Dear General,
My name is Frederick Olatunde Awote,
former Personal Assistant to Alhaji L K
Jakande, one of the finest, reliable and
credible politicians in Nigeria. I am
currently based in the UK. I am going to
be simple and straight forward in my
writing but the letter is going to be long.
If you have no time to read through, your
Vice, Prof Osinbajo should be able to do
so. I am one of your adamant supporters
not only now but for a long time. The
masses are supporting you not because
you are in APC but because of your
credibility. Sir, we are not begging you
to be President but it is your choice. We
have always had reluctant president.
Shagari was persuaded to be one,
Obasanjo was asked to be one after
leaving prison, Yar’Adua was recruited
by Obasanjo, Jonathan was brought in
to protect the loots of the past leaders.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Azikuwe,
Chief M K O Abiola prepared to be
President but the enemies of our nation
denied them. It is not too late now to tell
Nigerians if you are not prepared. We
only want prepared president now
because of our enormous problems.
I am writing you to remind you of the
gigantic problems of Nigeria which you
have promised to tackle. It is under
estimation to say that ours is a
hazardous nation. As you are aware, an
average Nigerian knows the problems
facing the nation, even most people can
analyse and provide solutions. The
problems facing the nation today are
many than when you were Military Head
of State. I remembered I have just
completed my Masters degree and
returned to Nigeria from the UK when
you took over power in 1983. The
problems then were child play to the one
today. There is no area that is not sick
presently, from education, health,
agriculture, custom and excise,
immigration, commerce, roads, police,
security, army, export, petroleum,
mining, politics, judiciary, prison,
aviation, religion, even driving on our
roads. Our nation is at the point of
collapse. As I touch on some of these
problems, I will suggest the way forward
or if you like solutions. The only thing
that is triumphing today is corruption.
There is one thing that we have though,
God given abundant resources. Our
nation is blessed; for example, just
throw a seed of pawpaw, mango in the
near bush, before you know it they have
germinated. Our bitumen in Ondo State
has not been touched, gold and coal has
been neglected. We have the natural
resources, land and human population.
The problems we are having today are
not only leadership problem but bad
followers. Our society is rotten.
Nigerians have ethical problem despite
our devotion to religions. What you need
to do on this is to declare ethical
revolution, similar to your War against
Indiscipline. When we were in Primary
School, we were taught Civic as a
subject, where we learnt about what a
good citizens should do. This was
stopped and nothing replaced it. What
we worship today is money. You must
carry Nigerians along and let them
know why we all need new orientation
and direction. Our image as a nation
has been damaged and dented all over
the world. Part of the ethical revolution
must be for people to be contented with
what they have. We must stop
worshipping money. The Home training
must be at the centre. Majority of young
people today did not see Nigeria when
things work and were not aware of your
achievements when in charge as
Military Head of State. Nigeria needs
new direction. You must engage
Nigerians in governance. You need to
know sir that Nigerians are very
intelligent, hard working, and can
compete anywhere in the world but our
orientation and eager to acquire wealth
at all costs are second to none. Our past
and present leaders are aware of our
problems; most of them have the ability
to provide solutions but lack will and
determination due to intention to enrich
themselves. What we know of you is
that you have the will and determination
to deal with these problems. That is
why we are supporting you.
Mr General Sir, the next the biggest
enemy of our development is corruption.
This is one of the reasons that we are
supporting you. We are aware of your
credible track records on corruption,
which is rare to get from most past
leaders. Corruption in our land is what
we notice everywhere, at the airports,
ministries, hospitals, courts, schools,
military establishments, police stations,
road blocks, local councils and even in
homes. It is what we complained about
daily, condemned, detested, but it is
what we live with everyday. It has
entered into our bone marrows. The
young people think it is a way of life.
The leaders induce people to get to
power in preparation for looting the
treasuries. Parents assist their children
to cheat in examinations and bribe
lecturers to pass their children.
Politicians rig elections and bribe
electorates with rice and beans.
Corruption is what we talk about daily
but is what we live to tolerate and pass
on to our children. It is what we
complained about but practice as soon
as we have the opportunity. How can
you describe a leader that stole 200
billion dollars? What does he need that
huge money for? Stealing is very
convenient for political office holders
because they were helped by the people.
