A Letter to Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

I commend your leadership dexterity and wisdom for signing into law, yesterday and very speedily so, the bill seeking to make us revert to the old national anthem "Nigeria, We Hail Thee" 

However, it is important that the following few points are urgently brought to your attention so that we do not end up taking residence in self-deception as a country.

Mr President Sir, 

In our churches today, hungry people no longer have the strength to answer "Hallelujah" to the shout of "praise the Lord!" In our mosques, shouting"Allahu Akbar" takes great effort because we are not sure if the imam calling people to pray has eaten well. Because they are hungry, it is difficult for them to keep praying for the same Nigeria others keep destroying. 

In the same way, a hungry man cannot hail Nigeria. A man who can no longer afford the three square meals, thanks to your unfriendly economic policies, may never be proud to hail Nigeria.

Your Excellency Sir, may I bring to your understanding the fact that, those vulnerable people, men, women and children, who are daily, threatened by the scourge of banditry and raw terrorism in Borno, Yobe, Zamfara, Plateau, Taraba, Benue, Katsina and Kaduna may not have the strength to hail Nigeria.

Perhaps, it is equally fitting to emphasize here that farmers, in the above mentioned States as well as well other areas not mentioned, who are being attacked, kidnapped, killed and maimed daily by the harbingers of death called herdsmen, may not have the conviction to hail Nigeria. They will be too ashamed to hail Nigeria.

I think about our workers too. Nigerian workers whose monthly salaries and wages can no longer afford a bag of rice and other essential foodstuff because the value of the Naira in which their salaries and wages are paid has been eroded by a crippling inflation ( thanks to your unplanned removal of the petroleum products subsidy and floating of the exchange rate) can not hail Nigeria.

Nigerian students whose academic journeys in the universities and colleges have been unnecessarily extended due to government irresponsibility towards education in Nigeria resulting in incessant Industrial actions between the government and ASUU, may be ashamed to hail Nigeria.

Mr. President Sir, would you honestly say that parents of chibok girls and those of Dapchi girls, particularly that of Leah Sharibu in Borno and Yobe States respectively; would you honestly say that they won't be ashamed of hailing Nigeria?

Your Excellency Sir, for many of us who have lost confidence in the Independence of our Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct free and fair elections; for many who no longer see the judiciary as an institution independent enough to dispense justice in favour of the less privileged, hailing Nigeria may not come quite easily.

If you want us to hail Nigeria, then help us to solve the basic problems of corruption , insecurity, power, unemployment and food crises staring at us.

Unless we are happy, we may never be able to hail Nigeria without being hypocritical.

Thank you Mr. President.

©Ogiri John Ogiri

#asovilla 

#nigeria 

#ourlivesmatter