AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, PRESIDENT AND
COMMANDER – IN – CHIEF OF THE ARM FORCES FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
SEARCHING THE COMPASS OF HOPE FOR NIGERIA’S FUTURE
I am from the grassroots, and it is not all the times I lift up my eyes to see the makings of
decision and takings of actions at the top, but the few times I do, I see the turns of events that
countervail the blueprints of a prospective bright future for Nigeria.
As one who eagerly yarns to inherit a glorious future, I feel constrained by dissatisfaction to key
into shaping the future by blending my voice with the other numerous voices, within and outside the
country, in bringing to your notice the issues that have assumed, with uncontrollable stress, and
alarming space in our minds. I, for one, my future hangs on the future of Nigeria. Of all the one
hundred and ninety five countries in the world, in none will my story be told in detail of acceptable
accuracy than Nigeria. As every human being, I have personal challenges, but at no occasion have I
given those personal challenges a chance to impinge on my concern for Nigeria. My mind, at the
moment, is unsettled due to the occupancy of Nigerian’s challenges. I have a strong feeling of honesty
that if it is well with Nigeria, it is well with me too. My well-being automatically translates from the
well-being of Nigeria. So, with deep emotional involvement, I write this piece, out of trepidation over
the future of Nigeria, using the diction that best expresses the depth of the emotions I bear at the
moment.
I am your ardent supporter and till date, your administration still enjoys my undistracted loyalty.
Until recently, your numerous pictures served the longest of time in the space of my profile picture on
my Facebook account. All the years, the level of support has been intact. However, there are a number
of issues I would like to humbly tender to you for two reasons: one, if I did not tell you, I should be
your worst enemy as well as the enemy of your administration; two, it is quite convincing that there are
loyalty defects in the allegiance of your trustees who constitute nothing less than a circle of sycophants,
filling your ears with fictitious stories rather than stories of realities. Once in any leadership position,
aside intelligence and determination as requisite tools for success, one needs to be well informed at all
times on all matters of concern for some malcontentedness to the level of maturity. At the wake of my
protest, I removed your picture from its position on my Facebook account.
A politician that loses an election may take comfort in the respite of contesting again in another
election year. A trader may forget the pain of loss in his or her business in the hope of gaining
tomorrow. But losing my future is irreparable. It is synonymous to death. Right now, my generation is
no the miry cleft of despondence, and I can picture subsequent generations freely moving in continuous
retrogress, searching the bottom of an abyss. I am really afraid and the fear begs for absolute exposure
now, and eventual frontal confrontation from all cardinal angles. If ever Nigeria is going to
disintegrate; if ever corruption will continue to occupy a space in the definition of our national life; if
ever Nigerians will keep being known worldwide for the wrong things; if ever injustice, inequality and
unfairness are going to be the tenets of governance in Nigeria, if ever any tribe, ethnic or religious
group is going to be worn a crown of importance, giving it elements of superiority, and others have
their interest treaded upon, making their harnessed energies and contributions invisible; then, it should

not start in my generation. These diabolisms threaten the honour, dignity and respect accruable to the
equality of humanity.
