By Celestine Okonkwo
Two songs have taken over Nigeria’s political air. The first was the CHANGE song which resonated throughout the APC campaign, a song that turned out to become the magical wand that truncated the PDP dream of remaining in power for the next 60 years. These days, the new song is “where is the CHANGE you promised.” The two songs have dominated the air waves but neither the composers nor the singers, perhaps, blinded by sentiments, never thought of the consequences or tried to answer some pertinent questions about the songs. The questions arose because the two songs are composed with the wrong premise. The first song was composed by the APC not knowing that, according to Shehu Sani, the car it was inheriting from the PDP has knocked engine and does not just require a change of tyre but a complete overhaul. The second song is composed with political vengeance, sentiment, callousness and even wickedness in mind for how does one expect change within a year after years of rot. A casual friend once said that Buhari is to blame for the current predicament because he is the president even though he knows that the problems are enormous.
But many questions haunt such Nigerians: How can there be change when the ingredients that will make it possible are lacking? How can there be change when those to make it happen do not even understand its concept or their roles? How can there be change when the concept itself is ill-defined, ill-conceived, and ill-implemented? How does one expect change when things are done the same way that made change desirable in the first place? How do Nigerians expect change in their lives but stick to old beliefs and unnecessary sentiments displayed in almost every facet of life? How can there be change when everybody wants the other to change but refuses to change himself?
How do Nigerians vote for change and expect change but refuse to do something for the change to come alive? How can there be change when all we do is blame others for things we are expected to do but fail or refuse to do? How do Nigerians want change when all we do is wait for the government to bring about change even when we refuse to cooperate in making that change become possible? How can one expect change when all we do is talk and no action or fail to realize that change is not just a word but an action? Nigerians sit in one place and expect GOD to move and bring about change. They even pray for change in churches and mosques without lifting a finger to make it happen, thinking that it will happen by miracle. Nigerians want to catch fish in the stream but refuse to enter the water or be soaked in water to catch the fish.
Many Nigerians must then agree with the former first lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan’s simplistic definition of change as small denominations of money given in exchange for a larger denomination after payment for services. For these set of Nigerians, change is automatic, simple and does not imply or require a period of planning and execution, modification or making something into something different. For most Nigerians, civilians or politicians, especially those in the APC, change is simply replacing something with another thing. Therefore, for them, change is just replacing the former government with a new one or replacing a particular ruling political party with another in an election no matter what methods are adopted for the elections or whatever happens after.
Yet, for others, change is or has become a mere slogan, a song that means nothing, a chorus like the nursery rhymes recited and echoed by kindergarten pupils without even knowing the meaning. They are there to simply chorus the word ‘CHANGE’ after the word APC is shouted at political rallies. Most Nigerians think that change is only expected of the executive but not of the citizens. They also think that change is only for the federal government and does not concern state and local governments which must continue its ways of business as usual. In order words, Nigerians want to stand hands akimbo while Buhari and his administration bring about the change since they promised to do so. That is to say, ‘it is their business, not ours. Ours is to get the change even without doing anything to let it be.”
That is probably the impression of Edetean Ojo when he says that President Buhari must appreciate that he has raised the hopes of Nigerians and that he stands on the cusp of a new era. “Never before have so many Nigerians been so invested in a government and so hopeful of positive change. Given the clear tasks before him and the goodwill he currently enjoys, if he disappoints Nigerians, he would have done more damage to the country than all the leaders before him put together and history will judge him harshly for it. So, the change must start now.” For Ojo, therefore, and many Nigerians who think that way, it is for Buhari and him alone to bring about change because he has promised to do so.
Still, how can there be a change in the polity when our political leadership recruitment system is wrong and lackluster? What is the pedigree of those in the National Assembly and other political leadership positions for example? How many of them including governors and local government chairmen and counselors were elected based on their track records, leadership qualities or achievements? No wonder the Senate has been turned into a retirement asylum for governors who achieved nothing but noise as well as those who can afford the high price? Yet, we expect change from Buhari alone. How can there be change when appointments even by the president himself, governors, and local government chairmen are merely to fill political positions with persons ‘donated’ by traditional rulers, political godfathers and not based on merits. What does one expect from such shoddy appointments if not sycophancy and mediocrity? Yet, Nigerians are there waiting for ‘change’ and not doing anything to change this retrogressive practice.
