It brings me no joy to have to write this but since you started this trend of open letters I thought I would follow suit since you don’t listen to anyone anyway. The only way to reach you may be to make the public aware of some things. As a child well brought up by my long-suffering mother in Yoruba tradition, I have been reluctant to tell the truth about you but as it seems you still continue to delude yourself about the kind of person you are and I think for posterity’s sake it is time to set the records straight.

I am constrained to make this an open letter to you for a number of reasons. One, the current situation and consequent possible outcome dictate that I should, before the door closes on reason and promotion of national interest, alert you to the danger that may be lurking in the corner. Two, none of the four or more letters that I have written to you in the past two years or so has elicited an acknowledgment or any response. Three, people close to you, if not yourself, have been asking, what does Obasanjo want? Four, I could sense a semblance between the situation that we are gradually getting into and the situation we fell into as a nation during the Abacha era. Five, everything must be done to guard, protect and defend our fledgling democracy, nourish it and prevent bloodshed. Six, we must move away from advertently or inadvertently dividing the country along weak seams of North-South and Christian-Moslem. Seven, nothing should be done to allow the country to degenerate into economic dormancy, stagnation or retrogression.

The celebrations today are an announcement that our city has come of age in a different way. One hundred years of growth albeit in fits and starts is a testament of the enduring nature of our city and the burst of life it continually gives to those who live here. Port Harcourt has remained the city that everyone who visits makes home.

A former United States ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Walter Carrington, speaks on the challenges of corruption in Nigeria and the mismatch between growth and poverty as it relates to the much touted VISION 202020. He admonishes Nigerians to rise and harness the plethora of potentials in the country for the common good while not leaving behind the womenfolk.

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, last Thursday, took umbrage at the goings-on in Rivers State. He expressed his displeasure at the turn of events in the South -South state at a press conference where he laid bare the roles of President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan, in the unfolding sordid drama that has created an air of instability in the state. But in a swift response, on Friday, the First Lady took on Soyinka, claiming that he has become an embarrassment to his admirers. Below are excerpts from Soyinka’s statement: