The Nation Newspaper

Tag: letter

  • Open letter to President-elect

    SIR: Permit me to use this medium to congratulate you for the success your political party recorded in the recent general elections in the country. I must also quickly add that, I sympathize with you over the state of helplessness the nation you are going to preside over has degenerated to. Sir, it would be absolutely impossible for anyone to analyze to you the magnitude of challenges facing our institutions on the pages of newspapers, suffice to say that, one could attempt to select critical ones. I have therefore decided to pick on the Civil Service being the fulcrum within which the bureaucracy revolves as well as the imperative of policy sustainability and democratic stability in Nigeria.

    The Civil Service has of recent, witnessed many reform initiatives aimed at repositioning it in order to face the contemporary challenges of globalization and economic development. Unfortunately however, despite the numerous reforms, not much success has been recorded, while the little made has been whittled down over the years. The fundamental reason behind this apparent lack of sustainability, is largely due to the failure of the Civil Service as an institution to perform its role responsibly arising from its docility and lack of capacity to adjust to contemporary challenges.

    The collateral effect of this unfortunate action has therefore affected the performances of other regulatory institutions such as the Federal Civil Service Commission, Federal Character Commission, Public Complaints Commission, National Salaries, Incomes, and Wages Commission in view of their symbiotic relationships. Of particular concern is the apparent lack of monitoring and coordination often exhibited by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation on regulatory matters. A situation where circulars and other directives emanating from such office are not enforced jeopardizes the essence of the Office and promotes impunity in the system. The feedback mechanism has been truncated, and only matters of “mutual interest” are concluded. Similarly, record keeping and management, which is vital for national development plans is lacking thereby leading to duplication of efforts and waste of resources as well as the loss of institutional memory.

    You may be surprised to know that, there is hardly any issue of national Importance that has not been analyzed and documented by participants of the National Institute for Policy and Strategies Studies (NIPSS). Yet, the Office of the Vice President and that of the Head of Civil Service pays little or no attention to such papers. I honestly find it difficult to rationalize a situation where the country spends about N15 million per course on each of the 65 participants in Kuru and yet has no programme for them despite our deficit in capacity building.

    I read in the dailies that government has been borrowing money to pay salaries of federal Civil Servants. I am the least surprised by the Finance Minister’s pronouncement. This is largely because the Office to the Head of Civil Service of the Federation and that of the Accountant General of the Federation lacks the proper coordination mechanism to monitor the activities of the newly introduced Integrated Personnel Payroll System (IPPS). The managers of the system have abused the principle behind the programme and now collaborate with Parastatals and Agencies to capture irregular employees into the national budget.

    Sir, it is also imperative to note that, successive regimes have been faced challenges of inadequate institutional policy and legal frame work leading to the duplication of projects, overlapping mandates for agencies and institutions and lack of clarity of institutional programmes which affect their performances. Recently, the Orosanye Committee recommended the merger and scrapping of institutions with overlapping responsibilities in order to curtail waste and improve performance, but political interest by President Jonathan’s administration denied its implementation. This should therefore be explored in view of our dwindling resource and high external debt.

     

    • Salisu Auwal, mni,

    Kano

     

  • Letter to NIJ provost

    First, I want to commend the brilliant decision of the Governing Council of Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) to appoint you as provost. The appointment has brought to the fore a new dawn; one which, if carefully harnessed, would spur the much-needed transformation in the institution. And going by the statement by the institution’s management on January 24, many people believe you are the right person to lead the institution to a brighter future.

    Sir, I am addressing this letter to you because many premise the survival of this institution over the years largely on the past achievements of your predecessor. That is cheering news to know.

    But we cannot deny the fact that  the institution has been deprived of professionalism. Media houses do not value products of the school, especially those of us in communication. Students struggle to get internship opportunities, which are part of the programmes recommended by the National Board for Technical Education. Still, we are made to understand that this is the best Nigerian institution to be reckoned with when communication is placed on the front burner.

    NIJ used to be known as a tertiary institution with lecturers that have practised or still practising the journalism. Some lecturers of the school have no practical experience. They rely largely on paper knowledge, which only fuels the skills gap we see around. During my programme I could recall one of my lecturers that would never answer any question on Journalism. Whenever she was asked, she just won’t hesitate to retort: “I am not a journalist.” Whatever that means.

    Ordinarily, NIJ is an institution that should be reckoned with not only in professional terms but also in global best practices, which are rare values there; they just seem not to exist. Students want to feel the professional touch of the institution but it has since remained like a tall dream.

