OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA – PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU (GCFR)

Good day to you Sir,

You became the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria after a well-contested election in 2023. You assumed the responsibility on the 29th of May 2023. You are the President for 9 months. Very soon it will be 1 year since your inauguration to the office. You are the 16th President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

You wanted to be the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It was your wish and desire

Since your inauguration, many policies have been enacted. Some were popular while others have negatively affected our population and the economy. Some of the policies have impoverished our people, some have caused massive malnutrition, and some made it impossible for people to get medical help while suffering from common diseases like malaria and typhoid fever not to mention complicated illnesses.

Your policies to improve our nation have the initiatives and dimensions of the International Monetary Fund or World Bank policies exclusively meant for developing countries such as currency devaluation, removal of fuel subsidies, increased energy costs and implementation of a market economy model in a subsistence economy.

Many Nigerians felt cheated and deceived by your campaign promises

With the introduction of these policies:

• Nigerian citizens are complaining bitterly about the state of the economy and the nation
• Since your inauguration, life has been unbearable for our people. They are crying, bitter, weeping and gnashing their teeth in pain and anger, enduring unimaginable pains, and suffering
• Nigerians are trapped in a cycle of deprivation
• Food prices soar daily as families struggle to survive. Entrenched hyperinflation drives people into poverty. Over 88.4% of Nigerians are living in extreme poverty. Poverty has now been weaponized in Nigeria

Nigerians have not gone through this type of pain in a century, and they are raging. The demonstrations and whaling are everywhere.
You cannot be indifferent to the yawning of Nigerians. You may need to take some unpopular drastic steps to alleviate the people's suffering.

The list below shows burning national issues that need urgent attention:

• Encourage our farmers to bring down the prices of agricultural products or open temporarily the African borders with Nigeria, most especially the Seme border in the Southwest and others for the importation of agricultural products to support the food deficiency and bring down food prices
• The government needs to subsidize foods for the masses because of the unaffordability due to quadrupled food prices. The government needs to flood the markets with essential food products to drive the prices down
• Nigerians have never known this sort of inhuman and dehumanizing way to queue for hours to buy 25 kg of rice. This looks like the 1990s days of the beginning of PERESTROIKA in the former USSR (Russia) when there was a scarcity of bread and people had to queue for hours to buy bread
• The devaluation of the naira makes both essential and non-essential commodities depend on black-market exchange rates
Problems associated with our nation's insecurity
• A total ban on the use of foreign currency e.g. US dollars or pounds sterling as legal tender in our economy
• Foreign exchange racketeer's and saboteurs must be ended
• The problem of energy is tied to high petrol, diesel gas, and electricity costs. We all thought the high cost was due to none of our refineries working. Now that we have Dangote and some to start production, why is this not reflected in lower pump prices? gas, and electricity cost
• The throwing of naira in the air and marching on them at public events or parties should be banned and have judicial consequences
• the agricultural revolution, substitute subsistence farming with mechanized farming
• industrial revolution
• The presidency should go after corrupt individuals and corporations that embezzled and misappropriated state funds and recover the funds for our common use
• The Federal Republic of Nigeria needs to develop Legislatures to tackle "unexplained wealth" by Nigerians with penalties for it
• Develop policies to make hoarding and storing foreign currencies unattractive
• Reduce the cost of governance in Nigeria

Our politicians (legislators, executives, judiciary) and executives of the banks have stockpiles of US dollars. It should be illegal to use foreign currency in Nigeria as a legal tender. No individual should have more than $10,000.00 in their possession. Anything above should be changed to the naira. Stockpiling foreign currency at home should be forbidden. Keeping it in one's possession should be illegal or banned and have judicial ramifications.

Many managing directors of banks are guilty of worsening our country's financial situation. They should be investigated and dealt with.

These people are deliberately starving Nigeria of the much-needed foreign exchange and sabotaging all our efforts to stabilize the naira.

I have lived outside Nigeria for so long that l had never heard of individuals stockpiling US dollars or pound sterling in houses or offices.

Only criminals abroad stockpile foreign currencies at home etc and once caught they face the law.

Our security agencies the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Department for State Services, etc should curb this atrocious behaviour.

We should bring back whistle-blowers to help uncover these ills in our society with compensations paid to genuine ones.

All we want is a Nigeria that works and allows us to fulfill our aspirations and destiny.