Excellencies,

KIND ATTENTION:

• General Muhammadu Buhari
• General Yakubu Gowon
• General Matthew Olusegun Obasanjo
• Alhaji Aliyu Shehu Shagari
• General Ibrahim Gbadamosi Babangida
• Chief Ernest Shonekan
• General Abdulsalam Abubakar
• Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

Esteemed sirs, it is with the greatest of shock such as in every way, more than very embarrassing that I have noticed from my little corner here in the United Kingdom that whilst the House of Nigeria is afire, and our dear Nigeria is slipping off our hands very fast, such as would make Rachel of Ramah to weep very profusely because her children are no more; you the fathers of our nation are fast asleep snoring, whilst our Nigeria writhes with pains of great uneasiness as she burns and her children killed by the thousands in the ongoing ethnic cleansing, besides the pervasive violence, armed robbery, extra-judicial killings different to the jihad-motivated killings of the herdsmen and their foreign collaborators, including kidnappings in worrisome proportion.

Whilst it is not yet too late, let us all rise up as one people and save our nation from the impending conflagration of immense magnitude as the eyes of the world are on you, the fathers, to rescue this one more time, our Nigeria, as some of you had so sacrificed your youth to so do, especially during the 30-month civil war and at other times of national calamities in this our national odyssey.

Undoubtedly, our Nigeria as God’s own beloved nation is destined to lead the world, not just in some things or in most of the things, but in all things and become the city set on a hill for all of humanity to behold.

And as you all, the fathers of our nation would agree with me, we have come short of the glory of the Governor of the universe and fallen far below the high expectation of the whole of humanity for our nation.

Nevertheless, the world is still waiting for our Nigeria to rise up from the ash heap of history and the current pervasive bastardy and bestiality, which present us to the world as uncivilized and a people who cannot govern themselves, to lead all the peoples of the world.

If anything, I do yet repose the highest confidence in all of you as the fathers of our nation to lead us and the world in spite of being more than very hard on some of you in my writings, for failing to measure up to the standards expected of you by the high heavens, the Nigerian people and the rest of the world.

Herein lies my utmost confidence and trust that, not one amongst you, having listened to the sound of my bugle calling you all to the round table for an emergency Council of State meeting will like a frightened war horse retreat to the background and go into hiding in the face of the current ugliness and danger that hover over our nation like the sword of Damocles, threatening our nation’s unity and corporate existence as a people, but will advance with that brave hearts of our ancestors to push away these dangers from our shores.

Most excellent sirs, in view of the afore-stated clarion call, please permit me to, on behalf of our nation, summon you all severally to the national table of brotherhood, in an emergency Council of State meeting immediately, to discuss the fires on the roof top of the House of Nigeria which you had helped put up in order to seek ways of putting them off before we, our children, our children’s children and the children of the coming generations of Nigerians are consumed, for as William Shakespeare says:

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

AGENDA

• Security and defence with a view to formulating Nigeria’s 21^st century strategic defence and security policy;
• The current non-representative nature of the composition of the nation’s security/defence chiefs, the armed forces, the police, Immigration Service, Custom and Excise, Civil Defence, the Apex Legislative Assembly, the civil service and other national institutions without due regard for the Federal Character principle;
• The current imbalance in political appointments to the utter disregard for our multiculturalism, and more, to the Federal Character as an entrenched provision in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria;
• Cabinet rehuffle;
• The pastoralists/farmer imbroglio, which had started as mere situational clashes, but later politicized by our nation’s foes, and have now been hijacked by both the local and international jihadists/terrorists;
• Establishment of FARM HOUSES by cattle owners to keep their animals off from open grazing. Let us avoid the use of emotionally charged words/semantics having political/religious undertones/meanings such as colony (zango), grazing reserves, ranches, cattle tracks, cattle routes, cattle trails, cattle places, grazing centre, etc. Governments should set ground rules for livestock best practice, enact laws and formulate policies for best practice, health and safety and safeguarding in accordance with international best practice, but Governments cannot get involved by way of looking for lands all over the place for cattle owners in palaces, Generals, international business tycoons, Fulbe elites in States Houses, Parliaments, both at Federal and States levels, top ranking civil servants, etc, unless it’s got a hidden agenda. Also, security agencies paid by tax payers cannot be used to protect private FARM HOUSES, but their owners should hire private licensed security operatives to protect themselves, their FARM HOUSES and their animals.
• The parlous state of the nation’s economy now lying prostrate at the nation’s Economic A&E;
• Youth and unemployment generally;
• Prevalence and growing threats of ethnic militias, posing serious threats to the nation’s territorial integrity and national security;
• The age-long scourge of the 14 million almajiris (street urchins), from whom the jihadists/terrorists and Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) do often and always recruit for their bestial acts in and around the country;
• Getting Nigeria out of Islamic organizations/clubs such as the OIC, D-8, and scrapping Sharia from the nation’s body politic, which are among the very reasons such menaces as Boko Haram, pastoral jihadism had arisen;
• A re-examination of our current foreign policy which has contributed to the abandonment of the nation’s former allies; for a romance with rogue states – states sponsoring terrors and those with very shameful human rights records;
• Nigeria’s current international image which is presently at zero level;
• The general porosity of all our borders – land, sea, airports, such that you could carry a leviathan through them without challenge, whether by way of bribing security agencies/border control and management officials or not;
• Discuss and tame the state Leviathan in order to set the Nigerian people free!
• The crowded policing space – the usurpation of policing by other security agencies, ethnic militias, Hisbahs, highly placed individuals, citizens arresting and meting out jungle justice to fellow hapless citizens by mere allegations, etc;
• The abuse of the police which sees the police being mostly assigned to political officials, privileged elites, blue chip companies and their CEOs; traditional rulers, top ranking civil servants, former ministers, serving Parliamentarians, reps and local Government chairpersons and officials as by my reckoning, none of all these should be entitled to having police personnel, who should be on the streets fighting crimes as their official body guards;
• Developing the private licensed security and the enactment of an Act of Parliament backing the sector to take over the roles of manned guarding in public spaces/places, of guarding parliamentarians, traditional rulers, companies and their CEOs, the so-called big men and women, etc, who should all use their own money to procure as many security guards as they can and would need;
• Registration of all mai-guards (popularly called Mallams) with the Interior Ministry in view of the current severe security threat level in Nigeria;
• Near absence of research enterprises in Nigeria;
• The worrisome zero level of intelligence gathering in the securing of the nation which is the very reason Nigerian security agencies all combined with their international counterparts have been fighting Boko Haram for nearly a decade now, the reasons for the general explosions of criminal activities in modern day Nigeria as responses to all threats have been merely reactive and not proactive based on intelligence report;
• Arming of the para-military such as the civil defence which to me is sheer waste of resources – the Nigerian Civil Defence Corp should hands off all policing activities, including arresting of citizens adjudged to have committed crimes – making arrest is the statutory function of the police and if there is any reason whatsoever for any agency of Government to so do, persons arrested must be handed over to the police;
• The current crowded economic, employment and professional spaces – what are the strategies to open them up?
• Child trafficking, domestic slavery (house helps to be outlawed in Nigeria), and the problem of emigration;
• Urgent cabinet reshuffle to reflect diversity and ensure equality and inclusivity;
• Creation of the Heartland Region – the Middle Belt Autonomous Region to wean it permanently from the so-called core North;
• Establishment of Border Patrol Force;

AOB

• Non-payment of teachers’ salaries and other workers’ generally;
• The mis-use of public funds by public officers, especially Governors via unaccounted for donations, gifts to girlfriends, relations, etc, using miscellaneous accounting;
• Unhealthy rivalry amongst security and defence chiefs, officers and ranks;
• Sacking of all the security chiefs;
• Equipment for security operatives, including body worn cameras.

STOP DANCING NAKED IN THE PUBLIC, FOR KINGS DON’T DANCE NAKED IN PUBLIC PLACES

 Lest I forget, it is commonly being reported all over the world that some of you have turned yourselves to amanuenses dancing naked very excitedly with your pens and ink bottles to the rhythmic beats of pulsating drumming by equally naked drummers, dancing naked too at the market arena.

Fathers, I therefore, warn all such naked dancers and drummers to head straight to the lagoon and throw away their pens, inks and evil drums therein, and then in contrition, haste to the king in the palace and have a tete a tete with him over the affairs of State inside his secret chamber, for kings don’t dance naked in public places, and shouldn’t do!

However, they do dance in palaces in their secret chambers.

Worthy fathers of the nation, I thank you. Thank you again, and again, I say, thank you for allowing me to step boldly on your rest this hour for the sake of our nation.

Yours in the service of God, our nation and humanity,

ODEY OKABO OBOYA ADUMA

ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM.

** *The Voice of One crying from the Diaspora…proudly leading the NATIONALISTS UNITY MOVEMENT OF NIGERIA (NUMON).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Odey Aduma was formerly Executive Secretary, Foundry Association of Nigeria; Southern Coordinator and the Public Affairs Manager of President Muhammadu Buhari's pastoralists NGO - THE PASTORAL RESOLVE; Chairman, Editorial Board of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc; member, National Committee for the Nigerian Youth Festival, 1993; member, core Committee of the National Technology Summit and was the Summit's chairman for two of its sub-committees - Publicity and Exhibition, 1998; member of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to investigate the illegal trade in and smuggling of endangered species of wild fauna and flora into and out of Nigeria, 2003.

He was the Chairman, Planning Committee of the General Murtala Muhammed Memorial Lecture for two consecutive years, 2001 and 2002 before it attained a Foundation status in 2002, having first been upgraded to that status in 2001.

General Murtala Muhammed was one of Nigeria's former Heads of State and was killed in the abortive coup led by the then Colonel Buka Suka Dimka on February 13, 1976.

That same capacity saw Mr Aduma delivering huge successes during the Daily Times of Nigeria's 75th Anniversary (in which he raked in N6, 000, 000 into the coffers of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc) and also, playing a similar role in a similar capacity during Dr Isma'il Babatunde Jose's 75th Birth Day. Dr Jose, doyen of Nigerian journalism was Mr Aduma's personal mentor. That relationship was so close and solid such that whilst Aduma was leaving the shores of Nigeria for Britain in 2003, Dr Jose gave him N10, 000.00.

In 1992, Mr Aduma's contributions to journalism was recognised with the awards of the Nigeria Media Merit Award as the Investigative Reporter of the Year and the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence as the Reporter of the Year, and the British Chevening Scholarship, which saw him studying International Journalism with Specialism in Environment at City, University of London in 2003-2004.

Aduma is the author of the inspirational best-seller, THE DIAMONDS ARE HERE and the founder of Vigilance, the World's Leading Security Magazine and Scorpion News Corp, in addition to founding the Nationalists Unity Movement of Nigeria (NUMON).

He is also, involved in professional mentoring at Post Graduate level in the City, University of London’s Post Graduate Professional Mentoring Strand.