    As students, we were unable to explore and utilise our creative verve since the environment just did not encourage that. That is not the spirit of 21st century ducation.

    Again, I would not forget to remind you that we have had enough under the lone wolf on the prowl, where students’ voices have been muzzled by a system which seeks its own rather than the general good.

    The students’ body functions occasionally.They are only known for organising the yearly students’weeks. Students Representative Council (SRC) should not just be effective during the students’ week. They should be allowed to make helpful input and contribute to the debate in promoting the founding values of the institution.

    Everything has changed since the exit of the immediate past provost, Dr Elizabeth Nkem. I won’t also forget to tell you that the gate-keepers usually drive the students away like a gang of insane persons after lectures, claiming to act on your instructions. That is highly demeaning of the students and we cannot accept that.

    Students of the institution in the 90s say to our faces that the school has lost its essence; its spark, its social life. They tell us how rosy life used to be in their own time. I would have doubted the veracity of those claims if I heard it from just an individual. But many alumni have confirmed this beyond my doubts.

    Despite that our school is regarded as the professional hub of journalism training, many tertiary institutions, especially universities, do not admit students of NIJ into their programmes. Every well-wisher of the instutition should reject such baseless discrimination. What is disturbing is that the institution has not related fairly with organisations who would have been willing to sponsor innovations and add value to the school. Healthy partnerships have always remained central to any progressive-minded institution. NIJ has not explored this window of opportunity as expected.

    With a great sense of responsibility, if these issues raised here are not properly handled by your administration, the change mantra you have been chanting just won’t fly; it just would be futile. Your appointment has heightened our anticipations and we sincerely hope you will live up to these expectations.

    Thank you sir.

     

  • Letter to Corps members

    Letter to Corps members

    Aduaya to my fellow Corps members and good citizens of Nigeria. It is with deep sense of modesty and respect that I write this letter to you today about the general elections, which has just been postponed to March 28. It is very pertinent and germane to urge us to reawaken the spirit of patriotism in us and make render a selfless service to our country.

    This missive is rather timely, especially at this critical period in the history of Nigeria when people are again faced with another opportunity to change the destiny of this country. We must act towards upholding the honour and glory of our nation.

    Whatever decision we make, we should be sure that it will have significant effect on us and posterity, either positively or the other way.

    Our inputs as ad-hoc electoral officers during the elections must be a road map for the Nigeria we all aspire and desire to live in. Our actions during on the election day should be more of a clarion call and our activities should portray that of a patriotic citizen. It is our duty to shun every form of electoral malpractices and violence.

    The role of Corps members in all states of the federation cannot be underestimated. Notwithstanding, Corps members’ contribution to this nation, during elections, cannot be well-compensated with political appointment, money, filthy largesse  or whatever gift that politicians can push forward.

    Our role in the elections is a duty to protect the mandate of the people towards reshaping the country and make Nigeria a better society for all of us. We must not compromise the will of the people and subvert the electoral process because of personal gains.

    Aside being Corps members, we are also Nigerians. Therefore, efforts of the people to vote for candidates they deem would provide an enabling environment for us all, create job opportunities, give us better welfare, drinkable water and stable power supply, should not be traded for an immediate reward. Our reward shall come from the improved economy and job creation.

    It is on this note that I enjoin all members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to be diligent, hardworking and morally upright during the elections to guarantee us a nation where travesty and parody of justice will go into extinction.

    We can make the poll credible and generally-acceptable by being extremely disciplined, indefatigable and conscious of our acts during the process. We need to obey the clarion call to serve with good and pure mind. May God bless Nigeria.

     

    •Alex is a Corps member, NYSC Akure

  • One more letter to candidate Buhari

    Dear, Gen. Buhari, I feel duty-bound to write this one more letter to you before the presidential election which is due in only two weeks. My hopes and fears for Nigeria compel me.

    You and I can remember that our Nigeria at independence was taking strong steps towards success, prosperity and greatness in the world. Since then, it has slumped and relentlessly declined. And now that we are senior citizens, our country has reached an absolute bottom – with fears that it can implode and disappear. Because I see that your chances of winning this election are good, I believe I have a duty to speak to you.

    Honestly, I must say that, ordinarily, I should not be speaking like this to a Nigerian leader from the North. By the time I came into Nigeria’s politics in the 1970s, I had studied and taught African and Nigerian history in universities for years, I had travelled extensively in Africa, and I was well informed about the reasons why Nigeria was declining. Of the man-made factors in those reasons, the most potent was the deliberate design of our northern controllers of federal power at independence to use all and every means to make their own nationality dominant over Nigeria so as to rule Nigeria forever. By the mid-1970s, that design had produced an agenda for using federal public money to corrupt, emasculate and subdue the elites from all parts of Nigeria. I served in the leadership group of the UPN and in the Senate during the Shagari presidency, and I watched this agenda as it virulently weakened other political parties in the National Assembly, fomented division and discord in many state governments, and ultimately destabilized many state governments. I watched it as it inculcated unbridled greed and corruption into our country’s politics and public service – and as it gradually destroyed the moral foundations of our country.

    But, in spite of all this, I must, in duty, talk to you. All things about you considered, I believe that you are different in a way that is good for our country; I believe that, in spite of your origin, ethnicity and religion, you are very able to envision, independently, a clear picture of what you believe to be right for our country, and you are exceptionally able to follow what you believe to be right. Very few human beings, coming from your background in 1983, would have dared to take the steps which you took on December 31 of that year – namely, to shut down the Shagari presidency, and to tell the world that you had done it in order to save the ordinary citizens of Nigeria from a boundless corruption that was bringing poverty, suffering and sadness into their lives. Of course, when you hounded into prison folks like me, Chief Ajasin, Chief Fasoranti, Alhaji Jakande, Chief Bola Ige and others who had been fighting the corruption in our own ways before you came, I thought you were confused and I despised you.  But even in prison, I could not help wondering that a leading Fulani person had dared to pull down the system of government by corruption which his own people had very adroitly choreographed.  I could not help admiring your guts.

    Out of prison some months later, and back to my task of studying the affairs of my country, I was not surprised that many among the northern elite (your own people) regarded you as a traitor and an enemy. Many of such persons still regard you as a traitor, rebel, and enemy today – and Nigeria has been hearing trenchantly from some of them in recent weeks. But, happily, in the same vein, the masses of the common people of the North see you as a friend who can revamp their country, and who can give them a chance to share in the prosperity that you can usher in for Nigeria. The pauperized masses of the South share the same enthusiasm for you, and the same hope in you. It is therefore on behalf of these poor masses of Nigerians in all regions of Nigeria that I hereby offer you the following thoughts.

    First, I know you will fight corruption. Be assured that you will enjoy very strong support as you do it. But, please be aware that subduing corruption per se would be no more than only a Pyrrhic victory. After you leave the presidency, if the presidency still controls all the limitless powers it controls today, with the limitless financial resources, and the limitless freedom to access the finances, your successor can simply revive the corruption. Remember that after Babangida replaced you in 1985, he simply revived and enhanced corruption – and even constructed corruption into an avowed system of governance.

    Secondly, therefore, you must lead our country towards appropriately restructuring our federation. I am aware that some of your most eminent Arewa kinsmen want the federation to remain in its present form, with the federal government controlling all powers and resources, with states too impotent to achieve meaningful development, with the federal government able to barge disruptively  and obstructively  into any state, with the states operating as clients of the federal overlord, and with controllers of federal power presuming that it is their right to decide election results all over Nigeria and to enthrone persons of their choice in all states. Essentially, what we now have is not federalism at all. Restructuring it should have three objectives – to affirm respect for, and promote harmony among, our indigenous nationalities; to establish strong and development-capable states; and to ensure a federal government competently managing the commanding heights of our country’s economy, defending our country, and managing our country’s relations in the world. I believe that even against your own kinsmen’s objection, you have the strength of character to do this. That strength of character, I repeat, is what is now endearing you to very many Nigerians.

    Thirdly, you must lead us to redirect and enrich our economy – by developing dependable infrastructures; and by investing in our common people to build a strong modern economy (through expansion and improvement of education, modern job-related skills, entrepreneurial, small-business, and modern farming development progammes, and promotion of export orientation). As I have written before in this column, we can learn a lot from a small country like Singapore. This expanding economy will nurture a strong modern labour force, create businesses, expand employment, de-emphasize our people’s dependence on politics as a means of livelihood, rapidly increase efficiency, decrease poverty, and systematically help to banish public corruption.

    Fourthly, you must lead us to review our governmental system. Our present presidential system, with presidents and governors seeing themselves as dictators, has been a disaster. It is one of the reasons why impunity and corruption have grown so strong in our country. We need to return to the parliamentary system with its principle of shared responsibilities at the top of government. We need to infuse discipline and respect for laws into our politics and governance. And we need to infuse integrity into every department and position in our governments.

