A Letter to the Late President Muhammadu Buhari — Lauretta Onochie

Dear Baba,

A year has passed since your departure, and for many Nigerians, it has also been a year of deep reflection. 

Death has a way of silencing political arguments and inviting sober assessment. It encourages us to look beyond party loyalties and ask a simple question: How are the people faring now?

Today, many Nigerians describe life as extraordinarily difficult. The rising cost of food, transportation, electricity, healthcare, and other essentials has placed immense pressure on households. Families are stretching every naira. Small and large businesses are shutting down. Young people worry about employment, while pensioners and low-income earners face growing financial strain.

In moments like these, people often look back at previous administrations with fresh eyes. Some Nigerians say they now appreciate your time in office that they may have overlooked while you were President. Others who see only through ethnicity and religion, continue to criticize decisions made during your administration. Such reassessments are common in every democracy, particularly during periods of economic hardship, such as now.

Whatever history's final verdict on your presidency may be, your passing reminds us that every administration is ultimately judged not by speeches or slogans, but by the everyday lives of ordinary citizens.

Leadership is measured by whether parents can feed their children, whether farmers can cultivate their land in safety, whether businesses can grow, whether young people can find meaningful work, and whether citizens can look to the future with hope rather than anxiety.

The challenges confronting Nigeria today are as a result of Tinubu's obsessions to wipe your legacies. Instead of building on the gains and strides you made, he concentrated on dismantling and scrapping the foundations you laid and in so doing, Tinubu made poverty a way of life for most Nigerians. 

Economic reforms may be necessary, but their success is judged by whether they improve the lives of citizens over time and whether those most affected receive meaningful support as you, Your Excellency, provided.

Your administration introduced several programmes aimed at reducing poverty, creating jobs, improving food security, and supporting vulnerable Nigerians. The major initiatives included:

⏹️National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) 

✳️– the umbrella framework for the administration's flagship anti-poverty initiatives. 

⏹️N-Power

Temporary employment and skills acquisition for unemployed graduates and non-graduates.

Included 

✳️N-Teach, 

✳️N-Health, 

✳️N-Agro, 

✳️N-Tech and other categories.

✳️Beneficiaries received training and monthly stipends. 

⏹️Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT)

✳️Direct cash payments to the poorest and ✳️Most vulnerable households.

✳️Intended to improve nutrition, 

✳️School attendance and 

✳️Household welfare. 

⏹️Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP)

✳️Interest-free or low-interest microcredit for ✳️Petty traders, 

✳️artisans, 

✳️farmers and 

✳️market women.

Included:

✳️TraderMoni

✳️MarketMoni

✳️FarmerMoni 

⏹️National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP)

✳️Free daily meals for pupils in public primary schools.

✳️Aimed to improve school enrolment, 

✳️Child nutrition and 

✳️Create markets for local farmers.

⏹️Anchor Borrowers' Programme

✳️Implemented through the Central Bank of Nigeria.

✳️Provided loans and inputs to smallholder farmers linked to agro-processors.

✳️Sought to boost agricultural production and rural incomes. 

⏹️Presidential Fertilizer Initiative

✳️Increased local blending and availability of fertilizer.

✳️Reduced fertilizer prices and supported farmers nationwide. 

⏹️Agricultural Credit and Intervention Schemes

✳️Expansion of financing for rice, maize, cotton, cassava and other value chains through development finance programmes.

✳️Intended to increase food production and employment. 

⏹️Economic Sustainability Plan (2020)

Introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Included:

✳️Solar Naija

✳️Public Works Programme

✳️MSME support

✳️Agricultural expansion

✳️Housing initiatives. 

⏹️Special Public Works Programme

✳️Short-term employment for thousands of youths across Nigeria's local government areas through public infrastructure maintenance. 

⏹️Survival Fund

✳️COVID-19 intervention supporting small businesses.

✳️Included payroll support, artisan grants and ✳️MSME grants to preserve jobs. 

⏹️Youth Entrepreneurship Support Programmes ✳️Through agencies such as the Bank of Industry 

✳️Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria 

✳️Provided financing, training and business support to entrepreneurs. 

⏹️Social Housing Programme (Planned under the Economic Sustainability Plan)

✳️Proposed construction of affordable housing to generate employment while addressing housing deficits. 

⏹️Expansion of the National Social Register

✳️Creation of a database of poor and vulnerable households to improve targeting of social assistance. 

✳️These programmes represented the core poverty-alleviation efforts of your administration. 

✳️Their stated objectives were to 

✳️Reduce extreme poverty, 

✳️Improve access to food and education, ✳️Create employment, 

✳️Strengthen agriculture, 

✳️Expand financial inclusion, 

✳️And provide social protection.  

Dear Baba, although many studies acknowledge that millions of Nigerians benefited directly, President Tinubu killed all the programmes. 

As Nigerians reflect on the past and navigate the present, perhaps the greatest lesson we learned from you, is that no leader should ever lose sight of the human consequences of public policy as President Tinubu is doing today. 

Behind every economic indicator is a family trying to survive, a child hoping to stay in school, a trader trying to keep a business alive, and a worker striving to earn an honest living. These are the realities under Pres. Tinubu.

Under the same President Tinubu, democracy is in comatose. Your APC has been replaced by a cult known as the renewed hope. Governors, Legislators and unwholesome politicians are being forced and coerced to join the cult. That's not all. Vice President HE Kashim Shettima has never acted as President in spite of the fact that President Tinubu is always out of the country. We all saw how you respected the Constitution with regards to your vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

Hundreds of Nigerians are in captivity. Over forty children of Oyo state were in captivity because their Governor, Senior Makinde declared to run for Presidency. The sad situation is that our President did not deemed it fit to sympathise with the good people of Oyo state in the South West. 

The worst, Dear Baba, is that it's now impossible to make a one minute phone call without a glitch. But Nigerians just make excuses for the service providers while the Consumer Protection Agency, goes to sleep. 

Your son, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has been locked away, charged with bailable offences but denied bail for refusing to retire from politics. Our constitution is clear on such issues. He is now a Prisoner of Conscience. Abubakar Malami SAN, his wife and son, were also hounded and locked up for months on trumped up charges for refusing to return to APC. 

But there's hope again. A Teflon opposition party, the African Democratic Congress, is taking the nation by storm. Tinubu's gang has tried everything under the sun to kill the party. But we remain solid and guess what? Your brothers and friends, HE Atiku Abubakar and Rt. Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, are our ADC Spearheads for the 2027 Presidential election.

Your Excellency, history continues to remember the relief you brought to the people of Nigeria when it mattered most, especially during the world economic downturn occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. May we not experience a pandemic under President Tinubu. Amen.

We miss you dearly, Baba. 

May your soul continue to rest in peace, and may Nigeria find the wisdom, unity, and resolve to build a future where every citizen can live with dignity and freedom.

Amen.

Lauretta Onochie

@Laurestar