By
Lanre Banjo
Otunba Gbenga Daniel
The PDP Governor
Oke-Imosan,
Abekuta, Ogun State
My dear Otunba Gbenga Daniel:
It is with the best interest of our people in my sacred heart that I am responding to your rejoinder published on page 31 of the Tribune of Friday, April 23, 2004. “The burden of leadership” mirrored your hard labor to hoodwink the unwary, and failed to respond to the real issues raised in my open letter, with grim determination, to discourage a repeat of the illegal, immoral and ungodly acts. The said letter was delivered to your office by the United Postal Service (UPS) and signed for by Gabriel Sanyo on April 14, 2004 at 5.30 p.m. It was your view that the letter, which evoked the reaction of arm-twisting, visits to the media houses, threat and bitter complaint, is libelous. I advise that if you view this particular response as such, please do not harass any editor, just take me to Court. You can serve me at the above address.
Mr. Governor, the greatest of God’s mercies is that whenever human beings stray from the path of His divine favor, before He punishes them, out of His mercy, He raises from among the people one who shares their life, history, culture, and their sinful life. He calls on that person to caution and enlighten the people by that which is called “Revelation”. Revelation is a revealing of God’s secrets and the greatest of the secrets is the knowledge of Himself. The more He brings human beings closer to His reality, the more He brings them into His being so that they may become as He is. He is simply love. I thank God for Moses and the Torah, or the Old Testament. I thank Him for Jesus and the Gospel. I thank Him for Mohammed and the Holy Qur'an. I thank Him for Pa Obafemi Awolowo and My March Through Prison, Voice of Reason, Wisdom and Courage. Peace be upon these worthy servants of Olodumare (God). It is the courage that it pleases God to give these servants that inspires me to reveal to the world the depravity and undemocratic norms buried in your smile and humility. I would take you on point by point based on the importance of the disinformation, lack of vision in certain respects, and ignorance of democratic tenets and processes that you so blatantly demonstrated to befool and cajole those you have a physical and spiritual duty to lead out of the shackles of ignorance, want and need.
Because I am rendering my service to humanity as I have been doing since the 80s, I know the blinds and villains, who lack the ability to discern the stimulus of a servant, would impugn my intent. Who the hell am I to vex at that? Jesus was chastised, spat on and then immolated. Mention his name today, the descendants of Pharisees would bow and say “He is our Lord.” Prophet Muhammed was stoned and chased out of Mecca. Look at how many followers he has today. Even Alhaja Salimot Badru, your deputy, and my own mother had to pay exorbitantly to visit Mecca to bear witness to his suffering. Saudi Arabia gets richer and richer as a result of visitors to Mecca every year. My great leader, Dr. Martin Luther King was stoned in Chicago because some blacks felt it was taking too long to realize the dream he had. All black people in America today including the ones “scavenging in foreign land”, according to you, reap from the brutal assassination of Dr. King. Not for that dream, you, Gbenga Daniel, would not desire to send your children to America today because they would have to be conspicuously treated like slaves. Awo was accused of being conceited. The enemy of progress thought he had a “hidden agenda.” They rained abuses on him. The messenger of God kept the fight aloft with his logo “Ebu d’ola” (rejected stone that becomes the cornerstone). After all his tribulations and difficulties which were followed by ease and triumph, he became an example of what the Lord had done that was marvelous in our eyes, which is why Gbenga Daniel yearns to be called Awo of “their” time. Today, those who wanted Awo dead before his time cannot even lead us out of the mess we are in.
Because my dream is a dream of a better Nigeria, however, I must begin by commending you for certain achievements, which I referred to in my first letter, and of which I warned that your acts, which I am censuring could be a bane. The success of confirming my position to the world that Ogun State is a rich State and there is no reason for our people to suffer is well appreciated. I am aware of certain roads that you have repaired which Osoba ignored when he was the governor under SDP and when he was the governor for four years under the Alliance for Democracy (AD). I am aware of the ghost workers claimed to have been reduced. However, my brother, the fundamentals that could strengthen your achievements, makes the state greater and force everlasting changes in Nigeria are blindly ignored. You ignored it because it would free people and make them reject sewing machines and wheelbarrows for votes. This is my pain, my brother, Gbengus!
