Why Mr. President, why?

Your Excellency, it is my desire that you lead Nigeria and leave it better than you met it. That is why I joined forces with other well-meaning Nigerians to support you to become President. That is why I’m still supporting you till today despite some obvious missteps.

That desire to see you leave a better Nigeria however places a greater obligation on me as a common man on the street who feels the pulse of the people, to always tell you things as they are on the street – things your advisers will not tell you because they are bitter truth, and because they want to keep their job. My aim of course is to avail you the benefit of early warnings whenever it seems you are derailing, so that you can make quick amends and avoid the pitfalls that brought down your predecessor.

Mr. President, it is in keeping with that obligation that I am, here, going to tell you one bitter truth.

In 2014, at the height of Boko Haram insurgency, 75 people were killed and over 100 injured when the terrorist sect exploded a bomb in a crowded park in Nyanya, Abuja. Rather than visit the bombing site, and the wounded in hospital, your predecessor in office Goodluck Jonathan, chose to attend a political rally in Kano. I was one of his most virulent critics for that show of insensitivity. I swore that a (then) General Buhari would never show such I-don’t-care attitude to Nigerian lives if he was the President at the time.

Fast-forward to 2018 Mr. President. You are now President of the country, and it pains me to see that you, whom I vouched for and helped put in office, are doing exactly the same thing. It pains me to note that you didn’t visit Benue State to commiserate with the people over the massacre, by herdsmen, of over 70 fellow Nigerians including women and children. You also did not deem it necessary, sir, to visit Omoku, Rivers State, where more than 20 were killed in the early morning of 1st January 2018.

My President, even though you have given the security agencies marching orders to fish out the perpetrators of these crimes, your physical presence would have had invaluable salutary effect. Notwithstanding the fact that the leader of the gang that carried out the Omoku (Rivers State) massacre has, himself, been killed, your physical presence on both occasions would have made a loud statement.

Mr. President, it pains me that what I see on the national landscape at this time of national tragedy when we should be mourning the massacre of close to 100 Nigerians (Rivers and Benue States), is politicking and more politicking instead of governance. Last week, I watched on television as Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai and Co. gathered themselves and urged you to recontest the Presidency in 2019. This was even as the southern part of his state is also embroiled in unending violence and killings.

My dear President, unlike Dele Momodu, I am not against your seeking re-election in 2019. I am only saying that the time is not right to talk about re-election. The country is right now in mourning, tension is rising in Benue; tempers boiling. There is national anger and outrage in the land, more so, as the perpetrators of the heinous crime have not been caught. And all your close allies could do is to start a campaign for 2019? Sir, all this talk of re-contesting in 2019 by your close allies makes you appear insensitive to the feelings of most Nigerians.

To tell you the truth sir, I am surprised that you have not called these people to order for talking about 2019 at this time we should be mourning. Why Mr. President, why?