How does one expect heated and intelligent debates on issues in the National Assembly and State Houses of Assemblies when those ‘elected’ into the chambers are people without conscience, people with questionable educational and even moral standing? The other day, while one ‘honorable’ member was reading a statement obviously prepared for him by somebody in the sessions, others were either telling stories, chatting or even sleeping. Yet, one expects these set of human beings to bring about change. That explains why we have a harvest of circus shows in Houses of Assembly. The debacle on the budget is a good example. They had started with the ‘business as usual’ way, padding the budget and waiting to withdraw the excesses later to maintain the standard of their ‘honorable’ selves.
Yet, Nigerians fail to point this out as an impediment to change as nobody looks or challenges that insanity. Some even callously put that blame on the presidency for ‘not being able to prepare ordinary budget.’ Yet, they are waiting for change to happen. They are simply waiting for Becket’s Godot. Yet, the legislators in the National Assembly, even those in the ruling APC were among chorus singers during the CHANGE song at election campaigns but they are the same ones today fighting for ‘juicy’ committees when they were supposed to show the world that they want change and are for ‘change.’ Nigerians are there when the Senate opted to buy SUVs at ridiculous amounts in a country where people are unable to feed three times a day. They sit in their comfort zones without rising to challenge this brazen act of insensitivity. Yet, they shout and clamor for change and do nothing to challenge actions that seem to slow the attainment of the change they clamor. Yet, they blame all on Buhari and the party because they promised ‘change’ and change they must bring.
The governors are at it again squandering the funds meant for their states and are not paying salaries of workers. They do not seem prepared to change their negative attitude to governance and money-spending now that it is very critical. But Nigerians fail to call the governors to order, yet, they clamor for change. The electorate or the common man sits idle shouting invectives at those occupying political positions for doing nothing to bring about change, yet, they are not ready to change their attitudes to the voting process. Some electorate collected stipends to ‘vote’ for the wrong persons either because of ethnic, religious or other mundane reasons and today, they expect those wrongly chosen to bring about the change they crave.
The electorate does not analyze or scrutinize manifestoes when they are presented before elections. The manifestoes are themselves mere pieces of paper that meant nothing. For instance, a typical Nigerian political office seeker’s flyer or manifesto runs thus: Vote XYZ for councilor, governor, chairman – good governance – portable water, affordable education, transparency and accountability; whatever that means. And this TRASH and sound signifying nothing is enough to fetch him votes to win an election and occupy political position. Yet, those who voted for the trash are waiting for the trash to bring them change. A politician campaigning for a governorship candidate once said that “manifestoes do not win elections.” With that mindset, there is no asking how the office seeker intends to source funds and how he intends to spend the funds if he is elected. He does not explain or need to explain how he intends to fulfill his promises and yet, he gets the ‘vote’ and the people want a ‘change’ to come about from this garbage manifesto or flyer where it is even presented because so many of them do not bother to present plans so far there is money to give to the ‘boys’ during campaigns to do the needful.
Tony Iredia in Vanguard Newspaper wrote that “what many Nigerians really want is for Buhari and only him to solve all our problems including the bottlenecks we create for the system. Under the circumstance, it seems unfair that we are all expecting change which we are not prepared to allow,” he concludes in the article titled “Who Really Wants Change in Nigeria?” He adds that Nigeria’s political class cannot be classified among those that want change or bring it about as many people still die during elections so that the sponsors of political violence can “win” elections. “In earnest, those for whom expensive jeeps have been purchased cannot be our ‘change’ agents since they cherish lavish spending even during a recession which is one long standing problem in Nigeria,” he maintains.
Nigerian want change yet, they did nothing when copies of the 2016 Budget vanished from the custody of the National Assembly and when they eventually surfaced, they mutated into versions unknown to the executive arm that presented the same budget at an open ceremony. Yet, the NLC, the ‘strike exponents’ and so-called defenders of the masses as well as those now clamoring for change, never thought it wise to try a striding tackle against the National Assembly for what its members have become. Why did members of the NLC not mobilize the masses to carry placards against members of the National Assembly for this brazen act of callousness or are they immune to such scrutiny? Yet, the labor union also expects change. Or is change for them only on fuel price and electricity tariff hike agitation?
