An Open Letter To The New President Of Nigeria by SUNNY ACHE

Over the years, I have conducted a tremendous amount of research on how to achieve a solid, peaceful solution to the issue of the embarrassing and frightening violent crimes of armed robbery, kidnapping, drug trafficking and fraud which are on the rise in Nigeria. My focus has been to drastically minimize the number of such crimes, trying to reach the United Kingdom’s record low levels, by attacking the root cause, which as we all know is widespread poverty.

I have deeply investigated the poverty control programmes of the United Kingdom as well as those of the United States to determine how they are funded and allocated accordingly to social service departments [for payments of weekly allowances to the unemployed], the councils [for provision of basic homes to the destitute], and healthcare departments to provide every born and naturalized citizen access free medical care.

I have conducted my research with enthusiasm, bearing in mind the system of governance and our mind-set in Nigeria while compiling a lengthy but feasible proposal for the new Nigerian government to create national employment and healthcare insurance. The result will enable us give out financial assistance and food stamps to the unemployed and disabled while setting up and replenishing food banks throughout Nigeria.

This social security contributory system would make us independent of Nigeria’s federal revenues so long as it is federal law that [as done in Western nations, where 25% in the UK and 35% in the US of all sought gross earnings go to the government for such programmes.] Every single employee, employer, and business owner in Nigeria earning above minimum wage must commence making a lifetime monthly contribution of 5% of their net earnings to the government. Failure to pay, delays in payments, or avoidance of payment of this social service contribution would normally result in penalty. The goal is to ensure the spreading of wealth and provision of free medical care to all while preventing crime; so there’s no excuse.

Half of the funds collected from the working public would be allocated to an integral part of any Nigeria government department or a new non-departmental public body of the Nigeria’s Ministry of Health [as practiced in the UK in particular] to successfully provide free upper-class medical care to every single Nigerian citizen, whether born or naturalised, who are not subject to immigration control. The other half of the funds would pass through the Ministry of Labour and Productivity to facilitate social service departments’ payments of monthly allowances to the unemployed above the age of 17, housing for the homeless above the age of 25, and replenishments to food banks to enable lifetime relief from poverty - which is and has always been the backbone of crimes that make us feel insecure and turn efforts to bring in affluent foreign investors into an uphill battle.

Not only would this new system elevate the image of Nigeria with the highest respect globally, but it would also eliminate the resentment Nigerians continue to nurse against politicians, thereby preventing many of our citizens from causing international embarrassment due to their involvement in international transgression. Indeed, it would become evident that they stand to lose a lot in Nigeria if caught and imprisoned abroad. Such a programme would also help reduce the brain drain we suffer as a result of losing our highly educated, intelligent and talented citizens, who are relocating to other nations as economic migrants.

I feel strongly about dedicating myself to making this constitutional contribution towards the welfare system of Nigeria, my beloved motherland.