December, 2013
Your Excellency,
It is with utmost respect I pen this letter. Our people say if a man
searches for wisdom and it is not visible in this world, he must now go to the
great beyond. I have written you this letter as a young Edolite and in fact a
Nigerian, to speak of your successes and falls since you climbed up to the seat
of power of Edo state in November 2008.
Indeed,
you have shown your best. And you have risen above the developmental
achievements of your predecessor if at all there was any. The construction of
roads and the beautification of the major towns and city of the state are the
truest pictures of your administration’s commitment to propel Edo land unto a
greater height. One must acknowledge your resilient efforts in the renovation
of our once moribund hospitals and health centers. History won’t forgive me if
I fail to mention how great our schools have been transformed in your reign.
Your Excellency, we appreciate you for that.
But
sir, I must veil my eyes to tell the truth of some of your falls especially in
your second tenure. I still remember in November 2008, though young then, how
after the case was ruled in your favour, the towns were greeted with excitement:
women embraced their selves; men shook hands with joy while youths demonstrated
their own happiness, plying motorcycles and cars through the tarred road. The
town was rekindled with hope and a new song was on every lip: song of freedom
and justice. Even when you were sworn-in, you didn’t renege on your promises.
Instead, you performed relatively well, visible through the refurbishment of ailing
establishments and construction of new ones. I would not be able to put your
first term achievements all into writing, but they were substantial and
alluring. And of course, when you ran again in 2012, you won with a landslide
victory. Even with rain droplets that day, the streets of Benin-City were
flooded with the common men to celebrate with you. We the masses were proud of
you: that was why you were re-elected. That was why you won in all the eighteen
local government areas of the state including opposition strongholds. Your
victory was not propelled by some influential elements as now widely speculated
by some politicians, but it was we - the ordinary people - who consolidated
your return.
Your
Excellency, you will recall that Edo State was in chains before you came on
board in 2008. We suffered virulent injustice raging from mismanagement of funds,
to premature retirement of workers - a grave social injustice! History books
have this; I didn’t lift it from my head. Sad to say, your Excellency, your
government is tilting to embrace social injustice. Although, your government
has not been indicted for any case of corruption and mismanagement of fund, it
is only true that your stench of dictatorship has cleared the tables of food of
many a youth in our state.
As soon
as you were sworn-in, your Excellency, we heard your government promised this
great state it would provide 10,000 jobs for youths of the state. Indeed, the
programme kicked started. My neighbours and relatives went to submit their CVs
at the local councils. But up till now, nothing has been heard of the scheme. Perhaps,
its breath has been scotched.
When
the youths saw how committed you were to transform the state, they threw the
discouragement of unemployment to the earth and threw their weight behind you.
They tried to empower themselves by doing minimal jobs and riding motorcycles.
But recently your Excellency, you have spat on the faces of those youths by banning the operation of
motor cycles in the main city.; an action detrimental as well as directly affecting
the poor masses. With this veto decision you took, you didn’t follow it swiftly
with a re-empowering program to get these youths employed and important to the
state. Your Excellency, it may interest you to note that these individuals whom
you’ve made idle are mostly bread-winners of their families. What would you
expect them do to keep stomachs from crying? Would they not go the extra mile
to keep their legs strong?
Your Excellency,
no one would have criticized you if you had invested more in the intra and
inter state transportation sector and employed these youths whose hope of livelihood
has been dwindled. Your Excellency, crime rate is on the increase; this cannot
be unconnected with the largely displacement of youths from their source of
livelihood without any logistic arrangement to re-empower them.
Your Excellency,
under your close watch of our state, over 800 teachers have been reportedly
sacked through very hideous circumstances. Some of them only noticed, when
their names were not included in December payment voucher of which they worked
for. It hurt me as a young Nigerian, the pains and humiliation coupled with the
low standard of living that would lurk around the abodes of those affected by
this. Sir, as much as you want sanity in the Educational system, I want it too
and even more. I often say that a true leader will chastise his own mother for
any perceived misbehavior from the former. That was the reason why I faulted
the widow who you scolded virulently for selling by the roadside at Benin -
city. Out of anger, you uttered what shouldn’t have been uttered. But in your
wisdom, you felt remorse and apologized to the woman publicly. You won back your
respect, and as a citizen that respects the law, I considered it redundant and
wasteful, offering the widow two million naira. Well Your Excellency, we have
gone through that and I’ll kindly leave it to re-focus my attention on the
grave issue of retrenchment of teachers.
I have
had opportunity to interact with some of those affected and I learnt that the
most popular reason for their sack was their failure to produce their Primary
Six Certificates. Your Excellency, I implore that this very issue is looked
into critically. Some of the affected teacher told me the primary six
certificates of their sets were not released. This could be true, sir. In 2003,
primary six pupils sat for exams but as we speak now, the certificates have not
been released. So also many other years I can’t remember now.
Sir,
in order to avert another injustice from storming Edo land as it did some years
ago, the case of the above categories of persons should be looked into
properly, and if they say the truth, they should be called back, since it was
the fault of government, not theirs for their mishaps. I pray those who were
sacked due to other wrongs be recalled and their wrongs corrected. For it is an
adage that says, when you chastise a child with the right hand, you draw him
closer to yourself with the left hand. Well if you stand by your decision not
to call those driven back, teachers should be employed to replace the
retrenched ones. Hitherto, the schools are short of qualified teachers.
Sir, I
am a testament to the beautiful structures you have been erecting in our
schools. We cannot thank you enough. But even as you build structures, we crave
for the refurbishment of our libraries. Truly, it is he who reads that leads,
and leads right. Specialist should be employed to coach the lower primaries in
reading and writing as well as basic arithmetic. Our youths have turned
illiterates even while they attend school. Once I saw an SS3 student who
battled to read two-letter words. This is as a result of failed logistics in
teaching. I pray the issues raised here are acknowledged so we can watch our
state move to greater height.
Thank you sir!
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