For Reginald Chukwu, the APC is to blame for the present cries of the people, knowing that the state of affairs in Nigeria was bad, it made promises it knows that it cannot keep. “They deceived us with the promises they made. I know that to fix Nigeria will not be done in a while but the APC made it look as if it was easy. How could the APC have promised to repair the nation immediately, knowing that things had gone bad in 16 years? Shehu Sani, a senator also alluded to this when he said in an interview with TELL magazine that “I think that the government is in reality being haunted by the promises it made during the campaigns. When we make promises for tomorrow and we don’t know what tomorrow may hold, certainly you’re going to be challenged by the realities of tomorrow. We made promises of smooth sailing from point A to point B without taking cognizance of the elements of the weather along the sea. So, this is where we have found ourselves,” he said.
Edward Dibiana, in an article in TheNews magazine, for example, blames the non-development in the Niger Delta region not on lack of attempts by the government but by the people themselves who fail to question the agencies put in place by the government to carry out its program of development in the region. “Have these intervention agencies in all sincerity been able to meet their mandate of physical and human capital development of the region? Several indices indicate a systemic decay that bothers on the character and integrity of successive drivers of the intervention agencies,” he said. He gave an instance of recent discovery of tons of expired drugs in an NDDC warehouse, lamenting that while that singular ineptitude of the agency denied the people the opportunity of receiving free drugs, government resource that was used for the procurement, sadly, became a waste. “When things like these happen, they reinforce the argument that we are our own enemies,” he laments. Yet, Niger Delta militants do not look in that direction for their agitation but channel all their blame on the federal government or even Buhari for doing nothing in one year to change and develop the region.
There is also the inordinate political patronage of youths during elections by political office seekers which unwittingly creates Frankenstein out of them. The alleged institutional connivance in oil theft, which provides cover for these elements and which embolden their brazen criminal enterprise is also a factor. “Tales are told of some security operatives who suddenly become inexplicably very rich shortly after being deployed to the Niger Delta region to check pipeline vandalism. And you ask: Who will save Nigeria from Nigerians?” Dibiana asks. Yet, Nigerians have remained docile to this or do we even consider that such behaviors hinder our development?” Yet, we are waiting for the government to bring about change because it promised to do so.
But all said and done, there have been some changes within one year. Dan Etiebet once asked: “Are you with those Nigerians who claim that nothing has changed since the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari came on board about a year ago? I totally disagree that nothing has changed. To me and a lot others with good mind, a lot has changed. We have been internationally respected with a good face. The atmosphere to be disciplined, to be responsible, to be accountable, to be result-oriented, to be innovative and creative has been created. Today, the fear of Buhari is the beginning of wisdom. Of course, one does not expect people to like that or accept that overnight having been used to ‘carry-go syndrome’ and with impunity,” Etiebet said.
He agrees that change means dislocation, departure from the routine, uncertainty and as human beings, it takes time to adapt and adjust and so, one may hear of stimulus-induced complaints. He says that naturally, there must be a period of transition filled with pain. He also agrees that this transition period of seeming agony will soon turn into a lasting period of ecstasy and fulfillment. Odia Ofeimu also wrote that the core issue is to change the way we live, not in terms of slogans, but actual physics of behavior and chemistry of performance. The Catholic Bishops also wrote that “with corruption, we cannot progress because if everything goes wrong, immorality takes over, retrogression, instead of progression, takes place. “So, corruption is a huge obstacle that has to be dismantled,” they say, adding, “This is a change Nigerians must unite to seek and not leave it for the president alone to wage and win.”
