Open Letter To Dr Tai Solarin Were He President Tinubu

Dr Wale Omole a product of Dr Tai Solarin’s famed Mayflower College and writes him proposing what he should do were he president of Nigeria at this time.

Dear Mr President,

ADVICE TO FIX THE PRESENT ECONOMY

The present economic woe in Nigeria is not your making. It is a product of a conspiracy by some people who are affected by your policies. Those, who are protesting don’t know what is happening. All they see and feel are the effects of the conspiracies masterminded by these few haters of good policies. We need to appeal to them to allow  Tai’s (Tinubu) regime succeed for the good of all. This is the only way to keep Nigeria united and prosperous. Political bitterness will cause Nigeria to disintegrate. That may not favour all parties.

I would tell Tai Solarin, that the following steps are highly recommended to you, sir.

1. Start with an intense public awareness and orientation campaign. Let Nigerians know those who are viciously hiking commodity prices to crash your government because they are using the power of monopoly to suffer the masses.

2. Go after all the looters to recover all their loot either inside or outside the country. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) can give you a comprehensive list of the looters. The looters are many of those who participated in government from the time of Abacha to the last political dispensation. But President Tinubu should focus more on those identified looters, who participated in the last three regimes; appeal to them; beg them. Talk to them. Fight them if need be. Negotiate with them to release their remaining loot for the sake of Nigerian youths.

I would tell Tai, that there are trillions of dollars scattered in overseas private bank accounts belonging to Nigerians, some alive; some dead. These monies are mostly not needed by the owners again. Most of the looted funds in Nigeria are forgotten in those foreign bank accounts.

The money represents the future of Nigerian youths, which has been caged or destroyed. Uncle Tai, make moves diplomatically to recover as much as possible those stolen monies stashed in the vaults of foreign banks.

Many of the owners of the looted funds will never get to where these monies are for the rest of their lives.  Some are too old to travel to where they banked in Europe, America and other places in the world. Many of the looters are ill. Many of them can’t even finish spending a tenth of their loot hidden in Nigerian banks before they die, not to talk of the loot stashed abroad.

 Uncle Tai, were you in Uncle Tinubu’s shoes, I would have asked you to tell me when and where do the octogenarians (or close to) spend their accumulated billions of United States dollars.

 Unfortunately, most of them don’t tell their families/children, or give them details of how to access the money before they die. When they die, such money go into waste. They become losses to the owners, loss to Nigeria; but gains to the countries that keep such funds for the looters. The loot supports the foreign economy.

Soon, Nigerian governments go to such countries to borrow the same money that formerly and formally belonged to Nigeria at very exorbitant rates! Then, the government officials loot part of the same again and go to hide in foreign accounts. The vicious cycle continues, while national debts mount, and poverty in the land rises.

To further insult Nigeria, part of the loans are genuinely spent to educate the youths. As soon as they graduate, they japa (checkout) to serve the same foreign lands. What a triple loss to the nation!

3. Do not allow the importation or manufacturing of all essential commodities to be in the hands of a few privileged companies. Give more companies the right to participate so that the nation’s jugular vein may not be controlled by a few unpatriotic people at the slightest and baseless provocation caused by tribal, religious or political hatred.

Uncle Tai, break all monopolies.

4. Stop multiple salaries for a single individual, who was a retired senior civil servant, former commissioner, deputy governor, former Governor, former Minister, former senator, etc earning full salaries and allowances on multiple positions they previously occupied at the expense of hungry Nigerians. Tai, remember pensioners, who are dying daily because of utter neglect. Whereas they diligently served Nigeria in their days.

5. Think of anything that is owned by the government, the country, and all Nigerians to generate national wealth but which are in the hands of a few. I’m talking about our patrimony. Uncle Tai Solarin, retrieve these without delay. You remain fearless. Allow heavens to fall if it must.

6. Let every case concerning looting have two sides to it. First, recover the loot with all it may take. Second,  establish a criminal case to punish the culprit after recovering the loot. Court may free the looter after all. But before anything, recover the loot. In my opinion,  no looter should go with their loot or escape the long arm of the Law. Punishment serves as a deterrence to future and potential looters.

Uncle Tai Solarin the great, were you in President Tinubu’s shoes, I would have told you to:  (i) advise the judiciary against allowing looters to go with their loot on technical grounds and (ii) stop passing ridiculous judgments. A situation where someone was found guilty of embezzling N250 billion and the court asks him to pay N20 million as fine is very ridiculous and should not be acceptable.

7. Tai, let every geopolitical zone generate its own power and water for the citizens. Every state or geopolitical zone must have their own Police force to cater effectively for security.

8.  Tai, reverse many of the sale of government properties that were sold to individuals during the Obasanjo regime. The whole exercise was, to say the least, official looting of our common patrimony.

9. Allow those who have the means to bring in products from overseas.  Open the borders. Reduce by 300% duties paid on imports. When you know that an imported product sells at a profit for N2,000, peg the price of that product to N2,000 in the country. The local manufacturer will be forced to sell at the same N2,000 price.

10. Remember the magnitude of power at your disposal. The government has total power.  Utilize it. The government owns all the land in the federation. Remember, the government can site a national project anywhere. Government has power over all its citizens. No person is bigger than the government. No bank is bigger than the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The

CBN can take over all banks.

11. Fix forex to determine official rates. For example, peg a dollar  to  N700. Send Task Forces to open bank vaults of dollar hoarders to help sell to the customers at the official rates once buyers have genuine reasons to need dollar. Government must set a maximum amount of forex that can be in the hands of individuals, banks and companies. Confiscate excess found. Encourage whistleblowers to notify the taskforce where forex and commodities are hoarded.

UNCLE TAI, LIVE; DIE NO MORE.                                                             

Dr Wale Omole, a medical doctor, hospital proprietor and former student of Mayflower School in Ikenne , Ogun State, founded by the famous educationist and social critic, the late Dr Tai solarin.

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