Open Letter to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari: The Way
Forward for Nigerian Prosperity, Security, Unity, and Good Governance that
Benefit All Nigerians
Great Nigerian people from all sections of the nation have
spoken loudly with their votes on March 28th, 2015; they have overwhelmingly
elected you as the next president that will bring about positive changes that
will transform our beloved nation to a stable, secure, and prosperous nation.
The last presidential election was a referendum and total
rejection of sixteen years of failure, setbacks, corruption, bad governance,
mismanagement, and gross abuse of power under PDP administrations. Sir, you
were elected because Nigerians are counting on your experience, patriotism,
integrity, visions, and love for Nigerian unity, security, and progress.
Just because you are determined to govern Nigeria with
integrity and honor doesn’t mean that everyone is on board with you. Sir, you
should not only expect but must be prepared for great obstacles, challenges,
and oppositions because every good thing, plan, or idea must attract enemies,
oppositions, and negative criticisms.
Why? There are mighty but very few Nigerians who have
benefited and profited from Nigerian chaotic situations, corruption, looting
mismanagement and bad governance of many years. They are called Enemies of the
Nation Progress
General, you will be tested greatly by these enemies because
they dislike Nigerian unity, security, progress and stability. But when those
storms come, you should remain focus, calm, be more determined, and fear not.
According to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr The ultimate measure
of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but
where he stands at times of challenges and controversy.”
Sir, no matter the challenges and uncertainties, a great
leader remains committed to people’s wellbeing, national security, good
governance, and actualization of his/her set goals or agenda for the nation. As
a true father of the nation with integrity and credibility, you cannot afford
to fail or give up on your promises to over 180 millions struggling Nigerians
due to obstacles, challenges, and discouragements that will surely come your
way as the new President of Nigeria.
It is also important that you have both the short term and
long term goals for your presidency in order to deliver the dividend of
democracy to all Nigerians. Election has come and gone, but your promises to
God Almighty and to Nigerian people must be honored. According to Arthur Gordan,
Nothing is easier than saying words. Nothing is harder than living them day
after day.
Mr. President, I am of the opinion that if you work on
certain areas and courageously tackle critical issues affecting us, Nigerians
will witness great achievements, peace, and success like never before seen in
any administration since independent.
They include the following:
NATIONAL SECURITY AND MILITARY REFORM
It is impossible for any nation or government to be
successful in the areas of economy growth, commerce and balance of trade,
tourism, and education without adequate security for her citizens, visitors,
foreigners and their investments. Sir, your most important duty as Commander in
Chief is to protect lives and properties of your citizens. Any president who
fails in this responsibility will surely fail in all. Boko Haram terrorists in
the Northeast must be dismantled and be destroyed at all cost.
It is crucial that you reform Nigerian Army from the top to
the bottom in order to have victory over Boko Haram (BH) insurgents. You must
do whatever it takes to stabilize northeast, restore back the residents that
have been displaced by this evil forces of Boko Haram, and bring to justice
those that are sponsoring activities of Boko Haram in the north.
Sir, you must do all within your power to bring back those
kidnapped school girls to their parents alive. You must also restore the morale
of our young men and women in uniforms who have committed themselves to our
safety and security. Our military men, Nigerian Police Force, Custom and
Immigration Officials and other security agencies must be reformed. They must
be provided with modern war equipment, good intelligent gathering, good
salaries with great benefits, and must be provided with adequate training to
meet the security challenges of the 21st century. Sir, dont ever be persuaded
to negotiate with Boko Haram terrorists. The only language they understand is
force and fire for fire.
Nigerians and the International community will perceive your
negotiations with Boko Haram as weakness and clueless on how to destroy and
dismantle those criminals. But those members of Boko Haram who are ready and
sincerely willing to disarm and give the government intelligent information on
the activities and operations of this terror must be protected with possible
amnesty. Those in this category can be integrated back into the society as
police officers, army intelligent operatives, and civil servants.
INVESTMENT
IN AGRICULTURE
For us to reduce our dependent on crude oil with fluctuation
in prices at the International oil market, the federal, states and private
investors must invest in agriculture, research and development, farming,
fishery, forestry, and poultry. Federal government should invest heavily on
agriculture and encourage more participation of foreign and local investors in
order to reduce our dependent on crude oil as the main source of Nigerian
revenue. Investment in agricultural products will create millions of good jobs,
drastically reduce our importation of food products, and give us surplus
balance of trade with an increase ability to export food products to
neighboring countries. Investment in agriculture is also good for national
security and economic stability. Before the discovery and exportation of crude
oil in Nigeria, our economy depends mainly on agriculture and mineral resources
exportation as our source of revenue.
