Good morning, Mr President, I am back from my two-month-plus recess. I say Happy New Year.  A lot of water has passed under the bridge in the last two months, covering them will yield several volumes of text.  However, I will touch on those that fall within my preferred scale by way of brief comments.

First is the somersault in our education policy, especially the pronouncement by the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, to the effect that the English language will now be the primary medium of instruction in the Nigerian educational system. The reason for this policy reversal, according to the minister, is the poor performance of students in the secondary school entrance examinations administered by the West Africa Examination Council (WAEC), National Examination Council (NECO) and the Joint Matriculation Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB).

A complementary reason adduced is that English would serve as a unifying tool across Nigeria’s diverse linguistic landscape, leveraging access to global knowledge, technology, and international openings. We are not told the cause of the observed failure, or perhaps, the impression that occurred in regions of the country that placed emphasis on indigenous languages at the foundational level, other than the indigenous language as the cause.

Logic dictates remediating the failure rather than scrapping a well-thought-through policy that seeks to promote indigenous languages, recognise their equal status, and improve early childhood learning outcomes. I am not surprised, since his appointment, the Minister of Education has desired relevance. Much earlier, he had whimsically scrapped the C-status of mathematics in the admission criteria of Nigerian tertiary institutions and was forced into a retreat by voices of reason from academia and sundry stakeholders. What is intriguing about the reversion to English-only policy is that the reversion was made at the 2025 Language in Education Conference organised by the British Council, a body with a mandate to promote English language and culture globally.

The criticism of the Nigerian Academy of Education (NAE) is apt here. The body noted that the reversion was a great “grave disservice and a reinforcement of “permanent recolonisation and the burial of Nigeria’s future and pride.” To be sure, the policy orientation of a minister coming from a region where the local language is set aside for occasional parliament proceedings is hard to believe. He betrays absolute ignorance of the decolonisation debate in academia, in which part of the current is the use of indigenous language. You cannot reinforce the soft power of another country to the neglect of your own cultural equipment. Mr President, the minister must retreat, once again, in this area.

Mr President, your 2026 deficit budget, put at N58.18 trillion and dubbed “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity”, beats financial logic. Earmarked for debt servicing alone is 27 per cent, and nearly half of the budget will be sourced through borrowing, while expected revenue is hinged on the volatile oil sector. I am familiar with the merit of borrowing and the debt-to-GDP ratio. What is clear to anyone is that our country is “fantastically corrupt”, and borrowing in an environment without fiscal discipline is a wild goose chase, and the budget intentionality is bound to fail. May God guide you, Mr President?

The next issue, now endemic in our country, is security. Indeed, kidnappings and killings are continuing. The country is bleeding. The failure of security in Nigeria is not so much about how much money is put on the table to buy military platforms to deal with insurgents, but rather it is a political project of the state-nation, the Fulani, to overrun this multi-ethnic nation.

The security apparatuses of the country are laden with Trojan horses that have made it impossible to win the war against terror. Every region has the capacity to flush out the terrorists, and the federal government needs to empower the security outfits in each of the regions and states to wield equiponderant military hardware, at least, at a conventional level.

Your policy of labelling the blood merchants as terrorists is the right decision and must be implemented without mercy. The U.S. intervention in collaboration with your administration must be well-handled. Imperial powers do not render free humanitarian assistance. It is always at a cost to the recipients. For us to benefit from the U.S. with minimal cost, we must consciously build an Israeli-type lobby in the U.S. However, we must leverage POTUS’ current disposition to deal a mortal blow to the terrorists ravaging the land.

Still on security, Mr President, I heard that you have sought the assistance of Turkey on our security challenges, perhaps goaded by Sheikh Gumi, who advised you do so instead of the Americans. Dancing with Istanbul is the biggest mistake you can make in this matter, and it is the height of naivety. Turkey has been named as one of the sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria, along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia.  This naming was done by Necephore Soglo, the former President of the Benin Republic, at a security meeting in Niamey.

Also, CBN News reported arms shipments from Turkey to Boko Haram. I had amplified this in my keynote paper on “The Anti-politics of Buhari Administration” in 2019. The Defence Headquarters claimed afterwards that they were investigating the matter. Mr President, a romance with Turkey is wrong-headed, and I advise you think again, sir.

Furthermore, and reportedly, late last year, some AK-47-bearing men were arrested by Nigerian soldiers in the Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State in a patrol vehicle allegedly linked to the Kwara State Government. The men claimed that they were armed by the state government, and the latter confirmed that the suspects were members of Miyetti Allah operating under a federal security arrangement coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

Reportedly, the ONSA acknowledged that arms were issued to vigilantes under “hybrid security operations,” in line with the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act. This would be followed by a rebuttal that those involved were merely vigilantes known to the NSA.

Recall, Mr President, that Miyetti Allah, a terrorist organisation, played a great role in the influx of non-Nigerian Fulani into the country in the whole web of intrigues to oust President Jonathan in 2015. This web of refutation, Mr President, is the koko of the security dilemma facing the country. The truth is bitter. Mr President, you are working with Trojan horses who are the cause of the country’s security problem. The ball is in your court as the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Prof. Akhaine is with the Department of Political Science, Lagos State University.