Open Letter by Eze Andrew Oforma to the Executive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the Need to Ensure Social Security of all Nigerians

Letter from Andrew Oforma Eze to the Executive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the Need to Ensure Social Security of all Nigerians

Dear Mr. President I have nothing worthy more than this to place before you as the Head of State, the Chief Executive of the Federation and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But I deemed it necessary to offer you this little piece of advice on the need for the protection of social security of Nigerians.
Your Excellency, please see this book in the same way I thought about it despite its shortcomings. I know that it is too little to be placed before you. Mr. President, apart from it, I have nothing more worthy to offer you now. I know that your fellow associates like politicians may offer you more valuable items and advice more than my own. They can purchase expressions of interest and nomination form for you and also mobilize for you millions of electorates to vote for you. Business tycoons may offer you billions of naira as support for your electioneering campaign. The lobbyists may apply lobbying techniques to make people see, believe and do what they ordinarily will not do under normal circumstance. The propagandists may promise you that no matter how little you have performed that they must make them high. The armed forces and other paramilitary agencies may offer you the best armed security in the world. The clergies may offer you the best spiritual protection via their incessant prayer for you. But what can I offer you Mr. President as a concerned citizen. As a concerned one, I have nothing tangible to offer you that may be comparable to the above items and services your association may offer you. But I am not disturbed or intimidated by that since there is a saying that idea rules the world. I Eze, Andrew Oforma offers advice to you Mr. President on the need for an effective security of social security in Nigeria.
It is a well known fact that a rational being does not offer advice to a person that lacks political and moral will to utilize the idea. Mr. President, it is based on this notion that I am writing this letter to you because I vehemently believe that you have both the moral and political will to utilize and maximize this advice. I also know your determination and eagerness to transform Nigeria from a Third World state to a First World state.Mr. President, there is nothing wrong with Nigeria as an entity. There is nothing wrong with its atmosphere, hydrosphere, and landmass including her inhabitants (Nigerians) biologically speaking. That Nigeria has been rated so high by the global anti-corruption agency; Transparency International (TI) annually in the Corruption Perceptions Index does not mean that Nigerians are corrupt by nature, but because of the situation they find themselves. There is a saying that a system is bad not because it produces bad leaders but because the system itself is bad. What is wrong with Nigeria is its political system. Political system here covers other sectors like culture, economy, religion and so forth.
Mr. President, the question of social insecurity in Nigeria has become a child of necessity to address. Social security is the primary need of man which should not be compromised. This is because social insecurity has disastrous consequences and negative stimulant power to devour any society. Nigerians are socially vulnerable to these. Social security of the citizens is the primary responsibility of any government. Mr. President, I personally do not know why Nigerians are socially insecured. Does it mean that the government of Nigeria has failed in its primary responsibility? The answer is “YES” government has failed.
For instance, Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) guaranteed the primacy of the social security of all Nigerians. The chapter enunciated the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. Section 14; subsection 1, of the constitution states that “the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be a state based on the principle of democracy and social justice.” Subsection 2 (b) states that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.’’ Section 16; subsection 1 (b), further states that the state shall “control the national economy in such manner to secure the maximum welfare, freedom, and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity.”
Mr. President, you can see that there is nothing wrong with Nigerian constitution on the issue of securing and protecting the social wellbeing of Nigerians. This shows that it is one thing to have a constitution and another thing is to implement its provisions (constitutionalism). Nigeria has constitution without constitutionalism.  All problems lay on the government. Mr. President, as a matter of urgency please considers the social security of all Nigerians as they are enshrined in the foregoing chapter of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).Mr. President, you have to take cue from President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States of America in his New Deal Plan which introduced new economic and social policies in the states to save Americans during the Great Depression of the 1930s regardless of the oppositions then who accused him of trying to introduce socialism in the state. Today, history has honoured him for his eminent contribution in making America what it is today. Successive and present administrations in the state have also sustained the policy, because it is rational and human. America has understood that state and its machinery (government) do not exist for their own sake, but to serve humanity.
Mr. President, do what you can to save Nigeria from imminent danger that is looming due to insecurity of social security systems. The level of poverty and unemployment in Nigeria is increasing at an alarming rate.