    In summary, the masses of our people are saying that they hope you can recreate Nigeria for them (and downsize the political barons and kleptocrats). Will you fulfil their hopes?

  • That letter from Akinyemi to Buhari, Jonathan

    SIR: The open letter by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, Nigeria’s former Minister of External Affairs and deputy chairman, 2014 National Conference, to the two major contestants in the next year’s presidential election; President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will continue to generate mixed reactions in the polity because it touched on issues that border on our corporate existence as a nation.

    Akinyemi, a Professor of Political Science, had written that shortly after the appointment of the late National Security Adviser to the President, General Owoye Azazi, he met with him (NSA), at his own request,  to discuss the state of the nation on the eve of the 2011 general elections. At the said meeting, he allegedly told the General that he was neither worried about the conduct of the elections nor its outcome, which he expected President Jonathan to win. Rather, what really worried him was the management of the purported violence that would ensue after the elections, which he said would be massive. He disclosed that he suggested to Azazi the ways, in which the violence likely to be ensued, could be contained but that his advice was not acted upon and at the end, elections took place, Jonathan won and “all hell broke loose” because the conflict-controlled measures offered to Azazi were not adopted.

    Akinyemi averred that now that the nation was “back at the same crossroads again” and this time, it was likely to be more precarious, dangerous and severe than the 2011 experience due to the

    “very notorious prediction from the United States of America’s semi-official sources that the world is expecting a cataclysmic meltdown of the Nigerian nation come 2015″.

    Akinyemi concluded his letter by offering two ways out of the gloomy situation: That both presidential candidates should meet and sign a Memorandum of Undertaking  (MoU) that would commit them to civil and peaceful campaigns devoid of threats by preaching the imperative of peaceful elections, taming of party supporters, preventing violent protests and holding of a pre-election meeting between the candidates and the assemblage of 10 “council of wisemen” that would assist in managing the envisaged post-election conflicts.

    Despite the stark reality that all is not well with us as a nation, the options propounded by the well-respected Professor may, however, not be too helpful in finding solutions to the identified problems. We should ask: to what extent are the presidential aspirants truly liable for the conduct of their supporters?

    At the root of the identified problems is the current structure of the federation. Over the years, the various geo-political zones have never ceased to complain of one form of marginalisation or the other bordering chiefly on resource allocation, infrastructural and political advantage. That is why every ethnic or tribal group wants to gain power at all cost in a bid to redistribute national resources to regions. These agitations as pointed out by Akinyemi, did not just start now. So, why should the presidential aspirants sign any MoU and be held liable for the perceived injustice in the system?

    The real solution to the nation’s problems include the practice of true federalism, good governance, promotion of the rule of law, conduct of free and credible elections and the smooth functioning of

    our public institutions as opposed to the glorification of individuals, personalities or “council of wisemen”, as recommended by Akinyemi. When public institutions like INEC, the judiciary, police and other law enforcement agencies are made to function efficiently and effectively, most of the problems afflicting us as a nation will be surmounted. This is what is obtainable in other progressive nations around the world. He should join others to ensure that the identified problems facing us as a nation, and the way forward – as highlighted in report of the National Conference, of which he was an active player – are implemented without further delay.

    • Adewale Kupoluyi

    Federal University Of Agriculture, Abeokuta.

  • Letter to General Buhari

    Our dear country, on account of its tremendous potentials in human and natural resources, was the envy of the Third World including neighbours Ghana, South Africa and the Asian Tigers, when you were born 72 years ago. As you grew up, you must have watched with high-tension indignation, like other zealous patriots, how those less-endowed competitors gradually but steadily overtook the fearsome-looking Nigeria, ultimately establishing a commanding, near-unassailable lead in the marathon race of national development. Such indignation has caused you to seek on different platforms, the opportunity to put in your

    patriotic quota in reversing the ugly trend, typified, for example, by the callous manner Second Republic politicians compounded the nation’s woes between 1979 and 1983. But the agents and promoters of rot in uniform, agbada and babariga, pampered by intellectual gangsters, have always conspired to prevent you from doing for Nigeria what Jerry Rawlings, armed with your brand of zealous patriotism, courage, sincerity and discipline, did for Ghana.

