Now that the Cashtivists and Dissociaters have failed, will Mr. President listen?, by Chris Nwaokobia Jnr.

Along with many well-meaning citizens we warned that talking down on the Gen Z organizers of the ongoing protests across Nigeria will do government no good. We warned that spending our collective wealth on Cashtivists who promised to frustrate the protests will boomerang. We warned that paid Dissociaters were only scamming the government as one cannot dissociate from a protocol one knows nothing about.

We warned that threats and words of nullification by government spokespersons, and operators of state will escalate tension and further anger the already angry young people.

Now that the Cashtivists and Dissociaters have failed, will Mr. President listen to those who truly care about Nigeria, and those who want him to succeed.

Will Mr. President fire the sycophants who got him the present slap? Will Mr. President engage more with the People? Will Mr. President understand that Power truly belongs to the People? Will Mr. President embark on the immediate reform of government policies and programmatic? Will Mr. President and his Party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) remove (or support the impeachment) of the jester cum Senate President who has shown a consistency for gibberish, tommyrot and sick mockery, nay he jokes with and about serious issues of state and he is manifestly unfit for the office of the 3rd citizen? Nigeria at this moment cannot afford another week of a clown as Senate President.

Will Mr. President slow down on the jet-speed pace with which he has set out to outdo Buhari’s tendency for nepotism? Will Mr. President be more inclusive in his appointments? Will Mr. President cut down the size of his cabinet, and cut down the cost of governance?

Will Mr. President cut down on profligacy, waste and wanderlust? Will Mr. President declare a State of Emergency on Insecurity; on Agriculture; on Education; on Job Creation; and on Infrastructural Development?

Will Mr. President eschew the predilection of his government for foreign made goods and vehicles, and patronise Nigerian manufacturers and made in Nigeria goods? It will help the Naira against the Dollar.

Will Mr. President learn from the Leadership Secrets of Abraham Lincoln ditto his appointment of his worst critic Stanton as his War/Personal Secretary, and stop seeing his fierce critics as enemies? Will Mr. President sack all appointees who wield ethnic baiting and divisive demagoguery as instruments of state policy? Will Mr. President put square pegs in square holes and repudiate nepotism, clanishness and kparakpoism?

Will Mr. President begin the process of a holistic restructuring of the country such that the presently dysfunctional entity called Nigeria would become productive, progressive and prosperous?

Will Mr. President fight corruption and, against his personal convenience, hasten to purge the Oil Sector of its Olympic corruption? Will Mr. President address the nation and appeal to the soul and conscience of the Gen Z and indeed the Nigerian hoi polloi?

Will Mr. President undertake a forensic of the fuel subsidy protocol, and ensure that the huge scam that it has become is nipped in the bud? Will Mr. President address issues that bother on electricity tariff, and ensure that the energy sector is genuinely liberalised for efficiency? Will Mr. President say to the Bretton Woods Institutions ditto the IMF and the World Bank that government MUST subsidise goods and services that will ultimately help for growth and progress? America does that for Agriculture, and Energy.

Will Mr. President pursue home grown policies and programmes that will encourage hard work and creativity? And will Mr. President begin a holistic overhaul of our education curriculum? Will Mr. President quickly address the nation and de-escalate on words of threat and nullification that has heightened the tension in the Land?

And finally, will Mr. President assume in words, deeds and actions the status of the Father of the Nation without fanning regional, and or religious embers? I pray that Mr. President listens and turns a new leaf.

Over my head I see a New Nigeria in the horizon.

I’m CHUKWUDUMEBI.

*Prof Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr. is Convener COUNTRYFIRST MOVEMENT.