We live with corruption and dine with
corruption. We noticed the impact and
incidence of corruption and know the
negative aspect of it on our nation but
do it positively. We don’t only tolerate it,
we hail it, see our leaders who stole and
took the stolen money to Western world.
We see the looters displaying their loots,
buy properties, latest brand of cars, jets
yet we are helpless. What will you call
the allocation of our oil blocks to
individuals? What will you call the
allocation of billions of Naira as security
votes to the President and Governors
without checks and balances? Why the
huge allocation of money and resources
to legislators for infrastructural
development? What is their business in
that area? Corruption has made our best
talents and best hands left for greener
pastures, developing other nations.
When we are not part of the government
we complain of corruption but once we
are there, we celebrate ad entertain it.
What will you call a leader that builds
billion Naira of private library, built the
best university while in office? What of
those that uses their position to acquire
houses, lands, in Abuja, Lagos,
Portharcourt, Kaduna and other prime
places? What do you call a leader who
allocated oil wells to her wife’s hair
dresser and tailor now the richest
woman in the world? How about thugs
being celebrated, allocated oil blocks
and put in charge of security? Do you
not think something is wrong with us as
individuals, states and nation?
Corruption is a cancer that has taken
over our nation.

If we want development we must fight
and conquer corruption. We must vote
for a leader that is free from the illness
of corruption. We must set aside our
affiliations with political parties, our
promotion of ethnicities, religion and
selfishness and go for a man of
integrity. You have been seen to be
corruption free and as of today you are
the only presidential candidate who can
walk tall and talk to us on how to cure
corruption cancer.
Nigerians must be part of the solution to
reduce corruption, you will fail if you
think you can do it on your own. We
must all be determined to tackle
hazards of corruption. Each Nigerian
must be declared as CORRUPTION
ALERT AGENT. There must be
corruption alert boxes in all major
ministries, offices, airports, police
stations and public places. There must
be a civil ministry on corruption. We
must do it differently. We cannot entrust
it to the Police or corruption agents as
presently constituted. Nigerians must
take over. No one should be spare. The
rule of law must prevail. When I was
small I remember, we have what we
called civil arrest. I remember one of my
late cousins told a man that he was
under civil arrest and led him to the
Police station. In the UK today, Police
rely much on information to arrest
criminals. Individuals are protected
particularly the old people that are the
best informants. We must be re-
orientated to know how to report
crimes. General, you must establish
Crime Stoppers as voluntary
organisations to handle corruptions.
Crime Stoppers must be in every Local
Government, States and Federal
Territory as voluntary agents under
National Crime Stoppers. It must not be
business as usual but seriously
executed.
In order to develop information
gathering and involve Nigerians, the
General must change the attitude of
Politicians, civil servants and
presidency on their attitudes to
Nigerians when they write to complain
about services. Letters must be replied
with follow up steps. It is common
practice for people in authorities to
ignore letters, complaints and concerns.
The public must be made supreme
during your tenure. Civil Servants must
know that they are working for the
people. No politician can steal without
the help of Civil Servants, they are the
one who knows the loopholes. The irony
of it is that no one talk about the
contribution of Civil Servants to looting
of Treasuries. The General must start
from the presidency by replying to
letters and enquiries. I wrote to Clinton,
Tonny Blaire, Gordon Brown and they all
replied me signed personally. People in
authorities don’t reply letters in Nigeria.
The moment they occupy any position,
they think others are fools. It is common
practice for Personal Assistants and
Sectretaries to dump letters in dust bins
or claim public ideas as theirs and use it
to impress the boss. I believe this was
what happened to the three letters that I
wrote to Bola Tinubu, whom I think will
not ignore them.
You must be ready to develop social
economy through voluntary
organisations. This will involve
Nigerians to take part in running the
affairs of the nation. Volunteers must be
encouraged in all areas of our nation,
from health, education, housing, road
constructions to policing. Development
of social economy will create jobs and
public participation. Shifting of
importance of oil to agriculture will
boost our economy and provide jobs.
