Open letter to Chief of Staff to the President

Dear Professor Ibrahim Gambari CFR,

I write this piece with a heavy heart; my mind is troubled with the current happenings in our dear country. Prof Sir, I specifically write to you because of the high respect I have for you, and indeed with the hope that our dear president would listen to you as his close and trusted friend.

No doubt, the current administration has tried on infrastructural developments most especially in the transportation and aviation sectors, despite the downturns in the oil industry globally.

However, there are many issues people are grumbling about in the effort to ensure the socioeconomic stability of the country. Let me start by the most recent government decisions that are directly going to affect the ordinary Nigerians drastically:

1.      The increase in the fuel pump price to N151.56 per litre.

2.      Increase in electricity tariff

Sir, the president needs to be informed that these decisions shouldn’t have been his priority for now; or at least that the timing is absolutely wrong considering the economic hardship that many Nigerians are currently subjected to.

Sir, in case the president is away from the Nigerian reality, kindly remind him that the current price of local rice is over N23,000 and that of foreign rice about N27,000. To talk less of other cereals; apparently the price of everything is skyrocketing at the speed of light.

Perhaps, the 30,000 tons of maize the president ordered for release from the federal reserved to feed poultry should have been distributed to the Nigerian masses, because there is so much hunger in the land.

In addition to all these, Sir, as an experienced academician, and I am glad to call you Professor, perhaps, the first professor to hold this subtle position if my memory of Nigeria’s history post republic serves me well, the current situation between the federal government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) should not be happening under your watch. After their salary was withheld for several months, followed by their forceful enrolment into the controversial IPPIS, again the same salary is withheld currently indefinitely.

The rationale for the recent non-payment of their salary is absolutely known. Sir, with the current economic hardship in the land, I am sure you could understand my points. Even for those receiving their salary on a regular monthly basis, I am sure 80–90% of them, the salary is not enough in terms of month-to-month spending.

Though it might be difficult for the government to reverse the first two decisions, at least let there be steady salary to the civil servants, and stoppage of the unjustifiable deductions. Let there be price control in the country. I have doubts if the border closure for food items is actually helping Nigeria as a country. No nation can survive on its own!

Let there be a lasting solution between the federal government and ASUU so that our future generations can resume their academic quest before they turn into endangered species.

Prof Sir, you need to kindly find a way to inform our dear president the truth and perhaps, the reality of the Nigeria we have today; he needs to be aware of these happenings, at least for the sake of the masses.

Khalid Garba Mohammed, Milan, Italy