Dear Nigerian Leaders
By Chukwuma Ohaka
Dear Nigerian Leaders,
I salute your courage and dedication towards our great country—as you often say it. But it appears, with all due respect, that your love for self far outweighs your love for the nation you swore to serve.
I am one of the millions watching from the sidelines, clapping when you make speeches about patriotism and unity, yet wondering if your hearts beat for anything other than power, luxury, and control. You ask us to sacrifice, but your own lives are insulated from the hardships you ask us to endure. How can we believe in a leadership that thrives in excess while the people drown in scarcity?
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You ask for trust, but we’ve seen too many broken promises and shifting goalposts. You speak of progress, but our roads are a death trap, our hospitals are mere consultation rooms, and our schools are shadows of learning. You claim to fight corruption, yet it has become more organized, more systemic—often protected by the very laws you create.
Have you ever sat in traffic on a flooded road during the rainy season? Have you ever experienced a public hospital where a patient dies simply because there’s no oxygen? Have your children attended public universities where strikes delay lives and dreams? No. Because you’ve built a country within a country for yourselves, safe from the consequences of your own decisions.
Your silence on injustice is loud. Your indifference to insecurity screams. Your unwillingness to make the tough decisions that serve the people, not your pockets, is evident. The average Nigerian is not lazy. We are not entitled. We are only exhausted—from trying so hard and getting so little.
We are not asking for miracles. We are asking for sincerity. For competence. For empathy. For leadership that leads by example. For governance that uplifts, not suppresses. We are asking you to remember that power is transient, but legacy is eternal.
The time to change the story is now. Not with another campaign, another ribbon-cutting ceremony, or another empty promise—but with action. Honest, selfless, deliberate action. We have seen what Nigeria could become; we have also seen what you have allowed her to remain.
History will not remember your excuses—it will remember your choices.
Sincerely,
A Citizen Who Still Believes
