Open letter to President Buhari: This is how you can make Northern Nigeria ‘Destination China’

Dear Sir,

I have travelled the North.

…In my spare time, I TRAVEL THE NORTH. I am, as you will soon find out, Sir, a travelling architect (trachitect).

Through my travels, I have realised that Northern Nigeria is vast empty land. It has been so since the Whites left. It seems to be this way due to cultural or religious reasons inaccessible to us all. This vast empty space, the sheer vastness of the empty poetry that we call Northern Nigeria, is and will remain, long after we have gone, our downfall.

If we are allowed to believe the data available, we can modestly say, Mr President, that about 70% of the North is empty. Vast empty land, REFUSING to be developed. You see sir, the vast empty land in the North can never, as it is, be populated. The cities will never spill into the proverbial country-side. This will just not happen, no matter how efficient the rejuvenated rail system eventually becomes. We Northerners totally abhor the ‘countryside’, and it is that simple.

I had a dream, Mr President, I had a dream. I had this dream during a habitual session en route Jos from Zaria, upon one of the most deplorably tarred roads in West Africa.

I’m sure I dreamt that I was the president and that I reinvented Nigeria in 10 years. That these years were a time of bliss in our history. So much was the bliss that after those 10 blissful years, I left power for those that love it the most. the illogical ones, the usurpers of future! This dream might just come true, sir, because I also dreamt of a painting composition, that came to life before my very eyes at the Museum, that very day!

But I digress, Mr President.

Usurp the vast empty lands. For this, your power is more than sufficient. Absorb the vast empty poetry from a people who have no poetic appreciation. Destroy the things upon these lands that strike us the meek once a while as the illusion of homes, forcefully move the inhabitants to Saminaka. Relocate the countryside Sir… postpone that European dream we have.

Cultivate these lands. Build the largest and most mechanised farms in the world. Our goal? To provide a historical food surplus in the 21st century, using scientific farming to achieve 20 bumper harvests in 4 years. Sell the surplus, sir… let there be forex in the land. You must send all those greedy state creation monkeys that are constantly trying to make empty states, on a long exile…  An exile of silence. The good in Nigeria is not in production but as a VENUE, a location. The dumping of used electronics confirms this. The Asian tigers are getting filled up. The West must look to the North of Nigeria for space to develop products. We must provide the impetus for the achievement of this possibility.

In my dream, the surplus was used to build another 21st-century wonder. New cities in the mid spaces and fringes. In my dreams, there were no fringes anymore. Airports and free trade zones were everywhere, and do not forget the high-speed bridge for which I have designs for, running the length from Lagos to Sokoto, which will become our newest state, the BRIDGE STATE where culture runs directly from the South to the North, unifying for good, our land. This city creation will be of a certain type, a collection of small production villages designed for the future and called Affordacity.

All lands belong to the government… this is a fact. We will then rebuild Saminaka and densify it beyond imagination.All the architects and engineers in the land WILL have an input, registered or not. It will become a competition in progress… we will call it the desert pearl. For it shall be our beacon of hope, and a showcase of the Nigerian Spirit in the days of darkness ahead! Let there be forex in the land, Sir. We can build ourselves out of the recession, we can build ourselves out of Boko Haram too, Sir.

But this was only a dream Mr President… only a dream…

James Inedu George

Thinker.


Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail