The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Open letter

  • Open letter to El-Rufai

    SIR: Leadership across space and time has always been an onerous task. It is like a stimulating factor. To some, it brings their worst to the fore while for others, it is an avenue to flaunt their dexterity. However, great leaders always strive in the steam of tribulations to carve a niche for themselves that would stand the test of time.

    For a start, your educational revamp or revolution has, and, continues to spark controversies in various quarters. Sometimes back, the news of a large scale sack of teachers that failed the competency test dominated the public agenda, throwing forth various shades of opinion by stakeholders in the educational sector. Debatable it remains even among a host of my colleagues. So many tantrums, aspersions and vituperations have been lashed at your decision. Unsurprisingly also, some encouraging comments have been registered to the default.

    While a good number of my aggrieved colleagues express bitterness and disappointment over your decision, I prefer to look at things from the larger picture. For me, the positives far outweigh and dwarf the negatives in this regards. I do feel for the affected teachers that appear imminent to lose their jobs. I, however, feel happy for the students that have long borne the brunt of bad teaching.

    I personally cannot sacrifice the future of these kids on the premise of letting inept people stick to their jobs. It is about time able persons are deployed to save the system from tragic demise. When you educate a child, you contribute your quota to a nation’s development. Within this purview, you kill a nation by stifling the child from good education as incompetent students rarely affect the nation positively, both in terms of growth and development. So, yes, I do strongly believe there is no moral justification for letting the teachers maintain their jobs in order to massage the unfruitful status quo.

    The North is unequivocally backwards in western education. As a matter of truth, our backwardness enjoys monopoly! The systemic rot stems from the primary level and spreads through to the secondary and, perhaps, a little bit beyond. The worst is the massive ineptitude grossly displayed by the teachers at the primary level. A little walk through the schools located in the rural parts of Kaduna State will leave you in tears. Kindly take a stroll to one of the government schools in the rural areas; I guarantee you a firsthand experience that would leave you sleepless for weeks, maybe months.

    I do believe you are going through hard times with your revolutionary scheme. Here is some good news. It is already bearing fruition. The discipline is beginning to return them to their sense of responsibilities which had long been thrown to the cesspit. I am sure posterity will live to applaud you simply because you didn’t chicken out of your revolutionary train despite the opposition. Instead, you have expedited the movement on the desired speed.

     

    • Ibrahim Yahaya,

    G.S.S. Jere, Kaduna State.

  • TETfund: Open letter to President Buhari

    SIR: I write on behalf of over 100 stranded Nigerian scholars in the United Kingdom under the 2014 TETfund academic staff training and development scheme to pursue various PhD programmes. The fund is administered by our employers, the beneficiary educational institutions -polytechnics, colleges of education and universities across all the regions of Nigeria.

    Most of us are now three months away from completing our PhD training; but we cannot finish our studies following the compulsory withdrawal from our respective courses due to unpaid fees.  At the moment I am not a registered student and may be deported from the UK in a matter of weeks according to the terms of my Tier 4 student visa.  In addition to this, we have now become heavily dependent on loan facilities from families and supporters in order to meet up with basic living conditions. Should this predicament continue without prompt release of supplementary funds by TETfund, the tragedy is not only the shameful waste of three productive years of our lives, but the colossal waste of already advanced funds in the past years on this scholarship.

    I hereby humbly request your kind intervention to ensure that the Executive Secretary of TETfund, Dr A.B. Baffa gives our predicament the prompt attention it deserves. We have sought the attention of the Executive Secretary through direct written communications and through our various home institutional channels in Nigeria as well as Twitter, #TETfundscholarsUK and BBC Africa’s report to no avail.  We have also written to various public office holders including the minister of education, National Universities commission (NUC), Senate president, the Nigerian High Commissioner in the UK and the chairman of the board of TETfund.  To date, nothing significant has been done to assure us of the feasibility of completing our training and to obtain our degrees after all these years of hard academic work.

    We are appealing for special intervention and a review of our scholarship awards. The review is needful due to exhaustion in funds awarded which is also accompanied by the following reasons: First is the exponential increase in the exchange rate of the Naira against British pound sterling since December 2014.  Most of us were awarded the scholarship at an exchange rate between ¦ 265 per British Pound. Presently, the rate varies between ¦ 470 and ¦ 500.  Although, some scholars received the full payment of their fund in Naira account; it is in the public domain that all commercial banks in Nigeria closed their platforms for foreign exchange transactions through form A following a directive from CBN. Consequently, these TETfund scholars had to resort to Bureau de change at extortionate rates, leading to the unexpected exhaustion of the advanced sum.

    Then also is refusal of our home institution, the beneficiary educational institutions, to hold the approved fund in a domiciliary account as stipulated in the 2014 TETfund guidelines. These institutions had solely been responsible for the direct payment of fees and the overall administration of the funds allocated.  Also, against our cries to either follow TETfund guidelines or release the money to us for onward conversion to Pound Sterling, the fund was kept in Naira and released to us in meagre tranches. In my view, these amounts to the mismanagement of the Nigerian taxpayer’s money, leading to the drastic depreciation of funds held in trust for us.

    Could there possibly be laws and/ or administrative constraints hindering the Executive Secretary from monitoring and implementing sanctions to erring beneficial educational institutions?  Would Nigeria watch her taxpayer’s money go to waste and her citizens come back to Nigeria with their heads bowed to the dust of a failed institution? Is the management of TETfund really dysfunctional?

    Our dear President, we are ardent believers and supporters of your swift actions to give a resounding response to the above questions ravaging our thoughts. We implore you to direct the Executive Secretary of TETfund, Dr A.B. Baffa to approve and release supplementary funds for our fees and maintenance. This would assure us of our degrees and put to good fulfilment of already spent funds. Also, Baffa must pronounce and implement appropriate sanctions on all the accounting officers of the beneficiary educational institutions that have mismanaged the funds for our studies as highlighted above. We believe, TETfund should have the responsibility to monitor the progress and welfare of all scholars under her sponsorship and to implement strategies to sanction all the beneficiary educational institutions that have failed to administer the fund in accordance with her guidelines.

     

    • Biose J. Ifechukwude,

    Glasgow, United Kingdom.

  • Anambra: Open letter to INEC

    Anambra: Open letter to INEC

    SIR: With the November 18 governorship election in Anambra State within days of taking place, this election offers you a chance to write your name in gold – an opportunity to undo the wrongs of the past. The opportunity is here with you. I urge you to seize it, act in good conscience and allow Heaven to take care of the devil in the detail.

    There is this rumour that a plan has been hatched to derail the process which I feel you should know. But for constant dropping of the name of your organization, the purveyors of the cheap gossip would merit no consideration at all. But because every society is surfeited with imps enough to cause distractions, including my dear Anambra, I suggest that you take proactive measures to forestall possible derailment. The threat should not be dismissed with the wave of the hand as these fellows seem determined to stultify genuine effort to have an equitable election. I haven’t the slightest reason to doubt your good office or to ever imagine it could be in cahoots with any plan to compromise the people. Not at all! Yet their boast of connections in high places is enough to arouse concern. They speak with definiteness that the result must pan out in their favour. Where otherwise – they boasted – the election will be postponed as was the case in Edo.

    I got worried when reference was made to the postponement of that election from September 10, 2016 to September 28.

    As a rule, Anambra is a pleasant state to govern. The people have no great expectations from government. They are sufficient onto themselves and can, on occasion, stand in for government. The state occupies a foremost position in Igbo land because of her unique potentials. It is not without reason that elections in the state are treated with great care.  Anambra electorate are sophisticated and do not need encouragement to accept or reject a leader as they deem wise. However, if deprived the right of choice they can prove most intractable. The state can make noise enough to get the nation worried. We are not unaware how important a peaceful Anambra State is to Nigeria and vice versa. It will be wrong to task the peace by doing anything untoward during the election. A challenged governorship election in Anambra State may worsen the volatile peace in the country.

    It will be a disservice to our people if their effort on November 18 is made of no effect just to satisfy a few interests.

