BY NIGERIAN AUTHOR AMARA CHIDINMA EZEDINIRU

B.U.H.A.R.I.

If I had a minute with President Buhari, I would share these thoughts with him.

Because we thought highly of your intelligence and considered your gentle mien, we trusted your antecedence, the fact that your chattels and your freeholds were a few. Because you had drunk from the tree of power as a young officer, you knew clout and supremacy. You were a general; you are a civilian. You knew the difference for you had been without a uniform longer than you were with it. We feared how you’d fare yet we gave it a try. The Nigerian people spoke, they gave you the mandate, a risk I still wonder its worth.

Understand it sir, you were not the best of us, you still are not. Has history not borne witness to the percipience and kindness of a typical Nigerian? Are we not renowned for being happy, dogged and resilient? We are not in a place; we are all over the world. Wherever we go, we make a loud impact. You know, right? We acknowledge our mistake at the polls, we have flogged ourselves. We forgive our shortsightedness and the sentiments with which we cast our votes. The scales are off; our eyes are clear. Understand it sir, we are wiser, thank you for teaching us to be.

Happiness beckons! The dance our heroes past did on the night of first October, Nineteen-Sixty, a dance of victory and of assured future will return. A peek into tomorrow’s pregnancy reveals a happy child is about to be born. It is called hope. Hope brings rest. It comes with tranquil. It is comforting. Hope and happiness are calling us, you will no longer answer on our behalf, not jokingly neither seriously.

Audacity has been the missing ingredient in our soup, we knew it not. We bore incessant pains; we should not have. Why endure pain except for the joy that it’s about to bring? With you, should we expect anything good? I doubt. Four years came and went, we anticipated. It’s your second missionary journey and it feels this is worse than the former. Shame on us, we were lily-livered men. Alas, not only have we found our audacity, we are strengthening our abilities and awaiting you.

Responsibility, we’ve taken responsibility for we did not know how we got here. We have sworn not to allow such a grave error occur again. Everything will be used, the brains you considered lazy inclusive. Oh! Did you know we are smart? You considered us lazy because your idea of hard work was stealing without caution. We are the digital generation; we believe the world has become one. Computers, telecommunication, gadgets, broadband have united us. Though we are apart, we are stronger than you know. Our hearts are knitted together, a heart out To Build a Nation where peace and justice reigns.

Indubitably, we have realized that our heart is in Nigeria, home is where the heart is. Our home is where you’re currently enthroned. We are poised to rescue our home, to make something meaningful from the ruins of a once prosperous country. We are speaking from far and near and our chant is the same—let there be an end to everything bad. We are indefatigable about this. We are here to watch our desire to fruition.

Conclusively, I would say …

Be brave.

Untangle your thoughts.

Honour our unity.

Actualise the country of our dreams

Reach, respond and resolve, you seem far away

Increase us, improve our nation on every side.

________________

Amara Chidinma Ezediniru is a business administrator, human resource manager and a certified teacher. She is widely traveled, a compassionate Rotarian, an author of three books, and a mother. She is the managing consultant of Rald and Vid Consulting Ltd.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The African‘s editorial policy.