Once more, I find myself writing to you, not because I’m in any way important or vaguely relevant; neither do I expect you to even set eyes on what is essentially a heartfelt plea from a very concerned Citizen.
On the night of Saturday, September 10, I found myself going to bed with the heaviest of hearts. Someone had sent me an excerpt of the speech you gave at the inauguration of the national re-orientation campaign. In-case you can’t recall, please allow me to quote a few lines.
‘’Our citizens must realize that the change they want to see begins with them, and that personal and social reform are not a theoretical exercise. The campaign we are about to launch today is all about the need for us to see change, not merely in economic and social progress but in terms of our personal behavior, how we conduct ourselves, engage our neighbours, friends, and generally how we relate with the larger society in a positive and definitive way and manner that promotes our common good and common destiny; change at home, change in the work place, change at traffic junctions, change at traffic lights etc.’’
To say I was exasperated by your suddenly shifting the goalposts is a gross under-statement. Are you really relegating the importance of repairing the insurmountable damage already inflicted on Nigeria’s economy?
Are the millions of unemployed Nigerians no longer a burden? Are the starving millions across the country yesterday’s news? Is the epileptic supply of electricity now an insignificant irritant to your administration? Or has there been a major misunderstanding with regards to the ‘change’ you and your APC comrades campaigned about and the change we the people expected?
The change your campaign implied was a change from ‘non-performance’ to ‘performance’; from ‘no infrastructure’ to ‘infrastructure’; from a sick economy to one of robust health; from constant failure to repairing the nation’s power situation to our final arrival at uninterrupted light; from a comatose education system to a revitalised one. These are just a few of the ‘changes’ we assumed you meant during your campaign.
Read also:https://businessday.ng/bd-weekender/article/open-letter-to-the-president-and-commander-in-chief-of-the-armed-forces-of-the-federal-republic-of-nigeria/
The words that seared my mind with sadness as I closed my eyes in anticipation of sleep’s warm embrace were, ‘there’s something very wrong with this picture.’
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying ‘things always look worse at night’. But sadly this wasn’t the case for me, as a message I received on my phone from an associate the following morning further highlighted the frustrations of mine and so many millions of Nigerians.
The message: ‘’When someone starts encroaching on people’s freedom and choice of what to spend their hard earned money on, then we are in trouble. Ironically the best way to change people’s taste is to allow the naira to float and the market to punish us for our obsession with foreign goods as the naira devalues till we either start generating dollars or reduce demand. Let the market take care of these things, not dictatorial utterances and condescending remarks.’’
As I’m sure you can , such a message doesn’t encourage a positive and happy mindset. Hence my mood on getting to church was crest-fallen at best. The reason for my acute despondency lay in my grave concern regarding your administration’s inability to face some stark realities.
Reality1. None of your policies are working
Reality 2. Nigerians are not only suffering but dying on a daily basis – not only the hopelessly impoverished that have been dying for decades as a result of previous administrations’ negligence, greed, and abject wickedness, but now also the working class and middle income earners (more than a few now resorting to taking their own lives), as a result of your administration’s inability to create jobs or inspire even the faintest glimpse of an economic revival.
Reality3. There are two basic givens for stimulating an economy – create jobs and encourage spending. So far, your administration’s policies have achieved the opposite.
Reality 4. The policies you implemented in ’83 cannot work in 2016.
However I do agree that we Nigerians need to change our attitude and mindset. It would be foolish of me to deny we’re not also to blame for the vicious demise of this nation’s social fabric. We observed silently and did nothing as corruption ravaged our land. Decade after decade we looked the other way as our schools, universities, hospitals, and infrastructure were ruthlessly pillaged by those in the corridors of power. We looked on like imbeciles so as not to be inconvenienced or obstructed from achieving our personal goals until we could stand it no longer.
But the most brutal damage of all was that inflicted on our morals and principles. We have become a nation wherein most will literally do anything for money. Nigeria has become a country in which money is all that matters. And as a result, the nation’s moral fabric is at an all-time low. No wonder so many of my generation’s parents cry themselves to sleep every night. This is not the Nigeria they envisioned.
So in this regard, your statement is spot-on. We must indeed change our attitude. We as a people must focus less on personal largess and decadence, and much more on working together to strengthen our nation with virtues such as love, humility, hard work, discipline, kindness, humility, moderation, and living within one’s means.
In order for mindsets and attitudes to genuinely and effectively change for the better, you will need to work hand in hand with some of the nation’s more influential bodies\organisations.
For example, encouraging Nigerians to think less of themselves and more of others and the nation at large will prove an uphill task unless you partner with some of the nation’s most influential churches. If I were in your position, I would call an emergency meeting with these churches and ask them to tone down the prosperity preaching in exchange for greater focus on love, tolerance, humility, contentment, and patience. It is impossible for people’s mindsets to change if churches continue to focus on ‘money money, money’. For it is this focus on money that drives people to do whatever it takes to amass wealth.
It is also unrealistic to imagine for one second that the above virtues can be successfully nurtured and cultivated in an environment such as we have at present.
Most civil servants haven’t been paid for several months, many private organisations are sacking staff as though it were going out of fashion, hundreds of thousands of graduates are jobless, the price of living is unattainable for most, basic public services such as reliable electricity supply, clean water, and good roads are non-existent, and to make matters worse, you continue to travel the world telling all and sundry that Nigerians are corrupt.
Do you really think a starving, unemployed, malnourished, and angry populace will be in the mood to cooperate with you?
What got us here in the first place are collapse of the education system, collapse of infrastructure, high unemployment and poor economic policies and corruption.
The reality is that all the above are still very much alive and kicking, especially corruption. After-all, any government that encourages dual exchange rates is simply feeding corruption via round-tripping. Hence, at the very least, you must resuscitate the economy at the same time as you encourage us to change our mindset and attitudes.
Your Excellency, your statements are actually an accurate reflection of the critical state of Nigeria’s moral fabric. And in truth, it’s refreshing to hear a Nigerian President speak in such a manner. But if you want to sell an idea, then you must first listen to the people you want to sell it to in order for you to understand their anxieties, suffering, challenges, needs, and desires, thereby enabling you to know how best to connect with them.
You cannot expect the electorate to cooperate with you as the nation slides further and further into what seems to be a bottomless pit of recession. Neither can you expect a people severely hard done as a result of decades of poor and decrepit provision of public services to happily clap in agreement as you tell them to change their attitude. Such a notion not only smacks of wishful thinking but also suggests your administration is living in a different country to the people it supposedly serves.
Yours sincerely Segun Akande