    Our people appreciate the rat race involved in this election and cannot pretend to be unmindful of efforts by those who boast of their contact in high places in Abuja to subvert the will of the people. But to achieve that through any connivance with the umpire will spell a lot of trouble for everybody.  You owe the state a duty to resist any temptation and or intimidation by those determined to lead the state against the dictates of her conscience. What happens from November 19, whether there will be a peaceful Anambra, nay Nigeria or not, derives from how fair you choose to conduct the election. I

     

    • Ejike Anyaduba,

    Abatete, Anambra State.

  • NNPC: Open letter to PMB

    The August 31 letter from the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, complaining of the insubordination of the Nigerian National Petroleum (NNPC) Group Managing Director (GMD), Dr Maikanti Baru, began to generate ripples less than 24 hours after it was made available to the media. The Senate, the next day resolved to set up an ad hoc committee to investigate grave allegations against the NNPC chief executive. The decision followed a motion by Senator Samuel Anyanwu asking for a probe into the enormous and constant jobs given to Duke Energy, a motion which Senator Kabiru Marafa successfully prayed the Senate to include an investigation into the charge that Baru awarded $25bn contracts without due process.

    In the letter to President Buhari, Kachikwu, who is also the chairman of the NNPC Board of Directors, revealed that the NNPC-GMD has since his appointment side-lined him in the affairs of the organization. He cited the example of recent appointments as part of the NNPC reorganization done without his knowledge, as he read about the changes only in the media, like any other person. The irony is that the appointments were made shortly after the corporation’s board held a meeting which, presumably, Baru attended. In other words, he did not deem it fit to intimate the board of the impending development.

    I do not think that anyone doubts that Baru has been carrying on as if the Minister of State does not exist and as if he is no longer the NNPC board chair.  The justification provided by his supporters is that Kachikwu side-lined him when the latter was the GMD-NNPC, by making him a technical assistant in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. In other words, Baru is getting his pound of flesh against Kachikwu.

    Mr. President, there are serious consequences to the nation when key public officers trivialize their positions and make the nation go through avoidable political and social turbulences. Take the recent appointment of 55 NNPC executives which generated a nationwide brouhaha. The South-south geo-political zone from which most of Nigeria’s crude oil and gas resources are produced managed to get only two positions while the South-west received three in the first round of appointments announced. While 10 persons were appointed from the North, not even one person was deemed fit to be appointed in the restructuring. Appointments like this tend to portray the Buhari administration as very sectional. They make Nigerians lose confidence in not just the administration but also the country itself.

    It is self-evident that Kachikwu was not privy to the appointments. Yet, here is someone who has been working round the clock to provide peace in the Niger Delta. He made peace in the region a priority right from the moment he assumed office. The result is that Nigeria now produces up to two million barrels of crude oil per day. Huge resources are no longer spent on repairing gas and oil pipelines blown up by militants protesting against the marginalization of the region. Nor are cases of kidnapping for ransom rampant in the zone any longer.

    Indeed, the NNPC management’s penchant for ignoring the NNPC board chairman cum Minister of State has more dangerous ramifications than many Nigerians seem to know. There is, for example, a clear case of outright misleading of the President by the NNPC GMD. On December 20, 2016, Dr Baru sent a memo to the President urging him to cancel Oil Mining Lease (OML) 13 on the ground that it originally belonged to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NNPD), but was “inadvertently revoked” in 2006 by President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was to convert into four oil blocks. The presentation was, of course, based on a complete fabrication. OML 13, which is within Ogoniland, never belonged to the NPDC. It rather belonged to Shell, but the company could not operate it for 12 years because it was sacked from Ogoniland by the Ogoni people who suspected that Shell had a hand in the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995.

    Obasanjo did not like the fact that this huge national asset had wasted for over a decade and so resized it into four blocks which were subsequently put up for bidding in the 2007 round. OPL 202, for instance, went to Hi Rev, a Nigerian energy firm with American technical partners, which bid $66m for it. Hi Rev has been keenly interested in building Nigeria’s first modular refinery, which is now 40% completed. Located on top of the Utapate Oilfield in Ibolo East Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, the $150m modular refinery capable of producing 50,000 bpd on completion is designed to produce premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol; automotive gas oil (AGO), better known as diesel; dual purpose kerosene (DPK), often referred to as kerosene; and JET-A1, better known as aviation fuel.

