Letter to Buhari

By Promise Adiele

I greet you, sir. I stand in awe of the majesty of your office and the overwhelming splendor that surrounds you. I pledge my loyalty to your presidential authority and from the bottom of my heart, I stand at attention in your hypnotic presence. I love you sir and I am sure Nigerians, whom you superintend their affairs, also love you.  While not trying to replicate Mariama Ba’s So Long A Letter, I beseech you to read this piece with unbiased mind, refusing to yield to the inevitable echoes of sycophancy which posit to eulogize you.

     In 2015, Nigerians voted for you mainly as a response to the prevailing dystopia under the last administration. We didn’t accept the APC as a political party because we were convinced that the difference between it and PDP is a matter of nomenclature, but we accepted you as the flag bearer of the party based on your honest disposition.

While we were not expecting you to bring a 100% turnaround to our fortunes, we looked up to you to provide a platform that will gradually restore Nigeria to a country of the sane where order and accountability will reign. Two and a half years after, it is obvious the change you preached while coming to power had other connotations, certainly not the change we had in mind.

     First, immediately you came to power, the monster of recession gripped Nigerians and sought to suffocate them in its vicious stranglehold. Your administration explained to Nigerians that the recession should be blamed on the last administration. Somehow, we accepted this excuse, believing that a turnaround to our economic fortunes was imminent. Two and a half years down the line, Nigerians are worse off than you met them. Prices of essential commodities have skyrocketed, the naira, our own dear currency, has crashed completely in comparison to other currencies in the world. Today, the naira exchanges for 365 to the 1 US dollar.  I remember clearly in one of your campaign speeches when in a moment of political ecstasy, you inadvertently declared that within your one year of assuming office, the naira would equal the US dollar. After that declaration, some Nigerians began to look at you differently.

Both locally and internationally, there was a consensus that the biggest problem confronting Nigeria was corruption. Criminals who had hitherto plundered our economy lost their sleep as you resumed office and we believe that you will bring them to book in order to point the way to accountability.

Regrettably, you have not done this. Corruption has fought back and in fact appears to be winning the war. Although many people have been indicted in one criminal act or another, no one has been convicted till date.

If the recent declaration by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Ibrahim Magu, that Nigeria is losing the war against corruption is to be taken seriously, then there is a cause for concern. The closest you came to convicting a corrupt public officer was the former Adamawa State governor, Bala James Ngilari, but he was soon acquitted of all charges reminiscent of the nepotism that characterized the last administration.

Nigerians expected you, in a show of transparent honesty, to release the names of looters who have refunded parts of their loot in return for a secret amnesty. In spite of a court order compelling you to do so, you have concealed their identities. I am sure it is within  your presidential powers to reveal the names of those who have stolen this country to stupor and brought economic ruin upon us. While common people whose acts of petty stealing provoked by hunger and survival rot in jail, those who have stolen billions of naira still walk the streets of Nigeria safe and ensconced in the obscenity of their rancid wealth.

The cases of Babachir Lawal the Secretary to Government of the Federation (SGF) and Ayodele Oke, the NIA boss, is still pending and the EFCC appears to be helpless in the matter. The former National Security Adviser, (NSA) boss, Sambo Dasuki, has been kept under house arrest without trial. 

As a result of your reluctance in prosecuting economic saboteurs, the whistleblower policy is considerably weakened because Nigerians are no longer eager to blow the whistle since those indicted are either protected by political interest or ethnic loyalty.

Adiele writes from the Department of English, University of Lagos.