One of the issues that I raised in my letter to you was the reason given for disqualifying the members of our party, NCP by the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC) under the crooked leadership of Chief Tunji Fadairo, SAN. Chief Fadairo, disqualified our candidates for “Insufficient information about party membership”. The question posed is simple. If our party certifies our members as so, what is the business of your administration to disqualify them for the reason so stated? Your rejoinder did not promise to address the issue to ensure that such a preposterous reason would never again be given to disqualify candidates. None of the members of the State House of Assembly has ever called for a hearing or called for the review of our electoral laws in Ogun State. The second one is the issue of the lecturer disqualified because he did not resign from his job that enables him to keep his body and soul together. Your rejoinder did not promise to review the law with a view to amending it to allow anyone to participate in elections in as much as he seeks and obtains a leave to do so. You also failed to respond to the atrocities committed by your administration in Ipokia local government. I refrained from presenting the details of the saga that almost claimed the lives of some of the members of the opposition party in that local government. I now feel an irresistible urge to release the information, which you succeeded in burying in the press.
According to the Certificate of Return (COR) signed by the Returning Officer (RO), Mr. S. O. Dalamu in Maun, Ward 1 for the 13 polling units in the ward, the Councillorship candidate for ANPP, Mr. Hosu Ziano had 1,694 votes, while the PDP Councillorship candidate, Mr. Segun Gbenu, had 1,414 votes. Chief Fadairo, the SAN, your competent and honest Commissioner, announced on OGBC 1,694 votes for the PDP candidate, and 1,414 for the ANPP candidate. In his response to the petition filed by the ANPP, he changed the figures earlier announced. The highly principled Fadairo claimed that the ANPP candidate had 1,471 votes. All figures announced by honest and competent Fadairo were contrary to the COR signed at the polling booth. The competent Fadairo, simply gbe Omo oba f’osun, (He transposed the figures.)
In Maun Ward 2, all the party agents were not given their results. The RO, Mr. Michael Olagunju disappeared from 11 a.m. till the close of the polls. In this ward, where the PDP does not have a stronghold and where we have at least 600 voters in each polling area, your administration only provided 200 ballot papers, which was why Olagunju had to take to his feet before the burning anger of the disenfranchised voters were emitted. At Hundo polling unit, the ANPP candidate had 93 votes, based on the report signed at the polling booth, 93 suddenly became 73 – government magic. Your deputy, Alhaja Salmot Badru was in Ward 2 with soldiers and Mobile Police. Both the soldiers and MOPOL were shooting indiscriminately to scare the members of the opposition party some of who sustained injuries. She equally deposited hooligans in polling booths to disenfranchise voters. The Alhaja has been to Mecca to throw stones at Satan for peace to reign in Saudi Arabia, here in my state, she got Satan to wonder: “if this woman stoned me when she visited Mecca and she is now engaging in my trade, shouldn’t she be stoned?”
In Ihunbo-Ilase Ward, the election was conducted in a free atmosphere. The COR signed by the RO, Mr. Adetunji Malik showed that Mr. Isiaka Adesina Taiwo of the ANPP had 1,485 votes while the PDP candidate had 1,389. What did the honest and competent Fadairo announce? He announced 1,489 for the PDP candidate and 1,485 for the ANPP. According to the summary result signed by the RO, Mr. G. K. Ojebode, in Ifoyintedo Ward, the ANPP candidate, Mr. Hezekiah Olusola Adekemi had 2,178, while Mr. Adeyanju Samuel of the PDP had 1,983. It is worth mentioning that Mr. Ojebode did not release the COR. That election was annulled and reconducted
with the PDP candidate awarded over 6000 votes and the ANPP over 400 votes – government magic! “Tell me the thing now – government magic!”
The PDP candidate in Ajegunle ward, Mr. Ayinde Kareem Ishola is alleged not to have had a school-leaving certificate required by law to be a candidate, yet the honest and competent Fadairo cleared him because he is a member of the “blood thirsty” political party. To cap it all, none of the members of the opposition political parties was allowed in the collation center. Soldiers were reported to be shooting sporadically. The case is now before Justice Femi Mabekoje of High Court Ilaro.
