An Open Letter To The President Of Nigeria, President Mohammad Buhari By Adunni Adesola

I will like to create a balance in this letter to you Mr. President as a concerned citizen. It would have been good, if I am opportune to meet you one on one for a serious discussion, may be you will have answers to long overdue questions, which are ruminating in my heart.

Mr. President, what has really gone wrong and why are we experiencing hardship and agony this way in a country that is sitting on great wealth?

It’s unfortunate to live in the midst of plenty and abundant resources, but still be battling with poverty, joblessness, foodlessness and homelessness. We are blessed in Nigeria, but we citizens are in pains! And why?

Why are we in wants and pains? Why? We are blessed with human and natural resources, yet we are not enjoying them, Why? What has brought us to this point? Why? Now, Nigerian youths are all over the globe without positive hope and expectations. Why? What can we say is the root of all these? Why are we experiencing hardship and agony in a country that is sitting on great wealth? Why? What has really gone wrong Mr President?

Nigeria is blessed, but the citizens are writhing in economic pains. We have land, yet people are homeless. We have mineral resources, yet we don’t know how to interprete them to our benefits to create employments for our youths. We have crops and fruits wasting away at various seasons every year, yet we don’t know how to preserve them for all – seasons as they do in other countries. We have money, yet we are ravaging in poverty.

Mr. President, why has our blessing turned out to affect us negatively, as if we are under a curse? Why have you kept watching our collective destiny as a country ebbing away before your own very eyes, being a number one citizen of this great nation?

I am very sure, you will agree that 85% of Nigerians are in pains and wants. All of these grew, as a result of long -period of neglect to Nigerians plights by several successive governments in the time past. Citizens have learnt their lesson in hard ways, but you are our hope, you have to do something very urgent to be remembered for by turning the tide in your regime.

Let me quickly remind you, Sir of Nigeria citizens mentality. Our mentality is “the future will take care of itself”, so we don’t have long-term future plans. And, whenever we have plans at all, we don’t follow through because we always have no pressure or push that will drive us to implement our plans. “Necessity”, the adage says “is the mother of invention”. It is high time you did the necessity expected of you as the number one citizen of our dear nation.

Succinctly put, crimes of various types and degrees have become platforms for reactions; we youths have become depressed, disillusioned, and the only way to vent their angers to your way of governance is to embrace crime of different sorts to make up for what they lack, even though it is not the best option anyways and this has become a menace that is increasingly difficult to handle by your government. Pretence to these ugly developments can not solve the problems, propaganda and fake media and strategy used by ministry of information cannot solve this, politicizing every report and public reactions is never a solution. I believe in my heart heart that, every problem has a solution that with address it, and that is why I am writing to you, sir.

An adage says, “the Sun’s remnants are enough to complete this first term as the president is enough to make Nigeria Great. Great nations don’t provide Jo s for their citizens, they provide enabling environment that often support their people to engage them in productive employments.

Believe me or not, Okada commuter is a popular business that many people are involved in, in Nigeria; and one way or the other, it is providing ready- made jobs for our teeming youths. But, the question is, what type of job? Can it bring fulfilment and satisfaction to them? Does it guarantee a great and successful future for our youths? These and many other questions are what you should consider your Excellency. The worst of it all, is that many graduates have been pushed to do this business because there are no jobs.!

Time and space will not avail me the opportunity to express most of my thoughts in this letter. Though, it is a Nigerian style and culture which make it difficult for a citizen to see his president. I will have loved to meet with you in person to suggest on ways to end these unfortunate and pathetic pains in the world of Nigerians.

I conclude by saying, opportunities are around us to provide employment for our youths, resources are around us to end crimes completely. Part of what we need to do at this crucial time is to identify the potential of each of our economic sector and maximize them to create openings and Government needs to give opportunities to youths in deploying their talents and gifts to fix themselves up with satisfying jobs that will help them to fulfil their destiny. If Nigeria will be great, we need to create an enabling environment, how do we do this?

Adunni Adesola Samuel, (HND. Mass Comm, AISMN, AICRM, MIPMP). He is The Secretary, Imperial Foundation For Leadership and Development, Nigeria ( formerly Integra Leadership Foundation, Nigeria). He is equally a political analyst and Strategist