Wealth Redistribution As A Legacy for President Bola Tinubu

YOUR EXCELLENCY

I doubt if there remains any more post you can aspire to occupy in the Nigerian public offices. No more. God in His mercy has made you a foremost senator, and state governor, who made significant impacts in Lagos State where you served the people for a good eight years. You have also been a great political leader, whose voice and actions will continue to remain indelible in the history of our dear country.

To cap it all you are now the President of this great Federal Republic of Nigeria and who the people are looking up to, for a better tomorrow. What else can be the life target from here than the type of national socio-economic character as a legacy imprint you are going to leave behind? It should not be a legacy of futile persuasions but rather that of genuine economic stability through redistribution of citizen wealth or resources to achieve fair greater equality.

With your record, you have by the grace of God, achieved what your political colleagues, have struggled and equally aspire for, but unfortunately for them, they have not been able to go as far as you have gone in life.

Your Excellency, with you, now as the head of our great nation, many believe that you are the Nelson Mandela of our time whom we are all looking up to, who would make a tremendous turnaround in the over 60 years of the baby steps movement of Nigeria.
This is the reason why many of us strongly believe that with your wealth of experience in governance and love for humanity, this great position as the President and the Commander in Chief, would spur Your Excellency into thinking about the right legacy for which you shall be remembered for now and after you must have left office, God willing, after the mandatory and the constitutional provisions of eight years.

It is one thing to seek to rule and this, Your Excellency has achieved but it is another thing to build a legacy that will be the signature of your history in the governance of Nigeria.

I am saying this not because you are Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu but because you are the Mr. President, to whom all minds and eyes are willing either to copy or otherwise. I will also want your Excellency, to note that the generality of the people of Nigeria are looking forward to what you can do differently from the past leaders, to put smiles on their faces. Nigerians now, at this critical stage, depend largely on the way you drive your course in governance that would either benefit them or otherwise.

At this juncture, I am sure that many people might have given you pieces of advice in the mix between selfless and selfish reasons. Good. But I have today without any prejudice that if they are honest with their advice, the common people are yet to witness the impacts of the presumed classic populist ideas being dished out to Your Excellency, that would answer the yearnings and the aspirations of the masses.

At this critical time in our country, we need ideas, approaches, and strategies that are uncommon. Ideas that are coming out of the box and tailored toward our peculiarities. Daily, people make suggestions, offer advice, and comment on how to move the country forward. Even, writers have written recommendations on the right actions to strengthen our education, security, judiciary, infrastructural development, employment creation, and so on. These are very necessary and very important. They form a basis for growth and development.

But there is one principal aspect of development that no one is yet talking about. Ironically, as much as this aspect is being neglected, it stands tallest amidst suggestions that affect a quick turnaround at this critical stage where we find ourselves as a people.

This great and very important aspect is the REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH. It looks a bit bogus and ambiguous but very large a concept that involves a lot of policy formation.
Your Excellency, your government needs robust policies which at present do not seem to be available. It is a policy designed to speak directly to our peculiarities and pave the way for purposeful governance.

This is not about politics but the urge to build a record that will vindicate and validate you as a patriot and stabilizer of our economy. The main benefit of wealth redistribution policy formulation is poverty relief, improved quality of life, economic stability, reduction of government expenditures, and job creation.

The justification for this is positioned upon the fact that by the aggregate, the gap between the wealthy and the needy in our country is too wide, such that most citizens, the masses, have become vulnerable and hopeless. There is an urgent need, therefore, to fill the gap between the super-rich and the pauperized ones in Nigeria. Again, this is not about politics. We can not afford to toy with the fate of the agonized community of people. We need to formulate appropriate policies that will provide help for the masses in these times of difficulties.

As it is now and if we must speak the truth, most Nigerian youths who should form the strength of our collective aspiration as a nation, have lost hope of anything good coming their way in Nigeria. This is why they struggle to leave the country to unknown destinations. Human beings (leaders) like Your Excellency built those issues of attraction to our youths in foreign lands. Older ones too are fed up in their frustrations but you can reverse this sir. It is not too late, Your Excellency.

It is not too late as well for you to be referred to as Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo of our race whose name has become the melody of even the youngest generation. You can surpass him with good works. Nigeria will never remember the great Zik of Africa for his good works. People will remember with sweet memories such men as Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Sekou Toure of Guinea, Toumbalaye of Mali, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, and others. All these left behind good lasting legacies that are still shinning to date. History keeps these people, especially, Awolowo, such that the unborn generation when he was alive are still praising his name today, and hardly anyone says anything derogatory about the image of Awolowo, Azikiwe, or the Sardauna of Sokoto. May we also be able to proclaim, saying Bola Tinubu of Nigeria. It all depends on you, sir.

All these leaders had excelled not because they had money. No, but they succeeded because they put the people at the center of their aspirations. They succeeded because they did not allow the views and suggestions of sycophants to supersede their intents. As humans, those great men had their weaknesses too, but they succeeded because they were good listeners with genuine empathy for the plights of their people. They did not allow the gap to exist between them and the people they ruled. This is the image we pray for you, sir.

I agree with you, that our nation is not an easy one to govern but Your Excellency sir, amid these challenges you still have to be concerned about the type of legacy you will leave behind after leaving the office, bearing in mind that this is the only chance that you have left. If it pleases God that you go four years more, it is still by chance, and it will end one day like it ended with your predecessors in office. Sir, this chance is no longer up to eight years. Please start working on your legacy now.

I have noticed that you are a listening president, and that is a fantastic strength. To me, listening is a pathway to success, and because I can’t wait to see you succeed, I decided to write you this letter, which is a product of my conscience. I owe my allegiance to God, to Nigeria and the President but as my conscience continues to be my police, I took the courage to forward this piece and I pray your aids will let you see it. Nothing do I stand to gain than the quality of your fame. I have delivered this today, and it will go into our history. May you be able to read it. May you be able to digest it and may you be able to make it a good keep such that after you depart from this world at a very ripe age, you will reside at the right hand of your Creator as a good steward. Aameen.

Yours,
PRINCE KOLA ASATOLA ASANIKE.
Ibadan, Oyo State.