The first issue I would like to sustain its continued existence is that which is on the landmass of
platitude: fulfilment of your campaign promises. What adds importance to this is that, it is the
foundation on which all other errors are built with mighty colonnades. I do not need to rummage my
memory in search of all the promises to remind you of them, for you to know them more than I do. I
would bear my mind on your personality. During your campaign, you presented yourself as one with
single understandable personality. Nigerians rallied around you en masse. The crystal ball showed the
possibility inherent in the effectiveness of positive change. Expectations of better standards of living
drove a greater percentage of voters to your side, and that resulted in your overwhelming victory. But
instead of taking lessons from an incumbent losing an election to you and add to your guiding
principles in the act of governance, you somehow appear to be making everyone pay with their selfesteem,
trust, and expectation. From the time your started making your appointments, you started
generating a lot of uncountable personalities, totally unknown to Nigerians, and these unknown
personalities are difficult to understand much less condone with. Was the earliest personality to serve
as magnet of attracting people to you? The very things you criticized in the past administration of
Goodluck Jonathan are happening in your own administration. Were such criticisms mere meal
preparations? Your Excellency, Sir, this duty calls for honesty, and for the sake of Nigeria and her
future, it is compelling I stick to the bitterness of honesty. When a promise is not fulfilled, it has
negative psychological effects on the person being made the promise. It denigrates their self-esteem,
drive, and focus. On the person that made the promise and failed to fulfill it, it tempers with their
integrity which is the bedrock of good reputation. A good reputation gets tarnished when perforated,
and nothing perforates one’s good reputation like the creation of gap of ay proximity between one’s
word and actions. By not acting on your seductive promises, you are busy perforating your good
reputation. The holes are getting larger day by day. Your teaming critics put their fingers in the holes
and expand them to the knowledge of the public. Such an expansion could form the plinth of the
gallows on which the conscience of the critics will prompt them how best to hand up your presidential
ambition, come two thousand and nineteen.
Under your watch, Nigeria is less secure that ever since the return to a democratic rule. And that
takes me to the area of security a fast declining industry in Nigeria. The spiral of insecurity has now
become like a revolving door; when one side gets pulled to close completely, the other side gets pushed
to reach its maximum openness. No place is anymore: on the roads, people get killed at any time; at
homes, people are either butchered or bombed to dead; in churches, mosques is the same thing; at
markets and other social centres, the cases are not different. People now live in constant fear of being
killed any moment. Parents are afraid to send their children and wards to some schools because they
are no longer safe for learning. From the dreaded Boko Haram in the North, through the brutality of
herdsmen attacks across the country are topical threats to human, infrastructural and social security.
Communal clashes ravaging some parts of the middle belt are loudly calling for urgent attention.
Kidnapping and vandalism in the Niger – Delta and other places follow suit. This is particularly
disappointing. You are a Retired Army General. You fought for Nigeria during the civil war. You

witnessed all the military interventions in Nigeria and you got involved at one time. So, by virtue of all
these experiences and sundry, you are a security expert on your own right. If ever there should be a
challenge in your administration, it should not have been in the area of security. On Boko Haram, you
moved the military central command to Borno State, which saw the military massively deployed. The
result of that rigorous stride is beign appreciated by Nigerians and the world at large. But on the
herdsmen incessant attacks, which could be justifiably described as another arm of the Boko Haram
due to their modes of operations and devastating effects, one would have expected you would send the
military to those less secure places with the strict command to fish out those evil elements. Instead, it
was like a stone thrown into the sea from you: there has been utmost silence, as if the live that are
being destroyed on daily basis do not have any emotional claim on you and your command, went and
danced a python dance. Now, to a manslaughter group, nothing happens. Your silence over such
detestable cruelties gives even your supporters reasons to doubt you as one who belongs to everybody
and belongs to nobody. I am neither for Christian nor against Muslims: I am for humanity. Whether it
is a Christian or Muslim that is killed, I do not care. All I wail over is that life is gone, potential instinct
is buried, wisdom and aspirations are cut off from human existence. In my resolve to remain resolute in
my humanistic drive, I have a mental perception on this issue of insecurity, particularly the aspect of
herdsmen attack. I hail from Vwang, a hospital town in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau
State, and I can tell from the depth of my conscience, out of experience, that not all Fulani share that
diabolical mental focus. In fact, most of these loosed elements claim to be indigenes of the states at the
fringes of North – Western Nigeria; but the truth is that most of them are not Nigerians. Theirs is to
kill, maim, and render desolate the pride of human dignity. Stiff measures should see security beefed
up at the affected locations to ensure that the perpetrators are arrested. Their identities should be
checked to know their real countries of origin, and then punishment should follow appropriately. After
all, Nigerians have been killed by the government of other countries like Indonesia because they
violated their indigenous laws. I believe international relationship would not be affected even if these
semi – terrorist are killed in Nigeria. Failure to take such a proactive measure would leave Nigerians
with no other perception occupies the minds of Nigerians and becomes inveterate, it would be a false
awakening for anyone to think that a sane Nigerian will accept to share an environment with Fulani
men as contain in the grazing reserve policy. Only patients of chronic mental disorder will accept to do
that. This is because, sharing things of humanistic value as environment and neighborhood with Fulani
will become synonymous with allowing scorpions to join one on the bed at night. We now live in fear
of being attacked and killed at any time anywhere. By your inability to address the issue the very way it
should, we live in constant fear that the grazing reserve policy might be imposed on us, against our
wish. Yet, there is another painful thin that causes another emotional trauma in us. Whenever you or
your Aides get pestered by the prick of your conscience to address the nation on the development in the
security sector, we hear statements that make more sense when grounded in the heart than when spoken
out. That hurts our feelings the more, it destroys trust from its firm roots.
