Letter To President Buhari As He Clocks 78

Hassan Auwalu Muhammad

First of all, I congratulate you on celebrating your 78th birthday. May ALLAH prosper you with a long and blessed day. Ameen.

Baba, as one of your loyal supporters I would like to share with you my suggestions and views.

Indeed, there are many challenges to your first rule of government that many Nigerians feel  Nigeria will never change.

Therefore, I have some points that I would like to offer a contribution to the development, sustainability and prosperity of our country, Nigeria. As I did last year in my birthday message to you.

Mr. President, I recommend that you should look at the judicial system of this country because there are still some judges and lawyers who do not have the country at heart, their ambition is to accumulate wealth through corrupt politicians who are before the courts for looting public funds.

This should be considered in order to provide lasting justice to any Nigerian.

Hassan Auwal Muhammad

As you have increased the salaries of police officers some couple of months ago, they are yet to start enjoying the new salary scheme, it is good to make sure that they are paid on time, and that you should be very wary of their superiors, they could turn the money to banks to make a profit and then begin to release their salaries, which impedes their ability to earn their money early.

This will reduce the number of bribes some of them take from the people of this country, and failure to pay them on time will discourage them from doing their job safely and quietly.

We have seen the efforts your government made in rescuing the abducted Kankara schoolboys, though we do not know the strategies used in rescuing them, more efforts and strategies should be applied in fixing the worsening security situation bedeviling the northern region and the country in general.

However, Mr. President, the era of using the security forces to tackle insecurity by identifying insurgents should have been something of the past, the world is now moving on with modern and sophisticated security apparatus, such as cameras that are mounted on the roads and space shuttle surveillance to monitor what is happening nationwide and even in the wild.

We all know that you are a nationalist, you do not take sides in governing the affairs of this country. But Baba, you should look at the Northern Territory from 2003 until your 2019 general election, it is the most populous area that gave you lots of votes. The region needs to be revitalized economically and educationally.

The people of this country, have long been complaining that there are some CABALS in your government who have no official roles in the government, but they have prevented anything from running smoothly in your government, they enrich themselves at the expense of other citizens.

It is only those who they wish to appoint will be given the job not based on merit.

If this allegation is true, Baba does not hesitate to use your BROOM and sweep them away from your government and concentrate on building the people’s interests who voted for you!

On the issue of reopening our land borders, I salute your direction Mr president, but the banning of importation of rice and other products that could be made in Nigeria should be strictly maintained.

What you did was right Baba. But  I would like to recommend a few reliable, trustworthy people to oversee the movement around the borders of these countries! On the other hand, the community is still struggling with expensive foodstuffs, which is why many people cannot afford to buy them. Measures should also be taken to reduce hardship.

In spite of the information contained in my previous letter, no country can survive, develop, and succeed without knowledgeable people in the country, Baba! There should be an emergency in the education sector, and also move the country from an education based-society to a knowledge based society. the damage to this sector in Nigeria is beyond the imagination of any person, and serious measures must be taken in restoring the educational value of this country.

Many of the education secretaries, headteachers, and their wives own private schools, so they will never allow public schools to flourish and develop because it will cost them.

There should be tough research and all those caught up in the act should be locked down, and in the development of public schools across the country, your government should be able to provide them with the right equipment, and pay their salaries in due course as well as make sure the teachers are well qualified. If you do that, Baba, you will probably wonder how education can develop in such a short time in this country.

Mr. President, I advise you to look at how the security system and the people of this country are at the country’s airports. Indeed, the case of Zainab, a woman of Kano state, has been a long-standing problem.

Research has shown that many Nigerians have been killed on suspicion of traveling with planted drugs in their luggage which they have no idea on how they got to the luggage.

Identifying people before boarding a flight down the bottom line of truth will never prevent them from getting in and out of drugs, nor will it deter those who intend to plant drugs in passengers’ baggage.

As we have gone through a severe economic downturn in this country, and I have previously suggested that a committee of economists who are nonbiased be formed, to act as a guide for the country’s economic growth and development. The committee should be reviewed because up till now, there is no improvement from the economic sector, nothing changed as we expected

Letter to Northern Nigeria Intellectuals

Reviewing the committee will enable us to join the list of the world’s top industrial nations sooner or later.

The problem of the high rate of unemployment in Nigeria cannot be fixed when many of our industries are not working let alone creating jobs for the masses, Baba, as you are working day and night to build power plan in Manbila, Taraba State, yet we need to develop some other electricity stations to meet the needs of Nigerians and the industrial sector.

By doing so, the government can communicate to the owners of all companies to reopen them in order to produce and consume our locally made products, otherwise, the government should take over from them or loan them if they have no capital now for their resurrection.

That is the only reason our youths with many degrees are unemployed, get jobs, and it will reduce the level of corruption in this country because a number of companies will work and no one will wait for the government to provide jobs.

This will help boost the country’s economy rapidly….

Lastly, continue with the good work, don’t let any Unscrupulous element distract you, keep moving, fear no one but your creator.

I wish you a joyful birthday celebration.

Hassan Auwalu Muhammad, a student of Journalism at Bayero University Kano, Department of Mass Communication.