Attention please, President Buhari!

Welcome back from your medical vacation dear President Muhamadu Buhari. Hearty congratulations on your miraculous recovery from your undisclosed ailment which has seen you out of the country for the better part of this year 2017. I pray that Almighty Allah will perfect your healing. Mr. President, it is heartwarming to listen to you last Monday during your official broadcast to the nation. Though am disappointed that  the much anticipated critical decisions that will energise governance  was not contained in your speech, yet it was not a vacuous statement. You did show grasp of the need to unite to solve our nagging problems inclusive of insecurity.

Since Monday, I have been guest of several media houses viz, Vision 92.1 FM, Nigerian Television Authority, Federal Radio Corporation of  Nigeria and Arise TV to mention but a few,  where on invitation, I have been analysing the importance of your homecoming, the gist of your national broadcast and agenda setting for you. Mr. President, it is just fit and proper for me to condense my thoughts into writing for posterity. First and foremost, I commend Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who as Acting President for the over hundred days of your absence held fort as a loyal, humble, conscientious and disciplined second-in-command. Prof. Osinbajo, among several other things signed the 2017 budget into law and dialogued with all major leaders of ethnic nationalities in a bid to quell the groundswell of agitation and threat to national security by some misguided elements among us. He also swore in the two newly appointed minsters and assigned them portfolios just as he appointed about 21 new permanent secretaries and assigned them to their new duty posts.

The Acting President also issued four Executive Orders aimed at facilitating ease of doing business as well as launching the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration Scheme on June 29.  At the rebound of Boko Haram insurgency, Prof. Osinbajo ordered the military high command to Borno State to take charge and contain the resurgence of the extremist group. These he did while ensuring that there is regular meetings of the Federal Executive Council and National Economic Council. Mr. President, I sincerely thank you for the trust and confidence you had in the Vice President which has ensured that there is no power vacuum while you’re away.

Now that you are back, I do hope you have convalesce well enough to fully resume duties and not getting back to work out of pressure from certain interest groups. I do know that that you have officially communicated the National Assembly about your resumption of duty in accordance with constitutional requirement. That makes me glad.    Let me now lay bare some issues that I consider need your urgent attention. As you have rightly pointed out in your national broadcast of last Monday, security remains a top priority. Aside from the rebound of Boko Haram, incidences of crime and criminality have been increasing at exponential rate. Kidnapping, armed robbery, rape, drug trafficking, ritual killings, fraud and many more have been on the rise with law enforcement agencies appearing overwhelmed. 

The other issue is the economy that is still in the doldrums. There is intolerable level of unemployment and poverty in this country. As the economy is in recess, many compatriots are slipping into depression. Suicide rate is increasing while psychiatrist hospitals are getting fuller by the day due to high incidences of mental illness plaguing the people. I stand to be corrected but the bulk of the promised social intervention programmes are yet to be implemented. Only about half of all the states in the country are currently enjoying ‘Home-grown school feeding programme’ of your government while the outstanding 300,000 graduates to be employed under the N-Power scheme are yet to be recruited two years into the noble scheme. Due to high cost of doing business arising from epileptic power supply, access to land and high interest rate on loan, not many new businesses are coming on board while many of the existing ones are folding up.  

Giving the fact that government at all level cannot absorb the teeming unemployed Nigerians, it’s important to incentivize the organised private sector through tax holidays, low interest rate on loan and provisioning of social infrastructure such as good roads, electricity, pipe-borne water, railway, etc. It is heartrending that your government celebrated two years in office without commissioning any tangible infrastructure. This should not be the case in 2018; otherwise, you and your political party may as well not bother to field a presidential candidate in 2019.

Sir, you set up the Senator Ken Nnamani Presidential Committee on Electoral Reform in October 2016. The Committee has since submitted its report to the Attorney General and Minster of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN for onward transmission to you. I doubt if he was able to present it to you before your departure to UK on medical leave. For whatever it is worth, please call for the report and do the needful on it even though the National Assembly is far gone in its constitutional and electoral act amendment effort.

It may interest you to know sir that despite several measures taken by your administration to combat bribery and corruption such as the whistleblower policy, Treasury Single Account, setting up of efficiency unit in the federal civil service and arrest and prosecution of some key government officials, the hydra-headed monster is still alive and well.  According to the 2016 Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, Nigeria is ranked 136 out of 176 profiled countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria is ranked 28 out of about 50 countries. This is still unenviable for the giant of Africa. Just last week, a joint report by the National Bureau of Statistics and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes revealed that a total of N400bn was received in bribes by public officials within a period of one year. The NBS National Corruption Report stated that 32.3 per cent of Nigerian adults who had contact with public officials between June 2015 and May 2016 had to pay bribes to the government workers. This is very shameful and a pointer to the fact that many Nigerians are yet to imbibe the ‘Change Begins With Me’ philosophy of this administration.

Sir, I look forward to your receiving official report of the findings of the Vice President Osinbajo headed three man fact-finding committee set up to investigate the suspended Secretary to the Federal Government, Engr. David Bachair Lawal and Director General of National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ayo Oke. It is important for the report of the committee to be made public as it borders on anti-corruption. In closing, the on-going strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities should not be allowed to linger. Everything humanly possible should be done to address and redress the university dons grievances.