Dear Mr President,
While at The PUNCH newspaper, my sobriquet for you was ‘Agbalagbi’. My summary of your person and style of governance, then, was like that of self-styled President, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. You influenced almost every decision-making with pecuniary gains for those involved, making many to find their way to you. No institution was too sacred, religious, cultural, political and even our once sacred Afenifere. The results to be achieved always justified the means of getting same.
You were rock-solid with the symbol of our democracy of today, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Abiola. You learnt the ropes under the man, who sought, vainly, to surpass the status of eternal Yoruba Leader, the immortal sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. But more than both of them, you learnt lessons, which stood you in good stead to become Nigeria’s President today despite all the barriers put in your way by former President Muhammadu Buhari and his acolytes. You not only survived, but you triumphed where Abiola and Awolowo failed.
Your aburo, associate and ideological friend, Engr. Bayo Banjo, taught me an unforgettable lesson a few years back. His was almost the same with your former soul-mate, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. Banjo believes that Awolowo remains immortal because of the legacy he left before his passage to the other side. And it is Banjo’s belief that any leader worth his name should strive to leave a legacy. His opening statement on that day was, “Wale, do you know that someone can be beaten to death for insulting Chief Awolowo in some parts of Yorubaland today. And how many years ago has the man died? That is what our leaders should be doing, not all these primitive accumulation of wealth.” And I agreed with him.
You may not be aware that you have laid the foundation of a legacy for yourself in today’s Nigeria, which NOBODY has ever done. Your Attorney General/Minister of Justice, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, helped to midwife your path to immortality! Fagbemi, I am sure, under your directive sought to wake up and institutionalize Nigeria’s development through an effective local government system. He sought to give life to the very tier of government that is everything to ordinary people on the streets. Once Nigeria’s local government system starts working, there’ll be an explosion of positive developments all across our space taking Nigeria to the very pinnacle of the best country in Africa and indeed the whole world.
Security can easily be tackled by a functional local government. Kidnappers, bandits and the like must have a base for their operations. A tier of government that is alive to its responsibility should have no problem rooting such out before they become a menace. At least, monthly security meeting remains a MUST for each local government. Agriculture is the easiest. A functional local government can ensure there is food everywhere, because we are still a largely agrarian society. The farmers only need to be properly organised with provisions made available for them by that tier of government, which should monitor them properly, not the states, not the Federal Government. Until recently, and you fact-check me, most assistance to farmers end up in the hands of non-farmers. Education can be made whole again IF we have a functioning local government system, because the very basics of Education begins at the grassroots, where the local governments hold sway. A number of primary schools across the country are in more than decay today, because the local government that is responsible for them is not functioning as it should.
Making the local governments function properly goes beyond ensuring that funds are available for them. Your ‘Agbalagbi’ sobriquet need to be adjusted across board, because the Governors have adopted your old ways. Without Internal Democracy, we cannot have a credible and functioning local government system. In Lagos of your days, just as we currently have all over Nigeria today, it is the Governors, who always appoint the candidates of their respective political parties towards a local government election. This is wrong.
The choice of the people must count towards any election. It is much easier to check incompetence in government IF the people were involved from the word go. The first road towards this is to ensure that the ongoing amendment to the Electoral Act is speedily carried out such that it is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that conducts local government elections throughout Nigeria. Governors can no longer write results for their preferred candidates.
Secondly, as flawed as the Second Republic was, the National Chairman of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Chief Adisa Akinloye, always got his due respect from President Shehu Shagari. The Party was treated as sacrosanct. No Governor can directly interfere in Party matters without incurring the wrath of the ‘father’ who gave birth to their Excellencies. The Party was supreme, and the process of picking Party Leaders was also sacrosanct.
Mr. President, one of the lesson I learnt during a tour of parts of the United States in 1992, facilitated by the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy as part of their International Visitors Programme (IVP) that year, was that the United States was built on institutions. A stable, genuine and working democracy cannot be built around a strong man. We need our institutions to be solid. All strong men WILL leave office, either through death or expiration of office. But the institutions will remain. The political parties are part of the democratic institutions we have. There is need to strengthen them, setting a worthy example with yours, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The strengthening of the party will positively affect the running of the local government system. Questions can be asked from those in charge by the grassroots. During the Second Republic in Lagos State, I was a high school student. The education committee of Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Government was visiting my school, Gaskiyah College, Badia, Ijora, regularly. I remember that our library was requisitioned as a store at the time. It was a marvel seeing them check for the number of books, Maths set, pencils and biros one after the other. Their visits are usually unannounced. This committee was not the only one in Lagos at the time. At Idioro, Mushin, where we lived, you’ll see another one checking roads being rehabilitated.
Projects given to party members were not directly from Alausa. I noticed on a number of occasions that I followed my mum to meetings at the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) Ward Chairman’s house, Baba Odunjo, by Alamutu Street, it was at that ward level that projects were given out. It was also at the same level such projects are monitored. Feedbacks from there went to the local government and from there to the state. The Party was supreme!
You currently have the experience, capability and good fortune to entrench this new chapter in our history as your legacy. If you do this, you would have established a legacy that generations of Nigerians after ours will NEVER forget. Go ahead sir, and make yourself immortal, in the words of Uncle Bayo Banjo. Build this particular legacy and the broken chains insignia on your cap will be permanently established as the way to go, politically, in Nigeria, not just the defunct Western Region, where Immortal Awo still reigns.
Yours Sincerely,
Eni Owo Wale Adedayo,
Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu Villa,
Okeliwo, Oke Ife, Ijebu Ife,
Ogun State.
Sunday, 10 November, 2024.