With these records, you were on television after my letter to claim that the election was free and fair. I am not surprised. The scripture says: “By their fruit you will recognize them.” Jesus explained that one cannot pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles. Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. He ended that explanation by saying: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” When I remember that you emerged as a result of a rigged election, and I remember the Scripture, I really do not expect any better from your administration. Nonetheless, here I kneel and pray that the recorded success of your administration in the first year would not be thrown into the fire because of your craft to fence others out of the governance of the State and perpetrate yourself and your cohorts in government. Remember what Paul told the Corinthians in 1Cor.3: 13-15 ”Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man work abides which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned he shall suffer loss.” By putting stumbling blocks in the ways of the members of the opposition party from which God is likely to have someone to continue your work, you are really knocking the door for the wrath of God. This brings me to the issues raised in your rejoinder and repeated in your interview in the New Age of May 10, 2004.
In your rejoinder, you said “the ‘fine’ politician needs to know that the Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEG) is an independent body made up of highly-principled individuals who have distinguished themselves in their various professional callings. For Banjo’s information, the chairman of OGSIEC is Chief Tunji Fadairo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and former president of the Nigerian Bar Association who was chosen based on his track records of competence, honesty and integrity. Again, another member of the commission, Mr. Oyeniyi Adekola, was an appointee of former governor Segun Osoba. The fact that he was retained is a testimony to Governor Daniel’s liberal posture to issues and belief in democratic tolerance. Yet again, the entire laws guiding OGSEIC operations were drafted by the immediate past government of ex-governor Osoba. Consequently, the fees described as exorbitant and illegal were fixed by OGSIEC constituted by the Osoba government and not Governor Daniel. A brilliant and meticulous politician would have found out this fact before making unfounded allegations. It is important to note here that Governor Daniel is the archetypal democrat who will not interfere with the activities of any independent organ including the Ogun State Independent Electoral
From: Ogbeni Lanre Banjo To: Otunba Gbenga Daniel Page 5 of 10
Commission (OGSEIC). Governor Daniel appealed to the Commission to reduce the amount charged but his appeal was turned down by the independent body. It is simply a travesty of justice for anyone to now turn round and accuse the governor of interference.”
Mr. Governor, this statement repeated by you in the New Age interview is a product of ignorance of your duty as a governor. It is asinine, and it is what your personal assistant described as “preposterous outlandish.” First, all independent electoral bodies are administrative entities. The National and State House of Assemblies make laws for the bodies to enforce, pure and simple. It is through the enforcement of the laws that they become “independent.” That is why there is a change of power in Ghana today. Osoba created 52 local governments, but your administration came in and scuttled them because you seriously believed that he created the local governments for selfish political reasons. You blamed the fees on Osoba. Why can’t you remove the fees as well by amending the law? You refused to do that because the undemocratic laws and the imposition of fees favor you and your “hidden agenda.” I would not allow you to blame Osoba. My motive is not to be unfair to anyone and it is not being done out of hatred for anyone. Equity and a better state are some of my “hidden agenda.” For you to say in your rejoinder that you appealed to the Commission to reduce the fee where there is a law that prescribes a fee is tantamount to you asking the Commission to violate the law. It is hypocritical and because the dullards at the meeting with you do not know any better, they could not challenge you. The Holy Qur’an says, “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” All they wanted was settlement. Your plea for reduction of fees instead of amending the laws for Fadairo to execute speaks volume about your knowledge of government, and it shows the level of your brilliance and the people who surround you. Second, I said in my letter to you that you had nine months to review all these undemocratic laws and thrash them and you failed woefully. With your brilliance, you confirmed it by blaming it on Osoba and you are not meticulous enough to cover your tracks. So, your excuse that the undemocratic laws were made by the administration of Osoba is not only lame but also corrosively impotent. As a State governor, you have your own autonomous power. If you are not ready for the local government election, and if the reason were to relax the laws and allow people to participate, the electorates would not mind waiting until those laws end in dustbin, provided you involve the masses in the process.
Thirdly, you, as the Executive Governor of the State, should have taken the bull by the horns, ordered your attorney general to review all the electoral laws and bring to your knowledge all the undemocratic sections of the laws. After the review, I expect you to have sponsored a bill to make Ogun State electoral laws the envy of other States. The State law allows any citizen, including your humble self, to sponsor a bill. Because of your “hidden agenda” of putting PDP members in every local government against 2007, you failed to propose an amendment to the law. The result of that is not showing love to the images of God because they are not from your political party. The scripture says: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” The prediction by John the Baptist, did not say such person shall come from his
family. Relaxing the laws, therefore, would make someone else to come and reinforce your achievements from another political party, if you prepare the electorates for that day. It should not be about you. It should be about the state.
