Dear President Muhammadu Buhari,

It is with utmost reverence but with brutal frankness that I write you this short letter. I must commend you for your largely noticeable attempt to fighting corruption in high places and ultimately reposition our dear country, Nigeria within the shortest possible time of your emergence in office till date. I kindly urge you to extend this battle to the confines of your political party as there is no repentance in criminal culpability. You have my permission and that of well-meaning Nigerians to hunt the witches, just don’t spare some witches.

Mr. President, I am neither a mindless critic nor a mindful butt-licker, I am only a forthright Nigerian who has taken it upon himself to be the conscience of the nation, an unsolicited custodian of the world’s morality and propriety and a regular Adviser of people in positions of authority the world over. It is on this premise that I write you this admonition letter.

First, whilst I must first commend you for the long overdue, but eventual appointment of Ministers and I can only nudge you to prod them to hit the ground running. We can’t but emphasize the urgency of the moment as we have lost time. Four years is such a short time to wager with in the womb of procrastination. You must realize as you must now reckon that Nigeria’s economy is sinking gradually, nay, fatalistically crashing as evidenced from all decipherable economic indices and the cry, tears, jeers and scowls on the faces of the ordinary Nigerians do not seem to show a respite soon. It is therefore expedient that you set up an economic summit to fashion how means of repositioning the Nigerian economy, give a mandate to your Minister of Finance rather than a Minister for disbursement through a revenue-generation and economic re-growing and development team to restore our lost economic glory and most of all, tell Nigerians and the world your road map and national economic policy drive.

I regret to announce to you that until you categorically set up and state the national economic direction of your government, the Nigerian economy will remain largely stifled and altogether stultified and the economy will not attract both local and foreign investors capable of growing the economy. The times will remain hard and those who have money to invest will be too scared to do so because no one invests in the climate of uncertainty and no sane business Organisation funds an experiment! Enough of body language in the economy, it is time we used action statements and policy directions.

Your Excellency Sir, I overheard your speech in India where you lambasted Nigerians and Nigerian Politicians as corrupt and indiscipline. This is not right on many frontiers. First, when you compare your indicting statements with that of your flowery Indian counterpart who applauded his country as a conducive climate for investment, what you have is a leader who is unwittingly saying ‘Foreign investors, my country is a den of criminals and fraudsters and an unfit haven for your investments, don’t bother coming to my country to invest’. If one’s mum is ugly, it’s not from one’s mouth that one should hear it. It is your job as Nigeria’s face and image maker to portray us in good light in the diaspora and reinforce Investors’ confidence in coming over to our nation to invest in this new atmosphere of stability, peace, incorruptibility and discipline where you as the new Sheriff is at the saddle. Sir, reduce your globe-trotting, traveling everywhere in search of aid is counterproductive- It gives your country away as helpless, unattractive, vulnerable and troubled- that doesn’t seem to me a place serious-minded investors would love to visit. Help only come to those who appear not to need help.

Sir, If we must get our mindset right, you must make sure you feed our mouth set as an empty bag cannot stand upright! Cross check your stringent economic policies and be sure you provide a buffer to give your patients sufficient palliative to sustain them in the mean time whilst you drastically remove their ailments in the long term. Don’t allow Nigerians die whilst you apply medication on them- If you are working for us, make sure we are alive to reap the benefits of your surgical operation. The movement of all of government funds in the coffers of Nigerian commercial banks to a dedicated TSA account managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria will not only deter Investors and SMEs from access to credit in a bid to growing the dying economy, but will lead to a drastic loss of jobs for a lot of Nigerians who work in these banks. Mark my words, more Nigerians will saturate the labour market soon courtesy of this move as massive retrenchment looms in the banking sector. Mr. President, I don’t know who your Advisers are, but just know that by that singular drastic economic misaction, what you have succeeded in doing is to eradicate retail banking in Nigeria!

I wish you well in your wisdom-demanding giant endeavour to rewrite the history of Nigeria.

Please do accept the assurances of my highest regards.

Tosin Ayo.