Greetings Mr. President with best regards of the day.<\/p>\n
I was prompted to write this letter to you after reading the one written
\nto you by my brother and friend Japhet Omojuwa. It was the inimitable
\nProf. Chinua Achebe that said that if you do not agree with what someone
\nelse has written, then you should write your own. Japhet did not
\ncomprehensively speak for me in his letter so I have decided to write my
\non letter to you.<\/p>\n
A caveat sir; this is going to be a frank letter. I will spare you the
\naccolades and commendations. I have a feeling that you are getting a bit
\ntoo much of them which is why we are where we are. I am going to be as
\ncandid as I can be while striving to remain deferential and respectful in
\naccordance with the high office you occupy.<\/p>\n
That been said, permit me to go straight to the subject matter of this
\nmissive.<\/p>\n
POWER COCOON<\/p>\n
Mr. President, I am afraid that you have gotten to power and have been so
\nswept up in the cocoon and bubble at the Villa that you have forgotten the
\npeople that put you there in the first place. Your appeal has always be
\nthe fact that there are people willing to unconditionally stake all they
\nhave on the line for you but your attitude since you assumed office has
\nbeen to display an almost disdainful neglect of your primary constituency.
\nYou have come across in recent times as aloof, irritable and impatient
\nwith your people. You do not bother to talk to us and when you do,
\npreferably to a foreign news medium during one of your numerous trips
\nabroad, it is always with an air of someone far removed from the daily
\nrealities of the people he is governing.<\/p>\n
Mr. President, what was that full ceremonial welcome at the Abuja airport
\ncomplete with a colourful Scottish guard of honour and red carpet all
\nabout? In the midst of all the troubles we are daily facing, someone
\naround you thought that that was okay and you basked in it all without a
\ntrace of embarrassment? I wager that the old Muhammadu Buhari who was in
\ntouch with his loyal faithfuls would not have condoned that charade for
\nwhatever it was worth but this new one is so far removed from us that he
\nbelieved it was okay. Sad. We are watching.<\/p>\n
STRENGTHENING INSTITUTIONS<\/p>\n
Mr. President, permit me to quote American President Barack Obama during
\nhis trip to Ghana: \u201cAfrica does not need strong men, it needs strong
\ninstitutions.\u201d Sadly, Mr. President, you have displayed all the trappings
\nof an African strong man who wants to be held over and above the
\ninstitutions in his country. So far, this presidency has been all about
\nyou. Why have you been issuing directives to institutions of state to
\ncarry out their statutory functions? Why are you directing EFCC to arrest
\nso so and so? Why do you insist at every interview that CBN will not
\ndevalue the Naira? Would it not be better to strengthen these institutions
\nand encourage them to carry out their statutory functions without
\nexecutive interference? Is there no organic process for these bodies to
\ncarry out their functions without the need for a Presidential directive?
\nMr. President, do us a favour, step back and allow these organs of
\ngovernment perform their functions. Thank you.<\/p>\n
WAR ON CORRUPTION<\/p>\n
Mr. President, you have not left anyone in doubt about your desire to
\nfight corruption. Indeed, this has been your strongest badge of honour
\ntill date. You are indeed fighting corruption but the method leaves a lot
\nto be desired. We are back to the days of elaborate media trials and all
\nnoise and zero substance. Mr. President, we have seen this before. It
\nusually does not lead to convictions. After the media cacophony, because
\ntime was not devoted to diligent investigation and prosecution, there is
\nusually not enough evidence to convict the accused and they end up walking
\nor the trial takes forever. Would it not be better to gather all the facts
\nand put together a water-tight case before approaching the courts rather
\nthan this current tactics of leaking tidbits of on-going investigations to
\nthe press and creating a media storm that may not hold water at the end of
\nthe day? The other day, it was your official twitter handle tweeting
\nallegations against Col. Sambo Dasuki. How did it get to that level?<\/p>\n
Again Mr. President, this is not about you. This is about Nigeria and
\nNigeria is bigger than you. Kindly ensure that this war on corruption is
\nfought procedurally so that its effect can permeate the system and ensure
\nthat never again shall we return to the days of the locust. Already, the
\ninitial Buhari fear is waning. Masu gudu sun bari gudu. They have seen
\nthat it is all bluster and little depth so they have returned to their old
\nways. Mr. President, the goats are still very much in the barn and they
\nare having a fill.<\/p>\n
BUHARINOMICS<\/p>\n
Mr. President, your economic policies are difficult to pin-point. Nigeria
\nis no longer the premier investment destination and things are really
\ndifficult. In certain decisions you have taken relative to economic
\npolicies, it is as if you are engaged in the Criminalisation of
\nenterprise. From the Forex regime to economic policies, it has been one
\nbefuddling confusion after another. Surely, we can do better than this.
