Nigeria@66: Dele Momodu Knocks President Tinubu’s Nigeria@66 Anniversary Address

Veteran Journalist and Chief Executive of Ovation Magazine, Dele Momodu, has written off, President Bola Tinubu’s independence anniversary address to Nigerians, describing it as having turned the event into Day of Lamentations.

Momodu said: “Today is supposed to be a day of celebration but your speech turned it into a day of lamentation.

“My heart bled as you went into the morbid analogy of Nigeria as being a cancer patient that merely survived on pain killers before your arrival as a celebrated surgeon. You specifically mentioned MORPHINE as the drug of choice by your predecessors. I’m not sure this analogy was appropriate.

“At the time you assumed power, Nigeria probably had stage two cancer, at the worst. You were expected to stabilize it and not to metastasize it into a stage four cancer. Your first prescription on day one was a monumental disaster.

“You took no time to properly examine your patient. You were too much in a hurry to administer your jab which automatically sent Nigeria 🇳🇬 into instant coma. And you’ve not been able to revive it.”

The full text of Momodu’s open letter to the President reads below:

Dear Mr President, please, permit me to wish you Happy Independence on our 66th anniversary.
I will not waste too much time Sir.
I have just watched and listened to your speech on television and I must honestly say I wasn’t impressed. Today is supposed to be a day of celebration but your speech turned it into a day of lamentation.

My heart bled as you went into the morbid analogy of Nigeria as being a cancer patient that merely survived on pain killers before your arrival as a celebrated surgeon. You specifically mentioned MORPHINE as the drug of choice by your predecessors. I’m not sure this analogy was appropriate. At the time you assumed power, Nigeria probably had stage two cancer, at the worst.

You were expected to stabilize it and not to metastasize it into a stage four cancer. Your first prescription on day one was a monumental disaster. You took no time to properly examine your patient. You were too much in a hurry to administer your jab which automatically sent Nigeria 🇳🇬 into instant coma. And you’ve not been able to revive it. The least we expected from you was to stabilize and not to destabilize everything in sight.

Sir, your fuel subsidy stunt was a misadventure. I expected an apology for the medical calamity. So, Nigeria has made more money, amassed more loans, insecurity has increased, poverty has escalated, profligacy is palpable, politicians have remained insensitive, elections have taken priority over governance, renewed hope has collapsed into hopelessness and abject despair… I can go on ad infinitum…

Nigerians have mostly given up on your promises. I doubt they are able to endure and accept the endless excuses, barely three months to the next elections.

Four years may not be able to contain and solve all our problems but the HOPE should be glaring by now…