Mr. President, some miscreants and disgruntled Nigerian politicians have made Nigerian leadership ineffectual. Our leaders are myopic because they are unable to see the level of hardship in Nigeria, apart from unreliable figures by the international bodies which may show some rate of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, etc. These philistine politicians will always order the prompt removal of all destitute, infirm, and beggars, rehabilitation of roads and closure of markets if the president or governor or other important government personalities are coming to the area. Under this situation how can they see the actual or real conditions of the people they are governing? That is why Nigerian leaders are myopic.
Mr. President, Nigerian government as a matter of urgency has to declare a national emergency on social insecurity in Nigeria in order to curtail the act. It is social insecurity that degenerates into other societal ills if not tackled. The state has to protect the social wellbeing of its citizens. It is not laziness or dependence syndrome on the part of citizens. It is the primary responsibility of the state. Mr. President, it is only through that that the citizens on the other hand can show a genuine patriotism to their state.
Mr. President, please do not be swapped by the argument that anyone can be rich if he/he works hard. It is a fallacy, because there is a difference between working hard and making money. One can work hard without making money while one can make money without working hard, especially in Nigeria due to the high rate of moral perversion caused by lack of social security. Mr. President, a country like Nigeria that is devoid of social security network, working hard to make money is to make money by all means. Many people in Nigeria engage in many illegitimate businesses in a bid to make money. This is because more often than not, illegitimate businesses flourish in a socially vulnerable state more than a legitimate one. For a country to develop there must be a sense of national identification or belongingness among the citizenry. The state has to foster a feeling of belongingness and involvement among the various people to ensure that national loyalty supersedes sectional or personal interest. That is the only way a state can have an enabling environment that is sustainable. That a country is developed is not by chance or luck, it has to be planned in line with the needs of the people.
Mr. President, if not for the failure of government to protect the social needs of the people, it is governing which is its primary responsibility there is nothing that can make a citizen to arms himself against the state. Any person or group that is armed against the state must have been frustrated to some extent which accumulated into the armed aggression. There is a saying that “nothing goes for nothing.”  An act of patriotism globally is more of what one can gain first before reciprocating the same gesture to the state. How can people, genuinely have patriotic zeal on a state that made them socially vulnerable and less human?Mr. President, that a state is a failed one does not mean a failed entity but a failed government. It also does not mean that the country’s GDP or GNP does not grow or the armed forces are not powerful but because of failure of government to secure the social needs of its citizens.  Mr. President, the real sovereignty of any state is not only measured by its military strength, but also its ability to carter for the social needs of the citizenry. A state is powerful only because its citizens are willing to defend their territorial integrity. Any government that abandons its primary responsibility is a failed one which may be heading to collapse.
Mr. President in Nigeria individuals are their own state. They have to train themselves in school under harsh conditions and exorbitant intuition fees. After education many have to employ themselves, earn their own money by all means, buy their own land, build their own house, generate their own electricity, dig their own borehole, provide their own security, etc. Where the state man entered social contract with? Is it alive or has it died?
Mr. President, many Nigerians have cried out that corruption is the bane of national development in Nigeria that any day government tackles corruption that Nigeria will develop.  And I tell you Mr. President, that corruption is a dependent variable which depends on societal phenomena. Corruption is a societal induced act. What causes corruption in human society is lack of social security. Man as a social being can only engage in asocial act or excessive capital accumulation only when his future is unimmunized and vulnerable.  All man’s activities are to improve his social wellbeing which the state has abandoned. Mr. President, any day the government tackles the question of social insecurity, Nigeria will be a developed state because other societal ills and asocial acts like corruption, armed violence, etc., will eventually wither away with it. Mr. President the bane of development and peace in Nigeria is insecurity of social security systems.
Finally, Mr. President my main massage is hidden inside each chapter of this book. This little book was born out of an innate desire to contribute to the existing knowledge on how to emancipate Nigerians from social insecurity to social security. I call upon you to accept this offer with a sense of humility I am sending it to you. It is my civic responsibility to respect the Office of the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria irrespective of the occupant. Mr. President in total respect and humility, I present this token piece of advice to you as it is contained in this monograph. Please accept it and implement it for the progress of Nigeria.God bless the Office of Mr. President
God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Thank you!

Andrew Oforma Eze
(the Founder and National Coordinator of
Young African Writers League).