If an event occurs once, it does not leave deep knowledge about itself, but if it occurs too
frequently, it liberates people from the ignorance of noviceship. About two decades or so ago, many
Nigerians did not know a lot of wings of insecurity. Now, due to bad leadership, which allows the
influx of so many wings, we can boast of having an in-depth knowledge of all these wings. We know

terrorism and how it operates. We know kidnapping and robbery and how they operate. We know mass
abduction and how it is operated. Above all, we know which of these wings occurs in its natural form
and which are not real, no matter how close they may be to reality. The abduction of Dapchi school
girls and Chibok girls were mere theatrical acts. That it was not acted on a stage before
An audience in a theatre does not make it real. The script writer, other new members, and the
characters of the Dapchi school girl’s abduction must have learnt lessons from the Chibok saga which
was of a twin nature as that of the Dapchi. In the case of Chibok, the act suffered a breach of trust that
is why the falcons refused to hear the falconers. The result of that we all know. The retention of an
innocent victim, Leah Shuaibu, by the villains of Dapchi playlet is to boost bargaining power. And so,
is that of the Chibok girls. Tempering with their faith is unacceptable. It is a show of immaturity and
stands condemned. Innocent children born into the world to add value to it have their feelings and
thought processes victimized by all kinds of violent treatments. Their fault is because they were born in
a country where everyone is a victim of every kind of senselessness. But that is what one gets when
one is born in a country where the political class use human lives as play cards in the game of selfish
interest. The feelings of everyone gets inflicted with unabated pains that hurt like flames of fire on
one’s skin. Whatsoever purpose all these theatrical acts may be puts up to serve, let everyone know that
the silence of the public does not mean we accept the insult on our collective intelligence. Our sheer of
maturity, wisdom and experience is increasingly enhanced daily beyond their horizons. That we are
often regarded as illiterates does not mean we cannot spell out names off hand.
Your campaign against corruption is likely going to fail because of these few reasons: One, the
focus; two, lack of sensitization; there, lack of sincerity, simply put, the focus of the campaign seems to
have more weight on some institutions than it has on others. This ought not to be so. The focus
supposed to follow along the track of equality. Financial institution, agencies and ministries at the
federal and state levels seem to be the main concern, while attaching special privileges by not paying
much attention to other areas like Educational Institutions, which are the birth places of all corrupt acts.
