly a virtue. Obviously,
this freedom makes me happy indeed but your
motive, at least the perceived it, tore my heart
to shreds. I heard it is all about 2015, and not
that I was unfairly incarcerated or that a court
of competent jurisdiction had acquitted me.

However, I maintain even now that I am
innocent of the crimes I was accused of and
condemned to death for. I am not the only one
to rise from the dead. Your wife, Patience, also
died and returned, remember?

I am scandalized by the political undertone in
the broth of my freedom. I was once the most
powerful military officer in this country but
now, from what I gather, you have reduced me
to a pawn on the chessboard of politics? In the
past, generals paid me compliments; but time
changes everything.

Mr President Sir, please permit me to call you
by your pet-name Jona. I understand that
everything you do these days has 2015
imprimatur, but bringing me into the realms of
politics is not a wise idea.

Let me refresh your memory a little, if you
would let me. I was incarcerated in connection
with the murder of Mrs Kudirat Abiola. Of
course just as your popular picture as politician
who is respected among his neighbours in
Otuoke sticks on you like glue, my reputation as
a daredevil and fearless intelligence officer
precedes me. My creation, the Strike Force, is
the deadliest Abuja, has ever known. Oh, I am
so proud of its accomplishments. Strike Force
made a snake in a garden shudder in fear
during our time. Some even said that we had a
crocodile pond into which we threw
uncooperative people, usually NADECO
members or stubborn journalists. But I can
assure you no one has pointed out the pond
since we left power.

You see, I do not know how many books you
have read Jona; but I have even memorised the
Holy Qur’an. As a Muslim, it fortified my belief
that in spite of the desire of those who wanted
me dead, I would be free; may be not as quickly
as I was discharged and acquitted but
obviously anytime soon.

Why did you release me Jona? Almost all of
those who learnt of my release that fateful
Friday morning hung my freedom on 2015.
They say you are obsessed with it and that you
would unchain the devil himself to realize your
goal. But I am what the Americans call a goon,
you know? I know nothing but soldiering.

Forget my grandstanding at the Oputa Panel. It
was military strategy. I knew in my military
wisdom that a million SANs would not free me
if I did not take my destiny in my own hands,
with facts and warts. Lawless people don’t
change overnight. Without any prejudice to the
lawyers in this country, Jona, I can say without
fear of contradiction that my tactics hit a chord,
with and I believe that is why I am here. But
mark you Jona, I Al Mustapha, have no political
value in my region, the north, which you are
trying to reach out to but which you have also
offended in no small measure.

Northerners will hardy forget how you ignored
the Boko Haram insurgency until it got out of
hand. Unofficial sources claim that close to
800,000 people, most of them northerners, lost
their lives and property worth billions
destroyed by the insurgents. The insurgency
has resulted in northerners losing their
positions in the armed forces; mediocrity now
reigns. To me as a former Chief Security Officer,
your initial inaction depicted a total loss of
control. You were a lame duck, even in your
first term. So what’s all this elaborate
orchestration for 2015?

But don’t mind my position, Jona. Time on
death row has taken the winds off my brains.
Never mind Yerima Ngama, your minister of
state for finance, who told people that my
sharp reasoning still amazes him. Ngama is not
a psychiatrist. He probably never paid any
attention to my behaviour while I marked time
in Kirikiri. I had been confused. Sometimes, I
greeted people with a clenched fist; while some
other times, I smiled, like General Gowon does.
At other times, I saluted in military fashion.

You would have noticed too, Jona, that my
choices since coming out are dangerously
flawed. I greeted everyone in sight: TB Joshua,
Fashehun, Otokoto, Ganiyu Adams and Tokyo,
to mention a few of them. I make no distinction
between the living and the dead, just like I have
not adjusted to life outside prison. I even
sought Abiola out only to learn that he is
deceased. In that miasma, I paid first homage
to the Kano Sate Government instead of my
people in Yobe. It would have served me just as
well if I had driven straight to Gashua and
shook hands with Shekau!

Mr President, I am saying all these because
personally I know that where the north is
concerned, I am a political paper tiger. Like
Larry Hagman of the famous soap Dallas, I am
the man that people love to hate. I lack the
political value you ascribe to me, and if you
released me to score a political point in my
region, you have only taken a fool’s gambit. But
I’m sorry; I can’t help your 2015 dream.

Yours faithfully, Al-Mustapha.