I greet you sir. Ordinarily, I should genuflect and grovel before you but, like millions of Nigerians, I am not happy. I am compelled, as a matter of responsibility, to write this letter to you because I campaigned and voted for you in 2015.
Sir, I do not know if you read newspapers. I am also not convinced your aides and assistants tell you the truth. If they do, or if you listen to the news and read newspapers, you will realize Nigerians think you are the worst president in the country’s history.
Sir, I just told you the truth. I am embarrassed because I was part of the human machinery that foisted this hellish APC government on Nigerians. On your watch sir, Nigeria has unfortunately regressed beyond anybody’s wildest imagination. Your leadership of Nigeria affirms the position that countries can exist without leadership. Nigeria does not seem to have a leader except in principles.
Sir, we wail, we shout, we complain, yet nothing happens. You hardly communicate or talk to Nigerians. You are so aloof. The distance between you and Nigerians makes a caricature of the Bermuda Triangle. When you were aspiring to occupy Aso Rock, you shed tears which we can now call crocodile tears.
Nigerians thought you were genuinely weeping for a country you love.
Nigerians thought you had something to offer. But after seven years, your administration has inflicted anguish and insufferable conditions on the populace.
Your shedding of tears was absolutely for nothing. You knew you had nothing to offer Nigerians yet you were insisting to occupy Aso Rock. My Oga at the top let us look at the issues. There are no words to describe Nigeria’s security situation under you. Many people would have sworn with their lives that, even if you fail on all fronts, you will secure Nigeria and cleanse the land of marauding bandits and terrorists.
But regrettably, on your watch, insecurity has grown to enterprising dimensions. Bandits and terrorists now flourish like trees in a mangrove. Let us consider the following sir. On 2nd November 2012, the Nation Newspaper reported that the terrorist group Boko Haram picked you to moderate talks between them and the federal government.
On the 2nd of June 2013, Pointblank news online quoted you as telling the federal government to stop killing Boko Haram members. On the 2nd June 2013, The Nation Newspaper quoted you as faulting the clampdown on Boko Haram members.
On 3rd of June 2013, All Africa News quoted you as saying that the military offensive against Boko Haram is anti-North. On the 26th of November 2018, The Guardian Newspaper reported how South African mercenaries declared that you stopped them from fighting Boko Haram.
On the 11th of February 2020, The Cable news reported that your government was setting Boko Haram terrorists free. On the 12th of July 2020, The Punch Newspaper reported that 356 soldiers resigned from the Nigerian army citing a loss of sincerity in the fight against Boko Haram.
The list goes on and on. Sir, if the above reports are true, it will be difficult to exonerate your government of complicities in the current wave of terrorism and banditry in the country.
Ironically, you respond differently when there are cases of banditry or violence in other parts of the country. You immediately deploy a battalion of soldiers to kill and maim. Recently, your convoy was attacked and the Kuje correctional facility was invaded by terrorists.
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They operated there for more than three hours without resistance from any quarters. How possible is that? The personal assistant to Sheikh Ahmad Gumi confirmed that he alerted the military intelligence about the impending terrorist attack but his warnings were ignored.
Also, it was reported that military officers on duty were removed shortly before the attack on Kuje prison. Why were they removed? Who removed them? Not long ago, news outlets reported that you gave $1,000,000 (One million US Dollars) to the terrorist government in Afghanistan when other countries were condemning their rise to power.
Your empathy for terrorism is inexplicable. Since the Kuje prison attack, no one has been sacked, arrested or held responsible. The height of indifference was your immediate travel to Senegal while your country’s security architecture was being compromised by terrorists. Sir, you no dey try at all. Nigeria’s education sector is in a tailspin.
As I write this letter to you, universities across the country are closed because lecturers are on strike. When you joined politics, you promised Nigerians that you have become a progressive democrat. But your treatment of university lecturers and the education sector does not portray you as a progressive.
Sir, how do you go to bed and sleep when universities across the country are closed? Have you considered how the lecturers are feeding and taking care of their families? Have you considered what millions of Nigerian undergraduates and their parents are going through?
Has it occurred to you that with universities closed, research is suffering and laboratories have been taken over by rats and other rodents? Interestingly, you and your fellow politicians don’t patronize Nigerian universities, therefore the pain is not deep. What is it that university lecturers are asking for that your government cannot provide? What? Nigerians are getting ready for the 2023 elections.
Sir, please, we want you to allow the choice of the people to emerge in next year’s election. Nigerians do not trust the electoral umpire much. But we know that if you insist on honesty and transparency, your APC will never smell Aso Rock next year. Nigerians have rejected APC. We will all be termed sick if we don’t reject APC, a party that has dragged Nigerians from top to bottom by your admission.
If you watch closely, you will notice the new wave of consciousness across the country driven by the youths. Please, sir, let the will of the people prevail.
There are rumours and unconfirmed reports that APC has earmarked a humongous amount of money in USD to rig next year’s election. Do not be like Okonkwo in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart who killed Ikemefuna, a boy that called him father. You are like a father in Nigeria.
Please do not bear a hand in the death of millions of Nigerian youths by inflicting more misery on them through the willful manipulation of the 2023 elections. Help us to usher in a government of the people. That way posterity will judge you kindly. May Almighty God protect you and your family, grant you good health, and long life.
Ndewo Sir! Nagode! Yours OBIDIENT citizen, Promise Adiele PhD
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