This cannot make the campaign thrive favourably. Expounding on the lack of sensitization, I have a lot
to say. The effectiveness of governance lies in the support giving by the citizens. And what drives the
support by the citizens is when they have the feeling of being giving a chance to matter to the
governing class. When citizens feel being carried along in the act of governance, their support grows
steadily. One of the ways to carry people along is by giving adequate sensitization on any policy or
campaign before embarking on it. Sensitization is very crucial that its role cannot be ruled out in the
scheme of things. Taking a step down memory lane, the two thousand and twelve subsidy removal
policy of the then government failed woefully due to lack of adequate sensitization. People, especially
those at the grassroots, woke to hear shocking news of usury in protest against it, and it elicited
response from the government. Members of the opposition parties and dubious civil society groups led
the ignorant masses for their selfish interest, making the wail assumed a very wide dimension. So, the
effect of it was that, as laudable as the policy was, it failed. Had people sensitized, the story would have
been different one. When Ebola epidemic broke out in Nigeria, despite the fact that it required exigent
measures, massive creation of awareness were carried out with emphasis on prevention. People were
made to know its cause, modes of contracting it, how to respond among other things. In effect, it look

few weeks to eradicate it totally. Taking off the anti-corruption campaign, a sensitization exercise
should have been carried out across the country and beyond. People should have been made to know
what corruption really is, how it operates, what its effects are, what areas the public should key in, and
how people would be affected economically. Heads of financial institutions, educational institutions,
civil society organizations, traditional institutions, and religious institutions should have been given
roles to play. The campaign should have been taken comprehensively, not with emphasis only on the
political field. Now, the common believe is that your fight against corruption has caused untold
hardship. Again, a gap has been created for those who criticize your administration to fill. In their roles,
they capitalize on the lack of sensitization to further instigate the general public against the
administration. On the area of insincerity, I have very much to say; not in words but in effect; that is, if
I am not going to be economical with the truth. The campaign has preferential treatment of the
offenders. The offenders who walk along your political path are treated with kid gloves, while those
who walk at cross purpose with your political path are treated with iron fists. This is not good for the
theme of campaign. On some cases, a lot is hidden under the carpet. There have been cries over the
corrupt acts of some people in your own government, but none of such has elicited response from,
either in words or action. Even as the feeling is that people are not carried along, majority support it. At
the detection of any act of corruption by any of your officials, voices are raised, calling your attention
but you maintain mute over such calls. This short – coming of yours is in the full glare of the public.
Your sincerity of purpose is harmed. Support for the campaign grows cool as a result. One of the
strongest banes militating against the success of any campaign anywhere in the world is insincerity. In
the case of Nigeria today, lack of sincerity posts a levee to your resolve to rid the public service of
corruption. It makes the campaign something that is meant to exist only on the lips. It belittles your
dignity. It drains off substance in the campaign and the confidence people have in your integrity. Many
have been left with no choice that to become totally disinterested in it.
Another issue that walks on equal footing with your adherence to the change mantra of your
administration, which has now metamorphosed to the continental level, is blame. Blame has the
negative functions of destroying the will power of creativity; derailment of thoughts, focus and
attention. When one dwell on blaming instead of channeling the psychical energy towards solution
finding, the problems tend to linger longer than they should. Nigerians voted you in full knowledge of
the damage done to the country and her image by previous administrations. You said you are capable
of restoring the glory of the country and resuscitating the hope of even the pessimists. The majority of
the votes rolled to one who professed competence. Now, all that we wake up every morning and hear
are blames expressed in different words. No right – thinking person would say they do not know the
enormity of the task of leadership at any level; thus, no one asks you to solve all Nigeria’s problems.
After all, best is the limit of everyone’s ability; o one can do beyond that. Hence, we beseech that you
do your best to the extent your capability enables you to do and leave the rest for your subsequent
successors. Blaming others does not vindicate you from being blamed by Nigerians. Besides, anytime
you or any of your aides think of issuing blames let it be known to you all that it will only serve as a
reminiscence of the purpose you were voted in, and not as an excuse for lack of performance. A point
worthy to be in the inner memory of everyone is that, a blame issued by the person that is in the
position to inject a solution to the problem is the easiest way that person express their level of

incompetence. By dragging the one who was a major political and economic force in the continent of
Africa, Late Muammar Ghadafi, into the blame mess, I think you add more ropes round your neck. The
issue is not whether Ghadafi actually trained the herdsmen or not but that you knew all along yet did
nothing to fortify the country upon assumption of office. Even when the attacks began, you appeared
reluctant to act. If Libya became unfavourable for them after the shameful death of the African hero,
why Nigeria became a haven for their operations? The little I know about these brutal herdsmen is that
most of them are not Nigerians. I have no idea who trained them, hence cannot join issue with you on
that. But to me, Ghadafi may have his errors but his spirit is what I wish all African leaders possessed.
