Nigerians Are Hungry – Cardinal Okogie Tells Buhari

Open Letter To The President

Dear Mr. President,

Last year, when you assumed office, the chant of “Change,” your campaign slogan, ushered you into the Presidential Villa.  Today, cries of “hunger” could be heard across the length and breadth of our vast country.  

*Cardinal Okogie 

Nigerians hunger, not only for food, but also for good leadership, for peace, security, and justice.  This letter is to appeal to you to do something fast, and, if you are already doing something, to redouble your effort. 

May it not be written on the pages of history that Nigerians died of starvation under your watch.   As President, you are the chief servant of the nation.  I, therefore, urge you to live up to the huge expectation of millions of Nigerians.  A stitch in time saves nine. 

This is the second year of your administration.  

You and your party promised to lead the masses to the Promised Land.   It is not an easy task to lead.  But by campaigning for this office, you offered to take the enormous task of leadership upon yourself. Nigerians are waiting for you to fulfill the promises you made during the campaign.  

They voted you into office because of those promises. The introduction of town hall meetings is a commendable idea.  But in practice, you, not just your ministers, must converse with Nigerians.  You are the President. You must be accountable to them.  The buck stops on your desk.  

Even if your administration has no magic wand at least give some words of encouragement.  On this same score, please instruct your ministers, and insist that they be sincere and polite at those town meetings.  Their sophistry will neither serve you nor Nigerians. 

Mr. President, if you want to leave a credible legacy come 2019, in all sincerity, please retool your administration.  Change is desirable.  But it must be a change for the better.  Let this change be real.  Change is not real when old things that we ought to discard refuse to pass away.

You will need to take a critical look at your cabinet, at the policies and programmes of your administration, and at those who help you to formulate and execute them.  You will need to take a critical look at the manner of appointments you have been making.  

It is true that commonsense dictates that you appoint men and women you can trust.  But if most of the people you trust are from one section of the country and practice the same religion, then you and all of us are living in insecurity. The Nigerian economy has never been in a state as terrible as this. 

You as President are like the pilot of an aircraft flying in turbulence.  Turbulent times bring the best or the worst out of a pilot.  We can no longer blame the turbulence on past administrations.  You know quite well that some of the officials of your administration served in previous dispensations. 

How Long Will President Buhari’s Intoxicant Work?

By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye 
Strange and worrisome as the decision by the Buhari administration to limit its ongoing probe of public officers and institutions to the era of the regime it took over from is, not a few Nigerians are encouraged by the fact that a bold attempt to expose shameless looting of public treasury and allow the law to punish those implicated in the mindless plunder of the country’s resources is indeed happening. At least, it is being drummed into everyone’s consciousness once more that stealing of any kind is a most revolting and self-debasing crime which only the scum and scoundrels of the society are attracted to. It should by no means be witnessed, accommodated or, worse, celebrated and glamorized within the bounds of civilized and decent society as several members of Nigeria’s ruling elite have brazenly done for many years now.

*Buhari

We have heard allegations of witch-hunting and all that, but the pertinent question to ask is: are you guilty of what you are being accused of? Did you loot the amount of money you are being accused of carting away?  In fact, it is most insulting that any person would want to solicit our sympathy after callously stealing what belongs to all of us and impoverishing the majority.

The submission that many of you looted the treasury but only a couple of you are being singled out for investigation is lame, even nauseating and grossly offensive. The point is that you looted public funds and today is your day, so face it! Tomorrow may be the turn of your partners in crime. Let the process just begin. We should, however, not rule out the possibility that along the line, the anti-corruption “war” may eventually get out of hand and grow to overwhelm even its initiators and supervisors and kick-start a far-reaching housecleaning and reclamation process where discrimination may no longer be possible. Already, the signs are embarrassingly showing up everywhere and it remains to be seen how long Buhari would remain comfortable with his current preference of harassing some alleged thieves and hobnobbing with others, even the real godfathers in the business. 

 

But this is not even the main worry. There is a growing concern at several informed quarters now about whether President Muhammadu Buhari is truly sincere about fighting corruption to the ground or is the whole thing not merely another means to some end!