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An open letter to the president-elect

By Olusanya Anjorin
05 March 2019   |   3:33 am
There is no other word to start than to say congratulations to our president.You have been through turbulent water but you have successfully navigated and sailed through a bitterly contested election for the second time.

Dear Mr. President,
There is no other word to start than to say congratulations to our president.You have been through turbulent water but you have successfully navigated and sailed through a bitterly contested election for the second time.

The purpose of this letter is to reiterate several issues some of which you are currently handling. If you think your second term will be much easier that will be an understatement as those issues unaddressed would raise their ugly heads again.

As a concerned citizen, I am sending this note to let you know that you can answer a call to greatness or a call to discredit in your second term. I am sure a lot of lessons have been learnt from the first term in office while hoping all the errors will be corrected.

I must admit that to rule our country takes courage and gut, this you must display but listen to the voice of people, the voice of wisdom. Permit me to suggest to you some specific problems the masses have faced and are still facing:

Power
We have consistently talked about power and government has consistently spent billions of dollars to make sure it is fixed, yet solution still remained elusive, we dare to hope that you will walk a new dimension to proffer a permanent solution. It is sad to let you know that up till today, millions of people are still billed on estimated meter- a grave injustice to millions of Nigerians who want prepaid meters. The change mantra is leisurely unfolding, recovering of looted funds, the youths are gently embracing agriculture as a vocation. To move to the next level we hope your second tenure would hit darkness so hard that it will not be able to rise to its foot anymore in Nigeria. By so doing, you would write the name of your regime in gold and Up Nepa! will no longer be heard in our country.

Freedom of Expression
Universally, everyone has the right to exercise freedom of speech or the press, this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference. I hope an individual will not be held incommunicado and without trial as this practice deprive the public from being informed and empowered while also admonishing a transparent reporting devoid of hate speeches from the media and individuals. When I looked at the archive, I am happy that living under an awful despotism and state-slave oligarchy has been sent to the museum of history- a period where men were hunted down like squirrels instead of being cherished for reporting the truth.

Cabinet Reshuffle
As people began to dance on the tip of a needle for your victory, it is sacrosanct that you begin to reshuffle your cabinet taking into consideration fairness in picking your cabinet members.To improve the quality of your cabinet and solidify your performance in the first tenure, the people are yearning for a cabinet who will serve them and not their individual pockets. The people are longing a winning team. The people are craving for appointments that are not lopsided. The people are yearning for a greater synergy among the arms of government to foster easy passage of utmost important. The people are clamoring for gender balancing, an inclusion of youth and women into your cabinet.A fresh vigorous blood that is groaning for new life will add more vibrancy to your government, a square pegs in square holes.

Restructuring
The call for restructuring and marginalization has remained the slogan of many people across the country and has nearly crippled us as a nation. It will be the interest of all to start to bridge the divide through wide consultation. Your most compelling challenge is to reunite the country through a vision of shared purpose. This shared vision is larger than our individual interest, religion, party loyalty and tribal sentiment; this will save us from self – destruction.

Education
Our children should be prepared to compete in global economy. How can we benchmark our students against the highest performing nations in the world? How can we weed out unwholesome practices in our education sector? Education in Nigeria is poorly funded. United Nations Educational, scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommends that 26% of the nation’s budget should be allocated to the educational sector. In the 2019 budget, education ministry gets 7.02% of Nigeria‘s 2019 budget. This is abysmally low compared to countries with good education system. We need a moral transformation, a holistic move from a decay system to a fair and just system from nursery to tertiary institution.
To be continued tomorrow
•Anjorin wrote from Lagos

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