    The fate of this modular refinery is, however, now hanging in the balance. Dr Baru deliberately misled President Buhari to cancel the OPL 202 licence on December 20, 2016 on the spurious allegation that it was originally an NPDC asset, whereas the NPDC did not ever have anything to do with it. Dr Baru succeeded because neither the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Kachikwu, nor the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Malam Abubakar Malami, was aware of Baru’s move. Everything was done secretly. It is, indeed, curious that the memo was presented to President Buhari on December 20, when almost everyone was set to go on Christmas and New Year holidays, and approved the same day! To worsen matters, there was not even one change, nor was a query raised for clarification of any issue.

    OPL 202 was not the only acreage which President Buhari invalidated last December 20. OPLs 201, 203 and 2004, all resized from OML 13, were also affected. By perhaps sheer coincidence, these were the only oil blocks won by firms promoted by Niger Delta persons in the 2007 bidding round. And the people of the region are naturally mad like hell at the cancellation. They have so far been held in check the promoters of the firms which won the affected acreages. How long can the restive people be kept in check?

    While urging Your Excellency to look into the misadvised cancellation of OPLs 201, 202, 203 and 204, there is a critical need to make the GMD-NNPC respect hierarchy by carrying key government officials along in policy matters. The failure to carry the Minister of Justice along in the cancellation of OPLs 201, 202, 203 and 204 has resulted in litigation and, more importantly, in a high degree of uncertainty in the Niger Delta.  We cannot gloss over the fact that developments like the controversial NNPC executive appointments announced last August 30, which are heavily lopsided, are costing this administration tremendous political capital. Things could be done better in the NNPC.

     

    • Mrs Bassey-Wellington, an executive director of an oil servicing firm writes from Eket, Akwa Ibom State.

  • Open letter to Okowa

    SIR: As Delta State gears up for the Local Government elections, it is our expectation that your name will go down in history books with a pride of place. My main reason of writing is to sincerely appeal and encourage you to fully ensure a fair and level playing ground in this election so that only the best candidates chosen by the people will emerge victorious to represent them. Only the people can genuinely assess the candidates that can work to attract development to their respective local government areas. Too much time has been wasted doing nothing at developing the local government areas.

    It is on record that your predecessor Emmanuel Uduaghan failed woefully when he, for many years, left the vital aspect of grassroot governance in the hands of caretaker committees who he cash-strapped and teleguided to pursue his personal agenda of delaying elections. We cannot forget that.

    Local governments in Delta State have not developed as expected because many of those that were put into positions were inexperienced and visionless. They were picked and imposed on the people through rigging and the godfatherism factor. Political gate keepers and godfathers now see their support to their god-sons and god-daughters as a way of sustaining their political relevance and as an economic investment that must yield superlative dividends by all means against the development of the communities. Why have our local government areas remain undeveloped for a long time? For how long can we continue like this? I believe that after this election, with the right persons in positions, local governments will be catalysts at catapulting your Smart Agenda.

    Too many campaign promises have been broken by local government chairmen time and time again. Now we no longer see constituency projects executed by Ward Councillors like many years back. This is despite the monthly allocation of 20.60% of Federal allocations to local government areas and their Internally Generated Revenues, IGR. For example, there is a very crucial bridge at Urhuoka Abraka which is very vital for the transportation of farmers and their products for years. Almost every politician in that region has campaigned about building a befitting bridge to replace the dilapidated one there when they enter office. Nothing has been done for decades about that bridge which has become a death trap now because of its deplorable state. Photograph attached.

    I urge you to kindly use this election to put an end to godfatherism , rigging and sponsored candidates which has been a bitter pill forced down the throat of Deltans since 1999. Present-day godfatherism is a primordial tradition taken to a criminal extent where few persons benefit to the detriment of the masses. The phenomenon has far-reaching negative effects on the democratization process in Delta State, nay Nigeria. This is engineered by the political permutation that ’if you have your people on ground in all the local governments, you hold political authority, whether the people like it or not’. This is not always correct.

     

    • Frederick Omoyoma Odorige, 

    Hungary.

