Monday, April 9, 2007

An Open Letter to Nigeria's PDP Presidential Candidate, Mr. Yar'Adua

Why Not You? Why Not in Nigeria?

Dear Mr. Yar’Adua:

Greetings to you, sir. I must start this letter to you with the apology that you forgive me if it turns out that it fails to capture or meet the conventional letter writing style that used to be taught in schools. I have gotten so accustomed to the e-mail that I will not be surprised at all to hear someone observe that I no longer possess the age-old letter writing skills. However, in that regard I think what actually should matter in this case is the extent to which I succeed in conveying my heartfelt feelings about the issues that spurred me on to write you.

Although you and I don’t know ourselves from Adam, I still believe that your aspiration to claim the highest public office in the land is enough grounds for me to bring my views on issues of national importance to your doorsteps. The issues that I have to bring up here to your attention relate to your health. There has been a lot of speculation on it in the newspapers. Aspects of that speculation claim that you suffer from a kidney ailment, which requires you to undergo regular dialysis. Up until now you’ve preferred to let that speculation go on and on without doing what is expected to confirm or debunk it. The other time I read a report in one of the newspapers that a prominent member of your party, the PDP—I don’t exactly remember who it was, please forgive me for that minor tinge of amnesia—proclaimed at a campaign event that you used to be ill but that you recently received some sort of Devine healing. One would wish and hope that you’re indeed the recipient of such rare cure in an age when miracles are no longer common place.

Many people still have not forgotten that you were rushed abroad, to Germany only a few weeks ago where you were treated for “catarrh”. In fact, the stoppers were pulled from the rumour mills at the time. Some newspapers went to the degree of publishing your obituary. Many of your supporters were roundly relieved when you spoke to them on the telephone directly from your hospital bed in Germany at a campaign event. Like them, you were obviously upset with those individuals who peddled the rumours of your death. I did listen to clips of the interview that you gave to the BBC from the same hospital bed. But I don’t recall hearing them ask you the specific health condition that necessitated you to abandon all your presidential campaign commitments to check yourself into a hospital in far away Germany.

No human being can claim that he or she is immune to ailments or even poor health. Given your status in the land, particularly in a situation that you are being seen as the next president of Nigeria, I’m one of those who think that it’s only right for you to make an immediate public disclosure on the state of your health. That, is exactly the way it’s done in the civilized world. Just this morning, today’s Thursday, March 22, former Senator John Edwards, who is also one of the men who are campaigning to let Americans assess then for the presidency of the United States, and his wife Elizabeth called a world press conference to announce that the cancer that the latter is battling has spread! If you recall, Mrs. Edwards is not even running for any office. They took the same approach in 2004 after she was diagnosed. Their approach indicates their unparallel respect for the American people. Their full disclosure saves them and everyone the adversities from the speculations that Americans could have been inundated with in the newspapers. Their approach is the norm here in the United States.

I’ll urge you to consider embracing a similar approach as the Edwards. If you lack faith in the Nigerian healthcare system and doctors, you can fly your German physicians into the country and authorize them to tender a clean bill of health on you if that is the case in a news conference. Embracing full disclosure on your health will not undermine your political ambitions at all. Instead, it would give an in-sight into who you are and the nature of leadership you’ll offer the country. You will, by so-doing, show the world that Nigeria is capable of rising and claiming the highest world standard in leadership responsiveness. I wish you well, sir.

Sincerely

E.C. Ejiogu

Epilogue: This piece was meant to play two weeks ago in an outlet that I write a weekly column in Lagos, Nigeria, but couldn’t because it was considered too sensitive by the editor. I’m releasing it here less than a week before the Nigerian elections.

No comments: