Category: Letters

SIR: With the declaration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Nigeria’s president-elect, the next journey to our nationhood begins at inauguration on May 29.

However, in the struggle for attainment of power and having regard to the February 25 presidential elections, kudos must go to some certain quarters.

First, Nigerians’ resilience is unparalleled! Despite the series of challenges and contours placed on their path to general election, Nigerians demonstrated their will-power in enacting their sovereignty through voting-power.

The president must be congratulated at least for not to torpedoing the electoral process despite the calls by many. This may go down as his lasting legacy in spite of his failure in other directions.

The electoral body, both its formal and auxiliary frontiers, civil organisations, foreign observers, poll observers  and non-state actors including the press must be congratulated for facing the risk and overcoming the challenges.

All the actors, political parties, candidates, winners or losers must be congratulated for their spirit of participation, as the saying goes; “the essence of going to Olympic is not necessarily to win but in the Spirit of participation”. The losers today may become the winners tomorrow especially the young and promising ones in the race of February 25.

Now that a winner has emerged in the person of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he must be commended for his undying spirit, Spartan focus, passionate patriotism, vigilant perceptiveness, bold and audacious speeches, at desired moments. His agile and robust campaign team matched his craving desire to fulfil an ambition.

But the mandate comes with the daunting challenges of statehood; with pervading insecurity across the country, infrastructural deficits, comatose economy, cries and crow for restructuring, educational deficits, failure of health system, religious extremism and ethnic exclusiveness among other pervading illnesses which have all massively invited poverty, want, diseases, inequities, penury, discontent and frustration to the world black most populous country – the question is, what to do?

The president-elect must on May 29 declare a state of “emergency” in these afore-mentioned sectors of our national life with a view to assembling an unusual and unprecedented team with a track record to solve them.

By this corollary, a government of national harmony, unity, peace and stability cutting across all the political parties in recruitment tenor and non-governmental actors must be sought and put in place.

A broad-based national team reminiscent of American Frederick Delano Roosevelt presidency in United States is in dire need at this time to dislodge all negativities from our land!

The security architecture will need a synergy between our military, paramilitary and secret intelligence agencies with foreign partners. A state of emergency must be declared on education, health, power, security, social infrastructure and even in our agricultural sector. The health sector reform must drastically address the dearth of manpower in the sector: doctors, nurses, specialists who are acknowledged as geniuses, drifting to the foreign land for lack of adequate equipment and welfare packages.

The restructuring agenda will not go away with the passage of time except it is holistically addressed. Try as much any political leader may try in our present dichotomies, it will not wash off our unbundled federalism, ethnic domination, natives/settlers syndromes and other dividing faults in our polity. All must be addressed at a round table with a view to producing a people’s acceptable constitution that adequately addresses our diversities.

The decentralization of the centre will have to come on board with the issue of federating units, state police, local council police and other interwoven security and system analysis.

The kind of industries that Nigeria needs with the rate of unemployment will have to focus on agro-businesses. Power sector and allied industry must be reorganized and decentralized.

The Chinese aphorism provides an instructive lesson “that it does not matter whether the cat is white or black so long it catches the mice”; until these issues are brought out and tackled by broad consultations midwifed by the president-elect and other state collaborators, it will still be “not yet Uhuru on the summer day”.

•Omotayo Ishola, 

Ilorin, Kwara State.

SIR: Revered elder-statesman and a founding member of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Tanko Yakassai, was quoted in a newspaper interview to have called on the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to run an all-inclusive government that will give all Nigerians a sense of belonging.

This call is poignant and resonates with all patriots because in the build-up to the just concluded presidential polls, the nation was badly fragmented along ethnic and religious lines and the results are evidence of this.

Tinubu should not repeat the mistake of Buhari which made many Nigerians to accuse him of nepotism and favouritism. Appointments into public offices should be made to reflect national spread and adhere strictly to the principle of federal character. Talent is not the nativity of any region and no region should be marginalised because they didn’t vote for the ruling party. Some party members who have laboured and toiled to ensure the victory of the party at the polls can be compensated with patronage and appointments into ceremonial positions like board appointments, ambassadorships, etc.

We cannot afford a government that will be dominated a hundred percent by politicians. Different segments of the society need to be brought on board to contribute their own quota to the development of the nation. An all-inclusive and equitable government is what is needed to heal the fault lines which divide us and ensure peace and prosperity.

•Peter Ovie Akus,

 New Jersey, USA.

SIR: If these past weeks have taught us anything, it’s that there are really no answers where we seek them. Our prophets and pastors suddenly became soothsayers, foretelling things that are beyond their ecclesiastical purviews. Some even claimed they’ve seen the night visions and have been granted the crystal ball to look into the future and tell the mind of God concerning the election. As expected, their prophecies fell short. God hadn’t revealed to them anything; they only spoke according to the spur of their emotional state. 

But the damage they’ve done to the faith of those who look up to them as spiritual figures and God’s representatives on earth isn’t inconsequential. These people have begun to question their faith in God, asking and probing His existence because the election didn’t go in their favour. This is the problem with mixing religion with politics. Like water poured into a bowl of oil, one soon finds out that both entities are never bedfellows. These doomsday prophets do more damage to the Christian faith than a well-thought-through atheistic verbiage. 

Who knew that the greatest argument against faith in Christ isn’t the writings of Bertrand Russell, Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins, but the in-working of an electoral process in Nigeria? 

Bad things happen to good people. We don’t always get our way in life simply because we are believers. God never promised Christians that all their leaders will be a David, a man after His heart. He never hinted that His sovereignty will be only made visible when our preferred politicians emerged as winners of election. Talks around doubting God because of an election is at best childish reasoning, and at worst plainly foolish. A true Christian knows that faith isn’t tied on the outcome of the game of power, but on the eternal truth that stretches beyond here into the deep blue sky of the world to come. 

Needless to say, the damage has been done to our collective experience of faith due to those who played the politics of religion, or should I say the religion of politics. Christians need to start rebuilding their trust back in God amid the crucible of political imperfections. If politics only defines your worldview about God, you need a new lens to see God with.

We can believe again in the God who has brought us this far. Politics is a human mechanism that only mimics the higher power of the world to come. It’s a human game played by the transient and faulty rules of human system. Indeed, God is sovereign and He can interfere in our political process whenever He sees fit. But just as we can’t always expect Henry Ford to meddle with the internal combustion of an automobile to avert a fatal car accident, we shouldn’t expect God to always cheat nature to make things go our way. God transcends the natural process of human system. He’s not in any way enslaved by it. 

Let’s not cast away our faith because things don’t go the way we want them to. Elections have come and gone; let’s not throw out our Christian heritage because of our conceived loss. Now, that it’s all over, can we begin to believe again? 

•Cyrus Ademola,

cyrusademola@gmail.com. 

SIR: Conspiracy theories have always been a part of Nigerian politics, with individuals and groups engaging in all manners of intrigues to gain an upper hand in elections. The latest victim of such a is Rt. Hon Simon Lalong, the governor of Plateau State and the director general, APC Presidential Campaign Council, whose defeat in the senatorial elections was orchestrated by some powerful individuals and groups from within and outside the Plateau.

As a leader who believed in competence and capacity over religion and ethnicity, Lalong understood that the most important thing was to deliver the best candidate for Nigerians, regardless of their religion or ethnicity. In this case, the best candidate was Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, who he believed could lead Nigeria to greater heights. The duo had been tried in the past, both having  served their respective states of Lagos and Borno as governors and set a very high standard of governance cutting across infrastructural development, agricultural advancement, improved security architecture, sustainable economic growth and other aspects too numerous to mention.

Lalong’s belief in the competence and capacity of Tinubu and Shettima was not unfounded. He saw the ticket as a pan-Nigeria ticket, without any religious colouration. His decision to support the Muslim Muslim ticket was not without consequences. Although he had never lost an election in his entire political career, the senatorial elections of February 25 would prove different. He lost.

Despite the setback, Lalong remains the hero of the 2023 elections. By rejecting religion and ethnic divide to deliver Asiwaju to Nigerians based on competence and capacity, Lalong showed that a united Nigeria was possible. He demonstrated that leaders who put the interest of the nation above personal ambition and sectional interests could achieve great things.

Lalong’s defeat in the senatorial elections was not just a loss for Plateau State but for Nigeria as a whole. It is a reminder that the forces of division and sectional interests are still alive in Nigerian politics. However, Lalong’s sacrifice for the greater good should be a source of inspiration to other Nigeria leaders. It should remind them that true leadership requires courage, sacrifice, and the ability to put the interest of the nation above personal ambition and sectional interests.

Congratulations, Rt. Hon Simon Bako Lalong, Governor Plateau State, the victorious Director General APC Presidential Campaign Council.

•Dr. Abubakar Abdullahi Kuso,

Jos, Plateau State.

SIR: There have been complaints about the dearth of reading among the youths. It is a global malaise, but how do we make reading habit-formation for kids who are innocent in this age of declining reading habits?

In this age of social media, most youths spend more time on social media than they do learning. But innocent kids who are yet to be connected online can be connected to the habits of reading and learning. Reading more will enlarge their vocabulary and increase their comprehension skills.

But how can parents encourage their kids to read more books? Can we use incentives to awaken their interest in reading?

In Chimamanda Adichie’s Dear Ijeawele, A Feminist Manifesto In Fifteen Suggestion, written as a letter to her friend on how to empower her daughter, she argues that the best way to teach your child to read is by you as a parent to let your child see you reading. As she puts it: “Teach Chizalum to read. Teach her to love books. The best way is by casual example. If she sees you reading, she will understand that reading is valuable.”

Be the role model for your kids to emulate.

What if parents pay their kids for every book they read? Or you tell them that for every book they read, you will take them to a supermarket for shopping. By using this incentive, can we motivate them to develop a lifelong interest in reading?

Some will argue that the incentives will increase their appetite to read more books without accumulating knowledge because their minds will be at the incentive much more than they will be in learning. Their argument might be that once the incentive stops, the push in reading after the incentives are no more may not be there again. As such, reading becomes boring. They opine that reading should be what we do without any material attachment.

Others might disagree that we can use incentives to awaken their interest in reading and become voracious readers along the way. They will argue that by paying them to read, we are teaching them that reading has value.  They opine that if paying them will motivate them to be a voracious reader, why not give it a try? After all, there’s nothing wrong with experimentation.

Chimamanda also didn’t close the door to the money-motivation scheme of paying kids to read. She says, “if all else fails, pay her to read. Reward her.”

When I was around the age of 15, my friends and I usually placed a bet on vocabulary pronunciation and writing. One person would say or pronounce a word he wanted us to write, and anyone who got it right won the bet. But did we learn anything impactful from such an exercise? I do not know! But what I know is that it led us to be interested in searching for vocabulary – nothing more, nothing else.

We didn’t care about the meaning of the word as much as we do for its difficult pronunciation so that our friends would not be able to get its writing.  A few days after, we forgot everything about those vocabularies. We were not doing it for learning. We were after winning the bet. So the reason for our vocabulary research was not for the accumulation of knowledge but for financial gain.

But in our society today, the dilemma is moral bankruptcy. Most people do not know where corruption begins and ends. This is one of the reasons some people see paying kids to read as a corrupt practice that will erode the ethics of learning. They see it as a bribe to action.

Parents who pay their kids for books they read did so with pure intentions to get their kids to develop interests in reading and learning. But the problem is that the intention may be good, but the action might be corrupted.

•Afeez Lasisi,

Lasisiafiz@gmail.com.

SIR: The place of leadership in forging bonds of communality is the place of purpose and deliberateness. The leadership must be very deliberate in managing diversity and in fostering kinship among variegated people. Nation building cannot be left to chance or to the whim of anyone. There must be purposive plans and actions towards uniting the people.

We cannot play possum about unity – most especially now. It has remained a reverie, and an elusive expedition for Nigeria. We yearn for it, or rather quibble about it, but we have not really applied ourselves to dismantling the iron curtains of ethnicity and religion.   

As a matter of fact, it is a sheer pursuit of apparitions to assume or suggest that any single leader can unite Nigeria without the comme-nsurate efforts of citizens to the cause. To unite Nigeria, there is a place for leadership, and there is a place for followership. Uniting Nigeria will involve Nigerians from all strata.  

The place of leadership in achieving unity in Nigeria is the place of personal example. Leadership by deed not just by words – the leadership demonstrating the highest level of objectivity, fairness, and probity in dealing with Nigerians regardless of religious or political persuasion or ethnic background, The leadership showing sufficient inoculation against the contagion of religious and ethnic bigotry and exclusivism. 

Where the leadership betrays prejudices, the followership sunders. The leadership is doomed to be assailed by a phalanx of discontents when it ignores the elements of inclusion. 

This is the reason I applaud Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s first step as president-elect. In his acceptance speech, he gave away his bent and predisposition to bringing sundered people together. The focus of his speech was ‘’Whether you are Batified, Atikulated, Obidient, Kwankwasiyya, or have any other political affiliation, you voted for a better, more hopeful nation and I thank you for your participation and dedication to our democracy. You decided to place your trust in the democratic vision of a Nigeria founded on shared prosperity and one nurtured by the ideals of unity, justice, peace, and tolerance. Renewed hope has dawned in Nigeria.’’

Rotimi Akeredolu, governor of Ondo, said Tinubu set up a committee to meet with presidential candidates for reconciliation. Really, he does not have to, but for a president who wants to build consensus among the people; he is embracing his opponents. This is good sportsmanship. I believe this opens a window into the mentation of Nigeria’s president-elect. It says Tinubu will run an all-inclusive government – a government of national unity.  

It is against this background that I consider the hostilities from Peter Obi, the Labour Party, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) despite the efforts at rapprochement by Tinubu as ill-advised. I wish Peter Obi would listen to wise counsel and not go down this scorched path. The election is done. There is nothing to be had on this path, but animosity, isolation, and tension. It is time for reconciliation and working together for Nigeria.

For his first shot at the top job, Peter Obi’s performance in the presidential election is commendable and a learning curve. But it was clear he had no chance of winning the election. He did not secure 25% of votes in 25 states and did not garner enough popular votes. I believe it will be more historic if Obi extends a hand of fellowship to the president-elect than chasing apparitions and chest thumping while at it.

If his pursuit for power is in the public interest, he must look beyond himself, and seek to support the next government for the good of Nigerians he professes to love. A Nigeria that works for all is what we need.

Tinubu has shown by his recent aspect that he is of the nationalist phylum but with a surfeit of understanding of the imperativeness of building a nation on the back of consensual support, and responsibility. He must stay on this path. It will get rocky, but he must maintain equal oomph even when his efforts are unrequited.

A Nigeria that works for all is what we need. Uniting Nigeria will be hard labour, but it is a task that must be done.

•Fredrick Nwabufo,

<fredricknwabufo@yahoo.com>

SIR: In the golden words of Albert Pike, an American author, poet, orator, editor, lawyer, jurist and Confederate general who served as an associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court in exile from 1864 to 1865: “What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us, but what we have done for others, and for the world remains and is immortal.”

Another American writer, statesman and scientist, Benjamin Franklin averred that “if you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, you either write things worth reading or do things worth writing about.” Therefore, the huge responsibility to protect the sanctity of our electoral system becomes inevitable.

Our children and younger ones (youths who are mostly complicit in the rot in the society) are behaving like those in my generation and before us. They say that they want change. What is happening now should be an opportunity for them to really break with the past. But, what do we see: desperation, cyber-bullying, threats and name-calling.

Our vibrant citizens particularly the restive youths should get on social media and tell themselves and the whole world that they are breaking with the past and are accepting, without rancour, the results of our elections. If they do this, the whole world would respect and give them more support while the older ones would be completely disarmed forever. Strategy is required, and this should be one of their political strategies towards success.

Election is not a game of entitlement. This is where I completely disagree with many of our faith-based leaders. You either win or lose. And once the results are announced, the winners or losers should take a position of a good sportsman. It’s like a football match. You may have complaints about the game or the referee, but the result remains the end game. If you disagree, the only option available is the court!

The road must be the Promised Land not the Golgotha; you are the heroes of our democracy; it is your victory. To the president-elect and his deputy, history beckons as they shepherd and navigate us through the dark cloud with ‘Renewed Hope’.

I end with the profound words of Clive Staples Lewis, a British writer and Anglican lay theologian: “The road to the promised land runs past Sinai. The moral law may exist to be transcended: but there is no transcending it for those who have not first admitted its claims up on them, and then tried with all their strength to meet that claim, and fairly and squarely faced the fact of their failure.”

•Richard Odusanya,

odusanyagold@gmail.com