  • Pension arrears: Open letter to acting President

    Without the slightest thought about the horrible implication of delayed payment of arrears of pensions and earned promotions to deserving but traumatized Nigerians, and especially senior citizens whose life span after retirement in this country is rather short as a result of the inhuman treatment of unnecessary delays and non-payment of their gratuities and pensions, the Honourable Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun came out with a bang that the Federal Government would issue promissory notes to pay contractors and other services rendered by some people.  Evidently, this is not our worry.  What is terrifying is the minister‘s proposed method of payment of pension arrears as well as arrears for earned promotions by public servants.  In her wisdom, she said that pensioners and employees would be paid not directly but by bonds.  Hear her: “Obligations owed to individuals (for example pensioners and employee benefit) will be paid and will be resolved through the issuance of bond instruments, phased over the next three years” (The Nation, July 13, p.6).  Now, one is greatly perturbed by this thinking.

    Ever since 2007 when I wrote an open letter to the late President Yar’Adua (of blessed memory) through this medium concerning the annual rituals of thousands of new retirees trooping to Abuja from different parts of the country for wicked verification, I have never given up writing on behalf of retirees.  I thought it was extreme wickedness arising from primitive thought of a people that new pensioners all over the country should converge on Abuja for such an inhuman and inhumane exercise.  It never occurred to people in the Nigerian government the hardship and danger of asking their senior citizens whom, in civilized countries, their government would strive to make comfortable, to find their ways to far away Abuja by road and at their own expenses.  In effect, many of these senior citizens would die from accident on their ways to Abuja, and those who landed in Abuja safely would be helpless as they have no place to stay other than under the bridges or uncompleted houses.

    As we all know, Abuja is a very expensive city to live in, and I don’t think any poor retiree can afford an hotel in Abuja even for one day!  I then asked why the Federal Government did not deem it fit to send a few officers to different locations in the country for the massive exercise.  Fortunately, after I wrote my letter to President Yar’Adua, the exercise in Abuja was cancelled all over the country.  I was one of the first beneficiaries of this cancellation as I did my verification that year, 2007, at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife while the same exercise was conducted at the OAU Teaching Hospital and the Federal Polytechnic, Ede.  Since then I had written more than six articles on pensions and pensioners including “Memo to President Jonathan on workers’ strike and pension arrears” ( The Nation, 18 November, 2010, p.19), “Pensions: Open Letter to the President” (The Nation, 24 January, 2014, p.21), “Okonjo-Iweala and Pensioners” (The Nation, 29 June, 2014, p,18); Governors,  workers, and salary arrears” (The Nation,  29 Sept, 2016, p. 18); “FG and pension arrears” (The Nation, 18 November, 2014, p.21), “Pensioners: Open letter to President Buhari” (The Nation on  Sunday, 13 November, 2016, p.18) being the last amongst others.  This last letter elicited a series of comments and responses, bordering on appreciation and prayers from pensioners all over the country mostly from the North and South-east, and many from South-south and South-west. Osinbajo should not allow the present be like the past”.

    Now, acting President, your Minister of Finance had flown what I believed must be a kite that arrears of pensions and promotion entitlements would be paid with bonds!  I say, please stop her, just as former President Obasanjo did when his Finance Minister made a similar sinister proposal.  Let me brief you by recounting one of my write-ups on this particular matter, viz, “FG and pension arrears”, November 18, 2014 above.  Excerpts:

    “Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as president, showed a tremendous respect and sympathy for pensioners when in 2006 he blocked his Minister of Finance, Esther Nenadi Usman’s attempt to pay the arrears of pensioners with Federal Government bonds.  President Obasanjo was particularly unhappy with that arrangement when he asked his minister the crucial question ‘A 70 or  80 years old man, if you give him  pension arrears in bonds, and you say it is cashable in so, so number of years, how many more years did you think he has to live?’ (The Guardian, August 8, 2006).  The pension arrears were put at N75 billion.  President Obasanjo ordered the government, through its Minister of Finance, to release N75 billion immediately to clear all the arrears of pensions.  During the Yar’Adua administration, prompt attention was paid to payment of pensioners, known all over the world as senior citizens”.

