My Kobo Advice for Mr. President
By Dele Momodu...
Your Excellency, please permit me to commiserate with you on
the unfortunate and untimely death of your dearly beloved brother. I sincerely
join other Nigerians in mourning what must have been a sad loss for you and
your family in particular. As you travel back home to your tranquil village to
pay your last respects, I pray you ponder on the free advice I’m about to offer
you in good faith. Even if you’ve already returned to the gilded cage of Aso
Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja, I wish to plead that you find the time to
read this open letter which I would have communicated directly if I had the
privilege of a private meeting with you.
Perhaps, I should quickly introduce myself as a journalist
and politician. Though I have seen you a few times at functions, we have
never properly met. The only time we ever shook hands was when I joined others
to mourn the death of, and celebrate, your father in Otueke village of Bayelsa
State when you were still Vice President. I also saw you briefly in South
Africa in 2009 but did not approach your table because your bodyguards didn’t
look like they would appreciate any lesser mortal disturbing your peace.
I was amazed because I had just left the official residence
of President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria and did not see more than a few guards in
the house. I had spent quality time with him without any other soul than my
South African friend I went with. I had gone there in a rented taxi but no one
had asked us to go through metal/bomb detectors; or to drop our phones with members
of the secret service. I did not see any ADC, CSO, CSD or any other security
aide with similar nomenclature only known to, and made in, Nigeria. I think we
just love big titles.
Anyway, I saw you again when you invited Presidential
candidates, of which I was one, to Aso Rock, last year to brief us on the need
for peace during the elections. I doubt if you saw me, though the invitation
came from your office. Most of the candidates snubbed you but I chose to attend
out of respect for your person and office. I remember seeing Mallam Ibrahim
Shekarau, who sat close to me, and Mr John Dara and so many politicians who I
believed came because it was Aso Rock but really had no roles to play.
Unfortunately, that meeting was nothing but a waste of time. You came and
without even shaking hands with your co-contestants delivered your homily,
answered a few questions and disappeared. There were no banters or interactions
with us to cement a bond of friendship even if we wanted to take over your
office.
I was surprised that you or your aides could not persuade
most of the candidates to attend. Yet you went ahead to host an event that was
obviously doomed before it began. I can only imagine how much was charged
Nigeria for such hogwash. Ghana held a similar peace conference about two weeks
ago and it was a star studded event. Part of great leadership quality is the
ability to attract certified enemies and convince them to rise above prejudices
and pettiness. I believe you have not reached out enough. Your aides have also
not helped matters by their paranoia and neurotic approach to issues. They see
enemies where none exist and fire all guns blazing at shadows. That is not how
to build a nation.
One more example should suffice. You went on an official
visit to Ghana. I was invited by the then Nigeria High Commissioner to
Ghana, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, to attend the brief reception held for you at
our High Commission in Accra. Again, it was impossible for most of us to have a
simple handshake with you as your security aides practically treated us like
common criminals unworthy of communion with the Almighty. I finally gave
up.
Sir, let me say emphatically that the biggest problem with
Nigerian leaders is that once they attain power, they vacate this earth and
migrate to another planet far away from fellow citizens. Leaders are elected to
serve the people but in Nigeria we are compelled to serve our leaders and if
possible starve to death in the process. We are not allowed to ask questions
about how we are led or in reality, misled. This is the reason it is difficult
for most of you to know what goes on in the real world. I suggest you borrow a
leaf from Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola whose style fascinates me to no end. He
drives through Lagos with no disruption to the lives of the people.
He responds promptly to reasonable text messages and emails.
I know you’re very busy, but take time to see how President Obama jogs down or
sprints up the Air Force One. It demonstrates a man on a mission. Feel
free to drive on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and see things for yourself. Go into a
pub and mix with the boys like President Clinton once did in Ireland. Refrain
from blocking the house of God because you are attending a church service. Sir,
no evil shall befall you. You are too distant from the people you lead. Show
them love and you shall reap bountiful adoration. No massive security is
necessary, once you make God first and suffer not his people. Conversely total
security is no security where there is no Godliness. The love and prayers of
Nigerians will keep you going.
I have decided to adopt a new approach in my column. I will
take it upon myself to write this open letter as regularly as necessary and
proffer solutions to different issues, in the hope that you will get to read
it. I will tell you what your aides will never tell you. It is up to you to
carefully read what I write and take your own decision. Let it be said that we
told you but did nothing about it. I would have freed myself from the burden of
“siddon-look.” I’m reasonably convinced that if you know the magnitude of
problems confronting Nigerians you will work harder and change your style of
governance unless you’re determined to fail spectacularly like others before
you. I pray this will not be your portion.
Let me state categorically that I write this letter without
any malice. More importantly I expect no personal gratification other than to
see change in the lives of our people. I needed to make that clear since it is
now in our culture to read motives to every good intention.
