As Buhari Clocks 77

By Hassan Auwalu Muhammad

First of all, I congratulate you on celebrating your 77th birthday. May Allah prosper you with a long and blessed day.

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

Indeed, there were many challenges during your first rule of government that many Nigerians feel the country will never change.

Therefore, I have 10 points that I would like to offer as a contribution to the development, sustainability and prosperity of our country, Nigeria.

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 all Nigerians.

As you have been trying to increase the salaries of police officers in the past, it is good to make sure that their payments are carried out on time, and that you should be very careful so that some of their superiors would not fix the money into banks to make profit and then begin to release their salaries in peace meal.

This will reduce the level of corruption and bribery among the police.

I am sure every Nigerian, especially the northerners, know that there has been an improvement in the security than before you became president.

However, Mr President, the era of using security forces to tackle insecurity is as the world is now moving on with the modern and sophisticated security apparatus, such as cameras that are mounted on the roads and space shuttle surveillance to monitor what is happening across the country.

We all know that you are a nationalist, you do not take a side in governing the affairs of this country. But Baba, you should look at the Northern Territory from 2003 until your 2019 general election 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 been long complaining that there are some CABALS in your government who have no any official roles in the government, but they are preventing anything smooth running of your government, they enrich themselves at the expense of other citizens. It is only those who they wish to be appointed that are given the job not based on merit.

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

In a letter I once wrote to you about the corruption allegation in the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) which led to the removal of the Chairman of the commission and replaced him, what you did was right Baba.

But the community is still struggling with the high cost of Hajj, which is why many people can not afford to continue attending the annual Hajj Pilgrimage. I would like you to recommend a few reliable, trustworthy people to oversee the planning of the Hajj pilgrimage in this country!

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In spite of the information contained in my previous letter, no country can survive, develop and succeed in the cause of the lack of better knowledgeable people in the country, Baba! There should be an emergency in the education sector, and also move the country from education based-society to knowledge based-society.

The damage to this sector in Nigeria is beyond the imagination of any person, and serious measure must be taken in restoring the educational value of the country.

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

Your government should be able to provide teachers with instructional materials and pay them encouraging salaries. If you do that, Baba, you will probably wonder how education can develop in such a short time in this country.

As we have gone through a severe economic downturn in this country, and I have previously suggested that a committee of economists who are non-biased be formed, to act as a guide for the country’s economic growth and development. As suggested in my last letter to you, the matter has now become history.

With the establishment of the committee, it will enable us to join the list of the world’s top industrial nations sooner or later. This should also be maintained, Baba.

The problem of jobs 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 plant in Mambila, Taraba State, yet we need to develop some other electricity power stations to meet the needs of Nigerians and the industrial sector.

This will help boost the country’s economy rapidly…

I wish you a joyful birthday celebration.

Hassan Auwalu Muhammad, a Journalism student at the Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Communication, Bayero University Kano who can be reached onHassilat@gmail.com