Where are the cocoa and palm kernel plantations in the
Southwest region? And where are the groundnut pyramids in the North? Likewise,
where are the rubber and cotton plantations in the Southeast? Nigerian
politicians must go back to the drawing board and map out ways to better serve
our beloved nation by turning it to economic power of Africa with great ideas
instead of pulling the nation down by mismanagement, looting, corruption, and
abuse of power. Sir, investment in agriculture must be a priority of your
administration with more and more stable and robust economy. We can subsidize
agricultural equipment, fertilizers and manures to low scale farmers at
reasonable prices. Middleman should be eliminated from the sales and
distribution of those subsidized agricultural equipment’s and chemicals. Both
the state and federal government should encourage commercial banks to give
loans to qualify farmers with the right collateral and no middlemen to boost
their production. Finally, the federal and state government should invest in
agricultural research and development at our various universities and colleges
of technology across the country. This will cause an increase in our GDP and it
will turn us to major food exporters in West Africa, and boost Nigerian economy
greatly.
STABLE AND
UNINTERRUPTED POWER SUPPLY
Our country will not attain its full potential in areas of
economic growth, commerce and trade, tourism, national security, and
infrastructural development if the issue of power shortage is not fully
addressed by your administration. Nigerian economy and social growth will
remain stagnant until we can boast of stable electricity supply in the nation.
Creator of heavens and the earth, God Almighty cannot function properly in
darkness and shapeless situations. He commanded light before he began the
creation of all the contents of planet earth. Genesis 1:3-6. Mr.
President-elect, your administration must invest huge capital on clean and
renewable sources of energy with our diverse natural endowment from the south
to the north of our nation. Hydroelectric source of electricity generation is
highly unreliable, unsustainable and unreasonable for current energy demand.
Nigerian population has greatly increased from the 70s and 80s when Kainji Dam
was built, we need to generate more electric power from other sources of energy
in order to meet up with the demand of our ever increasing population.
I believe that you will be committed to more energy
generation and encourage foreign investors in energy sector around the globe to
invest in Nigeria by providing them tax incentives, land allocations, and
business friendly environment. This action will enable Nigeria to generate more
than enough electricity for our use and become a reliable exporter of
electricity to neighboring nations of Ghana, Niger, and Benin Republic just to
mention a few. Sir, I suggest that we invest in and encourage nuclear power
generating stations like in South Africa. There has not been any incident of
nuclear issues since the inception of nuclear power plants in South Africa.
Moreover, we can invest in electricity generation from our natural gas deposits
across the nation. We have more than enough natural gas deposits to build Gas
powered plants across the country. We can also invest in wind and solar energy
for individual consumption on a small scale. It is high time that Nigerians
embraced nuclear and gas powered plants for stable electricity supply. This is
crucial for many reasons: (i) First, it reduces cost of doing business in
Nigeria. (ii) It puts an end to importation of bad and unwanted generators from
China that are badly polluting our air. We must act very fast to prevent our
air from getting polluted like that of China. (iii) It gives us an edge in
trade and commerce (IV) it will also help us to generate cleaner, more
dependable, and uninterrupted energy supply that will power our economy for the
21st century need. I believe that nothing can stop a totally committed
individual or government from achieving carefully thought out goals.
PRISON
REFORM
Sir, there are so many Nigerian citizens confined in our
various prisons across the nation like wide animals. It is so shameful that the
wellbeing of Nigerian prisoners and the terrible state of our prisons have been
ignored for so long by many regimes/administrations before you. Many innocent
Nigerian citizens are held in prison awaiting trials against their will. What
make the matter worse is that, the prison staffs and warders are not motivated
to do a good job. Their salaries and working conditions are not different from
that of beggars on the street. Prisoners are not to be subjected to inhumane
treatment just because they are in confinement, but they are supposed to be
changed for good so that they can easily be integrated back to society after
serving their jail terms. It is important for your administration to build more
prison system, renovate the existing ones, give adequate and paid trainings to
our prison staff, and speed up the trial process for all accused people. Our
prisons must be decongested, the prisoners should have access to education,
vocational studies, and technical education to live on after serving their jail
terms. Sir, hope to see improvement in this very area in your incoming
administration. It will be more honorable for us to treat our prisoners with
respect, dignity and in a humanely way.
GOOD
GOVERNANCE
Sir, the bed rocks of good governance in a true democracy
are accountability, transparency, leadership skills, honesty, integrity,
adequate planning, freedom of the press, well-defined objectives or goals, and
corruption free administration just to mention a few. It is crucial that you
reduce the cost of running your government by eliminating wasteful spending,
misappropriation, mismanagement, unwanted appointments like all the ministers
of states of various government ministries; eliminate all unnecessary traveling
expenses of government officials, and reducing the size of your government by
closing down unprofitable government agencies across the country. Each branch
of government agency and ministry must operate and function well within the
assigned budget. We must eliminate all forms of borrowing that are not for
emergency or urgent needs. General, it will be almost impossible for you to
deliver on your promises to millions of struggling Nigerians if you choose
wrong political advisers and criminal minded political appointees.
Why? As a father and president of the nation, you will be
judged not only by what you say or do, but also by what people around you (your
political appointees) do or say. Therefore, pick, vet correctly and choose all
your appointees with great caution. It is crucial that your administration vet
all your political appointees vigorously so as to eliminate people of
questionable characters and those with criminal backgrounds from your
government. You can setup a committee of great Nigerian people with backgrounds
in law, ethnic, politics, retired civil servants, and in law enforcement to do
the vetting of all your political appointees. Assign positions of
responsibility in your government to people with great ideas, highly patriotic,
competent, and those with burning passions and desire to help you achieve your
goals. One of many reasons why President Jonathan failed woefully is that he
surrounded himself with former drug trafficker, looters, low IQ, highly corrupt
individuals that do not care if he fails or succeeds as Nigerian president.
Avoid such trap in your government. It is very important that you surround
yourself with people of great visions, integrity and ideas that will help you
to deliver the dividends of democracy to millions of struggling Nigerian people
who overwhelmingly elected you to be their president. The Bible says, where
there is no vision, the people perish.” My prayer is that God Almighty will
give you His wisdom, understanding, and discernment to pick a winning team that
will help you achieve your good agenda for Nigeria. According to Henry Bergson,
we must think as people of action and act as people of thought.” Carefully
choose likeminded people that will edge your efforts to deliver the dividend of
democracy to millions of our people.
TACKLE
CORRUPTION FROM THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM
Sir, you have to challenge and defeat all existing power of
corruption that is rooted in Nigerian society. Nigerian political crisis,
terrorism, instability, setbacks, failures, international ridicules and economy
decline that we are currently experiencing is because we have lost basic moral
values and the fear of God that are supposed to be a lamp unto our paths. hopeful that with your kind of leadership and
total commitment to good governance, Nigeria can rise and shine again among the
nations of the world. If we embrace change that your government will introduce
and embrace our lost moral values back, our beloved nation will experience
great achievement, progress, and more political stability in your
administration. Nothing good comes out of a nation where people in positions of
authority have no regard for the rules of law. Corruption deprives ordinary
people the dividend of democracy, progress and good governance. If corruption
is not tackled and defeat in Nigeria, it will eventually destroy the nation
wellbeing. If you defeat corruption, you will have the most successful and
prosperous government in Nigerian history, but if it goes the other way, your
administration will not make any meaningful impacts. In order for you to
successfully fight and defeat that demon of corruption in your administration,
you have to disappoint, and drop some politicians and power brokers in your
party who expect your government to do business as usual. General, you must
realize that the fight against corruption by your administration will be a very
tough and difficult fight that is winnable with determination, commitment,
focus, and godly principles. EFCC must be empowered to enforce economic fraud
and corrupt practices laws of both the private sector and public officials at
all levels of government. The current leadership of EFCC is rotten, corrupt and
has been rendered ineffective by President Jonathan administration. The new
EFCC should not be used for any political intimidation by hurting down only
opposition party members. This law enforcement agency should not be used as
political machine; it should follow the rules of law, and discharge its
responsibilities with fairness, professionalism, honesty, and integrity. Choose
a fearless lion as the new director of EFCC that will fight corruption with the
hope of restoring sanity in public service and private sector that will be free
of fraud and corruption. Make corruption a serious crime in your
administration, and ensure that the existing laws against this demon of
corruption are dually enforced by EFCC without favoritism, sentiments or bias.
Appoint credible, competent, highly qualified individuals with integrity to
various positions of authority. You must avoid the trap of appointing people
based on tribalism, favoritism, influence, religious and other sentiments.
Moreover, you should avoid the trap of befriending corrupt religious and
traditional leaders who care more about their personal interests than the
interests of millions of suffering Nigerian people. Trust no man but God
Almighty, and your administration will be very successful. The vice
president-elect, Professor Yemi Osinbajo is a gift from God to you. He is a man
of great characters, highly patriotic, smart, highly intelligent and a true
child of God. Don’t ever underestimate him because the wisdom of God
dwells in him. Give zero tolerant to any form of corruption, indiscipline,
mismanagement, and other forms of lawlessness by all your political appointees
and government officials.
EDUCATION
REFORM
If Nigeria must rise to the challenges of 21st Century in
business, technology, economy growth, medicine, tourism, security, and trade,
we must reform our declining educational system from the primary to university
level. For us to be competitive in the 21st century, every Nigerian child
should have access to sound education, qualified teachers, and good teaching
and science materials of the 21st century. The Bible says, My people perish for
lack of knowledge.” Education, be it formal or informal is the key to building
a strong and prosperous nation by using sound education to create people of
great ideas. Nigerian education is no longer recognized by majority of Nigerian
parents and the international community anymore because of great decline in the
quality of education at our various institutions of learning across the nation.
Last year alone, Nigerian parents spent billions of dollars in tuitions fee to
educate their children overseas. What would happen to our economy and our
schools if that money is spent on our existing schools here at home? In the
70s, 80s, and up to early 90s, Nigerian universities are highly rated
internationally because of good quality of education. In those good days, there
were thousands of international students attending majority of our higher
institutions of learning mostly at the 1st generation of Nigerian universities;
OAU, UI, ABU, UNN, and UNILAG. The reverse in the case today, it is so shameful
today that thousands of Nigerian students are now stocked in Ghana. All the
universities in Ghana combined are no match to ABU, Zaria in size, structure,
and outdated equipment. This is shameful and unacceptable, and this disgraceful
threads must be reversed for the good of Nigerian youths and many generations
to come. New private universities that do not meet educational standards set by
Nigerian Ministry of Education should be denied accreditation until the
conditions are met. Our teachers and lecturers should be mandated to attend
paid training or conferences, participate in educational research and
development, and undergo annual recertification in their various field.
Corruption, embezzlement, cult activities, and examination fraud should be
banned and eliminated from our public schools and higher institutions of
learning. Nigerian teachers in our public schools deserve better salaries and
other incentives that will encourage them to deliver quality education to our
children. Both the federal and state government should reform our public
schools by bringing and restoring hope, trust, quality education, and
credibility to our declining schools. There should be government sponsored
scholarships to exceptional students in the fields of science, medicine,
agriculture, and technology. We must also encourage more participations of private
sector in delivering quality education to our children. Finally, Nigerian
higher institutions should encourage more of students exchange programs with
other recognized schools in the U.S, Europe, Canada, and Australia.
THE JUMBO
PAY OF NIGERIAN LEGISLATORS MUST BE STOPPED
The looting of Nigerian public funds by few legislators in
both Houses of the Looters; must come to an end in your administration. Nigerian
legislators or law makers are the highest paid in the world in a nation where
over 170 millions of her citizens live in abject poverty. This is the peak of
immorality, highly insensitivity, and looting of the national funds that an
average Nigerian legislator makes more than four times of the salary of the
President of United States. Over 95% of struggling Nigerian people live on less
than a dollar per day while our law makers are ranking in millions of dollars
in salaries and benefits annually. I strongly believe that nothing good is done
in darkness, therefore, every public issue addressed in secrecy and in darkness
is evil, bad, and anti electorate and is a disaster to our young democracy.
Sir, the salaries and bonuses of all Nigerian legislators should become a
public record in your administration. Every money spent on official trips,
feeding allowances, and other costs should be made public to Nigerian people.
After all, president Obama and all American law makers’ salaries are in public
records that can be googled by anyone on the network. Nigerian legislative arm
of government should operate within their budget with no option of borrowing
money at the expense of Nigerian taxpayers to finance their corrupt practices.
Sir, I know the fact that you are no longer a military dictator and lack the
veto power to subdue these powerful people looting our money. Why? Former
president Olusegun Obasanjo picked up unwinnable fight with those crooks in
1999 with the furniture allowance issue, but he lost the fight. However, you
can adopt the tactics of former Governor of Central Bank (CBN) of Nigeria, His
Excellency Emir Sanusi to deal with and stop the looting by our legislators. As
a governor of CBN, Emir Sanusi fought against economic injustice against poor
Nigerians; he fought against corruption and looting by our legislators by
exposing their deals to Nigerian public, and he also stood up against the
looting of Nigerian funds by President Jonathan and his allies by publicly
exposing the stolen 20 billion dollars from the NNPC account. I strongly
believe that this great Nigerian citizen should be honored by your
administration for his selfless service that rescued Nigerian banking sector
from total collapse and impending destruction. Sir, you have to take their case
of immorality and looting to Nigerian public if they refuse to take a drastic
pay cut for the good of the nation. They have turned noble call to serve the
interests of the electorate to an avenue for making ungodly wealth while more
Nigerians have driven to abject poverty and economic setbacks. They must cut
down their salaries and bonuses, and eventually reduce their overhead costs of
operation. I want to give the new majority of APC senators and representatives
from both houses the benefit of the doubt that they will work with
President-elect Buhari to stop corruption and looting of the peoples’ money
that we have all seen in the past sixteen years under PDP majority. They should
be aware that Nigerian people are watching all their moves from now on. They
must cooperate with the General for the betterment of the masses who voted for
them to represent the peoples’ interests.
REBUILDING OUR DECLINING AND OUTDATED
INFRASTRUCTURE
The task of renovating and building new roads, bridges,
schools, hospitals, railway system, police stations, drainages, and other
useful infrastructure is a long term goal, capital intensive, and it takes time
to accomplished. With good governance, this task will take a minimum of 10 to
20 years to accomplish. Sir, your administration can lay the foundation of
building new projects and the renovation of the existing ones. Embarking on
repair of our outdated infrastructures and rebuilding of new projects will
create thousands of good paying jobs in construction, survey, and engineering
sectors. In addition to that, it will create economic prosperity that attracts
both domestic and foreign investments. More importantly, it enables easy
transportation of goods and services from the rural areas to our cities. The
task of building and renovating our roads, bridges, drainage system and other
important projects are key to economic growth, job creation, and foreign
investments.
THE ROLES OF FIRST LADY IN YOUR ADMINISTRATION
The incoming First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
will play non-policy roles in your administration. The participation of Mrs.
Aisha Buhari in your administration cannot be ignored. It is true that there is
nothing like the Office of the First Ladyin Nigerian constitution and is the
same for many advance democracies in the world. There is no such office in the
best democracies of the world like the United States of America, Britain,
Germany, Israel, and Canada just to mention a few. However, the First Lady is
the number one adviser to the president. Mrs. Aisha Buhari will play a crucial
role by pushing for certain government programs that help elevate poverty in
the lives of millions of suffering Nigerian children, mothers, and widows in
our society. She has to play a motherly and social activism role with the help
of private donations and other charitable organizations by pushing for early
child education program in Nigeria, poverty eradication programs for women,
become a strong voice to eliminate child labor, educate our young girls on
danger of early pregnancies, and be a strong voice against child prostitution
in Nigerian society. She is also going to be the hostess of Aso Rock Villa. She
will play other crucial roles that will come her way as the first lady of the
nation. I believe that with her humble background, strong moral values, a great
mother, and coupled with her education, she will restore sanity back to the
Peoples House-Aso Rock Villa.
In conclusion, Nigerian people should bear it in mind that
thirty years of misrule, corruption, embezzlement, and mismanagement since
Babangida regime to the worst administration of President Jonathan cannot be
corrected in four to eight years. General Muhammad Buhari is not a miracle
worker that has the power to change things overnight. Rebuilding of damage
things always take time, planning, resources, great efforts, patient, and good and
effective leadership. However, it is also important for the President-elect to
do all he can to honor and fulfill all promises he made to Nigerian people. The
General should know that he cannot afford to disappoint or fail millions of
Nigerian people who trusted him with their votes. Sir, your lifetime
credibility, respect, and honor are on the line, it is my prayer that God
Almighty will give you the strength, wisdom, knowledge, and long life to
restore our beloved nation from the brink of destruction and economic collapse.
The task of digging Nigeria out from many years of moulds and cleaning it up
with dedication, integrity, patriotism, and good governance will take more than
three great and sincere presidents with a minimum of twenty years. And it might
take less or more than twenty years to attain with subsequent election of great
leaders like you. Once again Sir, congratulations for your election victory on
March 28th, 2015. May God Almighty keep, guide, bless and protect you and
professor Osinbajo for the task ahead. May God Bless Federal Republic of
Nigeria. Amen.
[BY: Omokehinde, kehindea@yahoo.com]
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