Open Letter to Christiane Amanpour by Olarewaju Olaniyi Precious

I heard you will be having an interview with our President, Mr Goodluck Jonathan tonight, so I had to hurriedly put up this piece to you. Well, I don't know what the agenda or scope of the programme is but the only clue I saw on your twitter handler was your tweet "After Mali and Algeria, can #Nigeria get a grip on its own islamic militant group?"

With this, I know you will be talking about the state of the Nigerian nation, and the progress made so far under Mr Jonathan. I have been sampling my mind and trying hard to guess the other questions you will ask Mr President. One thing is sure, you will not talk about Nigeria without dwelling on some of the fundamental issues such as Agriculture, Power generation, job creation etc that pose huge challenges to us as a people.

I do not doubt your pedigree to ask Mr President salient and genuine questions, but, all I want to tell you is that you must not believe any of his lies. Though, our culture does not permit younger ones to insult elders but, one needs to tell the truth. Our president lies so much and he does that with impunity.

I know you will definitely ask Mr President, what his government is doing to tackle the insurgency in the Northern part of Nigeria. He will lie, he will tell you government is on top of the situation and the Military Joint Task Forces is capable of handling it. He will further tell you that, dozens of leaders of the groups have been arrested and facing prosecution. He will conclude by saying he has absolute faith in the nation's security forces and that no sooner than later, the groups will be flushed out of the country.

When you ask him about Power generation, Mr President will tell you feelers from all over the country have it that power supply have greatly improved. He will tell you most parts of the country now have access to 18-20hours electricity supply per day, it is all a farce, it is one of those lies we contend with as a people. As at this morning Christiane, we are generating just 4600MegaWatts of electricity for over 150million people. So, it is left for you to know the truth yourself.

On corruption, Mr President will tell you he knows corruption is the biggest challenge we face as a nation, he will then assure you that his government is totally and sincerely committed, and doing everything humanly possible to fighting corruption. These are all lies, we the populace that suffer the brunt of corruption know Mr President is not sincere with his war on corruption. On a daily basis, mind-blowing cases of corruption by public office holders are being unravelled, all we hear is committees are being set-up to investigate, after which the cases die a natural death. He will lie today to the whole world that no government in the history of Nigeria is as committed as his in fighting corruption.

Mr President will tell you today, like his government has been telling us, that millions of youths have been employed in the Agricultural sector. Christiane, it is nothing but a figment of imagination of the presidency, the last time on Channels TV, one of the president's media aides told us that 1.5million youths have been employed in the agricultural sector. I am a graduate of Animal Production and Health, over 450 of us graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture in the year 2011, as at today, none of us benefited from the said 1.5million jobs, I interact with atleast 20 people daily and I have not seen anyone who benefited. If 1.5million people were employed in that sector, that represents 1 out of every 10 Nigerians. The question is, who are the beneficiaries of the jobs created. I think they are invisible Christiane.

I know also that the recent attack on the Emir of Kano on his way back from a Quranic recitation competition will likely come up in the course of your interview, Mr President will simply vow right there in front of the whole world that the perpetrators of the dastardly act will be apprehended and and brought to justice. Christiane, this is nothing but another empty vow, it is a lie. This has become the chorus we hear from Mr President anytime such act is perpetuated. Our president has become the "vowing" president.

Christiane, I wouldn't want to take much of your time as I know you will be busy now, I know Mr President will tell you that poverty has been drastically reduced in Nigeria, he will tell you our deplorable roads condition have been significantly improved on, he will tell you security of lives and properties are adequately guaranteed, he will tell you our health-care and educational systems have greatly improved. He will tell you so many lies, your interview tonight will afford him a great opportunity to lie to the whole world like he has been lying together with his cohorts to the people of Nigeria.

Christiane, if per chance Mr President hears about this letter, he will simply lie again and tell you it is the sinister machination of the opposition targeted at smearing his government but, i will conclude by quoting the words of William Bryant "Truth crush to earth shall rise again. No matter how long it takes, falsehood eventually consumes his worshippers.

Best Regards,
Olarewaju Olaniyi
Twitter handler: @olaniyiop