OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR(DR) AKUME THE WISH OF WE THE PEOPLE People who are anxious to win the favour of a leader always follow the custom of presenting themselves to him with the possessions they value most and with things they know please him; so we often see leaders being praised on pages of newspapers, given cars for their campaigns, making posters for them and supporting anything they support or like. Now, I am anxious to offer myself to your leadership with this letter which is my personal devotion to you, since I have not found among my belongings anything as dear to me or that I value as much as my understanding of the deeds of humans, gotten from acquaintance with contemporary affairs and a continuous study of the reaction of people concerning the making of governor SUSWAM in 2007 and the 2011 ACN chairmanship primary process. Although I consider this letter unworthy to be put before you, yet I am fully confident that you will be kind enough to accept it, seeing that I could not give you a more valuable gift than this letter which explains what I have learned and understood in recent time with so much affliction and peril. I have not embellished or creamed this letter with big, impressive words, or with any blandishment or superfluous decoration which are used to describe or adorn praise lovers; for my desire has been either that nothing should offend you about my letter, but find favour solely through the variety of its contents and the serious of its subject matter. Nor I hope will it be considered presumptuous for a man of low and humble status to dare discuss and suggest opinions on how leaders should lead or serve because, just as men who are sketching the landscape put themselves down in the plain to study the nature of the mountains and the highlands and to study the valley they put themselves high on the mountains, so, to comprehend fully the nature of the people, one must be a leader, and to comprehend fully the nature of leaders one must be an ordinary citizen. So, our leader, take this little gift in the spirit in which I send it; and if you read and consider it great, you will discover in it my utmost wish that you attain the prominence that greatness and other qualities await you. And from your great height as the senator and leader of the Benue people and the emerging leader of our nation Nigeria who has worked tirelessly with others to make sure there is an alternative to the PDP, you will glance down on these poor people, you will realize the extent to which undeservedly, the ordinary people have endured victimization, frustration and humility bestowed on them by imposition of candidate. Imposition has laid siege on the rights and interests of the electorates. Where there is imposition an electorate is like a prisoner in his own house; as politicians try to keep the status quo at all cost the electorate struggle to throw off the shackles of imprisonment in their own house. Can we confidently say the days when few people in a political party would impose their candidates in the name of party supremacy are over? Since this negates democratic principles however, our leader can consider the strengths of candidates before endorsing them whereas zoning is agreeable with the tenets of democracy. There should be no automatic ticket to either a friend or family member as this creates a whole lot of strife and wrangling in the party. What kind of change do the APC leaders have in mind when they advocate the need to lead the country in a different direction from the retrogressive one lead by the PDP. We need a change that will fundamentally and qualitatively transform the state, our leader must place premium on power as a value. But not to the arrogant, purposeless power associated with imposition. No, I mean the power of self-discipline, the power of self-lesson. Sir, as we all know, your generosity is much more than ordinary and we all appreciate but it should not be seen or used as a legitimate weapon against the hungry people who sincerely seek for change and who have been subjected to untold hardship, so as to break them when necessary or as a tool developed since the inception of democracy with the intent to manipulate the people of Benue during elections whereas the tomatoes factory in Tarkaa and Juice factory which would have improved greatly the lives of the ordinary poor people would have been working. A man of good conscience if not checked will become a terror as the saying go absolute power corrupt absolutely this is not because he is mischievous but because we are humans and our morals or virtues can fail sometimes. Sir with all due respect, I stand to be corrected where necessary, It will be hard to forget the undue advantage taking by your cronies and political associates who use your act of generosity to victimize the people who equally want to seek for elective positions considering them as mere pawns. We the people have not recovered from the imposition of Mr. Suswam as governor in 2007 which is an experience many Benue people if not all will not like to remember. However, with the coming of APC how do you see this? Is this an opportunity to create a political group that opens it door only to its cohort and their hangers-on? Or is this an opportunity to be a godfather or the people political leader? Do you want only those who see you as a tin god around you or those who would be willing to make you greater with great ideas? Benue people have to be convinced that your party is truly democratic and for all. Are we going to see democratic primaries in your party or we are going to see selection in the name of consensus candidates as we always get. What would be the fate of internal democracy in Benue APC? Can we the people now look forward to a truly democratic party in the best traditions of what the world considers as the best form of governance? The people who have become disenchanted with the way friends and family members are selected for elective positions. Can they be proven wrong? When will we the people be part of the country democratic process in it true sense? Sir, let the unveiling of this new party usher in a time of great opportunities, give Benue youth and all electorate a true sense of belonging, reverse favoritism to competency, ensure that we the people benefit from decision making about who will serve us through primaries, and not waiting for only our votes. Let the wishes of the people be counted upon as well as their votes. LONG LIVE OUR AMIABLE LEADER SEN.(DR) GEORGE AKUME LONG LIVE BENUE YOUTH LONG LIVE APC LONG LIVE BENUE STATE Moses Orngu (Mozino) Kuma
Posted on: Mon, 19 Aug 2013 09:02:39 +0000
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