Last Thursday, the Federal Government, obviously terrified
by the burden of expectations on it, launched what is without doubt an
exercise in propaganda. It is a social orientation campaign named
“Change Begins With Me”. Introducing the campaign, the President said,
“Our citizens must realize that the change they want to see begins with
them.” And then, “Before you ask ‘where is the change they promised us’,
you must first ask how far have I changed my ways, (sic) ‘what have I
done to be part of the change for the greater good of society’.”
This is an audacious attempt to alter the definition of
“Change” the APC proposed when it approached us in selling its beautiful
ideas for Nigeria. The
governing party’s idea of change has been widely archived, and it’s just
impossible to convince the people that the
change they promised isn’t
creating three million jobs yearly, providing free meals for public
primary school public, offering N5,000 stipends
to unemployed youths, adopting Social Welfare Programmes to cater for
the poor, free maternal and children healthcare services, amongst
similar visions as laudable as they were popular.
This is why the definition provided by the President is a
contradiction of what the APC told us, that it would lead the way to our
redemption. The Change promised Nigerians was framed as institutional
and systemic, not this grand campaign for exceptional individualism. The
problem, as I’ve repeatedly said, is not the person, not the Nigerian. It’s the institutions, stupid, to
creatively quote an exceptional American who also came to power
chanting Change. Institutions aren’t made by people, they are made by
rules, fair rules impartially administered, hard to bend. That is the
Change we were promised, it was the Change we expected and voted for, it
is the Change that is demanded.
Have you ever paused to ponder why Nigerians beat traffic
lights in Abuja but obey traffic rules in London? It’s because the UK
institutions are strong. So, the change we anticipate must begin with
institutions changing people. Telling some people that change begins
with them is like telling a robber to stop stealing. No, you’ve to build
a strong Police to change him, and strong social services so that petty
theft for survival is diminished. Citizens are often only as good and
as incorruptible as the country wants them to be, through its
institutions.
An expatriate friend, an Australian, beats traffic lights
in Abuja and he actually once described it as fun. He’ll never try it in
his country. Why? It’s not patriotism. Words like “change begins with
me” will never stop people from disobeying traffic rules. To achieve
this, you need surveillance cameras and strong penalising institutions.
Wait, why do you think Americans are afraid of evading tax? It’s the
horror of having to deal with IRS. It’s not patriotism. Who’s afraid of
FIRS? Definitely not the Nigerian big man who’s sure of his ability to
make phone calls and get any case against him dropped! So, change should
begin with the President addressing institutional lapses like those
employment scams at CBN and FIRS, and apologising to the nation for
condoning such nepotism.
Truth is, this “Change Begins With Me” campaign may only
further give the President more excuses to skip electoral promises. He
and his handlers will claim they failed to deliver as promised because
the citizens didn’t change. Our President may go down in history as just
another politician if he does not stick to the dream he promised which
got him elected, with honest apologies or explanations where necessary. He’s
to lead and inspire a generation by giving them a functional nation to
strive to change their realities. Change begins with having stable power
supply, equipped and upgraded hospitals, developed road infrastructure,
rehabilitated schools, countered nepotism, defeated crony capitalism…
Yes, you don’t need a witchdoctor to understand that the
change promised by the APC means overturning our social conditions. Our
people are hungry, forex is unstable, businesses are collapsing, and
instead of changing their conditions, the government is shamelessly
telling them that change begins with them. What the hungry citizens need
isn’t an empty slogan, what they need is a favourable socio-economy to
stay alive and thrive in. To say #ChangeBeginsWithMe when inflation is
on autopilot is an understating of the nation’s reality, it’s a
state-authorised insult. To deploy a slogan as facile and silly as
#ChangeBeginsWIthMe in 2016 is an insult to the intelligence of even the
dullest of the Nigerian electorate. Change means an improvement in the
quality and responsiveness of our institutions, and we will never let
the President CHANGE the CHANGE!
If Nigerians had not changed, they wouldn’t have
volunteered to campaign for Candidate Muhammadu Buhari who, addressing
delegates at his party’s National Convention before the elections, said,
“I can’t give you a pocketful of dollars or Naira to purchase your
support.” What he offered in
place of dollars was a beautiful dream. In that dream, the people saw a
Nigeria where they don’t need a “connection” anymore to secure a job.
But that has happened under his watch. This is why I suggested
#ChangeAlongWithMe as a more sensible slogan elsewhere, because the
President was elected to pave the way for the change by, for instance,
installing functional streetlamps and establishing strong penalising
institutions for citizens to obey traffic rules, and by stopping
recruitment scams at our federal agencies for the citizens to get the
sense and essence of a Nigeria without nepotism. Psychologists call
these conditioning!
But the usual governmental praise-singers, in their serial
bid to endorse the campaign, say its critics are ignorant, revealing
their amusing misconception of Civics. Some have written that Nigerians
have a sense of entitlement. They miss, of course, embarrassingly, that
Nigerians are not requesting effective institutional change from the
President. We are demanding it as he promised. It’s our right, paid for
in blood and votes, it is not a privilege to which entitlement and too
much of entitlement can be attached.
Nigerians are waiting for the President have them
conditioned into what he wants them to be, possible only through his
policies and actions. He has access to the public treasury and
administrative machinery to shape the destiny of this nation. That the
government is resorting to psychological propaganda to hoodwink
Nigerians into embracing a contradiction of its promises and
capabilities, is dispiriting. Change begins with action, and with the
President not abdicating his responsibility to champion it. May God save
us from us.
By Gimba Kakanda
@gimbakakanda on Twitter
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