His Excellency Mr President is an honest man, a man of integrity. In fact he arguably won the hearts of Nigerians with these qualities. But these qualities don’t put food on the table, they don’t provide electricity or jobs, they do not stabilize the economy. Mr President must know that he is fast running out of time. Nigerians are beginning to have a rethink. They are beginning to wonder if they had been taken for a fool. We didn’t ask this administration to come forth, they did so themselves and they tried hard to convince us they have what it takes, that they have all the solution.
Words alone cannot express how passionate I was about the last general elections that brought this regime to power. I was often in deep thoughts, had restless days and nights, for me, it was the last hope this country had to make it right. Well, so I thought. The Goodluck Jonathan regime became overly successfully in formally institutionalizing corruption in the country, dividing Nigerians across religious and ethnic lines, I saw a calamitous doom for the country and hence did what every patriotic Nigerian did. I gave it my all. I campaigned to my friends, family, everyone I know online and offline. “Buhari is the man”, I tell them. It is either we elect him as our president or forget we have country. It is to be or not to be, it is in the infamous acronym of the then ruling party “a do or die affair”. Eventually our prayer was answered, a regime change ensued.
A year and half later, I am experiencing the same restlessness with lots of questions running through my mind. Were we wrong to have voted in this government? What happened to the promise of change? What ever happened to the change mantra, the change bandwagon which this government rode to power, the promises of better living conditions for Nigerians, employment opportunities, stable electricity, stable economy, oh you know the rest! Have we been deceived yet again? It cannot be! The goodwill this administration enjoyed from Nigerians at its inception is unprecedented. Nigerians for first time took matters into their own hands and voted out a ruling party to give way for the opposition. Nigerians have done their part to save Nigeria. What is this government doing though?
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His Excellency Mr President is an honest man, a man of integrity. In fact he arguably won the hearts of Nigerians with these qualities. But these qualities don’t put food on the table, they don’t provide electricity or jobs, they do not stabilize the economy. Mr President must know that he is fast running out of time. Nigerians are beginning to have a rethink. They are beginning to wonder if they had been taken for a fool. We didn’t ask this administration to come forth, they did so themselves and they tried hard to convince us they have what it takes, that they have all the solution. The vice president himself said all too frequently that good governance is not rocket science. A year and half later I wonder if he still stands by his words. As it appears, rocket science or not, they are in absolutely no control of the situation. Enough said. Let’s take the bull by the horns. I think there is still time to turn things around. To reinstate the confidence Nigerians have on this government, Mr President must act fast. He has been slow and steady for the past couple of months. That has proven to be earnestly ineffectual. Now is the time to be quick and decisive. He must as a matter of utmost urgency address the following issues:
Economy
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Need I tell the sorry state of the Nigerian economy? It has come so bad that an unborn Nigerian could feel it in his mother’s womb. A recession is imminent unless something is done and done fast. Mr President is not an economist, his vice who happens to be the chairman of the nation’s national economic council is a trained lawyer. The entire economic team of the country is made up of old career politicians many of whom have had little or no expertise in economic matters of this magnitude. Look how long it took his Excellency to allow market forces determine the value of the naira. He was adamant. He was begged for months to devalue the currency and he yet refused. He eventually succumbed indirectly when it became evident he had been wrong and at a time already too late. The president must reconsider his economic team. He must be ready to involve the private sector, hire technocrats and experts to get to work. It is high time Nigeria stopped depending on a sole commodity. No tangible effort had yet been made to diversify. We have seen lots of frameworks and talks but no farms, no factories, no schemes, no serious drive from the government to signal diversification. Oil price is falling and it keeps falling. Except something is done to arrest the situation, the Nigerian economy will fall too.
Security
Before this administration, it was boko haram. Now we have militancy in the Niger delta coupled with the remnants of boko haram in the north. The country is not safe for an average Nigerian, how would it be safe for a foreign investor? Who would invest in a country where security remains an issue? The honourable minster of information and culture Mr Lai Mohammed denied the statement credited to the United States government regarding the state of insecurity in some of the states in the country. Truth be told, The US might have exaggerated, that does not mean they are entirely wrong. People must have assurances of their lives and properties. The military must be reformed. A lot has been done but it has proven insufficient. We still have corrupt officers within the ranks and we still hear complaints of soldiers not getting paid. This all must stop at once! Modernize the military, engage in talks with the affected communities with a listening ear, honour all previous agreements with the Niger deltans and speed up the cleaning of ogoni land. Hold corporate bodies and companies responsible for neglect of the laws of the land and of their corporate social responsibility. Take action, stop talking and do something!
Corruption
Of all the high profile corruption cases in several courts across the country, how many convictions has been made? The corrupt mafia is still free, they have resort to the abuse and ridicule of court processes. The inefficiencies in the Nigerian judicial system has been made even more evident. What do you say of a government whose pivotal campaign point was to rid the country of corruption and is yet to make a single high profile conviction in over a year? The president has times without number complained about the Nigerian judicial system. But I ask, if there is something wrong with our judiciary whose responsibility is it to fix it? You are the president, You have the national assembly with majority of its member from your party, send a bill to them, send bills to them, establish special courts , speed up corruptions cases. Nigerians would support. Even if some members of the house oppose, they would eventually bend to the will of the populace. Lastly and most importantly, the president must note that Nigerians are perceiving the anti-corruption crusade to be one-sided and they have a good reason to. Any member of the cabinet that has a case to answer should be allowed to answer. Loyalty to this nation comes first. It comes before loyalty to party, to friends or to cabinet members.
Electricity
The emir of Kano Muhammadu Sansui stated in an interview he granted not too long ago that the Nigerian minister of power is very powerless regarding power supply in the country. This is an open secret, it was always going to be so. Nigerian power sector is an embarrassment. It is a big shame that Africa’s must populous country could hardly go beyond 6,000 megawatts of electricity at best. We have heard of a time the nation produced a total of zero megawatts. It is always dark at night in this big black nation! What is wrong? Again it is not rocket science! I am not a specialist in these issue but I know it comes down to lack of will from the government, corruption through award of contracts to the implementation of it, lack of maintenance of present power installation facilities we already have, sabotage of the industry by the ‘cabal’ for their own personal interests and so on. No matter what the problem is, it is the duty of the government to fix it. Arrest the situation, hire experts, award the contracts, expel the cabals, do whatever is necessary, we don’t care. Just please give us light!
The list goes on, unemployment, education, healthcare. This government should know it has wasted an ample opportunity to make things rights during its first year in office. The administration was so popular and had so much good will coming its way it could crush any cabal of corrupt Nigerians swiftly and would still have the support of the masses. This was not the case however, it acted as if it was not ready for the task that lay before it. One would expect Mr President being a serial contender for the presidency to at least by now have a direct effective strategy to steer the nation to achieve its great potential. It appears not. Mr President should know it is not too late and Nigerians are growing impatient. We are not interested in complains or the blame of past governments. We have heard enough of that. You asked to be elected. You are elected, so start the fix.
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