Dear Mr. President,
I wish you a Good Morning. I do hope that by the end of this letter, you will still consider it a Good Morning.
My President, permit me to start this letter with a Yourba Proverb that my father used to say when I was a young child. It goes like this: Eni ba nba afoju yan epa gbodo maa sufe kikan kikan. Sir, my translation of the Yoruba Language isn’t so good but I can loosely translate this proverb to mean‘whoever roasts nuts for a blind man must relentlessly / continuously whistle.’ Do you know the reason he should whistle Sir? It is to prove to the blind man that he isn’t eating out of the roasted nuts. This is indicative of the need to establish a ‘trust’ relationship between the blind and the nut roaster.
Drawing from this analogy Sir, you are the nut roaster whilst we, your able citizens are the blind. Your rise to the office of the President of this nation as a man who had no shoes was inspirational and so, many Nigerians put their blind trust in you. In spite of this trust sir, we expected the occasional whistle to reassure us that all was well or all will be well. Many times sir, that whistle never came.
Sir, you never whistled on the Baga Massacre. This was in spite of the fact that we heard that over 2000 lives were lost. The only thing we heard from your people was that the figure had been over bloated and that it was only 150 that had died. Sir, even one Nigerian life lost deserves a whistle. It is the loss of a family member, a friend, and a loved one. It is the loss of one of your citizens.
Sir, you whistled too late on the issue of the Chibok Girls. I found it hard to believe that it took you so long to acknowledge that the girls had truly been kidnapped. Those ladies have been away from their families since the 14th of April, 2014. It is almost a year sir. Do we know where they are? Do we know if they are dead or alive? Sir, you have a family too. Would you have kept quiet for so long if armed robbers had attacked your home and taken your precious family away? Would the response have been inaction in the early days of the incidence?
Sir, I am amazed that during this campaign for re-election, your boys, Reno, FFK and Abati have done such an excellent job. They have, on your behalf, begun to whistle so loudly that we can barely hear ourselves. They whistle on social media, radio and television. These boys deserve an award sir because it is an onerous task they have undertaken to perform. Sir, I find that I am impressed, yet irritated, that this same Government that was hitherto silent, has now begun to court us only because it is the election season, but I digress, forgive my lack of concentration Sir.
You refused to blow the whistle on Corruption Sir. There were many instances when we held our breath, certain that you, our Golden President would pull out the red card. All those times, our hopes were dashed. Permit me to remind you of some of those moments Sir. One of your ministers used N10bn to charter private jets but you didn’t issue a red card, another bought two cars worth N250 million, she said they were bullet proof vehicles. We never wanted those cars yet, we never got the refund. How about the missing $20billion of oil money, have you found it Sir?
You didn’t blow the whistle on the Pension Scam worth billions of Naira, neither did you issue a red card. Perhaps you did not blow a whistle because to you, stealing is not corruption and most of what we complain about is just ‘mere stealing’. After all, Nigerians have the tendency of blowing things out of proportion don’t they?. Permit me to ask sir, what then would you define as corruption? How much would be too much to you sir?
On Electricity Sir, many Nigerians had hoped that you would issue a fiat and blow the whistle. Unfortunately, in spite of this being one of the promises you made to us, our epileptic electricity is not a lot better than it was four years ago. I have spent money I could have used in developing other areas of my life to buy petrol so I can power my house up. Recently, my generator knocked because it has been overworked. I am yet to replace it and have since made darkness and heat a companion. I realise that I now live the reality of many Nigerians for whom owning a generator is a mere fantasy.
You have refused to blow the whistle on Security. Baga and Chibok are not the only cases of insurgency. Sir, we hear these days that 20 out of the 27 local governments in Borno State are now under the control of the Boko Haram. Sir, I have begun to fear that unlike me, my children will not grow up to know Borno State as one of the States in Nigeria.
Sir, we have often heard that the insurgency was planned by detractors to bring your Government down. We empathise with you on this but you also said that some of their sponsors were/are in your cabinet. You never blew the whistle on those faceless sponsors. Nigerians would have applauded you if you had done just that. I often wonder if the families that have watched these terrorists operate and kill their loved ones will ever agree that it was a worthy sacrifice to lose a husband, wife or child for you.
You also failed to blow the whistle on Education. Sir, our Nigerian Universities are often shut down due to one strike or the other. Our young people have become tired of waiting to get an education. Many of them have opted to do other things rather than to wait for degrees that no longer have any value.
Sir, your Reuben Abati informed us that you had built 12 additional Universities. Permit me to congratulate you on a job well done. However, permit to also ask how many of those Universities are on the league tables? How many of them are amongst the top 200 schools in the world? Sir, many parents now struggle to pay for Private Schooling for their wards, as the standards in our public schools have really dropped . I suspect Sir, that you are amongst those parents. Or do your children attend our public schools?
For those who struggle and wait through incessant University Strikes, you refused to blow the whistle on Unemployment. Many of our young people are out of school and unemployed. Many parents have now been saddled with the responsibility of fending for children who should ordinarily have moved out to start their own lives. It is now the norm to see 30 year olds still living at home. Permit me to ask you sir, at what age did you leave the nest?
Sir, on Health, it is a pathetic situation and as usual, no red card was issued. To have even the most minor of medical conditions in this country can be tantamount to a death sentence. Many pregnant women fast and pray in spite of their pregnancies. They pray that they have no complications. For others who can afford to do so, they stand for long hours at various embassies in order to give themselves and their unborn children a stab at good medical care. Permit me to ask you sir, were you born abroad?
On this note sir, please advise your hard working Trio – FFK, Abati and Reno to stop giving your exalted party a bad name. They need to stop tearing people down in the hope of making you look good. We now jokingly refer to your PDP as ‘People Demonising People’. Advise them sir to have a campaign based on some of the achievements you made whilst in office. I know that could be a daunting task but I’m certain that if they looked hard enough, they would surely find one thing that they can base your campaign on. It will be hard but surely there must be something.
Tell the PDP Trio to hunt for another strategy. I admit that given the nature of some fickle Nigreians, words like Islamist Fundamentalists, No Certificate and Ex Soldier is enough to sway their minds. For most others, it is the proof of work done that would make them vote for you. Tell the Trio to seat down and do the real work, rather than swing slime.
It is without doubt that you, our darling President Jonathan have great intentions for this nation but since when have intentions been able to buy a bag of pure water in the market? Since when have intentions paid school fees or fixed my broken down generator? Will it start to do so after Valentines Day 2015?
Permit me to say sir that we know you are a good person but to be fair, that good has not manifested in our daily living. Many children still do not go to school, too many Nigerians are impoverished, too much insecurity and quite frankly, too much hunger. Unfortunately at this time sir, your wealthy friends, the dollar spenders are also not happy. The say the exchange rate is just too high. Well I do not know about that, I know that my Naira cannot buy me much in the market.
Sir, rather than see this as an attack, see this as an evaluation. On this six year stint you have scored anF+. Therefore, permit me to ask you sir, what exactly are you coming back for? What Sir, will you do differently if you were re-elected and how do you intend to do it?
As you ponder on these questions Sir, permit me to crave your indulgence. Please tell Reno and FFK to respond only to the questions asked because if I am not careful, I would be labelled as a mad, angry, Nigerian woman. To be fair though, they may be right.
Signed
Mad, Angry, Nigerian Woman
As I write this letter, I wonder what the PDP has to offer us in the next tenure. Is it going to be more of the same style of Governance? Would this be acceptable to you? Do you want the PDP back in and why?
Over to you, after all the verdict is yours…