Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, this open letter is addressed to you for the simple reason that you are Nigeria's next president. This is not my humble opinion rather a thing that has been decided long before you, the son of a Fulani trader ever thought to pick the nomination form of that first of Nigeria's two gargantuan parties which in local parlance we aptly say are both 'big for nothing'.
It is not my place to challenge the decision to make you President of Nigeria, indeed if it is true that a people get the leadership they deserve, then in fairness I can say that we may have received someone slightly better than what we deserve. Emphasis on 'slightly'.
What I can challenge though, is the reasoning that Nigerian yea African leaders are above reprimand and should be accorded deity-like status in communication between them and the people they are meant to serve. This is hogwash. When a person, male or female puts themselves forward for public office, they must understand that at that moment they set aside whatever status, privilege or station of life they may have been bestowed with and become as low as the lowest of those whose lives they seek to govern.
The reason for this is simple. Life is greater than wealth, glory or fame. The presence of life, its essence, is far above any consideration or appurtenance that can be attached to it. This is why the dead no matter how glorious their lives may have been, can never be equated with the living however base their existence. By the presence of life, one already exceeds the dead immeasurably.
What this means is that one who would govern over the living must understand that the lives of the people mean more and are inestimably valued far above the inanities of wealth and prestige. Thus Atiku Abubakar, regardless of your perceived accomplishments in wealth and station of life, by presenting yourself to be a leader of a free people, you have become no better than the underprivileged labourer who carries heavy burdens for others for a pittance in Mile Twelve market Lagos.
You are no better Atiku, than the sun-scorched street trader on Ring Road Benin-city who has to scrap a livelihood each day to feed her family while battling the harsh elements of nature and humanity being area boys and unscrupulous government agents. Nothing raises you Atiku above the Talakawa of Kano city, who pushes a wheel barrow to fund a meagre existence while everyday seeing dust thrown in his eye by the unperturbed tyres of his supposed servants as they flash by in vehicles he may never be deemed fit to wash.
You are at best at par Atiku, certainly no better than the hungry little girl who through no fault of hers has found herself a refugee in her own country residing in a poorly provisioned IDP camp somewhere in Borno state. If you can understand that these people mentioned are your real peers not the overfed elite that surround you; these struggling, defiant Nigerians are the ones who you must now compare yourself with, then there may yet be hope for your presidency.
Unfortunately, I do not believe you will be able to understand this. I am one of those that has long lost faith in your ilk in this country. Many of you even though you have tasted poverty at some stage of your lives now behave as if the very notion of poverty is so alien to you that it may well have been imported from another planet. Many like you Atiku have failed this nation in a manner that is unbecoming of the living. You Atiku and the bulk of the political class of Nigeria regardless of Party affiliation behave like the dead in the sense that you have no compassion and empathy for the living. I have lost faith in all of you.
So I propose something else that you may actually be able to do as President of Nigeria. It is a thing that if implemented with the powers at your disposal could set this country back on the clichèd path to greatness. Atiku Abubakar as your peer, I urge you to restore the rightful place of merit back to the top of all consideration in our National thinking. Re-establish a meritocracy in this country Atiku and you would have done this country the greatest service any of its leaders in living memory has yet done.
Make it possible Alhaji Abubakar that the child who scores highest in a common entrance exam regardless of their tribal extraction gets pride of place in admission to any Federal Government school of the child's choosing. Let same apply to all others down the line with the best being picked first, no excuses permissible.
Make it possible Atiku that the child who scores higher in the UTME does not have to be cast aside for someone with lower scores simply because he or she does not have 'someone' to push their case. Let the aspiring cadet to the Defence Academy who scores higher on the entrance tests in all departments not be cast aside for an inferior performer simply because that person comes from a supposedly superior circle of influence. When the Federal Government awards Scholarships and research grants, let merit alone be the determining factor devoid of political intrigue. This will engender true scholarliness and intellectual prosperity.
Nigeria is presently a country that diminishes its best and promotes the mediocre above them at every turn. The Federal civil service and all other facets of our National life are in shambles simply because our best are frustrated out of the system to the exaltation of their marked inferiors. Any country that does not aggressively pursue a system that nourishes its best and elevate same into positions of competence will inevitably retrogress into the doldrums of human existence. More explicitly, the country will become as Nigeria presently is.
Make merit our national standard, establish an enduring meritocracy. This is the challenge posed to you Atiku Abubakar by your true peers. I hope for Nigeria's sake, that you can rise to this.
