Your Excellency, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, I am very worried about the current economic crisis ravaging our dear country with attendant acute hunger battering innocent Nigerians everyday, mostly children.
I recall that since you took over the reins of governance on May 29, 2023, Nigerians have not known peace! Poor Nigerians gnash their teeth, many cannot afford food as they face torture from acute hunger everyday.
Your Excellency, recall that the troubling situation the country is going through this time is rudely caused by the hasty removal of petrol subsidy on the very day you mounted the podium to take the oath of office as the President of our “great” country.
Since that faithful day, followed by the floating of the naira, the economy of the country has nosedived to abysmal level and wellbeing of the citizens have been in serious jeopardy.
Regrettably, Nigeria is currently facing its worst economic crisis in decades occasioned by biting inflation, but little or no measures are being taken to address the troubling development.
The lamentations of Nigerians over scorching pain caused by hunger and hardship evidently dot the nooks and crannies of the country.
No thanks to the increasing number of Nigerians dying everyday as a result of acute hunger. UNICEF recently reported that two million Nigerian children are suffering from severe, acute malnutrition (SAM), but your government seems not perturbed about their pitiable plight.
Your Excellency, I am pained to say that irrespective of whatever good you aim to achieve with your policies, the worsening suffering and bondage poor Nigerians are going through currently are uncalled for.
It is pertinent to say that in climes where governments are people-centric, the leaders always listen to the plight of their citizens and take deliberate actions to initiate policies that prioritize and improve the welfare of their citizens.
In other words, your inaction towards the travails confronting poor Nigerians further erodes the trust and confidence the people repose in you.
Your Excellency, perhaps you might have forgotten, but let me remind you that the welfare and security of the people are the reason you are the President of our great country. Section 14 (2b) of the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as amended) gives credence to the above assertion.
To further emphasize the essence of government, section 16 (1b) of the constitution mandates you to control the resources of the nation in such manner as to secure maximum welfare, freedom, and happiness of every Nigerian on the basis of social justice, equality of status, and opportunity.
Section 16 (2d) of the constitution also directs you to ensure that suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age care and pensions, employment and sick benefits and welfare of the people with disabilities are provided for all.
Your Excellency, having acquainted you with a few of the core responsibilities of government to the citizens, I make bold to unequivocally say that your policies are punitive, draconian and repugnant to the wellbeing and happiness of the citizens.
Disappointingly, your decision to hold tenaciously to your malevolent economic revamping policy which is inflicting untold hardship on Nigerians unquestionably portrays your government as lacking empathy for the citizens.
Suffice it to say, that there are better economic policies your administration can bring on board to rescue the country from her present economic woes without inflicting unnecessary pain and hardship on poor Nigerians.
On this note, I wish to bring to your knowledge that India which is about seven times the population of Nigeria had had a worse economic crisis but the governments of that country, knowing that bad economic policies would increase the suffering of the already poor Indians, invented better policies that prioritized the welfare of poor Indians.
One of such policies was the “Public Distribution System (PDS)” which ensured that foodstuffs are distributed to every indian home at affordable price in order to address the scarcity of essential food items.
The PDS, with other well thought out policies made huge progress, lifting 273 million Indians from acute poverty over a period of ten years (2006-2016), averaging 27.3 million people a year.
In the same vein, the strategy adopted by China to lift 850 million Chinese out of poverty within a period of 20 years (2001-2020), averaging 45 million people a year was overwhelming. In short that feat achieved by China was equated with a modern day miracle.
Your Excellency, the above references point to the fact that the current Nigerian economic situation is not insurmountable, and no Nigerian life deserves to be sacrificed for any mischievous economic revamping policies.
Truth is, a well structured and pragmatic pro-people policy interventions are best suitable to subdue the raging economic crisis and timeously extricate the country from an imminent meltdown.
I wish to emphasize that you don’t need rocket science to solve the protracted Nigerian economic crisis. If you would be courageous to call the shots not minding whose ox is gored, you would be able to right the many wrongs strangulating the progress of our country.
On that note, I strongly implore you to take the following drastic steps to navigate the economy of Nigeria out of doldrum.
First, declare zero tolerance on corruption and go real hard on public office holders that have stolen the country’s wealth to satiate their urge for ostentatious lifestyle. Regrettably, these unrepentant looters of our common patrimony happily enjoy their loots while the country bleeds to death.
Your Excellency, the chunk of Nigeria’s money is in private bank accounts of the looters of our common patrimony, while successive governments only do a little to recover stolen wealth.
There will be no need chasing shadows if your government would have the political will and sincerity to recover the country’s stolen wealth from fantastically corrupt and dubious politicians, public office holders, including past presidents and governors.
Second, take decisive action and stop further importation of refined petroleum products.
That will be possible if you are able to fix our ailing four refineries and make local production of petroleum products a prioritized national policy. Nigeria is the world’s 9th largest crude oil exporting country. She does not have any reason to be entangled in petroleum products importation miasma.
Regrettably, most of the countries that Nigeria go cap-in-hand to import petrol, diesel, kerosene and other refined petroleum products don’t produce crude oil but only crafted the ingenuity of investing in refineries to maximize the economic opportunities in the crude oil value chain.
Painfully, the continuous importation of petroleum products is emblematic of a country whose leadership is indisputably bereft of innovative ideas and creativity to prudently manage state’s economy for the betterment of the citizens.
Nigeria cannot continue to be a laughing stock among comity of nations. I charge you to beat a detour from this road to perdition our country is heading!
Third, rehabilitate the energy sector and increase production of electricity to meet the energy needs of the citizens. Nigeria, with an estimated 220 million people woefully produces less than 5000 megawatts of electricity.
Truth is, if electricity supply improves tremendously, the economy of the country will experience an unprecedented boost with positive impact on the livelihood of the citizens.
The only reason more than 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor is that the predatory Nigerian governments wittingly protect looters of public funds for reasons best known to them.
It is common knowledge that politicians who never managed any business prior to becoming public office holders are now richer than the country. What an irony!
Most importantly, I urge you to prioritize agriculture and allocate huge resources to agriculture sector to increase food production and promote food security. As the popular saying goes “A well fed nation is a healthy nation.”
Therefore, it is imperative your government catalyses production of food to attenuate the current food crisis battering the country and her citizens.
The less than 2 per cent budgetary allocation to agriculture in 2025 is abysmally too meagre to improve production of foods to meet the dietary needs of the people and their food preferences.
Your Excellency, as you may know, Niger State is almost three times the size of Netherlands.
However, while Netherlands maintains her position as the world’s 2nd largest exporter of food and agricultural products. Nigeria, blessed with vast arable land, disappointingly cannot feed her teeming population. Nigeria must go to farm to feed Nigerians; this should be your creed!
In a nutshell, I urge you to develop the capacity to do the needful to ensure enough food is produced in our country to address the scorching hunger before the situation gets out of hand.
This call is exigent on the ground that Nigeria has the second highest burden of stunted children in the world, with a national prevalence rate of 32 percent of children under five. This is not a palatable news at all.
Your Excellency, I passionately implore you to change this ugly narrative. If you would heed my advice, the cancerous economic challenges metastasizing Nigeria will abate.
(Published by The Southerner onSaturday, June 14, 2025)
