Dear General Muhammadu Buhari: I read several years ago Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s autobiography, “Beckoned to Serve”. President Shagari’s assessment of the coup which removed his democratically elected government is best captured using the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu: The “past refuses to lie down quietly.”
Your generation received the best our country did offer but no longer offers children of the poor. You had world-class training and exposure. Your tutors around the globe regarded you as future African leaders. Some of you fulfilled that prophecy by toppling governments. Your generation of career coup-plotters killed one another largely in the quest for power. Your generation made each other’s wives widows and children fatherless. We will never know what trajectory our country’s fortunes might have taken had you not derailed our nascent democracy in your younger days. People are understandably suspicious of your democratic credentials. Therefore, it is quite paradoxical that you are now viewed as an agent of democratic change.
However, we have all done things in our lives that we profoundly regret. Nigerians are forgiving people. You have become the focal point of the possibility that this moment in our country’s history may bring. These must be exciting yet difficult times for you. The wave of support you currently enjoy is the stuff of history books. It is beyond your person. You have become a symbol. You are riding on the crest of tremendous public goodwill undergirded by palpable Tsunami of change. Having contested multiple times, you now have a realistic chance to be president. What if you won the elections? It is a big “if” but one you may now contemplate.
You must rise to the occasion. Any failure on your part will depress the Nigerian populace perhaps permanently. I will ignore the irrelevant issues. We are too sophisticated, for instance, to believe that you will impose sharia on the whole of Nigeria. I have no reason to doubt that you are a principled person. However, being a disciplined and principled person is only the beginning; it is no guarantee of success. Several more complicated things are involved.
You are no longer a military man and this is not the Nigeria of the 1980s. You will have a steep learning curve. We now have something called the national assembly. Their duty is to check your excesses by debating proposed policies, bills, appointments and so on. They are not boys and girls to boss around. They tend to be quite rambunctious.
Do not fall into the usual mantra of asking the Nigerian masses to make sacrifices. Everyday Nigerians have made sufficient sacrifice and have now won the right to make no more sacrifices. Tell the elites to make their own sacrifices for the sake of the country. For a start, enact policies to reduce the salaries of law-makers, ministers and aides. These salaries are some of the highest in the world as you may be aware. Revive the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to fight corruption. It is quite encouraging that some politicians expect to go to prison during a Buhari presidency. I appreciate their forthrightness.
Your role will be to set standards. There are three broad categories of infrastructure that you have to put in place. These are physical, social and ideational. Physical infrastructure such as roads, rail, electricity, clean water, etc. require no introduction. Social infrastructure such as functional social security, employment insurance and food banks are long overdue. This aspect would require careful thought and broad consultations with some of the best brains around. This would include measures to ensure that no Nigerian goes to bed hungry. Ideational infrastructure is particularly daunting and requires an education system that re-orients Nigerians through formal and informal channels. This entails preparing a 21st Century work force and challenging the pre-eminence of colonial mentality, depleted patriotism and preference for the foreign. “Nigeria first” should be advanced in a nuanced and sophisticated way.
Be wary of peculiar Nigerian species of wolves. Be careful with career politicians. Appoint technocrats to key offices. I would push for a solid representation of women in your government. This is not about feminism. It is about being pragmatic. There is abundant socio-scientific evidence indicating that having women on boards of corporations, for example, leads to better decision making and efficient accomplishment of goals. In many ways, the failure of Nigeria is the failure of male leadership.
Stop shenanigan practices in the oil sector. Diversification of the economy has become imperative as the price of oil continues to drop and countries like the US become increasingly energy-independent. A new administration must improve on the record of the current administration on agriculture. There are reasons to believe that some gains have been made. Ultimately, the average citizen will assess what has been done by how much s/he pays for food in the market.
The Niger Delta must be a top priority. The Ijaw-led insurgency is simmering. No one should be fooled; the potential for another round of insurgency is there. There is no point waiting for young people to take up arms against the state before providing them education, vocational training and employment. The legitimate grievances of the people of the Niger Delta must be addressed. Little has been done to date.
It is important to mobilize the North for educational and economic development. The Talakawas of the North have unnecessarily suffered for too long. Their plight as well as the millions of other impoverished Nigerians is our collective shame. The North as many have noted is the main victim of the supposed northern domination of Nigeria’s political terrain. The poorest 10 states in Nigeria are in the north; the richest 10 states are in the south. That statistic is no accident. It is a result of years of systematic pillage and shocking disregard for human life and dignity by some elites.
Boko Haram is partly the maturation of generations of social inequality and failure to provide basic pedestal for social progress. Please, tell leaders in the North that the hallmark of their performance in office is not the number of people they send to Mecca or Jerusalem but how many people they lift out of debilitating poverty. Declare that the insignia of good leadership is not the number of mass weddings they organize for people too poor to afford a decent wedding for themselves but the number of jobs they provide.
The armed forces, police and other security services require urgent attention. Your mere presence can boost morale. As someone whose father served in the Nigerian army for many years, I request that you develop better working conditions for those who protect us. My father’s generation of soldiers were and are being put through the indignity of unpaid salaries and pensions, as many other Nigerian workers. They gave their youth to our country and were bitterly disappointed by those who delayed or embezzled their monthly pensions. My father is no more on this side of the universe but the current generation of military men and women, particularly the non-commissioned ranks, are suffering.
At 72, the job will be more tasking. I urge you to go the Mandela way. Plan for one term only and leave the stage for a younger person. Second term preoccupation leads to indecisiveness and inertia. Avoid the temptation to be vindictive. Reach out to President Jonathan. Please, note that you cannot call for violence if you lose the election. The aesthetics are beneath your integrity. Your destiny calls; history beckons. May the best candidate win.
Sincerely,
‘Tope Oriola.
‘Tope Oriola is assistant professor of criminology at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is author of Criminal Resistance? The Politics of Kidnapping Oil Workers. Twitter: @topeoriola