Dear President Muhammadu Buhari, Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame, were convicted for siphoning billions of Nigerians’ money. They are now savouring the fresh, nourishing air of freedom, thanks to the state pardon you have just granted them.
These two among several others were elected or rigged their ways to power to represent the people and preside over our common wealth.
They swore with the holy books to be fair and just to all. But they kilted and robbed the people blind.
The agency responsible, the EFCC, did its due diligence and sent them to gaol. You were praised and celebrated. But you just booted that by bending to the coersion of the Council of State to grant them state pardon.
But it is your prerogative. You are the C-in-C. The buck stops on your table.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other Nigerians languishing in jail for offenses that are negligible, or awaiting trials for crimes they may not have committed or committed out of ommission.
Your Excellency may recall the case of Yunusa Yellow of Kano State, who, due to love or lust, eloped with a young girl from Bayelsa: Ese Oruru.
For that single act, not just Yellow and his family, not just Kanawas, but the entire region got painted in the crime of Yellow.
Governors got involved and Yellow was not only prosecuted, but convicted.
Never mind that the young girl came out to say she was not coerced into eloping with Yellow. Never mind that the young girl, pregnant for Yellow, cried and resisted being repatriated to Bayelsa. Never mind that in that community, teenage pregnancy is a platitude. Of cause, if Yellow were an Irhobo, Itsekiri et al, the hoopla would not have happened.
But he is Yunusa, a Bakano, an Aboki, a Mallam.
But Mr President can recall toddlers are being harvested in front of their parents’ houses, transported to the South, rechristened and sold to slavery.
Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II then said we should blame the parents of such innocent toddlers for not tieing them to their bed poles in their bedrooms and not giving them the freedom of playing even in the frontage of their homes.
Till date, no one has been given the Yunusa Yellow treatment despite the exposure of many of their types by NAPTIP and other agencies.
As we are in the holy month of Ramadan and your merciful default setting has been activated, especially as the Council of State comprises all the Governors, including the Governor of Bayelsa State, Bayelsa that also boasts of a former President, your immediate predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, please put in a word for Yunusa Yellow to get a state pardon.
You can do this, not just for Yello and Ese, but for their daughter. Yellow needs to raise his daughter like any father.
The daughter needs to know and bond with her father.
By the way, Ese Oruru is no more a teenager. She can decide for herself now. She can make a choice of allowing her daughter experience the true love of her father, or shy away from that responsibility.
Dear President Buhari, if you can preside over the forgiveness of those who stole billions that negatively affected millions of Nigerians, you can also facilitate the pardon of a love or lust victim like Yellow. He may have learnt lessons from his juvenile delinquency to make the better of his future.
Remember, Mr President, unlike Dariye and Nyame, Yellow had no investment to fall back on even if and when pardoned. He has to start from the scratch.
Bayelsa may adopt him as their son to give Ese Oruru and their daughter a sense of belonging.
Dear Buhari, if you can do it for multi billion naira thieves, you can do it for a mere poor victim of love or lust with a daughter to raise.
Allah Ya taimaki dogo na Aisha Baban Zahra. Baban Yan Mata, uban Isufu.
You can do this for the “wretched of the earth” as you did for the high and mighty.
Thank you Mr President, Mr Integrity. A Sha Ruwa Lafiya Baba na kowa.
Abdull-azeez writes from Kaduna
