The Change We Must Reject<\/p>\n
By Philip Agbese<\/p>\n
We are in a season of change. Or so would those who want change for its
\nsake would want us to believe. It is a season where sloganeering seeks
\ntrump reason as we are collectively being harassed to turn logic on its
\nhead failing which we risk umbrage and assault from the very same persons
\nwho profess change.<\/p>\n
This desperation by a vocal minority is understandable. When you have no
\nconfidence in your goods as a salesman there is logic to being loud to the
\nextent of sounding profane. Nigeria’s latter day adherents of change fall
\nsmack into this category. They want the voting public to accept their
\nbellowing with the force of an edict spewing from a supreme being without
\noutlining in real terms the justification for the aberration they are
\nasking for.<\/p>\n
The advocates of “Change” hinge their demands on misimpressions or in some
\ncases outright falsehood. The best excuse they have for asking for change
\nis to claim that the present administration of President Goodluck Jonathan
\nis corrupt simply because people are not being clamped into jail without
\ndue process. This singular claim shows that the change these people seek is
\nto again plunge Nigeria into an era of junta format, where the whims of one
\ntin god could land even a saint in gaol. Whereas, the real change Nigeria
\nhas witnessed in recent years is the one where individuals suspected of any
\nwrongdoing are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Should we decide to
\nchange this as being insinuated in a few quarters then we will throw people
\ninto detention until they are proven guilty and they would have been denied
\ntheir freedom if they are proven innocent.<\/p>\n
Innocent people have also died in a long running insurgency that the
\nadvocates of change have identified, possibly rightly, as the singular
\nsymptom to prove that the security situation in the country is bad. The
\nconveniently omitted part of the narrative is how the posture of the
\ndemagogue of the change movement provided the spark for the insurgency
\nwhile his utterance fanned the embers of the resulting fire. Such unguarded
\nutterances have sadly not reduced but have instead increased as those
\nbehind them become ever more desperate to be heard without thoughts for how
\nsuch words further compound the nation’s security woes.<\/p>\n
Nigerians have also been inundated with proposed changes to the economy
\nwithout getting workable details that will prove that the utopian concepts
\nstand any fighting chance in an enterprise global economy that is
\ninnovation and private sector driven.<\/p>\n
One could carry on with puncturing the helium filled balloons that is
\ngetting the change movement high – whether by lifting them above terra
\nfirma or via that intoxication that comes from sniffing helium. But service
\nto the fatherland requires that the narrative be changed. Rather than
\nbabbling from dreamland, it is more productive to examine what has been
\nachieved in the past four years and act wisely.<\/p>\n
In the years President Jonathan has stayed in office, his administration
\nhas allowed the Anti-corruption agencies to work at their own pace without
\ninterference with the EFCC and the ICPC, strengthened in the bid to stem
\ncorruption while the Pension Reforms, Fiscal Responsibility Regime gained
\ntraction in addition to creation of the Sovereign Wealth Fund and various
\nprivatization programmes.<\/p>\n
The waste that has been stopped in the management of the subsidy on
\npetroleum sector is another significant plus for the administration as the
\nresulting SURE-P innovations has touched lives in all respect. SURE-P
\ninvestment in the transport sector brought about fleet renewal along routes
\nthat were having dilapidated vehicles while the resulting expansion from
\nthis directly created more employments. Youths, who were hitherto
\nunemployed, have been absorbed under different facets of the scheme
\nincluding the ones who are benefiting from the internship programme. The
\nentrepreneurial component of the scheme has also seen the birth of several
\nsmall scale enterprises that have seen erstwhile applicants creating jobs
\nand taking other applicants off the labour market.<\/p>\n
As itemized by President Jonathan himself, there have been changes in other
\nareas that include our railway system, airports; roads network;
\nagricultural sector; electoral process; Almajiri education; and the power
\nsector. These are changes Nigerians can easily identify with because they
\nare realities that they live with daily.<\/p>\n
These changes are certain, tangible and even measurable. Are these the
\nthings we want to throw away for mere sloganeering in the name of “Change”?
\nFor the discerning, the kind of change that will take the country into the
\ndark ages must never be contemplated and must be left to remain in the
\nrealm of sloganeering. Nigerians, who stand to continues enjoying the
\ndividends of ongoing changes or to suffer the chaos from retrogressive
\nchange, know what to decide by now.<\/p>\n
Bombarding them with a call for “Change” is thus counterproductive as the
\ncitizens would rather continue with this harvest of changes instead of
\nbeing force fed a change that is not certain and from a group of people who
\nhave failed or simply refused to acknowledge what constitutes change.<\/p>\n
Comrade Philip Agbese is a rights activist based in Abuja.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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