Cardinal Okogie writes open letter to President Buhari

Read the open letter written by Emeritus
Archbishop of Lagos, Cardinal Anthony Okogie
to President Buhari below
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.

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