AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI

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