    In a similar letter of mine (Lamentations to Jeremiah of May, 2011) to “the best president Nigeria never had” in the great beyond, I lamented about how the woes of the country which he laboured hard for an opportunity to fix had worsened since he departed. You will recall that after his yet unsuccessful attempt at the opportunity in 1983, he told the nation he would not personally press for it again.

    Rather, “when Nigerians need me, they will call for me,” he had closed. Unfortunately, by the time Nigerians realized he was the best president they could have had, it was too late!

    You will recall, also, the desperate attempts, before then, by those whose very essence and livelihood depended solely on profiting from the woes of their nation, to ensure he never smelt that opportunity to do for Nigeria what he did for the Western Region. Then, raw falsehood competed violently with pure treachery. If River Kaduna overran its banks, sweeping away Aliyu’s hut, Emeka’s car failed to start in Abakaliki, or Aremu’s wife in Ogbomoso went into prolonged labour, Awolowo surely had a case to answer!

    This is why I did not start by congratulating you on your overwhelming endorsement by your party for the 2015 presidential election. Already, you have become, more than ever, the object of similar mischief, falsehood and treachery coming from your opponents and those who provide the intellectual fillip on the opinion and other pages of newspapers.

    You are such an intimidating and fearsome “semi-illiterate” that the super literates in the land have had to go on gruelling academic research in yet futile attempts to rubbish you.

    They accuse you of once threatening to “make the country ungovernable,” even though those who actually made the particular statement at the time of a tragicomic internal succession war belonged to the camp of your opponents. You are desperately labelled sponsor of Boko Haram, even when those who have been able to capture evil resources large enough to sponsor terror are as close to them as they are distant from you. They describe you, with several Christians on your intimate personal staff, as “unrepentant religious bigot, northern irredentist and political demagogue.” Yet the political heavyweight your military government packaged in a crate from London en-route Nigeria to answer for economic crime against the country was a fellow northerner and fellow Muslim.

    In other such attempts, they have found it a “visible fact” that you are not abreast of some imaginary “global issues of today and tomorrow.” Ordinary Nigerians on the streets however, know that the global issues you are allergic to are the mindless looting of the treasury, insensitive cornering of people’s commonwealth and “gluttonous accumulation of wealth.”

    You are described as one to whom “there are blue bloods and talakawas whose place in life is hewing wood and drawing water”! If you who have refused to steal from the rich, the not-so-rich and the talakawas could be so described, how then do we describe the demonic gluttons who gleefully corner talakawas’ pension funds in hundreds of billions while they watch, callously, as the poor souls perish on the queues waiting for their rightful entitlements?

    In fact, dear General, some plots have been about sheer trivialities, some so ridiculous they begin to border on intellectual idiocy. That it took you seven days to announce the identity of your running mate has become an issue of campaign of calumny, as if the time taken in making a choice is of greater significance than making a right choice. They say the firmness and activeness of your military government could only be credited to your Second-In-Command as he was actually in charge. But if your deputy was actually the one in charge, why then was he Number Two?

    The truth of the matter, however, was that you were such a liberal and selfless leader who believed in sharing service and limelight with your deputy. Hence you chose a man with similar sterling attributes, as you have done again, to do more of the interaction with the public.

    To your detractors, you are by far the oldest human being ever to aspire to lead a nation. The global icon, Nelson Mandela, fresh from 27 years in prison, became South Africa’s president at 76. Americans who elected John Kennedy president at 41 were the same people that made Ronald Reagan president at 70. Tunisians, progenitors of the recent Arab Spring, have just elected an 88-year old uncle of yours as president in continuation of their revolution.

    Unlike most Nigerian political leaders, past and present, you have not been moving in and out of hospitals on account of ill-health. Yet they accuse you of lack of vibrancy. At 99, your mother, (her first three children are all older than you), Yeye Oodua, Mama HID Awolowo, still bubbles with such inspiring vibrancy that she still coordinates the affairs of the descendants of Oduduwa.

    General, your haters are not relenting. And they are not expected to relent even though, as fresh as their focus had been presented to be, they still have not been able to clear the cobwebs of economic rascality, institutional lawlessness and political brigandage in which the Nigerian nation has been entangled for decades. You should expect them to become even more desperate, dangerous and deadly in coming weeks. They will do all in their political and intellectual capacity to cajole and instigate the Nigerian people against you. But it is left for the people to decide not yours but their fate.

    Have a fruitful, glorious campaign, General, and a Happy New Year.

  • Letter to Gen. Buhari – 2

    I closed the first part of my letter last week with the following words: “I know you have what it takes to change and save Nigeria. I wish you luck in your election – and I wish Nigeria luck”.

