A letter to Mr. President

His Excellency,

The president and commander in chief,

Federal republic of Nigeria.

Dear President,

I desperately want you to help me to hang on to my self-belief in your ability to lead us to the promised.

I will start by congratulating you and your legal team for successfully persuading four of the seven Supreme Court justices into legitimizing the fraud that was passed off as elections last year; with all it’s implications on future elections. Once again, congratulations on your good fortune.

I am or rather was one of the biggest supporters, outside of your government, of your government after it was inaugurated on 29^th May, 2007. It could not have otherwise. You were the legally declared winner and then, your inauguration speech though, not radically different from that of your ancestors, coupled with your carriage and education, gave some measure of hope, that yours was going to be different.

Before then, I was a fanatical supporter of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar-also, a volunteer, both at the University of Nigeria, Enugu campus where thugs prevented the school community from voting at an “election” that started at about 5pm and at home, in Warri. This was not without reasons.

His plan for the energy-electricity, sector ran parallel to the Obasanjo’s one size fit all gas plan; then, Ribadu’s- the iron hand in Obasanjo’s velvet glove, onslaught on his person, had without meaning to, certified him as a man we could trust and then, the last but not the least, was his dignified carriage-his personality.

To underline my support for your administration, I had in the past, written severally on the need to allow you as much time as you need-I actually suggested 85% of your four years, to develop an actionable plan to tackle the myriad of problems that you inherited from the last regime. My submission was based not just on the need for a solid foundation, which could still be the wrong one for our situation but for a customized one.

But with the kind of annoying delays that one has witnessed in the simple matter of getting the structure of government not just functional but operational, I am beginning to doubt if there is really any planning going on let alone, an implement able one. The simple matter of replacing ministers has taken more time than I ever thought could be allocated for such exercise; this, juxtaposed against the actions of an “inexperienced” senator for two years, President-elect, Barack Obama who has almost completed the selection of members of his team ahead of his 20^th January, inaugurations, troubles the mind.

The simplest definition of a budget I ever heard in the university was that, it is a nairanized plan of action. It is very vexatious to me to always read about percentages been attached to the implementation of your plan of action. The budget is a law and I cannot understand why you should allow the government you led to break it. If you must infract upon the law, let it be for the good of the people of Nigeria. Spend more, not less. Dip your hands into the reserve like our former ruler without consultation but let it be for the general good of the people of this country. Spend as much as you want but just get this country going. Forget inflation, an increase in productivity that is bound to follow such spending should they be for the right reasons would ultimately, wipe out or equal it.

Ensconced in Aso rock, it is highly probable that you might not know the extent of sufferings and frustration in the land but I will let you know that your style of carrying forward budgeted funds has only helped to entrenched poverty in the land with the resultant increase in crime level. The budget is supposed to be your plan for a particular year drawn from that much advertised seven point agenda of yours.

Besides the above, the “area boy” diplomacy your security people deploys in handling reports relating to your health like, it is some nuclear secret that is been exposed, is uncalled for. It does no one any good for them to be seen to be attempting to crack an egg with a sledgehammer. But more than anything else, the people must survive. Considering the media houses involved, I am inclined to believe that those misinformations are primarily meant to create publicity. Example, the Leadership newspaper was relatively unknown until your people started their grabbing exercise, there and then; mainstream prints picked it up. The same with elendu report.

I will let you know this, had the Supreme Court ordered a fresh election, your candidacy would have been a hard to sell to millions of ordinary Nigerians even though your party-PDP, support is all you would have needed to return to your throne. As for me, I will be honest with you; I would have gone back to support once more, the emergence of an Action President-Atiku Abubakar.

Once again, congratulations and May the almighty God grant you all the wisdom and good health you need to steer the ship of state aright.

Yours truly,

Ilobi Austin