Thursday 21 April 2011

Dear Sir - Open Letter to Nigeria's President-Elect

Dear Sir,


Congratulations on your re-election. Once again, Nigerians have given you and your party another 4 years to make finished products out of the massive potentials in this thick amalgam of people with diverse interests and cultures. I do not envy you.


I know you will be receiving a lot of congratulatory messages at this time. I have seen some of the victory comments that have been left on your facebook wall. Thank God for social media which has given us the privilege to communicate directly with our leaders without having to physically pass through metal detector screenings and body (cavity) searches. I won't join the wagon to point out the obvious. But permit me to do this sir: to humbly and respectfully let you know as much as I can, some of the challenges that lie ahead of you.


1. The fact that Nigerians are very respectable and are quick to adjust to a right attitude when they get to a (developed) foreign country even from the airport suggests that we are malleable and know what is right from what is wrong. Sir, Nigerians have been known to conform to a right attitude in the not so distant past even if it was by coercion. Through a rewards system that has worked in other countries, we can actually be Good People and as such create that Great Nation we all hope for.

I'm one of those who strongly believes that the bedrock of our problems is attitudinal. Start here, Mr. President, and you would have solved over 60% of all our problems. How? Rid yourself of sycophants and be accountable to the people. The life of a (wo)man is not contained in the abundance of what (s)he has. Also, build institutions, sir, that will check our excesses and punish ANYONE found culpable. Crime and corruption isn't absent in the developed countries. In fact, they have some frauds and long-standing designer crimes (such as serial murderers) that have never been recorded in these parts. The difference between us and them is that there are systems, structures, moral codes, and institutions setup and dedicated to making sure perpetrators are brought to book. Here, where they exist, they do so merely on paper. If our attitude is right, we will know that spending over billions of dollars of the nation's wealth on the Electric Power sector and not getting results is unacceptable anywhere in the universe. We will know that landlords asking tenants to pay 2 years' rent in advance in a system where salaries are not paid annually but monthly is evil. We will know that building a house without it being inspected by the authorities can lead to a collapse such as that which occured in succession at Ebute-Metta. In addition, building residential or commercial places without provision for parking is inconsiderate and unnacceptable. If our attitude is right, we'll know that spending thousands of dollars to "rehabilitate" militants overseas is an international and large scale display of our ignorance and money-miss-road lifestyle that has set us back since the discovery of oil.


2. Personally, I would like to see a repeat of some of the successes we recorded in the world of sports, specifically in athletics. Nigeria has produced internationally recognised sports persons. Still our sports is being run by politicians. With all the water we have in the delta and all the raw talents in the riverine areas, isn't it strange that Nigeria doesn't have any kind of representation in swimming? Even in Africa? Even the football that we cherish so much, we are miles behind South Africa who were just accepted into CAF after apartheid. And football isn't their No. 1 sport. Sports is a means of engaging the youth. We cannot all be doctors, lawyers, bankers, teachers. Build a structur and system that works using technocrats and people who have played the game. It's not by building physical structures like gyms, arenas, courts and office buildings. The structure is the people.


3. Last month, my dad was in Lagos and we went to se an old grand aunt of mine. He said in his days, teachers were like gods. According to my dad, he was shocked the first time he saw a teacher "easing" himself. He never thought they did such vulgar things. Today, our teachers are grossly under paid and have lost all respect. And because the profession has lost its esteem, their products fall below international standard. (I refer mostly to public school teachers and their pupils).


4. Please sir, can we do something about agriculture? The cocoa plantations, the groundnut pyramids, the oil palm fields, the rubber, the tubers, the hide and skin (not kpomo). They are all gone. First it was the steam engine. Now, it's the internal (oil) conbustion engine. I put it to you (and everyone else), sir, that something else is coming real soon as the (traditional) centurial reign of the ICE is almost up. What's our fall-back plan? Man will always eat food. It will always be in demand. Let's return to what lasts forever and of which we have the rich top soil to produce in abundance. The Agricultural industry makes up over 40% of our economy yet there's no viable agro-allied company's stock worth investing in at the NSE (Selah).


These are just some of the things bugging me at this time. I'm afraid to come here in another 4 years and have to complain about the same things. You might argue that 4yrs is too little time. Sir, I do not totally agree. I think it is enough time to build a platform, a template, a system, a structure.


I wish everyone could make you see the task ahead and stop "congratulating" you. I wish we could all agree that the state of the security system in this country is embarassing. A system that pays a police officer peanuts and empowers him with a gun? Are we encouraging him to go and "steal" the balance for his house rent and his children's school fees? I wish we could all agree that we are due to have a system that pays unemployment benefits to anyone who cannot find a job after completing WAEC.


I am very passionate about this country and constantly pained to see us doing so bad when we have all it takes to be the largest economy in the world. And so, sir, I'll be sending my thoughts to you from time to time because I perceive you to be a father who listens. Like a spoilt child who needs new shoes, books and clothes for the school term I might whine a little for the next four years. The status quo is one ancient landmark I'm going to ask heaven to permit me to move. And together, sir, with your leading, and my followership (via "complaining"), we will get there together.


Long live Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.


God bless us all.