Housing is one of the neglected areas
today that I know can create millions of
jobs. I worked with L K Jakande and
worked in Social Housing in the UK for
many years, I know that it is a spin-off
area for jobs. Why must we suffer in the
land of the plenty? We can dominate the
world in agriculture if pursue honestly
and with will to do it.
The General must set targets for
himself, ministries, governors and
council chairmen. He must have one to
one with his Ministers and even
Governors. Targets must be reviewed
periodically. Chief Awolowo set targets
for the UPN Governors and that was one
of the reasons why they performed well
in their states. Free education was
declared the first day in Government. I
am sure you can still remember how L K
Jakande performed even when critics
think it cannot be possible. You must be
ready to make best use of available
resources. You must not rely only on
party members or supporters. You must
go for the best brains and those who
have the will to perform. We have them
in abundant. There must put a stop to
recycling leaders. These people killed
the previous regimes and they are ready
to continue. You must beware of praise
singers and those who always go for
any Government in power.
One thing you must do the first day is to
announce the cutting of unnecessary
budget in Aso Rock. How can you justify
allocation of N545 millions for foods
and 2 billion for security votes where
millions of people are sleeping under the
bridge? How can you justify spending
N29 million on each Senator per month
in a land where minimum wage is
N18,000.00 per month? From the Local
Government to State Assemblies it must
be part-time and voluntary. It must be
made less attractive for thieves. I
started as a councillor in Mushin Local
Government and our salary was
N600.00 per month. Why must we
continue with a system that encourage
looting of treasuries? Today you need
billions to contest for Senatorial
position not to talk of Presidency and
governorship. It is abnormal. One thing
that Babangida, as evil as he later
turned to be, done was to shift power to
the Political Parties and render money
bags useless, promoting equal
members.
Sir, the success of your Government will
start on the first day and direction of you
Government will be known in the first
six months. If I were you sir, I will
declare state of emergency on
corruption on my first day. I will
announce establishment of Social
Security and start with un-employment
benefits for Graduates without jobs. I
will launch National Lottery from which
I will temporarily fund the Graduate un-
employment payment. Within six
months Sir, you should ensure changes
in supply and distribution of our
electricity. I am sure that you are aware
that we are one of the biggest nations
without national carrier. Our Nigeria
Airways was killed by corruption. It is a
national disgrace. We have no doubt
that you will start of with the
establishment of a serious team to
rejuvenate our refineries. We are the
only large oil producing nation that
imports refine oil products. It is more
that shameful. This became the practice
because of corruption. We know that
you can do it as you did it before. You
must also declare free and compulsory
education from primary to secondary
schools and establish more technical
colleges. Our education system is
almost down and it must be rescued
fast. You must quickly set up a team to
review the fat pensions and allowance
for past Governors, Head of State and
Presidents. What we are hearing that
they are receiving is enormously high in
a developing nation like ours. Same
thing should happen to the allowances
and payments to legislators. We cannot
continue to pay legislators N29 million
per month, it is not viable in a nation
where the citizens are in abject poverty.
The Youth Service must be reviewed
and made compulsory. Civic and ethics
duties must be emphasised. Voluntary
and community duties must be made
compulsory. I can’t count how many
times that I came out of my car during
my service year to assist traffic
wardens. Voluntary Services must be re-
introduced on our roads. During Prof
Wole Shoyinka era, there were voluntary
marshals. I remembered I arrested
drivers on Ibadan/ Lagos express roads.
Volunteers cannot be bribed. You must
prune the power of Civil Servants in a
way that they are answerable to the
public. A form of loans can be provided
for those who want to go to
Universities. People must be helped to
start their own businesses by creating
Business Trust Organisations.
Sir, there is one more thing that is
bothering me in this country. Politicians
and the so call leaders playing the card
of tribalism, brainwashing people that
Presidency is turn by turn. It has never
been pronounced as it was presently.