    Unfortunately, the regime of President Jonathan was different.  Even when it appeared that the president wanted to act, his Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was always on hand to frustrate his effort.  For instance, when President Jonathan signed an approval for the payment of 53% increase from July 1, 2009 to 2014 as calculated by his technical committee, Okonjo-Iweala was alleged to have controversially insisted on cutting the 53% to 33% even after the Wages Commission and the NLC were said to have prepared 53% payment arrears for inclusion in the budget (see The Nation, January 24, 2014, p.21 and “Okonjo-Iweala and pensioners”(The Nation, June 29,  2014, p.18). We later heard that, after the payment of 33%, the military were gunning for the balance of 20% which we are made to understand the administration of President Buhari has promised to pay now. This kind gesture by the present administration which promised change from the pitfalls of President Jonathan’s administration must not be rubbished by a tacit return to the insensitive era of Okonjo-Iweala as Jonathan’s finance minister. Therefore, the acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, should take a cue from former President Obasanjo by ordering the present finance minister, Mrs. Adeosun, to reverse herself in line with the philosophy and good intention of Buhari/Osinbajo administration. Please note that pensioners have been cheated on two grounds. First, the value of their unpaid arrears since 2009 has diminished at the current rate of naira to the dollar.  Second, the interests on the arrears owed to these pensioners have been stolen by officers who usually fix the money for personal gains.  They should be paid their arrears with interest since 2009 or 2010.

    Since the finance minister cannot pretend that she is unaware that many pensioners die on a daily basis in this country owing to old age and government’s culture of delayed or non-payment of pensions and arrears of poor pensioners until death knocks at their doors, she must see to it that no more pensioners die as a result of delays or non-payment of pensions and arrears from now on, otherwise non-pensioners and even sympathetic observers from outside Nigeria may well say of those waiting in vain for their pensions in Nigeria: Ye Nigerian pensioners who are about to die, we salute but pity you.

    In order to wash its hands off the sinful and almost unpardonable act of wilful negligence, government must endeavour to pay arrears of pensioners, including the outstanding 20%, by the end of July or August latest,  and not deliberately wait for more deaths to be counted against them thereafter. That is how bad things are in our beloved country, Nigeria, where nothing works except hypocrisy, selfishness, greed and corruption of various descriptions.  Need we say more?

     

    • Prof Makinde, FNAL, JP is a retired Professor of Philosophy, Obafemi Awolowo University

    Ile-Ife.

  • Open letter to PMB

    SIR; Year 2017 is a year to fix all the mess in the country. Our economy should be stabilised, value of the naira should improve and the sky rocketing of prices of essential commodities should be checkmated. We don’t want to hear its PDP or Jonathan’s fault in 2017 because we knew they were at fault that was why we kicked them out and brought you in via our votes to fix the fault. Hence, we don’t want to be reminded of the reason we voted you in.

    Your government should tell us what you can achieve and not what you cannot do. Also, it’s not over yet security wise, you have subdued Boko Haram but they are not yet defeated. Give our troops the necessary support to defeat them, also mobilise security operatives to other parts of the country where innocent people are being killed just as you have done in southern Kaduna. The killers should be identified and prosecuted. Corruption still exist in some government agencies, not just stealing, but also job racketeering. Children of the poor don’t know of recruitment process in agencies like Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and others not to talk of getting appointed in such places despite their qualification.

    We recall last year that an alarm was raised in various media outfits and even with supporting evidences that the CBN employed hundreds of people without advert. And the people employed were alleged to be children of the ruling elites, all these happened under your administration. No investigation was done, the appointments were not revoked. We have also heard of agencies under the Interior Ministry secretly recruiting. Sadly, these agencies are establishments that require well qualified manpower. The only credible job selection exercise was the N-Power scheme and we all know it’s targeted at the poor. Let there be equal opportunity for all. Dear President, please address all these and many more lapses recorded during your first two years. You only have this year to change your game. Next year would be occupied with 2019 election activities and much would not be expected from your government. You should act fast. You should start by weeding off non-performing ministers and other key appointees in your government. You need people who can think outside the box to fix Nigeria’s problems not those who still think within the box by blaming past administration’s for the problem of our country today.

     

     

    • Halilu Hassan,

    Zaria, Kaduna State.

