So I had a long day at school, had a tough exam but been the “efiko” my mama raised I aced it thank you very much. . I decided to take a long deserved nap before I battle the books again for another exam tomorrow. Deep asleep I hear my phone ring, I decided to ignore it the first and second time, why I did not put it on “silence” mode baffles me but the third time it rang I picked It up and drowsily I said “hello” the next thing I heard was this screeching, thin, loud voice on the other end, “M.c guess what? I just saw breaking news on twitter that your president is on his way back to Nigeria!”At first I wanted to scream what?????!!!! But I decided to keep my cool and I said “Arghhhhhh Maureen!!!! Was that why you woke me up?!”I acted like I was upset at her but in my mind I was thinking “oh crap my presido is back!”My friend eventually hung up after I made her feel really bad for waking me up with that “bad news”. I didn’t know if I should be excited or not. I had a bunch of questions going through my mind like, What the hell is he doing back in Nigeria after things are beginning to look up?, Where the hell has he been all these days?, What does he look like again sef?and my motherly/caring side wanted to know if he was really ok and well.

This whole story started three months ago when all of a sudden our beloved president decided to take a leave of absence from his job due to his health issues without telling the nation where he was and neither did he deem it fit to tell us he was taking a vacation. We were all watching to see if he will show up in days, days turned into weeks; weeks turned into a month still no president. And all of a sudden the whole world’s eyes is on my beloved Naija because of the attempted bombing of a plane on Christmas by a “Nigerian” man .Ok I know you are wondering why the column on Nigerian?, well simple explanation I don’t think he has the right to be called Nigerian. Like a joke a friend told me that, if Jesus was Nigerian, we all will still be in sin today because Nigerians are too selfish to die for anyone. As funny as I found that to be, I don’t think it’s true for all Nigerians (I had to say that before I am crucified by patriotic Nigerians). When we needed our president the most to make a statement denouncing the attack, he was nowhere to be found. I remember that day all I could think of was, This is just Great, we’ve been labeled as corrupt before now we have to deal with been called a terrorist. In the international media, they kept referring to Abdul Farouk as the Nigerian man. At this point I felt so shamed and disgusted by our so called leader to think that our beloved country was been branded as a terrorist country and our president choose not to say anything even release a statement through his office or something. Well sha to cut the long story short, we Nigerians demanded an answer from the executive and legislative office as to the whereabouts of our president and the next thing we hear is the so called “message to the people “ from our president on BBC radio. What an insult. Why BBC? Why didn’t he use one of our local radio stations? And how were we to believe that was actually him and not a paid impersonator? Well that address didn’t seem to go well with us and after a long time rallying, the Vice president was eventually made “Acting president” which was supposed to be the case a long time ago according to the constitution.

Well back to the recent news, after two weeks of the vice president ascending the throne, lo and behold our president decides to come back! Now to me the question is do we receive him with open arms like a prodigal son or do we right now raise our voices and ask for his impeachment. Hmmmm, I choose the latter. I think he deserves to be impeached. A president that has been missing in action for the past three months with no useful explanation as to where he was or what happened to him deserves to be impeached. What he did is a “no no” in a democratic government like ours and I know that we can the debate the word “Democratic” being used to describe our country. Come to think of it, we are a republic and the last I checked what our beloved estranged president pulled is also a “no no” in a republican country. Well if you are wondering if a Democracy is similar to a Republic well the answer is no but that discussion will be for another day. I think this time, we Nigerians have had enough of the “ping pong” our so called leaders are playing with our beloved country and we the good citizens of Nigeria need to all rise up to say no to Mr.Umaru Yar’dua taking over again!……Well it is easier said than done, as much as I believe in the youths of our nation, I am pretty sure this uproar I wish will happen against our president will not happen and even if it does, we have too many corrupt politicians who care more about their pockets than their country and the people, in the legislature that will  pay us no mind unfortunately, we need at about 60% of them according to the constitution to impeach the president. “The Italian philosopher, Dante, said that “the hottest part of hell is reserved for those who during times of crisis maintain neutrality.” The National Assembly can start the process of impeaching the President because a very important aspect of our Constitution has been breached and the people’s sentiments are weighing heavily against their elected officials. A lot of concerned Nigerians are angry, as they rightfully should be, and want to do something about the situation. But Ken Nnamani will not recommend that path of action because those who advocate it do not have the guts to complete it. So why start it. Do only what is achievable; that would be my recommendation. The National Assembly is an institution; it does only what is in the book, not what pleases its members.” Those were the words of former senate president of Nigeria Mr. Ken Nnamani and I think he has said it all; the honest truth is that the president will not be impeached so we are literally stuck. Sad but very true.

Well as I swallow my anger at reality, thinking about how excited my Caucasian American friend/coworker got to hear that my president is back and thinking of the replies I will give to my boss tomorrow when he brings up the topic, I look towards how tomorrow will turn out with the president back in town. I pick up my pen again and write a letter of appeal to my beloved father land hoping it would listen,

Dear Nigeria,

Please act accordingly and make sound political decisions. Literally…everyone is watching to see how things are going to turn out. Please be kind to us and show why you were called the “Giant of Africa” in the first place.

Love,

A hopeful Nigerian-American