A leader with the spirit of Ghadafi would seek to find solutions to their problems domestically, and not
relying on the West for solutions. A leader with the spirit of Ghadafi cannot travel to America and
Europe at will, and still receive royal welcome, when his citizens get stranded at the Embassies of those
countries seeking for visas. Those who cannot stand the stress, face life and death through the
Mediterranean Sea. A leader with the spirit of Ghadafi would not eat and drink with the leaders of
countries where his citizens are treated as second class citizens. A leader with the spirit of Ghadafi
would seek to liberate not only his people but the entire continent from the tyranny of imperialism and
modern day slavery. A leader with the spirit of Ghadafi would underwrite ambitious project without
borrowing to complete them. A leader with the spirit of Ghadafi would provide free education, free
health care, free shelter for his citizens. A leader with the spirit of Ghadafi would not import oil when
he is a leader of an oil producing country whatever reasons anyone may have for condemning the man
Ghadafi, I humbly advise all African leaders to possess this aspect of his spirit.
Injustice and inequality are the first things Nigerians discover on the threshold of their doors as
they wake up in the morning. These sick concepts occupy various positions in the equation of bad
leadership. No leader reaps a harvest of legitimacy by operating on them. A leader who wants to
govern well in a heterogeneous society like Nigeria must endeavor to give equal attention to all the
regions. Sticking to one’s own tribe, religion or region in the discharge of administrative functions is
the foundation of failure. One of the problems confronting the sustenance of true democracy in Nigeria
is that it has never had a truly Nigeria’s president: all it has been having had been presidents of the
respective regions of those occupying the number one seat. And this crop of leadership is not well out
of that list. Now that there is time on your side, be a Nigeria’s president; so that, at the expiration of
your tenure, Nigerians with one accord will thank the Fulani ethnic group for sharing their beloved son
with the entire country.
Keeping abreast of some of the policies my eyes stumble upon raises a lot of concern, making
me pour out my heart and emotion on them. The likes of the introduction of computer base system for
candidates sitting for Joint Admission and Matriculation Board Examinations, when majority of the
public secondary schools across the country do not have a single computer; the ban places on the
importation of food items into the country when the internal food production capacity cannot meet the
volume of demand; the exportation of food to another country when food scarcity in the country
constantly effects in persistent rise in price; and other ego – feeding policies are upheaval in every
sense. The common expression in the streets is that such policies are detrimental to a sense of rational
thinking. These policies have forced the citizens to live at various stages of poverty – strained

conditions, with that share the same social level as I being the most affected. In their seemingly
tenacious tedium, they wail bitterly, and those who allow feelings to drive, their wails never rain their
course without expletive lyrics of imprecations.
In your campaign speech at chatham house, you said dictatorship goes with military and that you
took responsibility for all that happened in your military regime. As remorseful as that statement
sounds, I interpreted it to mean you had become a true democrat. But it is obvious I wrongly
interpreted it. Your leadership style is badly hurting our formally infant but now teenage democracy.
The wounds throb severely. Freedom of speech is intolerant. No voice questions your decisions, actions
or inactions. Protests are at the peril of the protesters, even in their purest demand. Illegal arrests and
detentions are struggling to become the order of the day. Right to life, liberty and happiness is denied
by the poor manner you are handling the state of insecurity in the country. The wall of Nigeria’s
unity is wobbling, and the gradient is becoming clear day by day democratic principles have lost
their strength on any resolve. Violation of human right is on the increase, both by the government
and the security agents. In your inaugural speech, you said you were going to overhaul the rules of
engagement of the security agents to prevent human right violation. It is high time the security
agents be made to understand that their recruitment, training, operation, and remuneration
unanimously serve the sole purpose of protecting the lives, properties and interest of the “bloody”
civilians they harass at will. The democracy seems to be acting as a blanket upon dictatorship. The
strength of opposition parties is suffering from moral attrition. Civil society groups are in comatose.
Being in leadership position does not anoint one with the spirit of messiah complex. The presence
of opposition parties and civil society organizations is paramount in a democratic setting. These
two forces work hard to ensure that democracy, in the cause of its dynamism does not slip away
from its fundamental and conventional globally acceptable principles.