Osoba is gone, and here I am bringing this to your knowledge on behalf of the voiceless masses, and instead of getting busy tearing the undemocratic process apart, you are busy visiting the media houses, blaming Osoba, blackmailing Banjo and refusing to do something about it until another generation comes to meet the same problems. The same tactic that was employed by N.N.D.P. in collusion with N.P.C. on the election that was held on 11 October 1965 was employed by you in 2003. By general consent, the 1965 election was blatantly and shamelessly rigged in every aspect of electioneering, voting, and declaration of results. You know what that led to in the then Western Region. What bothers me my friend, is that we are not progressing, and hope seems dimmed because our own generation went further to bastardize the system with “Ghana must go.” If the same thing that happened in 1965, 1979, 1983, 1999, and 2003 still happens under your hypocritically celebrated leadership, whence is the hope coming? When I am quick to point it out for you to correct, you say, he has a “hidden agenda.” Quickly let me also remind you of what Paul told Titus in Titus 1:15-16 “A person who is pure of heart sees goodness and purity in everything; but a person whose own heart is evil and untrusting finds evil in everything, for his dirty mind and rebellious heart color all he sees and hears. Such persons claim they know God, but from seeing the way they act, one knows they don’t. They are rotten and disobedient, worthless so far as doing good is concerned.” The scripture appears to have you, Fadairo and the rest like you in mind.
On Fadairo, I have been involved in Nigerian politics for over 20 years, my brother. I know for a fact that many people in and outside the government don’t respect people because they use their profession to fight for the masses. Fadairo may be a SAN, Justice Adetokunbo Ademola may be a SAN, and Mr. Justice George S. Showemimo may be a SAN. All we are concerned about is their legacy. I challenge you to publish his records when he was the president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA). What did he achieve for the masses when he was the president of NBA? Did he ever challenge any government on, or make a statement against, any inhuman and illegal treatments of our people by the government. Justice Stephen Ada is still referred to as honorable Justice despite the judicial abominations he committed on the bench. Justice Bassey Ikpeme was another one; they all have their supporters. If you mention, Mr. Femi Falana and other lawyers who went to jail for my children and me to live in a free society, I would bow. Every Nigerian except the hypocrites among us knows that honest people don’t receive the award of SAN until the intervention of higher forces and they don’t excel in Nigeria. It is his records that matter. Well, if he were principled, what happened to his principles during the election? Shouldn’t he have advised you, if he is competent as a SAN, that he had reviewed the laws that you are now blaming Osoba for, and they were undemocratic and they needed to be changed? He should have demonstrated that principles by resigning if you refuse to cooperate. Please be brilliant.
I know of Mr. Oyeniyi Adekola, he is a civil servant who refused to screen for Osoba on democratic principle. Of course you could have fired him, but you know it is better to be slick,
leave him alone, and surround him with extremely undemocratic PDP members among whom his principle would mean nothing. That does not prove to me that you are “an archetypal democrat.” It only confirms your being slippery. What you did not tell the world in your rejoinder is that, you disdainfully violated the law by removing everybody else in OGSIEC before the expiration of their 5-years term. Barrister Evo Koleosho and retired Justice Tajudeen Odunnowo are others in the commission who would not allow themselves to be used as pawns. You illegally removed them and the case is currently in court. Twice, your administration has written an apology letter to the Judge presiding over the case because your administration lied against them. You are now begging to settle the case out of Court and Justice Odunnowo insists on clearing his name. You are a baby “Rambo on the loose” and you need to be contained. A true democrat must establish a leveled playing field for the participants. You accused me of having a hidden agenda perhaps because you thought I have some money to waste in 2007. I cannot compete with sewing machines, wheelbarrows and fake scholarship to save people whose brains have been turned upside down by rulers. For your information, I am a highly respected government official in the U.S., a certified public accountant with my own business, and I work hard for my money.
You were once in the Alliance for Democracy selling what Osoba called “defective” elevators to his administration. Please do not get me wrong. Absolutely nothing is wrong with doing business with governments. You are in business for anyone who needs your service, which is why you are proposing an elevator at Olumo Rock. But, when Osoba saw what you non-democrat Nigerians refer to as “hidden agenda” you know what happened from there. When you thought that Senator Ibikunle Amosun, PDP, is nursing a gubernatorial ambition, you also reacted like Osoba. The result of that led to your being attacked by the members of your “blood thirsty” political party in Ibadan. Yet, one dumbbell, who wants to speak English to please his inept boss, refers to you as a “quintessential and an archetypal democrat.” What a misnomer and mismatch!