The people of Niger Delta claiming it is
their right despite the failure of their
son-Jonathan in government. The so
called Arewa leaders claiming it is their
turn to have the president. I quickly
wrote to condemn them, or any group
playing the card of region or ethnicity or
religion to deceive the people. I said it is
the turn of General Buhari because of his
ability and credibility and he belongs to
all regions and Nigerians not to the
Northern oligarchy or power block. Now
I want to talk about this turn by turn
notion of the North. What development
have these people brought to the North
to justify how many years they have
been in charge of the nation? These
people amassed wealth for themselves,
families and friends, keeping the
masses perpetually poor. Majority of
them provides food for the poor masses
every Fridays but never assisted them to
be economically free. The leaders that
we need in the North are credible ones,
not the one like Jerry Gana that has
been part of the ruling team for the last
30 years without bringing development
home. It is any Government in power
since the day of MAMSER. You must
create enabling environment that will
allow Nigerians to live, play politics and
represent the community where they
live. This was what they did to deny
Chief Obafemi Awolowo the opportunity
to lead this nation even though they
knew he was pragmatic and determined
to lead the nation to the Promised Land.
Never again should this happen to our
serious and determined people.
I have no doubt that once, you face all
these problems, drastically reduce
corruption, give new positive direction to
us, basic things provided, such as
enviable education, first class health
system, availability of jobs, training,
excellent transportation, genuinely low
income housing, there will be less urge
to live in primitive ways of accumulating
wealth for the ‘rainy days’
Sir, I want to tell you that the eyes of the
whole world are and will continue to be
on you. At the moment you are
surrounded with thieves and some of the
people that are promoting corruption.
More will be queuing to join you. Some
of them fled from PDP and some are in
APC. We know them. How are you going
to deal with them? Sir, in 1984 I wrote
to you when Politicians were being tried
for corruption practices. I said you
should not jail them but bargain with
them on how much they have looted. I
said if for example one person stole N50
million and that amount was a lot in
those days, let him forfeited half of the
money to the Government, then allow
him to invest the balance in his local
government with some checks and
balances in place to monitor them. But
things are not the same today that
cannot be possible in a democratic
environment. Today what I will say is to
first allow self confess and what they
can voluntary return to the people for
development. Sir, the money these
people has siphoned abroad can pay off
our International debt. Anyone not co-
operating then can face the music.
Throwing them to jail will not yield
much result. Sir avoids these public
rogues, do not give them any
appointment, only appoint non-
controversial people and those who are
free from epidemic of corruption.
Beware of those who will recommend
their agents and stooges for
appointment. The likes of Fanikayode,
Okupe and Abatti can only create more
problems for your government. There are
thousands of Nigeria over there like
Dapo Rotifa, Bello Isiaka, Abebayo
Adeneye-Adejuwon, Susan Henshaw,
Ayo Turton, Keyamo, Abubakar Alkali
and even my very self that loves this
nation, not thinking of how to steal but
how to make things work once again for
our nation.
Above all, we as Nigerians need to join
hands with General Buhari in these
enormous tasks ahead of us. The
journey cannot be easy because things
are in critical position. We must join
hands to lift our nation up and
command world respect. We can lead
the world. To those who are bringing in
irrelevant things like certificates,
religion, ethnicity, age, stop it Nigerians
are ready for Buhari leadership. Also
those who are promoting Buhari should
stop promoting him as Hausa man,
Fulani, Northerner, Muslim but as
Nigeria candidate and corruption free
man for the position of Nigeria
President. The campaign train has
shown that Nigerian love transparency
and credible person. The reception and
crowd has shown that Buhari is a man
of people. Although he is not a poor man
but he has no money to bribe the
electorates but relying on his credibility.
As Military man, a General for that
matter he will tackle the Nation security
problem. Buhari is the man, come all
out to vote for the man of the moment,
vote General Mohammadu Buhari.
Yours sincerely
Frederick Olatunde Awote

ThankGod you know very well that their was problem when he was the head of state and their was problem before he came in and their was still problem when he left,so for these donkey years there was problem in the nation without any profitable solution,how then do you expect GEJ to solve all these problems in less than 10yrs,the president is trying his best to fix this country but we choose to castigate him not knowing that we are just being enemy of ourselves and our country.

Let's join hands with GEJ to build a greater Nation

How do you expect Buhari that does not know the name of his party and the full meaning INEC (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihjOEqvqegc) to solve the problems you have mentioned.
GEJ is not a magician to solve all these problems in a flash of second. Lets give him time to transform this nation.
GEJ is the man.
GEJ till 2019