Nigerians at all ages are unarguably the most industrious. That is a firmly established fact. Anyone
with a sound ability of decoding the innovative activities of Nigerians should be able to testify that
they are always at the forefront when it comes to hard work and enterprising. If asked, citizens of
other countries that have Nigerians in their vicinities can testify to that fact as well. I have never
travelled to any country but I have this suspicious believe that the real reason Nigerians are
criminals and they want to rid their society of them; but that, as long as Nigerian live in those host
countries, the natives live in constant fear of losing their jobs and businesses to Nigerians. They are
afraid of Nigerians and what their commitment to hard work can fetch them. They see the presence
of Nigerians as “they have come to take our resources.” The deportations of some Nigerians have
traceable tracks to the feigned crimes the natives rubbed on them out of jealousy. If it is not so, why
deporting somebody because they commit crimes? What if such an individual were a citizen, where
would they have been sent to? When someone commits a crime and is arrested, they are tried and
punished in accordance with the laws of the land. After the punishment, they get released and let
free. Deportation should never be an option! The disgraceful xenophobic attacks in South Africa,
which your administration is doing little to nothing about, has its weight more on Nigerians than it
has on citizens of other countries. Not because Nigerians are the worst, but simply because South

Africans see what the hard work of Nigerians has fetched for them in their own country.
Xenophobia arouses our of jealousy; jealousy arouses out of inability to get; inability to get is
evidence of non-commitment to hard work of all the Nigerians in this respect, the youth are the one
at the top. In the midst of unemployment, lack, and insufficiency, they remained resolute in their
determination to succeed in their various fields of endeavor. They are keen to make progress day in
day out. They disregard all the difficulties of the day and rely solely on the hope of a better
tomorrow. They are constantly patriotic and loyal in spite of the fact that they are the ones at the
receiving end of all forms of bad leadership. If actions fail to see to the needs of the youth, words of
comfort and encouragement should be in place at all times. You wrongly assessed the performance
of the Nigerian youth when you made that insulting statement about them. The insult is not
narrowed to the youth alone but it is extended to the dignity of Nigeria, Nigerians living in the
country, and those living in the diaspora. The implication of that shallow assessment is that Nigeria
is now a country with unproductive youth. What an embarrassment! Foreign companies operating
in Nigeria are now encouraged not to employ Nigerian because they are not productive. Nigerian
artisans in various fields would now begin to compete unfavourably with those from other countries
in their quest to secure contracts from individuals, firms and from the government at all levels. That
is darkness at dawn! Nigerian youth in the diaspora now have so much being added to their strife in
dealing with racism and the dissimilating perception of possessing criminal minds. What shame!
While the popular believe is that your economic policies brought untold hardship and unabated
hunger in the country, you went and told the whole world that you ebullient, exuberant, enterprising
youth are not productive. The adverse effect of your statement on you is that you are the president
of a country whose youth are unproductive due to the leadership.
It is cherishing and commendable that importance is added to the historical mistake of June 12,
1993 and its widespread significance is recognized in the history of democracy in Nigeria. This
invaluable recognition would serve as stamina in our quest to attaining the level of internationally
acclaimed democratic practice in Nigeria. By it, priority is shifted from the day the military
magnanimously handed over power to a democratically elected president – May 29 th , 1999 – to the
day a new face of democracy was born. Honouring M.K.O Abiola and other democracy activities is
not just enough. Naming roads and other monuments after their names is not enough either. What is
important is the legacy they left and what they stood for; how to incorporate those legacies and the
belief systems into politics to ensure a strong democracy in Nigeria. My experience did not capture
mental pictures of the activities that occurred at that time. But the little information gathered from
reliable sources suggests it was a day of great significance. Acknowledging it as such by your
administration is a good thing in all definitions. I would have had a share of in-depth knowledge of
all that happen but I do not because history is not taught in secondary schools in Nigeria. I am part
of a generation that is constantly robbed of the knowledge of their history. I feel hurt, ill-equipped.