You amused me when you said “the letter also betrayed the fact that Banjo’s absence from this shore has made him lose touch completely with current happenings in Ogun State.” My friend, we ought to move away from the unfruitful path that our forefathers thread. Chief Lanrewaju Adepoju, the Ewi King said it all – “imi eran ni baba yin fi npa’le ki oyinbo o to se oda” meaning before paints were introduced by white men, we used the excreta of animals to paint our houses. Since the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) was turned to the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), there has been a grand design by those before you to keep people in the dark so that their dark deeds would not be exposed on televisions. That explains one of the reasons the PDP governments do not care about electricity for our people. I thank white men for Internet. With technology, I can stay outside and see what those inside cannot see because of the killer society they live in. It is an interest that I have before you were rigged in as the governor, and that interest would transcend your tenure of office. Those before you and you make life unbearable for the ones inside, and they have too many things to worry about. So, wherever I am in the world, I can read Nigerian newspapers. You should even applaud me for caring despite my comfort. If you have thousand Nigerians abroad who truly care and determine to do something about Nigeria as you falsely represented in your rejoinder, Nigeria would not be what it is today. Further, I need not announce to you and your spies when I am in the country since I need nothing from you, other than good governance.
Mr. Governor, all you need to do, in collusion with the State House of Assembly, is to make democratic laws that would attract brains from any political party. People are killing themselves in PDP because you are making it into the only political party where their shares can yield dividends quickly. The late S. M. Afolabi said they invited the late Chief Bola Ige to come and eat on the platform of the PDP. They all died miraculously in the hands of the PDP government. The late Chuba Okadigbo chased power to the party of power; he soon found out that he was amidst lions that were ready to eat their own flesh. Finally, he was tear-gassed; he is now late. General Theophilus Danjuma rushed out of the PDP government to maintain his sanity. Chief Orji Kalu cried out from within the party that your party is “a blood thirsty” political party. He has since sought repentance from God Almighty for being in that fold. Now you are asking me to decamp to this stock exchange party. What drives me, my brother, is not money. It is the passion of Christ, which is the well being of my people and the greatness of Nigeria. All of you in the PDP lack that kind of passion. Your friend in Lagos recently cried loud that if he is assassinated, it is the handiwork of your people in PDP, not robbery, and yet you are telling me that there is a room for decampees. To me, your party has no money to buy my soul in the same manner sewing machines were used to gyp voters in an indecent society.
You accused me of using languages “absolutely unparliamentary in a decent society.” Tell me what is decent in a society under your rule. Please tell me what is decent in the way your administration handled the illegal screening of candidates and disqualification of the majority of members of the opposition parties. Deliberate difficulties were placed in the ways of the opposition candidates and in places where the ballot-papers were counted, false results were declared and announced in the news media. Dikkibo, an officer of your party, was assassinated with his escort and driver not hurt, and your leaders kept the driver and the escort hallucinating. Where is the decent society? You need to watch a film titled “Perosoko and Osomo” comedies by Baba Suwe. Baba Suwe demonstrated the indecency of our society. You agreed that you distributed sewing machines and other enticement shortly before the elections, what kind of society are you breeding? An indecent society who would be hostile to candidates who have no money to buy their votes with material things but have some programs to make their life better! Do you have the morality to make laws to frown at that type of inducement to permit free and fair elections? My friend, you lack the morality to talk about a “decent” society because you are building an indecent society, which is why, to many youth, you are becoming one of the failed elders that continue to destroy their lives and posterity. Agba k’osi n’ilu ilu baje, bale ile ku ile d’ahoro meaning the vacuum created by the absence of foresighted elders resulted in an indecent and disorganized society. You scored a cheap point when you said: “ …..Banjo’s diatribe on highly respected Dr. Olu Onagoruwa shows that his sojourn abroad has eroded the time honoured Yoruba etiquette of respect for elders.” It is my strong conviction that respect is earned. History would never forgive any elder that contributes to the destruction of our lives, and any youth that continues to respect the culture that is demolishing his life, is in essence, respecting his destruction. The Yoruba culture allows reality and there are words used to describe useless elders in the society. Osoba was older than you. When he made a move to prevent you from being a governor, you expressed yourself in the most caustic manner. You continued in your rejoinder by saying: “Afterwards Banjo, for sure, will be wiser and shun the fifth columnist bent on recruiting him to cast aspersions on the sterling governance of Otunba Gbenga Daniel.” This is an imagination of a neophyte and Lilliputian grasping for a root in Sagamu. In your friendly discussion with the Chairman of my campaign, Mr. Sylvester Mode, you made the same allegation that you heard that I was working with Osoba during the election. He told you in no uncertain words that you don’t know who Lanre Banjo is and that we were not in the race to make deals. No one, my brother, has the might or the money either to force or entice me to cast aspersion on another human being. I am incorruptible.
