Mayday Call is meant to alert and warn against an impending danger, it is a distress call often put out by the Pilot of an Aircraft or the Captain of a Ship. It is a call for help, for salvage, for support, for solution, and for rescue if you like. It defines the urgency of the moment and has no place for jokers and sycophants.

Nigeria is in trouble, our Country is in trouble, troubled on all sides. Troubled chiefly by leadership, or should I say the absence of it. Troubled by followership, a followership sickly and sickeningly divided down ethnic, religious and regional lines. Troubled by Technocrats and Big Businesses, yes they care more about the egocentric and individualistic windfalls that reckless governmental policies throw at them. And the trouble appears to be in our stars, or should I say in our senseless addiction to this dysfunctional superstructure. May I quickly say that until this dysfunctional enterprise is restructured, this Mayday Call will remain rife.

May I outline a few disheartening situations demanding urgent surgical attention. I shall do so like a Philosopher warning against the ‘ides of march’. I shall prophesy not as a Religious Prophet but as one conscious of the times and the season. And I shall prognosticate haply they shall listen.

ON THE FORTHCOMING EDO STATE OFF-SEASON GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION.

I remember the historical events that predated January 15th, 1966. I also remember the events that preceded 31st December, 1983. Tragically the electoral larceny and crises that preceded the Coups staged on the 15th of January, 1966 and the 31st of December, 1983 were forewarned but sycophants, jesters and jokers laughed it off.

This Mayday Call is targeted at the Presidency, Mr President must call the Inspector General of Police and his men to order. He must commit the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to free, fair and transparent off-season elections. He must call the Security Agencies to be neutral and to protect the electorate and the electoral process without prejudice to any Political Party. And he must alter the present impression that his Party is set to rig the Edo Gubernatorial Elections.

We have seen the arrest of several persons who do not belong to the President’s Party. We have seen the quality of the campaign preceding the September 21, 2024 Edo State Governorship election, we feel the pause, we see the odds, and the projections are evident. Mr President must hasten to ensure that Edo State does not become the Achilles’ heel of our democracy. I’m a concerned Nigerian with scars of the battles for democracy and democratic freedoms on my body, and I cannot but warn against the threat that rigging the Edo State Gubernatorial Elections pose to our democracy.

Mayday! Mayday! Mr President please ensure that the Edo State Governorship Election is free, fair, credible and transparently so, it will mitigate and by Jove avert the looming danger.

STATE HARASSMENT OF CRITICS, VOICES OF DISSENT, PROTESTERS, LABOUR LEADERS AND LEADERS OF THE OPPOSITION.

The new fad of the Security Agencies is a predilection to tendencies that define despotism and dictatorship. The attempt to stifle the freedoms enshrined in Chapter 4 of the 1999 Constitution will do your administration the greatest disservice Mr President. From Arresting Protesters to charging them for Treason and Treasonable Felony. From declaring People like Comrade Lucky Obinyan wanted for Treason and Treasonable Felony reminiscent of the events that preceded January 1966 to the arrest of Comrade Joe Ajaero by the DSS even after he had seen the Police on the same allegation a week or two earlier. From charging Protesters across the Country for various offences to invading the SERAP office in Abuja. From keeping PIDOM Nigeria in detention (now in Kuje Prisons) for whistle blowing against corruption in your government to arresting my brother and friend Omoyele Sowore on his return to the Country a few hours ago, no matter how briefly he was detained. From heating up the polity and gradually turning the Country into a Police State, Mr President your Minders are getting it all wrong, they cannot threaten the people to silence. We are not a nation of cowards.

Mayday! Mayday! Mr President as the Commander-In-Chief direct the Security Agencies to deal with insurgency, insecurity, kidnap for ransom, banditry et al, and ask them to improve on the safety of lives and property, for such is the primary responsibility of government.

Attend to the welfare and the wellbeing of the masses and rejig your economic policies, that way the safety of your government and our democracy is not shortchanged.

POWER TARRIF, ENERGY COST/FUEL PRICE HIKE, INFLATION, GROWING POVERTY, PAIN AND ANGER.

The floating of the Naira and the hasty and unresearched ‘removal’ of fuel subsidy has dealt monstrous harm to the economy. It has increased poverty and hunger, and following the fall outs of it, do not please mind the sycophants who assure you that it will soon get better. It won’t, so long as the Naira is on a freefall and engaged in the present jingle over. It won’t, so long as Big Businesses who tend towards Monopoly run the Energy and Power Sector. It won’t, for as long as our Refineries are Comatose and the NNPC LTD is run like a Thieving Enterprise. It won’t, as long as you continue to run a government that doesn’t punish incompetence and corruption.

The hunger and poverty in the land will continue until there is a deliberate commitment to rejig governmental policies. The call of the IMF, the World Bank and the Bretton Woods Institutions for subsidy removal must be researched and subjected to very critical forensics like India, Rwanda, Botswana, South Africa and a few others have done. No nation that wants growth and success takes Energy and Power beyond the reach of the common man, doing so will kill industry, destroy businesses and plunge the nation into the abyss of hunger, poverty and anger.

Mayday! Mayday! Do something quickly about the cost of doing business, about energy, power, inflation, and about hunger and poverty, before it bludgeons into unmitigated criminality. Don’t forget, Mr President the Society prepares the crime, the Criminal commits it.

ETHNIC, REGIONAL AND RELIGIOUS BAYING AND BAITING.

It is more worrisome when Spokespersons of Government and top Government Operators dish and deal on matters that deepen our fault lines. This government has failed to advance the things that unite, more than any Government since 1999 Mr President yours have divided Nigeria and Nigerians the most. You have deepened the dichotomies of creed and clan. You have deepened the divides of religion and region. And you have broadened the North/South chasm to threatening dimensions, I worry for Nigeria.

Mayday! Mayday! Mr President you must stop being the Divider-in-chief and become the Unifier-in-chief. You must begin quickly to restore faith in the Green White Green. And you must reassure Nigerians through a far-reaching and fair restructuring protocol that Project Nigeria is worthy, and that you are committed to protecting and defending democracy.

I shall return to more issues in the sequel to this effort, in the present please read, digest, share and push the important issues here raised. It is Mayday Countrymen and women, our Country is in trouble, so much trouble, thinkers and fixers are needed urgently.

I believe in Nigeria, I still do, for over my head I see greatness in the Air.

I’m CHUKWUDUMEBI.

Prof Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr.
Convener COUNTRYFIRST MOVEMENT. A Good Governance Advocacy Group.

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