But is the change not already being felt even if slightly? A small girl wrote a letter to Buhari letting him know that Nigerians are mending their ways, making their agbada according to their clothes with no extra unnecessary yards. “We have cut down on the number of bowls of pepper soup we eat on Friday nights. Indeed, we no longer go out every Friday night. Between you and I sir, many Nigerians will not be spending their ‘summer’ holiday in America and UK this year. Even yours sincerely will be spending her summer in Uyo this year. That is what makes dollar sense. And with the new petrol price, only very important out-of-town parties will be attended. In fact, Nigerians will attend less and less parties because the throwers of parties will also throw less and less parties. We are trying, really trying,” the innocent girl wrote.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo also said that Nigerians’ impatience with the ‘Change’ agenda of the federal government is unnecessary. This writer also thinks that it is too short a time to start brooding. As Osinbajo said, “Nigerians fail to understand that patience is also a virtue that they must have as a people. This is a change expected of them. No doubt, the transformation that Nigeria needs can never come overnight but it is shocking that in just a year, they are regretting the choice they made at the presidential election. They forget that change is a process which comes slowly and with difficulty and a high level of pain. Reginald Chukwu agrees and adds that it is advisable for Nigerians to give the government the benefit of the doubt. “A year is not enough to experience the desired change we need as a nation. Rather than complain, let us accept out fate and diligently watch and assist the government and see what it could do. Let us be hopeful that with the groaning of the masses, notable changes in the area of affordable price of goods and services, stable power supply, good roads and others will be witnessed in no distant time” he writes.
But Olatunji Dare thinks that the change Nigerians were promised and which they chose when they voted Muhammadu Buhari into power has not occurred mainly because of the collapse of the value system. He says that every society, group or institution functions on a system of values that are sometimes explicit when they are spelled out in a code or implicit when they flow out of an ideology. The value system defines what is and not acceptable as it is the compass by which the society navigates. According to him, that system is eroded and the result is anomie and cacophony where the standard of right or wrong becomes fluid and the restraints that govern social behavior as well as institutions lose their binding force. He regrets that Nigeria has almost reached that point as evidenced all over. For example, parents procure the means to cheat in examination for their children, teachers aid and abet the process, students are compelled to offer gratification to lecturers to ‘pass’ examinations, the judiciary is mired in sleaze, the news media are similarly compromised and the country is awash in religion but starved of righteousness.
Do Nigerians expect Buhari and his government to also correct these wrongs to bring about change? Do we expect change in a country where nothing is intrinsically right or wrong anymore provided one gets away with it? How does change come about where things are seen only from parochial prisms? “How does change come about when everyone is waiting to have the opportunity, not to change the system but to have a share in the rot when his or her turn comes?” How does a society change when a political thief is seen not for what he is but as the ‘son of the soil’ that must be defended by his ‘tribes’ men and religious members even after he has committed a heinous offence? “No be our money he chop?” one hears his tribes men ask. Who expects change to come about when the ruling party and its members behave like forces of occupation, when the president overlooks certain wrongs and overemphasizes others or show signs of being one-sided in some events? The president has bared his fangs against Niger Delta militants and IPOB and MASSOB members but has neither showed his teeth nor clenched his fist against Fulani herdsmen who have become as rebellious as the other intransigent groups. Yet, he preaches change and wants people to bear with him.
How can there be change where there is no difference between the political office holders of today and those they disparage? What change will come when the masses watch their so-called representatives living as if they are in a different world? How does the senator ask the civil servant to wait for change and listen to preachments of change when his salary is a secret and while he watches the way the same senator lavishes the nation’s patrimony? Today, the society honors wealth no matter how it is acquired. There is no more honor in professional or academic acquisition, yet, one is deafened by shouts and solicitudes for change. The drug vendor cares more for his profit than the deadly outcome of his trade, yet, he wants Buhari to bring about the change he promised during campaigns.
The collapse of the value system also explains why there is scant regard to the sanctity of human life which is even worse and more dangerous to the society than the collapse of the economy. From all indications, it will take some generations not just a year of Buhari’s administration to restore the Nigerian collapsed value system. Change is not only on the physical realm; creating jobs, the economy, building roads, electricity and other infrastructure. There must be change in behavior, way of thinking, mindset, and orientation. Unless these aspects of change are realized, we are knocking on wood waiting for elusive change. In other words, there will be no CHANGE unless Nigerians change their ways and value system.
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