    I mean those words sincerely. Your record in our country’s public service shows that you honestly hate public corruption, and that you can sincerely wage war on, and suppress, public corruption. I have also read your manifesto and, from the simplicity of its presentation, I am persuaded that you sincerely mean all you have outlined in it. Though I have ceased belonging to any political party for a long time, I believe it will be good for our brutally vandalized and tottering country if we voters choose you as president at this critical time.

    Our mutual sincerity encourages me to utter the following pleas and words of advice. Certainly you are aware that many Nigerians are concerned and even fearful about the persistent claims by some of the Hausa-Fulani political leadership that their Hausa-Fulani nation must dominate Nigeria as a sort of colonial overlord. You know as much as anybody that that thorny fact has been a very major factor in the making of our country’s disunity, conflicts, and instability. Usually, people do not accuse you personally of sharing in that mentality; but since you are Hausa-Fulani, and since some of your people perpetually noise that claim and make efforts to achieve it, it is a large though mostly unspoken factor in the coming presidential election. It would be a pity if this should cause serious problems for such a good candidate as you at this time.

    Therefore, I urge you: use your undoubted capabilities to put an end to this terrible tradition – in the interest of our country. Realistically, no single one of our nationalities can dominate all the rest of us. It is impossible. How can one nationality, even if it is larger than all the rest of us put together, dominate all the rest of us in any full or lasting sense? And we do not have any numerically dominant nation like that. Our three largest nationalities (Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo) are very close in population size, and each of them is a minority in Nigeria. How can the Hausa-Fulani succeed in subduing and dominating the large and capable Yoruba or Igbo – not to talk of all the nationalities of Nigeria?  Talking about domination and trying to achieve it has only bred hostility, crookedness, and instability in our country. It is time we remove that obstacle from the path to our country’s stability, progress and prosperity – and you can lead us to do it. Please sincerely strive to do so. Let it be one of your immortal gifts to our country. Nigeria is a country in which we all can prosper – and together build a world power.

    That leads me to another but related subject. The reason most of the Hausa-Fulani elite are forever angling for a bigger, more powerful, and more resource-controlling Federal Government, is that they believe that, by having that kind of federal government and ensuring their own control of it, they will be able to subdue and dominate all of Nigeria. But it is a nebulous and disruptive venture. Yes, they have succeeded in pulling power and resources into the hands of the federal government, but have their homeland or anybody else gained anything from that? The most important result is that the federal government has become a podgy, ponderous, incompetent and repulsively corrupt monstrosity, a constant manipulator of elections and other vital processes across our land, a destroyer of development and progress in our country, and a disgrace to our country in the wide world. You acknowledge almost as much as this in your manifesto.

    The federal government’s obstruction to development is hurting all parts of our country. For instance, our Northern Region saw a great deal of development and progress under the regional leadership of the late Sir Ahmadu Bello. Since all the power and resources for development have been gradually pulled together at the federal centre, has the North not steadily declined in economic progress? Is the same not true of the East and the West? Obviously, the answer is to take away much of the ponderous powers of the federal government, reenergize the different parts of our country, and thus bring development close to our people again. Empower the elite of our various parts to handle the development of their people, and our country will pick up again. Moreover, leave each part to elect the local men and women who will handle their affairs, and stop the destructive assumption that those who control the federal government have the prerogative to choose rulers for all parts of Nigeria. Flush corruption out of our elections. These are things you are capable of leading us to accomplish. We have high hopes in you – and we will support you.

    Then, I wish to offer some counsel concerning your fighting corruption. Our country’s experiences show that going after those who have been corrupt and punishing them is an unreliable and problematic approach, potentially capable of generating division and even conflict. This is because, in a country in which ALL public servants (politicians, civil servants, judges, and all) have descended into the culture of corruption, punishing some people tends to degenerate into a process of selective justice. Groups that feel that their own leaders are being punished selectively cannot be blamed if they feel bitter. For instance, even though I hate public corruption as a destructive evil and fought it passionately throughout my service to Nigeria, it hurts me to remember that, among the generally corrupt Nigerian leadership of today, my prominent kinsman like Bode George was sent to prison, or that the federal government started a vindictive case against Bola Tinubu some time ago. If punishment is one of the weapons you decide to employ against corruption, please make sure that the process is manifestly even-handed.

