This letter represents for me a protest and a success wish for you as you strive to build a just and prosperous country we all, as Nigerians, can be proud of. That much you promised us when you sought our votes, a little over a year ago. It is necessary for me to let you know why I am writing you this letter. One reason is to protest as earlier stated but that can wait till later in the letter. Another reason is to thank you for having begun to help us recover some of the stolen wealth from members of the immediate past government. I must confess that as a young-adult, I have never seen or heard such humongous theft of public fund before. We were promised transformation but were scammed. Personally, I felt after Abacha, we shall not experience such mindless looting again. Alas, I was wrong.

Truly, we live in extremely perilous times. I don’t have to rehash the daunting and multiple challenges we are currently faced with as a nation but I am hopeful that if attention is given to details and with sincerity of purpose, it affords us an unprecedented opportunity for a national renaissance and I am convinced that you can with the right team with a burning sense of urgency come through for us. That is the essence of change for us. Sir, justify the trust and confidence reposed in you by the entire peoples of Nigeria.

We recall that even when you lost to president Obasanjo in 2003, you dismissed the election as an “electoral malfeasance.”And even though I didn’t vote in the election, I believed that you were not serious about the contest as you mostly sought the votes of the peoples of northern extraction and you couldn’t have been serious in wanting to be President.

Beyond that, many had nursed what is now turning into a legitimate concern that you were clannish and Nigeria could not afford to entrust you with such a sensitive assignment. I was then a graduate student and couldn’t have been bothered. But 2015 general elections was different. I canvassed, mobilized and registered to vote out the People’s Democratic Party. My joy was indescribable when you were announced winner. I am still happy that in my lifetime, an incumbent and non-performing president was sacked at the polls.

But we are now afraid and worried. Nigeria is a complex enterprise and as such requires a broad-minded and visionary leadership. I am afraid to admit that you have disappointed me in the way you have handled your appointments. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t doubt the competence of your appointees. Rather, it has to do with the lack of required national spread. At no time in the history of our country, not even under notorious and rogue military regimes, were appointments made to brazenly favour, so massively a region at the expense of others. NEVER!

When appointments are made in a plural and federalist nation such as ours, a lot of factors come into play. The ultimate being sharing the office for national spread, sense of belonging and stability. I am stunned that the entire security architecture of Nigeria is entirely in the hands of the North. Perhaps, you are aware of threats that I cannot see and as such regime survival for you is mistaken for national survival.

Mr. President, Nigerians voted for you and sincerely felt that aside from stemming the slide of our recent past, you will detoxicate the poisonous politics which has characterised our country for long. But it appears you are bent on accentuating it. It is even ridiculous that government officials have dismissed fears about the lopsided nature of appointments made so far. Nobody can defend the argument that the North or even any other region has the exclusive preserve of competent hands.

Creative imagination is required to reverse this trend and you have to quickly address growing fears, the fears of your being viewed with suspicion and pursuing a clannish agenda has returned. It is bad for such feelings to fester in a pluralistic and a highly charged environment such as ours.

President Buhari, you must as the father of the nation take another look at your appointments and effect balance where necessary. There is no justification when out of 17 security posts, 14 are from the North. It is not fair and I am grossly disappointed in you over that. By power of example and fairness, we expect you to help the raging fire of prejudice and injustice which has undermined efforts at national cohesion for a long time. Sir, quell the suspicion.

Nigeria is currently faced with a degraded insurgency. Another region is opening calling for separation and there are serious security concerns that can only be efficiently tackled when all parts of the country see themselves as stakeholders. The era when clannish proclivities are pursued are over and you cannot assume all will remain the same. Nigeria’s heterogeneous composition forbids relegation of other component parts of the country.

You are indeed the man of the moment, but you cannot afford to go down in history as a clannish and imperial leader. Resist it and add to your to-do list the imperative of rebooting the country for togetherness. Many of your generation who said that there was no need to restructure the country are shifting grounds. General Babaginda and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar have joined the choristers. Whatever you seek to do, I beg you to be a prescient leader and avoid the harsh verdict of history as you steer our nation to the harbour of peace, prosperity and stability.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Rotimi Opeyeoluwa, a Concerned Citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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God bless the writer. ..

Pmb hear our cry

Nigerians are suffering because they voted for buhari.