Gone are the days when the acronym PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) was only so sufficient to win elections devoid of campaigns and strategies in Nigeria.
Gone are the days when it was only needed to identify with the acronym PDP to be home and dry in any election. Gone were the days when the PDP — the juggernaut, the seemingly unstoppable behemoth — ruled. The slogan of the largest political party in Africa, “Power to the people,” is the most hypocritical catchphrase I have ever heard of.
The PDP, a party concomitant with insecurity and corruption, impunity and poverty, unemployment and ineptitude, lack of power supply, poor health facilities, decayed educational system and moribund economy; the PDP, a party with the paradoxical slogan ‘Power to the people’, a self-contradictory
statement which can only be true if it were false, gave birth to the oppositions slogan ‘Change’.
The change didn’t come without some sacrifices and selflessness. This change didn’t come until we saw the last of political parties like the ACN, CPC, ANPP and a fraction of the APGA. These political parties came together and the party with the acronym APC (All Progressives Congress) was born.
George Bernard Shaw said: “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” On this note, the change agents spearheaded by Gen Muhammadu Buhari — Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as well as some aggrieved members of the PDP called “the new PDP”, — capitalize on the PDP’s ‘shotgun approach’ (which eventually blotted their copybook) to wrestle power from the party.
Here’s to these crazy ones. The misfits. The change agents. Agents that are quick on the uptake. The troublemakers, but the progressives. The round pegs in the square holes. They saw things differently, they stopped the political juggernauts and behemoths, they brought about this paradigm shift, they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
The only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. They push the ‘change’ manifesto forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, some of us see genius, great tacticians, relentless and dogged politicians. Because people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do so.
However, it is worthy of note to remind the proponents of change that the change Nigerians yearn for is not just from the PDP to the APC, not from Goodluck Jonathan to Gen Muhammadu Buhari, not from the South to the North, nor from a Zoology PhD-holder to an army general.
The change Nigerians voted for is to see the APC deliver on the promises of war against corruption, security of lives and properties, food security, accelerated power supply, integrated transport network, free education, devolution of power, accelerated economic growth, and affordable healthcare. Failure to do these will make the APC’s ‘change’ nothing but a mere chant and will have Nigerians take their destiny in their hands come 2019.
We suggest that the change should start with our political leaders. The problem with Nigeria is not just corruption, but leadership failure. And, looking back, there was really never a golden age of great leadership in the history of Nigeria. The lack of competent, responsible leaders with integrity, vision, high moral values have been the bane of the country. It is simply disheartening that Nigeria, a country blessed with natural resources and man power, is now doomed with uncertainties of bad leadership.
To achieve the much-talked about change, there must be a complete change of attitude on the part of Nigerian political leadership class, because no matter how perfect or excellent the constitution, or other instruments for ensuring accountability and checking corruption in the country might be, all will come to naught unless the political leadership class show the political will to abide by and enforce them. Nigeria is simply lacking in one thing that every nation, big or small, needs to achieve greatness: credible, responsible and people-oriented leadership.
That is why I feel so pained when I see people compare some of our leaders to the likes of Lee Kuan Yew, a leader who, together with his cabinet, oversaw Singapore’s transformation from a relatively underdeveloped colonial outpost with no natural resources to an Asian Tiger economy.
Therefore, we want GMB to hit the ground running immediately after May 29th. An average Nigerian wants to see the much-talked about change almost immediately, not the kind of ‘fire brigade approach’ applied to tackling Boko Haram just before elections after lives and properties had already been lost.
Barack Obama once said: “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
I hope everyone reading this is having a really good day. And if you are not, just know that in every minute that passes, you have an opportunity to change that.
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