*An Open letter to President Bola Tinubu by the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Abiodun Ige Adams, on the State of the Nation.
Your Excellency, I bring you good tidings from the more than 65 million Yoruba of South-West in Nigeria, including Edo, Delta, Kwara and Kogi States.
I also write this letter to you as one of the more than 200 million people God created as Nigerians.
We have no regret that we were created to inhabit this geographical space in the West African axis of the African continent.
In fact, we are happy to be here because I don’t know any country in the world that God has blessed, in terms of natural and human resources, like Nigeria.
Obviously, past leaders, since 1960, disappointed Nigerians with the way ‘Nigeria and Nigerians were badly led and resources selfishly managed’.
When you came with the ‘Emilokan’ coinage in the build up to the 2023 elections, many Nigerians were persuaded that as a democrat exposed to modern way of governance, you will perform better than Muhammadu Buhari, a soldier who deepened the poverty levels of Nigerians and increased insecurity from 2015 to 2023.
Today, events have proved that they were wrong.
Mr.President, to say the truth without minding whose ox is gored, you have really disappointed many Nigerians who thought you were the messiah they were waiting for.
The facts are there to speak for themselves.
On May 29, 2023 when you became the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigerians, the price of a litre of fuel was less then N200.
Today, it is more than N1000.
As the Minister of Petroleum, I ask you, what type of reforms is this?
In May 2023, Naira to a Dollar was less than N740.
Today, it is more than N1,600.
Now, your two right-hand men when you were Governor of Lagos State between 1999 and 2007, Wale Edun (Finance Minister) and Yemi Cardoso (CBN Governor) are in charge of the economy.
What exactly are the fiscal, economic and financial briefings they give you daily to convince you that they know what they are doing in those two offices?
When Buhari left on May 29, 2023, many Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief that insecurity would soon become history.
Pitiably today, from the North to the South, East to the West, the rate at which Nigerians are being abducted and some killed, even after ransom was paid, it was as if these blood-thirsty maniacs have just been unleashed on Nigerians from the hottest part of hell.
As the Commander-in-Chief,the rising spate of insecurity across the country has put to question the kind of briefings you get on daily basis, especially, from the Inspector- General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, the Chief of Army Staff, General Taoreed Lagbaja,and other Security Chiefs on their modus operandi to send these killers to where they belong?
In August, many Nigerians came out to express their frustration on the way you are governing them.
Today, some of those arrested have been charged with treason.
In the Comity of Nations, who does that? Is that the way governments are overthrown, with placards?
Human rights activists are being harassed by security agents on a daily basis and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have become soft targets of sycophants who speak sweet words to your ears for selfish reasons.
Many Nigerians know the ‘radical’ role you played when you were Governor, and even after 2007, when you galvanised and mobilised them to challenge the status quo at the national level.
Now that you are in government, protest has suddenly become a criminal offence.
God is indeed Great!!!
The plain truth is that the
recent fuel price increase by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), an agency which is under your office as the Petroleum Minister, is an attack on Nigerians.
Obviously, your administration is becoming indifferent, insensitive and unresponsive to the plights of millions of Nigerians who can no longer meet their daily needs.
This is a brutal assault on the sensibility of Nigerians.
I think you and your party should be sensitive to the plights of Nigerians.
Mr.President, don’t you think the wicked and draconian increase in fuel price, especially, at this time that Nigerians have been pushed to the wall, is a huge recipe for crisis?
Nigerians can no longer bear this economic hardship any longer.
I am writing this letter to you because of the pressure I am going through from millions of Nigerians, who erroneously, believe that I don’t want to tell you the truth because the two of us are eminent Yoruba citizens.
The truth is that the perverted, opaque, unintelligible, wicked and corrupt handling of the petroleum sector and continuous increase of fuel price under your administration (with the NNPC threatening us the price will still go up) without due regard to the laws of the land and wellbeing of Nigerians is akin to telling Nigerians to go to hell.
Mr.President, if a few of your advisers are telling you that all is well, I can confidently inform you that they are your enemies.
Former President Buhari was here and Nigerians proved to him that they were bigger than him.
If you don’t reverse this ugly trend immediately, soon, the situation may trigger further hardship across the country.
Under your watch as the President, the APC-led administration has consistently shown itself to be anti-people, unconcerned and deaf to the agonies of millions of Nigerians.
Today, more than 75 per cent of Nigerians have sunk below the poverty line. Businesses are collapsing like a badly-arranged pack of cards and the centre can no longer hold in many households.
With over 32 per cent inflation rate and close to 40 per cent unemployment rate which are expected to rise further with the latest dictatorial increase in fuel price, it is obvious that your administration offers no hope to Nigerians.
In the past 16 months,your administration has been using propaganda, power of coercion and rough tactics to oppress Nigerians.
For how long do you honestly think that despotic strategy will last?
Since last year, you have visited many countries, the latest being China.
Do you think your foreign counterparts treat their citizens the way you are treating Nigerians?
Mr.President, remember your promises to Nigerians during your numerous campaigns to all the nooks and crannies of this great country?
In just 16 months into your administration, your campaign promises have suddenly become failed promises?
Your Excellency, do you remember an Austrian-German who became the Commander-in-Chief in Germany in 1933?
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945?
Hitler, an elected democrat,
quickly transformed a democratic republic into a constitutional dictatorship.
The Fuhrer vowed to destroy democracy through the democratic process. And he did with the destruction of Germany in 1945.
Before the destruction,
the Nazi leader disabled, then dismantled the Weimar Republic.
The Fuhrer crushed political opposition, destroyed the economy and ultimately undermined Germany’s democratic structures.
When Hitler became history on April 30, 1945, Germany was in total ruins.
But due to the determination of Germans, today, that country has the biggest economy in Europe.
I hope I am wrong but I see a linkage between what happened during the ascendancy of Hitler into power and what is happening in Nigeria today.
Anyway, Nigeria is bigger than any individual.
Mr President, the time is ticking.
Ask this simple question: Are my reforms working?
I come in peace.
*Iba Gani Abiodun Ige Adams
Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland
September 10, 2024.
