 |
| Cardinal Anthony Okogie |
Nigerians
hunger, not only for food, but also for good leadership, for peace, security,
and justice.
BY CARDINAL ANTHONY OKOGIE
Dear Mr. President : Last year, when
you assumed office, the chant of “Change,” your campaign slogan, ushered you
into the Presidential Villa. Today, cries of “hunger” could be heard across the
length and breadth of our vast country.
Nigerians
hunger, not only for food, but also for good leadership, for peace, security,
and justice. This letter is to appeal to you to do something fast, and,
if you are already doing something, to redouble your effort.
May
it not be written on the pages of history that Nigerians die of starvation
under your watch. As President, you are the chief servant of the nation.
I, therefore, urge you to live up to the huge expectation of millions of
Nigerians. A stitch in time saves nine.
This
is the second year of your administration.
You
and your party promised to lead the masses to the Promised Land. It is not an
easy task to lead. But by campaigning for this office, you offered to
take the enormous task of leadership upon yourself. Nigerians are waiting for
you to fulfill the promises you made during the campaign.
They
voted you into office because of those promises. The introduction of town hall
meetings is a commendable idea. But in practice, you, not just your
ministers, must converse with Nigerians. You are the President. You must be
accountable to them. The buck stops on your desk.
Even
if your administration has no magic wand at least give some words of
encouragement. On this same score, please instruct your ministers, and
insist that they be sincere and polite at those town meetings. Their
sophistry will neither serve you nor Nigerians.
Mr.
President, if you want to leave a credible legacy come 2019, in all sincerity,
please retool your administration. Change is desirable. But it must be a change
for the better. Let this change be real. Change is not real when
old things that we ought to discard refuse to pass away.
You
will need to take a critical look at your cabinet, at the policies and programmes
of your administration, and at those who help you to formulate and execute
them. You will need to take a critical look at the manner of appointments
you have been making.
It
is true that commonsense dictates that you appoint men and women you can
trust. But if most of the people you trust are from one section of the
country and practice the same religion, then you and all of us are living in
insecurity. The Nigerian economy has never been in a state as terrible as
this.
You
as President are like the pilot of an aircraft flying in turbulence.
Turbulent times bring the best or the worst out of a pilot. We can no
longer blame the turbulence on past administrations. You know quite well that
some of the officials of your administration served in previous
dispensations.
Blame
for what we have been experiencing is, in fact, bipartisan in character. The entire political class needs to come together, irrespective of party
differences, to acknowledge its collective guilt and to seek ways of saving the
sinking ship that our country has become.
This
cannot be done if some officials of your administration demonize and alienate
members of the opposition. If a large portion of the blame for the
present situation is to be laid on the doorsteps of the entire political class,
the search for a solution must involve everyone.
That
is why no one should be alienated. All hands must be on deck. This is the time
to revitalize moribund industries, reinvigorate our agriculture, make our
country tourist and investor friendly, and enable our young men and women to
find fulfillment by contributing to the common good.
None
of these lofty goals can be achieved without good education. On this
particular issue, recent appointments you have made in the education sector
raise a question: have you really appointed the best? Still, on education, it
is important that our universities be allowed to use their own criteria to
admit students.
It
is a gross violation of the principles of federalism and academic freedom for
the federal government to insist that only a federal parastatal can decide on
who gains admission into our universities. It is the role of the university
senate, not of government bureaucrats, to decide on who gets admitted and who
is awarded a certificate.
Mr.
President, your desire to wage a war on corruption is just and noble. But a
just war must be waged with just means. Those who have stolen the wealth
of this country have broken the laws of our country. They must be treated
according to the law and not outside the law, and the outcome of the judicial
process must be respected by the government.
Even
accused persons have rights. Where those rights are violated, we risk a
descent to anarchy. It is our candid opinion that corruption is not found in
only one party. No political party in Nigeria has a monopoly of looters.
That is why we need an EFCC that is thoroughly independent of the presidency,
and an Attorney General without party affiliation working in partnership with
various independent accounting institutes.
This
will ensure that we come up with an objective list of those who plundered our
treasury. Mr. President, pardon me if I sound like a gratuitous
counselor. I owe you the truth and nothing but the truth. In my life as a
public figure and a religious leader, I have offered my counsel, for whatever
its worth, to quite a number of Presidents in this country.
I
do this because I desire that you succeed. For the success of the leader
is the success of the citizens. If there is no solution to Nigeria’s problem,
there may be endless war. You strike one town, you gain it, and you come again
to regain it. Remember that you cannot put a crown on your head.
It
is the people who put it on you. Otherwise one day, you will get tired of it.
Please listen to the legitimate cries of your fellow citizens.
Cardinal Anthony Okogie,
the emeritus Archbishop of Lagos, writes from Lagos.
Originally published in SaharaReporters.com
No comments:
Post a Comment