Mr President, make Nigeria sweet again!

I was in my late twenties when I left Nigeria for America. In that season of life, one US dollar sold for 19 Naira. My salary as a reporter with the PUNCH Newspapers was N400 per month. Out of the sum, my mom got a monthly stipend of N50, my fiancée N30, and there was still enough left for me to fool around with the Kegites Club every Friday and binge on fresh palm wine. With N10, I could eat plenty and be satisfied at Fola Votu Restaurant adjacent to the NIJ building in Ogba. My older brother drove a used Volkswagen Beetle car he bought a few years prior for N1,100. The rent for his 3-bedroom flat in Ikeja, where I was a roommate for free, was N200 per month, that is 2,400 per year. Life in Nigeria was sweet, and I can go on and on, pitching to readers the yawning difference between that time of life and now.

Compared to the prevalently hectic times Nigerians live these days, life in the giant of Africa was like living in Paradise over 13,000 days ago when I hopped on the British Airways flight to New York. But over these many years, our nation has slithered into Gehenna. Today, if you give beggars N500 as alms, they’ll rain curses on you. The reminiscence that roars in my spirit over the good times is why I make this personal, passionate appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. There are millions of Nigerians living abroad who love to come back home. Whatever you can do as you sit on the throne today, please, Mr. President, MAKE NIGERIA SWEET AGAIN. May God help you get it done.

It is true that we can see hardship written on the faces of both old and young in our nation, but I will not join a bastion of people who shovel all of Nigeria’s ailments and afflictions at the feet of Tinubu. The cumulative effect of our collective ignorance as a people is the chicken that has now come home to roost. That is why Nigerians are seeking succour in other climes. People fled their homes and headed out to strange places because of our leaders’ misplaced priorities. They chose to risk dying on high seas pursuing dreams that frequently fade in the torturous torrent of the Atlantic Ocean because their dreams perished before their eyes at home. They did reckless things to desperately escape a nation where only the viciously wicked seemed to have the upper hand.

Why do Nigerians choose to dump their birthplace for unfamiliar territories? If your poisoned and disabling environment remains a breeding ground for kidnapping, corruption, and all manner of evil acts, men will flee. If your birth environment is disabling and not enabling, and the treasure inside of you is sliding into a coma as you juggle between life and death; a wise man will flee at the slimmest opportunity and leave home for a place unknown. If slave masters keep demanding eternal sacrifice from the same people who have been repressed over many years, while the slave masters remain gods, audaciously consuming the commonwealth, men will flee. If leaders live big and people die daily in no small numbers because of hunger, men will flee. When slave masters force the people to build bricks with bare hands and without straws, men will flee because they know not yet that they have the strength to confront wickedness and evil. Human beings by nature will not willingly surrender to oppression and repression; it is why they flee at the slimmest opportunity.

Whatever is going on in Nigeria today has its foundation in very many years of evil men with power who sold their souls to the devil. The ugly trend, I believe, can change only if men and women in power change their ways. That is why I am appealing to Mr. President; for millions of Nigerians who are scattered abroad, who will love to come back home; and for millions more who are trapped in big cities and villages in Nigeria with no hope of escape; Please, MAKE NIGERIA SWEET AGAIN!

For far too long, Mr. President, the Nigerian people have been taken advantage of by men and women in power. Before our eyes, our beloved country has flipped into a graded gridiron of greed freaks goaded by garrotting gougers and gory goons, who use the purlieu of power to kill, steal, and destroy. Mr. President, how do you rank a country where a senator earns N25m per month and a university professor takes home between N500k and N1m in the same period? Why must people who assemble only a few hours a week discussing nothing earn more than many Nigerians who lay it all out on the battlefield of daily struggles to keep their heads above water? Why must the salaries of workers be delayed for months while politicians are paid promptly for doing Nigerians no scintilla of good? This is a sickening picture! The terrorising fingers of toxic people in power have created widespread chaos and cataclysm. They are like black holes that suck out our collective positive energy. If corruption among government folks continues to have nine lives, if wastages and leakages thrive with reckless abandon in government, Nigeria will still be sitting and situated on landmines of poverty and hunger. Mr President, only you can help chart that course and lead us to MAKING NIGERIA SWEET AGAIN!

Many Nigerians I know who live in the US and who crave to return home are doing remarkably and excellently great for themselves and their families. Many are professionals and astute businessmen who have made a mark for themselves in their various endeavors. They don’t need government contracts, they don’t salivate after dirty gold and silver, they have enough that will last them a long time, even if they live a hundred years more. There is always something about home that you can never find even outside of a conducive home abroad. There is a gnaw, a pull, a push about home that triggers an indescribable sweet sensation. It’s only at home that you find familiar faces that bring back sweet memories into your bones. It’s only at home that stories and events are brought into remembrance, bringing laughter and joy to a weary soul. There’s just something different about home. When all is said and done, home is the best place to be. Mr President, we know that leadership, especially in an intricate and complex flummox called Nigeria, is very tough. But by every means necessary, please, MAKE NIGERIA SWEET AGAIN. May God help you get it done.

• X-@Folaojotweet