  • Open letter to defence chiefs

    SIR: This letter is vital to you at this moment in the background of predictions that Nigeria will break up in 2015. There is a dangerous trend afflicting the military today: politicians are gradually involving the institution in the wars they create. Before now, many people were of the view that soldiers will always rise against bigotry. But that’s simply not true. If tension could tear the military’s fabric apart before before the  civil war, it can happen again.

    Sirs, why should a garrison of the military be allocated to guard the homes, entourage and kinfolks of people of influence when these personnel are needed in the field to protect national interests especially in the light of emerging internal security challenges?

    Shouldn’t the government fashion out a way to give licences to retired military personnel to establish private security companies like Blackwater (a private military Army in the US that even went to foreign mission in Iraq before the ignoble shootings that led to the withdrawal of its license) to be supervised by the Army Intelligence so that the military will be left to concentrate on their regimental duties while the private security companies go on to protect those that can afford their services?

    The military over time has displayed skill and courage within and outside Nigeria. The country needs to appreciate their worth not only as the fight against the insurgency rages but at all times and its members in-and-out of service must not be left to suffer in ignominy.

    Your time in office should be used to get the political class to address the needs of the military more. Past military leaders have baulked at acquiring modern armaments for fear of coups; civilian administrators likewise have either towed same line or refused to convoke bi-partisan meetings needed to help the military.

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Port Harcourt,

    Rivers State

  • Letter to Gen. Buhari

    First of all, I congratulate you warmly for winning the nomination of your party for the presidency of Nigeria.

    Though you and I are different in ethnicity and religion, we have many important things in common. I am about two years older than you – which means that if you and I had been Yoruba boys  born in the same Yoruba town or village, we would have belonged to the same age-grade association ( with us Yoruba, age-grade loyalty is traditionally a very important factor of life).  Moreover, you and I were young adults in an era, the 1950s, when our up-and coming country of Nigeria was a source of great pride to its citizens, and an emerging titan eagerly awaited by most informed people all over the world. The three regions of our federation (East, North and West) were engaged in an ambitious rivalry for progress and for improvements in the quality of life of our people. They were able to do that and achieve considerable successes because our constitutional structure gave them much leeway to manage their own affairs within the common Nigerian family. We arrived at independence in 1960 believing that our country was set on the path to becoming the Blackman’s world power of modern times.

    Unhappily, now that you and I have arrived at our grand age of near 80, there is nothing left of our country’s ambitions and pride – indeed, there is hardly anything left of our country itself. Relentlessly crooked up, violated, robbed and depleted since 1960, our Nigeria seems now to be stumbling towards its demise.

    As you prepare for your election, I decided to write you this open letter concerning our country, because I know you will understand the pain and expectations behind my words. The purpose of most of Nigeria’s rulers since 1960 has been to weaken and even destroy regional and local initiatives in order to gather all power, control and influence together at the federal centre. Their success in doing that has enabled them to remove the management of development far away from our people, and to institute at the federal centre a viciously corrupt,wasteful and incompetent monstrosity.  Reduced to the status of beggar clients of the federal robber barons, the state governments, as well as the local governments, collapsed and fell in line as submissive incompetents and mini-robbers.

    In the process, real and productive enterprise quickly declined among our people, as the best and most ambitious rushed to join the ranks of the sharers of fraudulently acquired wealth from the public coffers. Our schools and universities, our public service, our police force, our military, our judiciary, all our governmental agencies (electoral commission, secret service, central bank, ports service, immigration service, public examination bodies, etc) – all collapsed under the weight of crooked control, massive corruption and generalized disloyalty. Poverty descended mightily into our country and became the lot of the overwhelming and increasing majority of our people. Our government itself admits that, today, about 70% of our citizens live in “absolute poverty” and that that percentage keeps increasing. With the growing poverty have escalated horrific crimes, a culture of dishonesty, a rush of our youths to Salafist fundamentalist terrorism, and mass flights of the educated to other lands – all of which are compounding the poverty.

    From your well-known record as a leader of our country, I know that you are not only aware of these things, but that, in common with many members of our generation, you are seriously pained by them. I confess that I was very angry with you during your brief stint as military ruler, 1983-5. First, you seemed to me to be power-drunk at the time – because you made no distinction between the corrupt who had been stealing and sharing public money under Shagari and those who were known to have been resisting the robbery. I belonged to the frontline of senators who were well known to have, on the floor of the Senate,  resisted the mass corruption, and yet your military government detained me (and many like me), and I languished for four months in prison without any accusation – even without being asked any question by any official.

