The life and living of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has been an inspiration to millions of Nigerians, who see him as a hero and god-figure.
It is a great privilege to congratulate and felicitate with him on the landmark achievement of reaching 75 years on earth.
The leadership of National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS), on behalf of over 21.1 million polytechnic students extends our heartfelt and warmest regards to his Excellency, wishing him long life and prosperity. May his life be a fulfilled one in good health and greater exploits. We also rejoice with the wife of the president, Hajia Aisha Buhari, and the Buhari family.
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Like Chief Obafemi Awolowo rightly said: “It is not about life but the courage we put into it that matters”.
As much as we are grateful for having a commander-in-chief with a history of trust and integrity piloting the affairs of this corrupt nation, we are equally challenging President Buhari to work more studiously to end the suffering of Nigerians.
President Buhari has always enjoyed the unalloyed support and patronage of his person and ideology since 2015. His story of persistence and determination remains a big lesson to all of us.
Thus, we would not waver in demanding for better governance and dividends of democracy. It is rather not so pleasant to see that the war on corruption has not significantly made the average Nigerian man better off than he was whilst corruption was arrogantly rife in the land.
This is not to say that we are against anti-corruption efforts but we challenge the Buhari administration to look at ways of augmenting the plight of Nigerians and focus on positivity and not just negativity.
We challenge President Buhari to prove that he truly loves the youth and younger generation, then he should leave a legacy of quality and affordable education to us. We are disappointed at the back seat position of education in this administration. The 2018 budget appropriation for education is abysmal and damming.
Our lives as youth are not only important on the manifesto ground but it decides whether the country has a great future or not.
Education in the country is not accessible to the poor man. There are millions of unemployed young people in the country and they are left to languish, tempted to join criminal exploits and frustrated enough to risk their lives just to leave the country.
Police and other security officials degrade our students and maltreat them on baseless charges and our state governments still come, cap in hand, for bailouts. Several bombings are springing up in the Northeast region and a sizeable amount of our Chibok girls are still in Boko Haram claws.
We know the president has done a lot but he has not done enough. We urge president Buhari not to rest on his oars. He still has till 2019 to do the needful to fulfil his 2015 campaign promises. On economic diversification, we are far behind from our goals though the Buhari administration has done much.
This is a call on the general not to rest on his oars. We are not there yet, he should avoid detractors that are making him see 2019 has a top priority. If President Buhari makes us reap the dividends of democracy, he is sure to enjoy the support of Nigerians again. We implore our president to be focused and compassionate. Steering the ship of a highly sentimental and heterogeneous nation like Nigeria can be very challenging, hence, we opine that the call for restructuring should be actualised. We believe Muhammadu Buhari can.
Once again, happy birthday day sir, live longer and continue to be a blessing to us.