  • Open letter to Buratai, Nigerian Army

    Open letter to Buratai, Nigerian Army

    SIR: It is with unimaginable tears of joy that I express my hearty congratulations on your victory against the deadly Boko Haram sect. The entire country has been thrown to a hysterical moment with the news of this victory. Big congratulations to you and our gallant soldiers who achieved this great feat. Words really can’t thank you all for your sacrifice and will to protect our fatherland at all cost. The timing of this triumph is perfect as we edge closer to a new year of renewed optimism.

    For some years now, we have endured horrendous carnage in the hands of those terrorists. People, especially in the North-east, particularly Borno State, have been rendered homeless, businesses and properties shut down and vandalized, kept apart from their loved ones and psychologically living in anticipation of the worst. It is pathetic how we lived in fear, run at a fast acceleration with the strike of a flat tyre, filled with trepidation in market squares, viewing centres and social cum religious gatherings as our safety was under constant threat.

    Perhaps it was a long wait. It is now fully deserved. The patient dog eats the fattest bone. Before now, many of us have ruled out the possibility of winning the war. And for those that remained hopeful for long, it faded gradually till the odds became apparently not in our favour. It looked as though Boko Haram have come to stay ad infinitum. But as reports emanate about the final assault by operation Lafiya Dole to invade the stronghold of their fortress: Sambisa forest, we grinned, prayed and had renewed hopes. And as such, we salute your efforts, for masterminding the final push that disgorged the sect to their demise. You and your men alone knew what ensued at the battleground that purged them to the embrace of your bullets and for that, we remain in your awe. This is a victory we have craved for, dreamt of and lived for!

    While we continue to celebrate your triumph, it is imperative for us not to rest on our laurels and do the needful. The security conundrum has always been lack of preventive measures cum consistency. More often than not, we are not proactive; we wait to arrest the situation after the worst has been done. We are caught off guard in most cases because we fail to instill consistency in detecting, preventing and sustaining effective security measures. Now, this has to change. It must change. Boko Haram may have been defeated, but we must not slumber for a return to dark days. We must not give room for any terror group to ensconce themselves in our territory again.

    The reward of your sacrifices is with God. May He reward you in plenitude. I also congratulate and appreciate the man whose strong will, alacrity and resolve to eradicate Boko Haram remains second to none since taking the mantle of leadership: President Muhammadu Buhari. Thank you. Wishing you all a prosperous new year ahead!

     

    • Jamila Usman,

    IBB University, Lapai, Niger State.