    And then, you and Idiagbon expended most of your obviously shining  capabilities in pursuing nebulous and amateurish programmes like WAI (War Against Indiscipline), when what our country really needed was (after you had fiercely shot down corruption as you did)  to massively divert our enormous oil revenues into investments in the lives of our people – through programmes for expansion and diversification of education, modern job skills development, entrepreneurial  development, small business development, promotion of modern farming, policies for improving the quality and reputation of our labour force and thereby attracting investments and businesses into our country, policies for promotion of exports, etc. Put a people to work and persistently multiply the economic opportunities available to them, and the attraction to prosperity through competitive enterprise will gradually suppress indiscipline in their land. Fanciful programmes like WAI can have no lasting benefit or future – as I hope you must know by now. That is why the man who ousted you, Babangida, was able quite easily to wipe out all the patriotic gains of your regime.

    Furthermore, I though t it was a pity that you did not appear to recognize that the over-centralization that was being given to our federation was the foundation of our ills as a country. You were wrong in thinking that punishing the corrupt leaders would destroy corruption abidingly. What is needed is to change the system into which corruption has been built. In our country’s case, we needed (and we need) to reduce the magnitude of our federal government and empower our lower levels of government, nearer the people, to bear most of the burden of development. Then we need to give recognition and respect to our various nationalities in building the system – which should mean that our larger nations would each constitute a state, and contiguous groups of our smaller nationalities would be assisted to form states, just as the Indians sensibly and profitably did in the 1960s.

    By refusing g to go that route, Nigeria has abysmally depressed its nationalities. For instance, my Yoruba nation came into Nigeria in 1914 as easily the fastest modernizing nationality in Black Africa; and we entered into independence with Nigeria in 1960 as the development front-liner and pace-setter in Africa. Today, we are a battered, poor, and disoriented nation, and most of our achievements have been wrecked, thanks to our being part of a Nigeria that destroys its peoples. Every other Nigerian nationality has similar stories to tell. My brother, I am, by nature and by upbringing, averse to merely lamenting an evil development; I act to change it.  My potential urge, even as I write this, is to exert myself with others like me towards pulling my Yoruba nation out of Nigeria if Nigeria will not change course – and that is something that we Yoruba are perfectly capable of achieving if we start upon it. And the same is true of some other persons and nations.

    In short, let’s not ignore or minimize the danger of Nigeria’s dissolution. I know you have what it takes to save Nigeria. I wish you luck in your election – and I wish Nigeria luck.

  • That Buhari letter to APC delegates

    SIR: I wish to draw attention to the salient issues raised in the open letter by Muhammadu Buhari, the APC Presidential candidate to the delegates of his party published in The Nation of yesterday, December 10.

    He mentioned insecurity, corruption and economic collapse as some factors that have brought the country low. He further stressed that it is overdue for all and sundry to work together to lift Nigeria up.

    You will agree with me that this is a humble and articulate stance of someone that really knows what he wants; what are expected of him and that, he can only achieve the objectives with the co-operation of all well meaning Nigerians.  This also is a position that could be taken only by someone that realizes that something is definitely wrong somewhere and is willing and ready to make amends for a better future. He went further to state that he has served Nigeria to the best of his ability and that he has always tried to give more to the nation than the country has given him which is the principle that has guided his public life. To me, this is an open claim and challenge to anyone that can come forward to raise objections.

    Buhari went further to say that he is not a rich person this is also an open claim and a challenge to anyone that has contrary opinion about the true status of the man to come forward and expose him to the world otherwise, he would be considered to be the only former Head of State of this country to be in that position. To this end, he said he is not in a position to give the delegates a fistfull of dollars or naira to purchase their support. Most importantly, he said even if he could do so, he will never do it because the fate of the nation is not for sale. This statement can only come out from someone that is principled, committed, patriotic and full of dignity.

    Furthermore, he said that he does not intend to rule Nigeria but to democratically govern it with our help. This is also a statement that can only be said by someone who knows the differences and objectives of democratic governance compared to others. Continuing, he said he is seeking a country where Christians and Muslims will practice their faith in peace and security, a Nigeria where corruption will no longer trespass into our national behavior but a country where our diversity could be used for our national prosperity.

    The content of the letter should be embraced by our politicians and leaders as guiding principles to good governance. It is a clarion call and challenge to everyone that truly want to serve. I will be looking forward to reading such eye catching, conscience pricking and hope raising statements from all our leaders going forward.

    •Raymond Oise-Oghaede.