\nAnd while we are on this topic, it is no longer expedient to blame
\nGoodluck Jonathan for everything wrong with Nigeria. You have been in
\ncharge for 10 months sir. Start showing us your own workings and stop
\nblaming others.<\/p>\n
OSTENTATIOUS GOVERNMENT<\/p>\n
Mr. President, under your watch, we are poor yet we are acting rich. I am
\nhard-pressed to find justification for your retention of the full
\nPresidential Air Fleet 10 Months into your administration. Your greatest
\npersonal attribute is your frugality and your disdain for ostentation but
\nit sadly has not reflected in your Presidency. I know you have heard of
\nthe Magufuli effect in Tanzania. Where then is the Buhari effect in
\nNigeria? Where is the cut-back on wastages? Where is the attitudinal
\nadjustment to our economic realities? Some of the provisions in the 2016
\nbudget make it difficult to take this change serious. Not just you but
\nyour Ministers are living large. Upon their inauguration, a statement was
\nissued that Ministers will only move with two cars. We all applauded but
\nalas, we did too early. That was a hoax. Your Ministers drive by in Abuja
\ndaily in convoys of upwards of 7 cars complete with Pilot and Escort
\nvehicles. Where is the change?<\/p>\n
SOCIAL REALITIES
\nMr. President, let me make this as clear as possible: There is suffering
\nin the land and I do not see any urgency on your part to fix this. From
\nthe difficulty in getting fuel to worsening power situation and so on,
\nNigerians are groaning.<\/p>\n
Your Ministers have been largely ghost workers since their inauguration.
\nIf it was a private company with 6-month probationary perform-or-be-sacked
\npolicy, they would all be gone because there is no sign of their impact
\nafter 6 months of their appointments.<\/p>\n
What we are getting daily is you and your party denying promises that were
\nmade to us during the campaigns or waiving them aside like unrealistic
\ndemands of truculent children. Incidentally, they were not demands, they
\nwere promises freely made by you and your party to Nigerians as benefits
\nof change from the former party to your party. Now that you have been
\nelected, you are distancing yourself from those promises. We are
\nobserving. You will need our votes again.<\/p>\n
CONCLUSION
\nMr. President, this is the truth and perhaps the most important message in
\nthis letter: You are losing your most ardent supporters. Those who used to
\nvociferously defend you all over the place are not so bothered anymore.
\nThey either keep quiet when you are being castigated or worse, join the
\ncomplainants. Granted that you have good intentions for Nigeria but the
\ntruth remains that intentions are not enough. Ability must match
\nintentions and at the moment, there is a disconnect between your good
\nintentions and the demonstrated ability to implement them. There is
\nsomething that your political advisers failed to tell you in the euphoria
\nof your electoral victory last year. Granted that a lot of people voted
\nfor you as a person but there is yet an army who voted not necessarily for
\nYOU but AGAINST the status quo obtainable at the time due to
\ndisappointment with the way things were. Those ones are independent
\nthinkers and they are not beholden to your party or your persona and trust
\nme, they are in the majority.<\/p>\n
This is no longer about Jonathan supporters and Buhari supporters. This is
\nabout Nigeria and the way forward. I am involved. You are my President
\nuntil at least 2019 and you are accountable to me. I write you this out of
\na sense of patriotic obligation in the hope that you will take the
\ncontents to heart and make the necessary adjustments. I do need you to
\nsucceed. I need Nigeria to be great for my children and I. I trust you to
\ndo the needful failing which, 2019 is not far away. We will meet at the
\npolling booth.<\/p>\n
Regards sir.<\/p>\n
Sam Hart<\/p>\n
hartng@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greetings Mr. President with best regards of the day. I was prompted to write this letter to you after reading the one written to you by my brother and friend…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n