The importance of history in life is as to the body. Once one part is not there, the other part
becomes unfit for every use. When one is not equipped with the knowledge of one’s history, one is
being made to merely exist not live. It is only the knowledge of history that puts one in the position

to know the past and think of how the present can be adjusted as part of planning for the future.
One gets to know the errors of the past and strive to avoid them in the present and future. Without
it, one’s plan for the future would be based on speculations rather than facts. Most visions become
realistic. A sense of history has underlying importance in one’s life. By not introducing the
teaching of history in schools and making it one of the compulsory subjects in secondary schools, I
think a huge mistake is being made. A deep suspicion would reveal that these crop of past leaders
do that deliberately for their selfish reasons. They know that the future of the nation hangs on the
younger generations but never want them to know their history. They profess love and concern for
the future and always declare the younger generations as future leaders, but in the background, the
feeling is not the same. They want to captivate the entire citizenry in the darkness of ignorance so
they would have their way smoothly on every matter. To every historical fact, a lot of conflicting
stories are told about it so as to hinder the younger generations’ access to knowing the true content
of the event. A conventional history book has two pages; a page dedicated to good deeds and the
other dedicated to bad deeds. The knowledge of all the deeds is of equal importance. One with such
knowledge would build on the good deeds in order to avoid the re-occurrence of the bad deeds. But
today, the Nigerian history book has an additional third page; a page dedicated to falsehood. So, the
existence of this third page and its falsehood content is another major obstacle standing in our way
to practicing true democracy and attaining genuine nationhood. And I must add that even as the
clamour for the participation of women youth in leadership positions keeps rising with raging
flames, the spirit of pessimism might as well arise--- for the effect of the third page offers no mercy
to age or gender; that is, the difficulties of the task of leadership remained, not erased by any age.
As a matter of everlasting importance, I plead with you that you direct the Honourable Ministry of
Education to introduce history as a compulsory subject in all secondary schools across the country.
We this generation need to know our past. We need to the taught formally the events that triggered
the Nigerian civil war. We need to know the real reason behind the annulment of the June 12 th ,
1993 presidential election. We need to know where we come from and how far we have gone in the
historical journey towards attaining true unity. We need to know about the current federal structure
and why restructuring is necessary. We need to know why our democracy is called “pseudo
democracy.” We need to know why with the huge national resources that goes to the legislatures
for law-making, the laws they make do not enjoy any form of supremacy over everybody. We need
to know all the past form of leadership that had taken place in Nigeria and in Africa and the shapes
these forms of leadership caused in the country and the continent. We need to know who are the
real heroes and heroines. We need to know whose character trait we should canonize and whose
own we should abhor. We need to know all the past mistakes. We need to know who took what
decision that cause their own death so as to make their body meal for termites and who took what
decision that caused their own death so as to consecrate the land. We need to know why our
ancestors were called “slaves” in the past. We need to know what gave the colonial powers the
impression that Africa needed them. We need to know why the Negroes are treated unfairly in the
dealings with the rest of the world. We need to know why Africa relies on the West for the
achievement of many of her goals and objectives. We need to know why African countries are third

in the world. We need to know why the African union is called “The toothless bulldog.” We need
to know why some people sit in their continents and decide what should be done in Africa and how
exactly they want it done. We need to know why some oil producing countries in Africa import oil,
gas and kerosene. We need to know why Africans are poor even as Africa in among the richest
continent. We need to know all of these and more in details.
These are all I have. I pray none among the issues I have raised would be painted in a colour of
political party of religion to make it appear in a form that expresses a meaning that is different from
its naturally intended meaning. Since hope is a quality that resuscitates morale, I am determined in
its pursuance. For I have no doubt in my mind that after this era of political uncertainties in
Nigeria’s air space, the mother of time will give birth to a new child, and in the reign of the child,
Nigeria shall reclaim all the promises, dreams and expectations of her nationalists. Good luck!
Yours faithfully,
Mwahoss Pam
(A Concerned Citizen)