I have no other reason than out of patriotic fervour. I have
not been to Abuja since last year because I’m dutifully engaged at home and
abroad, and really have no reason to run up and down the corridors of power
like the proverbial yo-yo. Every man must determine his needs in life. I know
mine and I am happy and content to manage whatever God in his infinite kindness
has given to me. We all have friends and families who have nowhere to go. If
Nigeria becomes the country of our dream and there is a level playground for
all of us, most citizens would thrive without living like pathological beggars.
You’re in a position to leave Nigeria better than you met it. Look at most of
the politicians and businessmen around you today. They were the same faces you
saw with your predecessors. You are their new god today because of your
position. Tomorrow, when you have departed, as you surely must do, they will
move on again to the next person, without any qualms.
I have studied men and women of power at home and abroad and
have sympathy for their tragic flaws. My discovery is that most leaders often
fail to remember that whatever has a beginning must have an end. Time
also flies. And it waits for nobody. Who could have imagined PDP in power
since 1999 with nothing tangible to show for all the trillions of naira spent
by various administrations? Who would believe that President Olusegun
Obasanjo’s two terms came and disappeared within a twinkle of an eye? Or that
even you have spent two years already as President and
Commander-in-Chief? The question that will later haunt you, as it is
haunting others before you, for the rest of time is: what did you do with all
your time in office and all the resources under your control?
I will say without any fear of contradiction that the money
at your disposal right now is enough to transform Nigeria into a true giant if
frugally managed. I will now go on to demonstrate what I mean.
Sir, for every one billion naira we waste on frivolous
projects, the dream of a fresh thousand millionaires would have perished. If
you hand me the N2.2 billion naira you are about to spend on building a new
banquet suite in Aso Rock, I will instantly create 2,200 brand-new millionaire
farmers from our large army of brilliant but unemployed youths. Each of
them would be able to employ 10 to 20 people in production, preservation,
processing and distribution. If you think I’m joking, please hand me the money
and I will urgently invite applications from potential beneficiaries. I and my
team pledge not to earn a kobo from the project.
If I may ask, what is wrong with the banquet suite you
presently have? Is it not better to spend money on providing jobs than trying
to show off to visitors that we are prosperous in the midst of wanton poverty?
I’m writing this letter from Cambridge University, one of the oldest surviving
institutions of learning. The buildings of most Colleges here are as ancient as
history, yet there is no plan to demolish them and build new ones. The problem
with us is lack of a maintenance culture. You can rehabilitate the old banquet
suite with less than N100 million and turn it into an architectural
masterpiece. I’m sure you won’t spend your personal money the way ours is being
poured away like rain water. Do you know how old Buckingham Palace is? If it
was in Nigeria, we would have demolished it many times over in order to award
some horrendous contracts.
I gather you want to build a new home for the Vice President
at over N6 billion. This is sinful in a nation with over 12 generations of
unemployed, and unemployable, graduates. What is wrong with the current Vice
President’s home, Akinola Aguda House and wherever Alhaji Atiku Abubakar once
lived? It smacks of gross insensitivity to waste resources in this manner. Please,
give us that N6 billion and I will give you 6,000 productive millionaire
entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Imagine each of them employing 10 people within the
first year or two, we would have taken more than 60,000 youths off the streets.
We’ve done it several times through Goke Dokun’s creative Entrepreneur Series
on television and can do it even bigger in real life. As President, I would
rather do this than build a home for a family of less than 50 people.
Mr President, Nigerians are not difficult to lead. In fact,
we get carried away by little mercies. I know you have your sight on contesting
elections in 2015. Let me assure you that you won’t have to campaign much, or
spend billions to get re-elected if you listen to me. All you have to do is
demonstrate to Nigerians that you can resist those carpetbaggers who see power
only in terms of enjoyment. The world is building monuments and creating new
inventions everywhere but we are busy wasting ours on flights of fancy like
super jets, palaces, women and champagnes. We can do a lot better because God
has endowed us with all we need to be among the greatest of the world. All it
takes a little bit of vision and discipline.
Sir, there is nothing you want in life that God has not
given you on a platter of gold. It is time for you to reciprocate by humbling
yourself like all Saints. I will tell you about them and great names in history
when I write my next epistle to you. If you hearken to the voice of reason, you
will etch your name in gold.
Truly, like Jesus Christ (apologies to Christians), you will
ride triumphantly into your own Jerusalem.
Personally, I think Dele Momodu is not just a brilliant journalist in Nigeria, but he is
also a visionary Journalist whose analytical power is beyond
description. Being a Nigerian I believe that Nigeria as a country
has the potential to become a super power , first, at the continental
level (Africa)and then join the rest of the world super powers, if
our resources are being manage properly… Else we are going nowhere!
Meanwhile, my
suspicion is that Mr. Dele Momodu has been "fenced" from the corridor
of power (for some unknown reasons to Him as a person) and he didn’t like it
(Maybe Maybe not). That is my opinion and I think I have the right to that, I
believe if he have been given access to the president, He would have been
singing a different tune by now, and not “wasting” his precious time writhing
an open epistle to Mr. “Sidon look”. Personally I think this is another Rueben
Abati in d making, a social climber pretending to be social crusader.
This might sound odd to your point of views, but that's just the simple way I see
the whole scenario.
Best Regards.