  • Open letter to President Buhari

    Open letter to President Buhari

    I write this letter in response to the growing anxieties and pains stalking the land, especially the unintended fire storm which my comments elicited on the social blogosphere some few days back. Candidly, I only wanted to express my frustrations at the shape and turn of things in the country and take you to task on previously given assurances that you feel the pains which Nigerians are grappling with. While thanking you most profusely for feeling our pains, we would be better off, if there are immediate remedial steps which can bail us from further hardships. The pains for want of a better word are unimaginable and any hint of its continuing will not augur well for us as a people.
    To be sure, it is such a good thing for you to give us assurances of feeling our pains but until and unless it translates into tangible improvement of our individual and collective lives, then it means next to nothing for the vast army of despondent and hungry Nigerians who have been battered and almost swept away into oblivion by no fault of theirs. Under these circumstances, nothing can resonate and revive them as a change of fortune. Only a drastic change in the economic situation will make living any meaningful in today’s Nigeria.
    The truth of the matter, sir, is that never have we witnessed on this scale the excruciating pains and feelings of hopelessness now pervasive, not even the hardship of the second republic comes any close. Never have we sunken to this depths of despair with prospects of further decline. We feel captured, vanquished, obviously betrayed and worried as citizens of this country. Every Nigerian is worried and it is not unusual to hear tales of lamentations when two or more of our country men and women congregate these days. The tales are so frightening and mind-wreaking that even the rich are not immune. These are indeed perilous times.
    As we stagger under the weight of spiralling inflation, reversed and dashed opportunities, continued decline in crude oil prices, massive unemployment, recession and increasing blame game, where lies the much needed salvation? Mr. President, am afraid that nothing but the reversal of this painful experience will do. Perhaps, you are trying your best but it only becomes meaningful when Nigerians can feed and experience a new lease of life.
    We are paying for the sins of the past, mainly of running a mono-cultural economy which is mainly oil based but only creative imagination is required to bail us out at the moment. As the current President, history will summon you to its judgement room to answer some certain questions. What immediate steps did you put in place to stem the slide would be one of such questions? History beckons and nobody but you would be put on the spot.
    I recall that you rode into office on the popular assumption that having spent a dozen years chasing the Presidency because of a well articulated plan to reform, revamp and revitalise our national economy. You are a little into your mid-term cycle and before long, another cycle of electioneering campaigns will commence. What are your achievements in the interim? I ask because it is not yet certain that much has changed in the experience of the ordinary Nigerian.
    The task of rebooting the economy is entirely yours and no amount of excuses or tepidity will do the needful. What is required is a clear understanding and necessary intervention to take us out of the woods. Nothing short of that will suffice. We are hungry. We want access to cheap food. We want opportunities. We want jobs and security. We want the state to response to threats before they blow out of proportions. In other words, the rhapsody of change, which you promised is yet to be fully or even partially fulfilled. Before long, there would be need for us to compare and contrast notes. It would be done with the best of intentions and the overall interest of the Nigerian peoples at heart.
    Courage and purposeful leadership are required to steer our national ship into an oasis of plenty from this long trek in the wilderness of want and lack. Offset the debt of promises you freely made to us during the last campaigns. The tide of history will not permit for inexorable march in the direction of failed promises. I can assure you that the Nigerian youths would score you objectively and reasonable before long.
    I recall that you promised to jettison the odious practices of the past by building a more equitable and egalitarian Nigeria during the campaigns. The poetry of electioneering is over and you are now faced and confronted with the daunting task of governance, which is not easy but it is your call. You must make needed sacrifices, your famed integrity will be called to question, decisions must be made with the consequences in mind and finally, it is expected of you to bequeath a value system that will take us forward into the future.
    As a retired soldier, I leave you with the Cadet Prayer at West Point Military Academy in the United States: “Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half-truth when the whole truth can be won”. Embrace the whole truth and do not let people within your immediate circle deceive or delude you into believing otherwise-Nigerians are tired and pained at heart. Come to our rescue. Fix our country and our lives, that’s all we ask for by voting you into office.
    Thank you for your time and do have a wonderful experience fixing the Nigerian situation.

    •Moremi Ojudu

  • Open letter to the President

    SIR: I am a prospective Aerospace Engineering student of Rybinsk State Aviation Technical University, Russia. Having secured admission, I am finding it extremely difficult to complete the registration due to the devaluation of the Naira against the Dollar, which has pegged the official exchange rate at N315 Naira to the Dollar.

    I am therefore writing you as a daughter to her father, knowing that a father will always lend his ears to his children, especially when the request is an important one such as mine. Sir, I am passionately appealing to you on behalf of myself and all the Nigerian students who propose to study abroad in courses that are difficult to find in Nigerian universities. As your ambitious daughter, I plead that you quickly direct that such students be granted waiver to obtain foreign exchange at a subsidized rate of N197 to the dollar in the same manner it was subsidized for those who went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

    In view of your commitment to revive all the moribund sectors in the country, including the educational sector with special focus on the youth, it is my firm belief that pursuing studies in courses that are difficult to secure in Nigeria, but which are so critical to nation-building may ultimately be of great benefit to our dear country. This is so because after the completion of our studies abroad, we will be coming back to impact the knowledge we have acquired for the positive development of our country.

    I will be the happiest person on earth if my country can start building its own airplanes, jets, airbuses and so on without depending on foreign aerospace engineers and space craftsmanship. It is my belief that but while Nigeria strives for this milestone, the journey to this destination begins with acquiring the technical knowhow, which is what we seek to achieve for the nation by studying abroad.

    Finally, may I use this medium to thank you most sincerely for the work you have done so far towards repositioning the country. Your good intentions and all you propose to do for our beloved country despite the challenges the country is going through because of recession. I pray, hope and strongly believe that we will soon overcome this difficult times. I pray that my appeal is given quick attention as time is of essence, for I and indeed all Nigerian foreign students will be very happy and glad if this request is given a fatherly and favourable consideration.

     

    • Mhon Patricia,

    loispatricia4nice@yahoo.com