Dear president,
I congratulate you on your decision to lead this great
nation. It’s no easy task leading just ten persons and you are leading over two
hundred million Nigerians at home and over ten million in the diaspora. Its no
mean feat. You are indeed carrying a cross on your shoulders, but if you must
be celebrated for carrying this cross, you must carry it well.
I am only a nonpartisan grass-root citizen whose ears is on
the ground and be sure I’d tell you as we see it on the neutral helpless end.
Mr. President, you’ve been in government for the last five
years. We though this your second coming would be a glorious coming, alas your
first tenure arrived with its uhs and ohs. We thought it was only your first
democratic term, that giving you a second chance, you’d learn to bring your
wealth of experience to bear. Not that I’m saying you’ve not done your best. It’s
just that you don’t seem to see Nigeria from the eyes of Nigerians.
I’m on the street every other day; I live down the road
where four roads meet. I hear the vibes of my fellow country brethren and
they’d wish to tell you what I am telling you now.
Oga presido, things are really difficult at the moment, we
don’t seem to understand what direction this country is headed. Since you took
over the mantle, the economy has enjoyed a slow decline, and now with the aid
of the coronavirus pandemic, it is sliding down the lane. My brothers think you
are the problem and they have reasons to think this way.
Remember the things you promised Nigerians. You said you
were going to fight corruption to a standstill. I remember how my friends on
the streets hailed your reentrance into the polity because they thought you’d
put the cabal to check, that cabal that Goodluck Jonathan complained about. We
were expecting to see some faces in prison; sadly we see those faces roaming
around you. And your wife has complained of the same cabal taking over your
government. I won’t mention names.
We thought we needed experience leadership and we saw in you
an experience face. But it seems, baba that we have gotten it wrong again. I’m
just been frank with you.
Remember while on your campaign train for the first term,
you swore that you had the magic wand to #BringBackOurGirls and that #Bokoharam
would be a forgotten story. Today our girls have become women and they’ve been
married out to Alhajis and Bokoharam is still dancing on the streets of Bornu
and Adamawa. Now, we also have herdsmen, bandits and a host of other militant
groups spring up from every corner.
You guaranteed Nigerians electricity. You told us that
within a year, we’d not hear up Nepa. Sadly, these days, we don’t’ expect it.
We are content with powering our lives with the “I better pass my neighbor generators”
that are scatter all over our markets.
Our roads are worse than when you arrived. There is hardly
any federal interstate road without one notorious bad spot. Many of them are
not even motor-able. I understand if you don’t know about these roads. You
travel often by helicopter and private plane, you may not understand the
worries of the average Nigerian when they spend a day on a road they should
only have spent forty-five minutes on.
And our schools? Our university lecturers have not stopped
their strike campaigns for better remuneration and facility upgrade of our
schools. These campaigns have started since Adam and we thought you’d be the
man to put an end to this malaise. Alas, you’ve shown us that strikes are only
the Nigerian factor that Nigerian students who will spend years in government
owned institutions must factor into their academic pursuit.
You promised that you’d stop Nigerians travelling abroad for
education. You claimed that you’d fix the system so that Nigerians would not
find schools abroad attractive. We are still waiting. You did not even lead by
example, you sent your daughter abroad to study while you want to stop
Nigerians who can afford to give their children quality education abroad. Sai
Baba.
Our secondary schools remain an eyesore, buildings are
dilapidated, and no chairs for students to sit on in classes and nobody is talking
about all these.
Don’t dare visit our primary schools, you will thank God you
don’t have little kids. You’ve tried with that your school feeding programme.
But sadly, with the kind of environment our primary school pupils learn in, it
is not possible for their brains to recalibrate no matter what nutrients are
put in the food. By the way, you just helped create a pipeline for government
funds to be stolen in the name of school feeding programme. If only you will
dare visit the schools, you will see for yourself the last time your food
reached the schools.
Let’s talk about health. Thank God your citizens are strong
else Coronavirus would have shown us how to take people’s health serious.
Today, we seem to have commonized the deadly virus to just Malaria and Typhoid.
But again you’ve been exposed here. Not even the federal medical center is in
good condition. You can imagine the state of other tertiary institutions across
the nation.
Mr. President, you started well with promoting made in
Nigerian goods and products. But please don’t get angry with this question. The
shoes, watches and clothes you wear, are they made in Nigeria? Let’s not even
talk about your car and even the rice you eat. But you are aware all these things
are also produced in Nigeria now.
The Nigerian youth got the bashing of their lives during
your first tenure. You claimed they were lazy. And the women weren’t on your
good side. You claimed your wife was meant for the kitchen and the other room.
Sir, it seems you aren’t aware times have changed. You need your wife to be
your best friend else she’d not stop exposing your dirty linings on social media.
Our youths claim they don’t have to please you to be
themselves. They’d keep doing their best within the limits you are creating for
them even if you don’t notice in the hope that someday, a youthful president
will notice them.
Have you checked the latest borrowing statistics? You lead
the charts at borrowing. Today, everywhere we go, there is a Nigerian debt to
be serviced and you think we will grow as a nation? That’s not possible.
I saw you dancing with President Xi of China in 2018. Of
course you collected some loan and you signed some papers that you did not
understand yourself. You were too happy you got a deal to transfer our common
wealth to the Chinese in the name of trade deal. Think again.
Of late, I see sir that you’ve not travelled abroad. I do
hope all is well. Your penchant for travelling is well known across the world
but sadly you don’t travel across Nigeria. You fear about your safety as President
of Nigeria in Nigeria. There is problem o!
Mr. President, Nigerians are suffering and not smiling. Gone
are the days when we used to suffer and smile because we had hope. Today, we
don’t have any hope. When we hear how much money is been stolen under your
anticorruption watch, we doubt your campaigns. Your incorruptible Magu who you
defended so well has been a major culprit in this fight. Who go see money wey
no go carry am?
Mmh, we are in big trouble. Do you know that Cameroonian Gendarmes
often cross our borders into Nigeria and our revered Army aren’t anywhere
around to defend helpless citizens. Don’t’ ask me where, ask those in Cross
River, Taraba, Benue and Adamawa, they know better.
These days, nobody is spared the brouhaha that we call
Nigeria especially now that garri is sold for three cups at two hundred naira
only and citizens are turning into beggars in their own country.
I don’t want to write much today. I believe what I have
written is enough for you to develop a road map to Nigeria’s development.
Sincerely I’ve been praying that you succeed but I will tell you the truth when
I have to. Nigerians need help else you’d turn this nation into a junta where
every one will have to fight for their personal survival.
I will write you soon as I see any changes to the status quo.
Please don’t look for me, I am only a local village man who can’t afford the
high cost of living in the city.
God help Mr. President, God save Nigeria.
A concerned citizen
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