OPEN LETTER TO HIS EXCELLENCY, SENATOR BOLA AHMED TINUBU, PRESIDENT, FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

YOUR EXCELLENCY,

I bring you fraternal greetings in the name of Almighty Allah.

Let me begin by congratulating you on the journey so far. Even though it has been a bumpy ride, it is gratifying to note that you are still working hard to steer the ship of the Nigerian state aright. It is against this background that I have decided to share my thoughts about your administration with you. I have chosen the medium of an open letter because that is about the only way I can reach you.

Mr President, I am offering you my words of advice because I believe that you are a democrat. You will recall that you and I have, in the past, journeyed along together in the quest for sustainable democracy in Nigeria. In 1999, you won election as the governor of Lagos State under the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD). You got a second term mandate under the same party in 2003. In the same vein, I was elected governor of Sokoto State in 1999 under the platform of All Peoples Party (APP). I was re-elected in 2003 under the same party with a slight name modification, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).

In 2007, you moved over to Action Congress (AC) to continue your political journey while I formed the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), on whose platform I contested election to the office of president in 2007. In 2011, the AC and DPP entered into a coalition arrangement that gave birth to Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). From there, we, in 2014, put together an alliance of various political parties that brought about the All Progressives Congress (APC). The idea behind the APC was to have a strong opposition party that will be able to dislodge the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In all of this, the then ruling party gave us a free hand to operate. There was no attempt by the government or the Independent National Electoral Commission to stop the formation of new political parties.
Today, you are a beneficiary of that collective fight by opposition politicians for an enduring democratic order.

Beyond our past political associations, I feel compelled to draw your attention to the present state of our politics today because politics runs in my blood. I started politics at the age of 22. Today, I am 70 years of age. You will agree with me that I have paid my dues in terms of my contribution to the survival of democracy in Nigeria. Even though I have since announced my retirement from any elective or appointive political office, I will continue to play an active role in politics for as long as circumstances permit. I therefore feel that sense of compulsion to intervene when things are going wrong. I will continue to play this statesmanly role for as long as I am strong enough to do so.

Before I set out to write you this open letter, I took proper note of the fact that you inherited an insecure Nigeria from your predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari. The economy he handed over to you was battered. Most indices of good governance were sorely lacking under the dispensation you took over from. I therefore do not expect that you will turn things around for good overnight. But you will recall, Mr President, that you promised to improve the living condition of Nigerians. You also promised to secure the lives and property of the people. You have a historical responsibility to keep to these all- important electoral promises.

Regrettably, the situation is still looking bleak nearly two years since you assumed the reins of governance. The blight of insecurity which you promised to curtail is getting out of hand. The economic outlook is frightening. Inflation is galloping out of control. Hunger is ravaging the land. There are cries of anguish all over the country. This slide, Mr President, must be urgently arrested without further delay.

As Nigerians wait for you to rise to the occasion particularly in the areas of security and economic improvement, I feel duty-bound to remind you of how you climbed to the Presidency. Your ascension to the foremost political position in the country was made possible because the opposition was allowed to thrive. Those who were there before you gave opposition politics a chance. You are, as a matter fact, a product of opposition politics. You will therefore be making a grave mistake if you allow yourself to be carried away by the temporary power at your disposal by not giving the opposition a breathing space. I urge you, Mr President, to allow opposition politics to be . Do not throw away the ladder with which you climbed to the top. Anybody who is advising you to muzzle the opposition wants to deceive you into tarnishing your hard-earned reputation as a democrat. Killing the opposition will be harmful both to your democratic records and to the overall political growth of the country. In a country where there is no opposition, democracy dies. Do not allow democracy to die because it is the pillar upon which good governance, peace and progress stand.

I therefore call on you, Mr President, to shun the temptation of enthroning a one-party order in Nigeria. Nigeria can ill afford a one party arrangement. It is a recipe for anarchy. Rather, sustenance of a democratic order is the easiest route to move a country forward. It is what will enable us to build a country that will be beneficial not only to the present generation of Nigerians but also to generations yet unborn.

Remember, if those who came before you killed the opposition, there would have been no vehicle for you to get to your present political destination. Rather than scheme to decimate the opposition, it will be better for you to borrow a leaf from the United States, which has institutionalized two strong political parties around which the wheel of democracy revolves. The greatest legacy you can leave as president is to continue to allow the wheel of democracy to roll.
I do hope that this earnest appeal will make sense to you.

Signed:

Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa
(Garkuwan Sokoto)
Former Governor of Sokoto State.