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29/08/2016

Cries of Hunger in the Land: Cardinal Okogie Writes Emotional Open Letter to Buhari

Nigerian Catholic Cardinal and Emeritus
Archbishop of Lagos, Cardinal Anthony Okogie
has written an emotional open letter to President
Muhammadu Buhari.


Dear Mr. President,
Last year, when you assumed office, the chant of
“Change”, your campaign slogan, ushered you into
the Presidential Villa. Today, cries of “hunger”
could be heard across the length and breadth of
our vast country. Nigerians hunger, not only for
food, but also for good leadership, for peace,
security and justice. This letter is to appeal to you
to do something fast, and, if you are already doing
something, to redouble your effort.

May it not be written on the pages of history that
Nigerians die of starvation under your watch. As
President, you are chief servant of the nation. I
therefore urge you to live up to the huge
expectation of millions of Nigerians. A stitch in
time saves nine.

The Way Forward
This is the second year of your administration.
You and your party promised to lead the masses
to the Promised Land. It is not an easy task to
lead. But by campaigning for this office, you
offered to take the enormous task of leadership
upon yourself. Nigerians are waiting for you to
fulfill the promises you made during the campaign.
They voted you into office because of those
promises.

The introduction of town hall meetings is a
commendable idea. But in practice, you, not just
your ministers, must converse with Nigerians. You
are the President. You must be accountable to
them. The buck stops on your desk. Even if your
administration has no magic wand at least give
some words of encouragement. On this same
score, please instruct your ministers, and insist
that they be sincere and polite at those town
meetings. Their sophistry will neither serve you
nor Nigerians.

Mr. President, if you want to leave a credible
legacy come 2019, in all sincerity, please retool
your administration. Change is desirable. But it
must be a change for the better. Let this change
be real. Change is not real when old things that we
ought to discard refuse to pass away. You will
need to take a critical look at your cabinet, at the
policies and programmes of your administration,
and at those who help you to formulate and
execute them. You will need to take a critical look
at the manner of appointments you have been
making. It is true that commonsense dictates that
you appoint men and women you can trust. But if
most of the people you trust are from one section
of the country and practice the same religion, then
you and all of us are living in insecurity.

The Nigerian economy has never been in a state
as terrible as this. You as President are like pilot
of an aircraft flying in turbulence. Turbulent times
bring the best or the worst out of a pilot. We can
no longer blame the turbulence on past
administrations. You know quite well that some of
the officials of your administration served in
previous dispensations. Blame for what we have
been experiencing is in fact bipartisan in character.

The entire political class needs to come together,
irrespective of party differences, to acknowledge
its collective guilt and to seek ways of saving the
sinking ship that our country has become. This
cannot be done if some officials of your
administration demonise and alienate members of
the opposition. If a large portion of the blame for
the present situation is to be laid on the doorsteps
of the entire political class, the search for solution
must involve everyone. That is why no one should
be alienated. All hands must be on deck.

This is the time to revitalise moribund industries,
reinvigorate our agriculture, make our country
tourist and investor friendly, and enable our young
men and women to find fulfillment by contributing
to the common good. None of these lofty goals
can be achieved without good education. On this
particular issue, recent appointments you have
made in the education sector raise a question:
have you really appointed the best?

Still on education, it is important that our
universities be allowed to use their own criteria to
admit students. It is a gross violation of the
principles of federalism and academic freedom for
the federal government to insist that only a federal
parastatal can decide on who gains admission into
our universities. It is the role of the university
senate, not of government bureaucrats, to decide
on who gets admitted and who is awarded a
certificate.

The War on Corruption
Mr. President, your desire to wage a war on
corruption is just and noble. But a just war must
be waged with just means. Those who have stolen
the wealth of this country have broken the laws of
our country. They must be treated according to the
law and not outside the law, and the outcome of
the judicial process must be respected by
government. Even accused persons have rights.

Where those rights are violated, we risk a descent
to anarchy.

It is our candid opinion that corruption is not found
in only one party. No political party in Nigeria has
a monopoly of looters. That is why we need an
EFCC that is thoroughly independent of the
presidency, and an Attorney General without party
affiliation working in partnership with various
independent accounting institutes. This will ensure
that we come up with an objective list of those
who plundered our treasury.

Mr. President, pardon me if I sound like a
gratuitous counselor. I owe you the truth and
nothing but the truth. In my life as a public figure
and a religious leader, I have offered my counsel,
for whatever its worth, to quite a number of
Presidents in this country. I do this because I
desire that you succeed. For the success of the
leader is the success of the citizens. If there is no
solution to Nigeria’s problem there may be
endless war. You strike one town, you gain it, and
you come again to regain it. Remember that you
cannot put a crown on your head. It is the people
who put it on you. Otherwise one day, you will get
tired of it. Please listen to the legitimate cries of
your fellow citizens.

-Cardinal Anthony Okogie, emeritus Archbishop of
Lagos, wrote from Lagos.

About the Author:
Anthony Olubunmi Okogie is a Nigerian Cardinal
Priest and formerly Archbishop of Lagos in the
Roman Catholic Church.

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