Your Excellency
sir, my most distinguished President and Commander-in-chief of the federal
Republic of Nigeria, my beloved country; I bring you warm tidings sir. I have
been compelled to write this open letter to you due to exigencies of the times and because all attempts by my humble self to see you has failed. Your Excellency
sir, I am really angry and would not hide my feelings from you. While I welcome
you back from your 71st United Nations General Assembly trip, I
would like to go straight to the point so as not to waste your precious time. I
would also try as much as possible to stick within the ambit of the law. I
also hope that you are in a good frame of mind to listen or paw through this
“missive”—this is what we call it back in our secondary school days—to make
light joke of a serious matter. Because of your obviously busy schedule, I would only address
the specific issues: Road repairs, Power distribution, Indiscipline, Corruption
and Accountability.
Your Excellency
sir, it seems to me that either you are not being advised properly or you are
deliberately tolerating more than necessary. I was hoping that there would be a
sharp deviation from the rot the previous governments instituted to what we now have ; but as it is, that’s not the situation. Many things are going wrong
and I have been asking myself where the ‘iron’ in my President is! Right before our eyes are: bad roads, epileptic power supply, indolence in
public service, loss of moral values, corruption and above all-impunity! People
are stealing money from Government coffers at will and worse: they are going
Scot free. Mr. President I ask you: what type of government will excel without some sort of punishment? What legacy are you leaving behind for the
innocent? Nigerians who abide by the law are now made to look foolish, with the
corrupt and powerful holding sway; this shouldn’t be the case. As of the
moment, Nigerians, in case you don’t know, have realized that your Enforcement
Agencies are merely playing to the gallery!
When you assumed
power many of us were happy that at last, we are going to experience sanity in
our public life; but as I write, except those already exposed, you would
think that there are some people too powerful to be touched by anybody—least of
all the law. We still have the same nights without electricity;
I travel the same Okene- Auchi- Benin highway as dangerous as ever, despite "assurances" from your government. Ministries,
Departments and Agencies are being run like one-man show; they are crippled by lack of funds, no training, capacity building and fewer
workshops! What’s the matter? Yet, people talk about bloated Civil Service
salaries, when it’s obvious you are not allowing innovations of any sort? I do
not think this is the way to do it; somebody has to tell you the truth that time has value! You are slow to appointing Chief Executives, of Government agencies as well as members of Boards. Please sir, take
another look at this development. I made up my mind to tell you this because one
government after the other keep appointing their friends and now you seem to
have followed suit. This is not fair for
our country. If we are fortunate to be alive today, what about next 35
years when the new generation of Nigerians would be chronicling your
achievements as they are doing presently?
Can your present actions, appointments, policy drift really help in making the Nigerian dream? It cannot
–not at the rate you are going. When you have people who hold office and yet watch the Naira slide uncontrollably,
prices of food stuff go up, yet they still talk of increasing prices of fuel
and sale of National Assets, I wonder why this is happening!
Your Excellency
sir, the only notable areas Government officials live up to expectations and
are alive to their responsibilities is when they are planning for Hajj operations
or Christian Pilgrimage; buying fertilizers and awarding contracts! It is amazing
how they can be so distorted, immersed with wrong values but this is our observation and
even now is happening in your government.
Nevertheless, Your Excellency,
because I have to rush sir, when you got elected, I became consoled in the
sense that- you being a disciplinarian- would confront squarely this area of
accountability. But at last! You are allowing matters to drag and giving
perpetrators too much room to operate. I expected you to address the issue one time, but now see where we are! Right now, there are some serving senators who were ex-governors and deputy governors, ditto those
in your administration as ministers and are receiving salaries and pensions!
For serving only eight years? Why would they be allowed to receive pensions,
salaries, and allowances for their security, cooks, and servants? Surely, this
not the accountability we deserve. This is permitting robbery! If 290 million is
used to maintain a single member of NASS whereas 80% of “unprivileged”
Nigerians earn below 300 naira daily, tell me sir, what type of change
mentality are you building? Can there be real Change when these privileged
Nigerians go Scot-free. The answer is no sir!
Agreed, they are
not your making, but then what have you to say about the bundles of billions
stolen and the culture of waste? For others like the EFCC and ICPC, we expected you to give them marching
orders by now, because they have not lived up to expectations. Are we to pat
them in the back for all the media trials? Why would they inform Nigerians that
investigation of a former first-lady was not complete after all the media
trials? What have you done about the funds recovered? What about those who
stole them? Mr. President sir, you
would agree with me that there are better ways to run affairs.
Mr. President, at
this point, if you want my advice, I urge you to move faster; there is little
time left unless you have other ideas. As a way out, why not jettison party
loyalty and tribal affiliation? It will serve you better to go professional
now. Stop allowing Governors to pollute your thinking. They have done their
worst by sharing the Sovereign Wealth Fund and as we heard, one of them
recently called for more allocations to be pushed their way. Gracious!
Take the bull by
the horns! Mr. President, go ahead and reform please. Make a difference; stop
this blackouts, get contractors back to fix Nigerian roads; complete abandoned projects and please care about
what Nigerians are going through, put square pegs in round holes and honestly
stop these tribal appointments. Do not
allow matters to drag for too long before you attend to them and also important
allow a breath of financial space to your MDA’s. Take time out to look at what
is happening in Pensions, the Police, Customs; go out yourself and see the
markets, the streets—what is functioning or not; you have sat too long in Aso
Rock—and this is not the best!. Nigerians need a President who visit
frequently, respond promptly to issues; if I were you, I would cancel the
weekly ineffective Council Meetings; they have produced nothing but the likes
of ex-Petroleum Minister Diezieni Allison Madueke and her irks. I met a young
Nigerian the other day who told me: “he heard Buhari was harsh in his first
coming” and I asked him: “how old are you? To which he replied he was born
in 1982! I remind you that those born in the 20’s are here too.
Your Excellency,
need I remind you that this is a democratic Government? All you need is to enforce loyalty, commitment
and the supremacy of the law; boldly initiate concrete changes. Stop recanting
how Jonathan failed. Your ministers are not living up to expectations and you
have to do something about it. Those culpable should be removed immediately.
You have a reputation to maintain. Don’t carry their mess.
And lastly, take
note that in this your administration the poor who supported you are hardest
hit; the middle class have since been wiped out. Instead of reducing salaries, or planning any
form of price increase, please ask your state governors to reduce their convoys of vehicles by half, cancel their security votes, and make a pronouncement that the
National Assembly is part time! Compulsorily punish corrupt officials and ban
them eternally from holding government position; assign an independent
committee from the private sector to handle and reinvest the recovered looted
funds- this is your responsibility as the President of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria. You are not abdicating your responsibility if you don’t, but you will
be leaving bitter memories of your reign in the history books of future
generations of Nigerian.
Thank you so much
for your kind attention-and understanding.
Yours Sincerely
Voices from the
Congress & Masses of Nigeria.
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