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.