By Ayo Onikoyi

Popular comedian and United Nations Millennium Development Goals ambassador, Francis Agoda, known by his stage name, I Go Dye, has never hidden his passion for economic and socio-political emancipation of the Nigerian youths and has made his feelings known at every  opportunity. Thus, it was no surprise when the Warri-bred humour merchant put pen to paper to highlight how corruption has taken its toll on the lives and livelihood of  Nigerian youths, in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, to commemorate the celebration of the May 29th Democracy Day.

•I Go Dye

I Go Dye bluntly told the President there was no cause for celebration in as much as corruption continued to be the order of the day in every facet of the polity. In a letter made available to our reporter, I Go Dye paints an ugly picture of what corruption had brought upon the nation.

“I cannot   disagree with the fact that corruption is the fundamental problem mitigating against the progress of my beloved country.

First,let me take us back to how the youths have been denied a means of livelihood because of corruption. Millions of graduates have been roaming our streets,some let go of their pride and start to ride Okada just for survival,while others forsake their professional expertise to go into other vocational ventures,yet there are provisions for employment but some group of persons have been using non existing names to defraud the nation, collecting salaries which is estimated to be over   2 trillion Naira within this period,   as ghost workers.

What have they done to us by this action? They have   increased unemployment, made it almost impossible for the youths to get married at an early age,because we have millions of unemployed youths who should have been more productive but whose destiny to early progress have been short changed.

Today,we send our children to private schools because corruption has made it impossible to invest the funds approved for our public educational institutions. We find ourselves in long queues in the hospital without enough doctors, resulting in strikes occasioned by corruption and lack of administrative standard,” he writes.

Touching on every sector of government, the comedian decries the ugly state of things and appalling underdevelopment in our institutions and decaying infrastructures, while preaching patriotism as the only answer to fight corruption and corrupt establishments to a standstill.

“As a people,most especially the youths, we should realise that national pride comes first,we should not wait to be reminded before we use our greatness to rebuild this nation. The time has come for us to ask what has been happening to our collective wealth,who,how and what did they do with the money. This issue is beyond religious beliefs,it is the major problem against our spiritual lives in this country today. We have   to speak and build our national pride,we must take   patriotism as a virtue that must come first,it is so important, without it no nation can be built. Regardless of what we enjoy today as elites and successful people,our prosperity cannot be easily transferred to all our children,lets work to build a country devoid of corruption, a place where children,youths and our mothers will not wallow in pain of starvation and poverty”, he said.

He concluded the letter with a plea to Nigerians to join in the fight against corruption and corrupt leaders in positions of authority.

“I employ and beg all Nigerians,irrespective of where you find yourself to join anyone fighting corruption,because it’s not a personal fight,it’s a just fight to build the future for the next generation and make the world better ,”