An Open Letter To President Bola Ahmed Tinubu by Kunle Ojeleye

Your Excellency,

Like many others, I turned my back on President Jonathan’s administration after he sat on his butts for hours without lifting a finger after the kidnapping of the Chibok girls.

In my naivety as someone who is not a member of any political party, I thought a former army general would make a significant difference in 2015 and joined others to support General Buhari.

I had only one KPI for President Buhari. From that KPI, I believed all other things Nigeria needed to manifest its destiny would materialise.
The KPI was the security of lives and properties across Nigeria, irrespective of tribe and political affiliation.

At the end of his 8 years in office, President Buhari got 0% concerning internal security in Nigeria.
He was an astounding failure, if not complicit, in making things worse compared to the Jonathan regime.

The death of your party’s national director after being kidnapped for almost two months, the sojourn of your party’s youth leader in the den of kidnappers for weeks, and the raising of millions in Naira by army generals to free one of their own – the former DG of the NYSC – after about two months in the kidnappers’ den are high profile cases that belie many unknown acts of kidnapping and banditry that have affected ordinary Nigerians.

I even heard President Buhari ran away from Daura to Kaduna to avoid being the subject of a multi-million Naira ransom. Oro buruku toun t’erin.
What should ordinary folks do if highly placed folks like an ex-president are afraid?

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Baba, as the father of the nation, ignore whatever the sycophants around you are saying in self-centeredness.
If you must know, people are frustrated and angry.
Why is it so difficult to trace the flow of ransoms and to deal with all those involved? Why should making a road trip to see the beauty of Nigeria become scary for many, to talk less of attending to their farming ventures?

Baba, the Uromi killings need to be situated properly against the background of frustration, anger, failure of the security and governance system, and a resort to self-help regardless of how lawless it may seem.

Unless you and those in charge of our security architecture radically rethink out of the box, a solution to the incessant low-level terrorism ongoing in the country under the guise of banditry and kidnapping, Uromi may just be the tip of the iceberg as Nigerians begin to take laws into their hands to secure their lives, properties and communities.

Uromi may become ‘kasa kasa’, a prelude to ‘kese kese’.

I pray that at the end of your tenure, I can score your administration better than your predecessor on the security of life and properties in Nigeria.

May Nigeria survive and succeed.