FEATURE ARTICLE

Friday, July 24, 2020
[email protected]
Arizona, USA
OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI

Dear Mr. President,

"Trust is earned, respect is given, and loyalty is demonstrated. Betrayal of any one of those is to lose all three." ---Zaid K. Abdelnour

"It's midnight in Nigeria. Buhari, you're losing a winnable battle for the dawn of a new era in Nigeria." - Yahaya Balogun

"It is not good to tell people what they wish to know but it is good to tell people what we think is right or what is generally accepted to be right." --- Yahaya Balogun

his letter is another important message to you from a concerned Buharist at this crucial period in our nation's history. Mr. President, for the avoidance of doubt, and for your information, the concerned Buharists may soon go into moral trenches. Realistically, when the dictate of your conscience guides you, you're not only defining your future, but you're answering the impending questions from posterity and for your children's children. Even if you're no more to respond or be answerable to those questions, posterity will answer the items on your behalf for standing on the right side of history.

Meanwhile, I hope someone somewhere near the Aso Rock Villa will get this message across to you--as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Damage control is more expensive than preemptive damage control. When you allow the avoidable issue like corruption to go awry before bribery is dealt with, when you keep silent in the face of numerous ugly incidents that can tarnish your image in the mind of your admirers, your enemies and political adversaries, your enemies will feast on your shortcomings like vultures feast on carcasses. According to Sean Simmons, "there is something wrong with your character if opportunity controls your loyalty." Mr. President, remember, the Buahrists' loyalty is never controlled or motivated by the grotesque opportunity and grandstanding, but by your integrity and Buharists' patriotism to our dear country. In the long run, if you continue to play ostrich, you will be seen as an accomplice in the house of corruption! The Buharists and other admirers of you will not have the moral justification to come to your defense. It is high time you stopped playing into the hands of a group of people who are in search of your failures and to justify their inability to eke from the national cakes under your administration.

Neocolonialism is the hybrid and vestige of colonialism in Nigeria. After the brutish British colonized our continent, Africa remains under the shackles of neocolonialism. Your humble self has been a victim of this mantra; we pray that the bulging corruption doesn't consume your hard-earned integrity. When you came to power in June 2015, our song was "Nigeria history is a rewritten history, future reassured!" Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief when we (campaigned) your frugality and integrity to them. Your body language sent jitters and signals to the children of corruption. Buharists were so enthusiastic and joyously falling after one another that Nigeria was on the road to the long envisaged Promised Land. We warned you at the period of the impending impatience of the plebeians. We cried out loudly that you shouldn't take the impoverished voters for granted--- and that you must embark on an economic and political revolution that could change Nigeria forever. Corruption is a menace. It has never allowed meaningful growth and development to take place in Nigeria. Your handlers seem like your enemies! The inefficiency and inability of your information Minister to tell the nation the successes and failures of your administration is one of your encumbrances.

Regrettably, under your watch, Nigeria is now under moral subterfuge and political shenanigans. The country you are presiding over is in a circus show of shame with a pervading cascade of hopelessness among your citizens. If your government doesn't send some corrupt people to prison after all these apparent scams oozing out from your administration, you should expect some of us the self-avowed Buharists to go into political trenches against your administration; we will amass and weaponize our pens to mobilize the Nigerian people against grotesque injustice and ossified corruption under your administration. The mighty power of pens we used to bring you to power will be used in earnest to send you back to Daura before the expiration of your term in office. Your hard-earned integrity is under attack from all frontiers! You must speedily act to salvage your evaporating and unique image.

Before you came to office in 2015, some incorruptible Nigerians and foreigners doubted and questioned your Nigerian nationality. The people's doubts about your extraordinary characteristics are not peculiar characteristics of a typical Nigerian politician or "militarician."

The remnants of Buharists still love you and reserve their support for your integrity. Still, Buahrists are nauseated and disgruntled by your perceived partiality in the Federal appointments and dispensation of justice. Your stubborn and carefree attitude is debasing your courage and integrity. You have sacrificed your entire life to the service of Nigeria. What have you got to lose to wage benevolent and unconventional war against economic saboteurs of your country? The world is watching with keen interest as corruption begins to fight anti-corruption under your watch! The country stinks; the vapor of corruption is offensive to our collective psyche. Corruption is a country's norm and a new normal to national mores and customs. No one is immune or exonerated from the woes of a nation, except, only the innocent, deprived, and dehumanized members of the Nigerian society.

"We the Buharists" are not fixated to what we can eke from the national cake. Still, we are burdened by what the nation can do to alleviate the sufferings of the deprived citizens wallowing in abject and needless poverty. The majority of the Buharists in the diaspora have their professional jobs and careers. Diaspora Buharists are motivated by the incredible human capital and endowed natural resources and wealth of Nigeria. The Buharists also have unconditional love for Nigeria.

This writer and other responsible Nigerians have been consistently advocating for your war on corruption to be total or all-encompassing. Some cabinet members fingered for corrupt practices are not being brought to book or criminal justice. Some of your political associates found wanting in your administration seem "untouchable.� The conscientized Buharists may soon tender their unreserved apologies to the children of corruption, and offer real genuflection as 'reparation' or compensation to wailers, agitators, and the absconded national saboteurs and conspirators. We may reconsider our moral support for you and unabashedly redraw the battle lines against your government. We will advocate for your three and half-term presidency. Then, our unfettered struggle for a just Nigeria will just be a 'begin again!'

The good aspiration you have for Nigeria is under assault, but the most disturbing thing about you is your continued silence in the face of a raped nation. It is disingenuous of your administration to shield enemies of Nigeria. We see your deafening silence as an insult and assault to our collective psyche, and disrespect to those of us who toil day and night for the preservation of your integrity and the emancipation of the dehumanizing Nigerians. If you want the country to believe in your anti-corruption war-(a formidable foe of Nigeria), you must begin through the judiciary to send corrupt people to prison after they duly undergo trials, and face criminal justice. You must be on the side of the people and history, not a suspected accomplice of those who are engaging in the rape of a beautiful country - Nigeria.

We are looking forward to you with trepidation to change Nigeria for good. You must redefine your slow and freaking anti-corruption campaign and make it all-encompassing to serve as a deterrent to �fantastically� corrupt people in Nigeria. Concerned Nigerians in the Diaspora are watching with keen interest as you deal with the shenanigans of official corruption, and solve the financial misappropriation impeding our road to success in Nigeria. As one of your concerned citizens and unrepentant Buharists, it is imperative to acquaint you that we are keeping our fingers crossed!

Yahaya Balogun is a concerned Nigerian-American and an avowed Buharist. He wrote this letter from Arizona, United States of America.

President Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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