Thank you for your patriotism, Uche Diala reacts to Tunde Bakare’s State of the Nation Address

Dear Pastor, no doubt, it is always painful to accept that the one you love, like I love President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has derailed or that a vehicle you boarded for a journey is clearly headed in the wrong direction, and the driver is either too incompetent, distracted or obstinate to either realise or to detour.

OPEN LETTER TO PASTOR TUNDE BAKARE

Dear Pastor Tunde Bakare,

RE: STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS: A COMMENDATION AND A HUMBLE APPEAL

Fraternal greetings and happy Easter to you, Sir.

Permit me to start by appreciating you for your patriotism and lifetime commitment and dedication to our fatherland, Nigeria.

Sir, I dillingently watched and attentively listened to your ‘State of The Nation Address” on Easter Sunday, 20th April 2025 and I got others to watch, too. I must say that you did not disappoint.

Your ability to effectively and efficiently triage, dissect, and uncouple the situation of our nation with near surgical precision and to proffer highly intelligent, common sense and practical ideas for solutions, and to communicate same in a simple but efficient and effective manner, is something that every Nigerian, especially younger generations of Nigerians need to learn and emulate.

Sir, there is only one point of sadness for me. That is, the unfortunate reality that you may be ‘speaking to the hand’ as far as those who currently have the position, responsibility and authority to run with the fantastic ideas you so seminally and patriotically submitted.

I am an realistic optimistic. In a piece that I wrote on 9th of April, 2025, titled; ‘ROAD TO THE VERDICT: SOME TRUTHS ARE SACROSANCT’, which tracked with some of your submissions in your state of the nation address, I sadly submitted interalia:

“… majority, if not all the challenges, and they are consequential, that we are faced with today as a nation are direct consequences of 3-5 key policy decisions and actions taken by the current administration within its first 3 months or 100 days, and all that the administration has been trying to do since then and uptil today, is struggling to manage those consequences, sadly to no real success and at grave costs and pains to Nigerians, unfortunately and avoidably so.”

I further gave an analogy thus: “If you are embarked on a journey to your home town and you take or mistakenly detour to a wrong route (not even a longer route), you will continue going the wrong way and will never arrive your destination, no matter how good your intentions and no matter how much fasting and praying you do, except you return to the right route. It is worse if you are too self conceited, egoistic and arrogant to even notice or hear other people’s advice that you are on the wrong route.

“That is exactly the case with the current administration and our dear nation. Too much motion and noise but little or no movement in the right direction, except digging deeper and further.”

Dear Pastor, no doubt, it is always painful to accept that the one you love, like I love President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has derailed or that a vehicle you boarded for a journey is clearly headed in the wrong direction, and the driver is either too incompetent, distracted or obstinate to either realise or to detour. However, in such a situation, a wise person alights at the nearest safe bus stop and boards a new bus, after necessary due dillingence, to continue on the journey.

Sir, it is on the strength of the above, with a great deal of respect, and out of a sense of realism, patriotism and love of our fatherland that I humbly and responsibly appeal to you to join forces with your progressive associate, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and other like minded intellectual and progressive minds in Nigeria to chart a different path forward for our nation, come the next bus stop at 2027 – one that has the capacity to push the laudable ideas you and some others have expounded over the years.

Unfortunately, except one wants to lie to oneself, either by configuration, design or mistake, the current administration, which I supported to come to power, has clearly and evidentially demonstrated a lack of ability and capacity to navigate the nation in the right direction. In the interim, we shall continue to pray that it manages to navigate us to the 2027 bus stop without a burst, but no further.

The nation is in dire need of a Joseph and the time to start is now.

No doubt, you (we) have tried several times in the past, ɓut it is not done until it is done. One embarked on a journey of destiny and survival does not give up until one reaches the desired destination or one dies trying.

You, Mallam El-Rufai and the rest can be assured of my support and that of millions of other patriotic Nigerian citizens.

Once more, thank you for your patriotism and be assured of my esteemed regards and respect.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr Uche Diala
druchediala@gmail.com

20th April 2025

©️ Uche Diala