I have gone to the extent of using the holy books to call you to order because that is one of the tools used by many Nigerians to beguile the unwary. “Oh, he is a born again Christian, please vote for him. Oh, he is a Muslim, vote for him”. You need to search your conscience to determine whether you are a “born again” Christian or “born against.” Our people should begin to question how well all of you demonstrate being good Muslims or Christians. They should wonder whether you love your fellow humans being like yourself. They should be programmed to see through the fig leaves used to hide under Christianity or Islam. The bible says there are ten commandments. I strongly believe there is only one. “Love others as you love thyself.” If one does, the rest nine would not occur. One would not kill because of a political position as is done in Nigeria. If you love me or love Senator Ibikunle Amosun as yourself, you would not charge us for having a “hidden agenda” because you think we are going to contest against you. You would also wish we become governors like you. Jesus said, no one could be his disciple unless he denies himself. Anyone who asks you to deny yourself of Oke-Imosan for Jesus, better be ready to die. One cannot be the body of Christ treating his people the way Fadairo, your deputy and you treated them on March 27. I know you want to look good in your own eyes. But God wants you to see if you really are what you think you see in the mirror, “an archetypal democrat.” That is why He raised me to show you how you look in His mirror, which matters most. The Holy Qur’an says: “Do men think they would be left alone on saying we believe, while others before them were tried. This is so that Allah may know those of you who are truthful from those of you who are liars.” You want to be left alone to ride joyfully, deceiving people that you are the best, with your hatred for opposition. The self-accusing spirit in you, which is the God inside everyone, would tell you and Fadairo that you did not do well by the people on this election, and the message from He that sent me is for you to redress. I know you want the crown, but you don’t want the cross. Like who! Jesus faced it, Muhammed did, Awo and many others did. I am facing mine in the hands of knaves you “engineered” to adulterate my character including the miscreants in our Party, but truth shall prevail and the sword of God shall visit all the blackguards. God created Satan as an opposition party to His own political party and gives people the free will to choose which political party they want to join. Is it God’s political party (NCP) or Lucifer’s political party (PDP)? Perhaps God had “a hidden agenda” for creating Satan.
This is the revelation my brother, Daniel. You need to be like Him that created you. Because He is love, you need to show love to people by making our electoral laws ecumenical. I feel for the electorates because you have many of the journalists under your armpit. All they belch out on your behalf is what you want us to know. They are afraid of their lives because they know that PDP connotes danger. So the truth that could make the state greater is thus buried. Niran Malaolu, your Commissioner for Information deceived the unwary about the WAEC fees, which Osoba paid and which you announced as paid by your administration. The press published it. When Osoba’s assistant refuted it, Niran had the nerve to demand from the journalists to check with him before they publish anything against your administration. You confuse the public with projects while many things are going on underground to make them beggars. The imprudent public hails you because as the saying goes, “in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is the King.” So Kabiyeesi of the blinds, I wish you well. I feel for the masses because the deceit and confusion is deepened when they see their opinion leaders - the professors, the pastors, and etc.- hobnobbing with you. These opinion leaders are supposed to warn them of the danger of applauding you when consistency is still lacking so that they would not be misled. You may be genuine, but others may come in your power shift cap to cajole them for a year, and then seriously loot the treasury thereafter. It is your duty to help reprogram our people not to applaud at the early stage. Ibere ki’se onise a fi eni to ba se d’opin, a Yoruba adage says, meaning the race is not for quick feet but those who endure to the end. The public is programmed to demand all sorts of material things. They want “gbemu” (Ghana must go) before those seeking elective offices can be voted for. They take pittance for votes and suffer for the rest of their lives. You have not begun to adjust this mentality. This is the pain, pangs and misfortune of the led that are not loved as you love yourself.
Without regard to a non-exemplar democrat.
Sincerely,
Lanre Banjo