The ‘CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME’ campaigns kickstarted by the President of the
\nFederal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari is being misunderstood as if
\nthe President is shifting the Change he promised to the doorsteps of
\nNigerians. The impression I get when I speak to friends or read their
\nwrite-ups is that President Buhari is abdicating in his responsibility to
\nbring the desired change his promised the people of Nigeria. They say that
\nthe ‘CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME’ campaigns is an attempt to divert the
\nattention of Nigerians from the real issues. They claim that the President
\nis blaming them for the economic crisis they never created in the first
\nplace. They are of the opinion that President Buhari should bring the
\nchange he promised.<\/p>\n
Those who know better tell us that change will not come if we continue to
\nwait for other people. The tell us that change will elude us if we
\ncontinue to procrastinate and continue to shift it to some other time.
\nThey tell us that we are the ones we have been waiting for. They tell us
\nthat we are change we desire, the change we seek and the change we want.
\nNow why am I saying this? What point am I trying to make? What do I want
\nto achieve? As a father, as an activist, as a leader ,and\u00a0 as an elder I
\nhave seen it all in Nigeria. I have seen why things seem to remain the
\nsame even when we try to move forward. I have seen why Nigeria is not
\nworking. I have seen why we seem to remain the same when other countries
\nare moving forward. I have concluded that even you brought all the money
\nin the world to Nigeria we may not make it because we need attitudinal
\nchange. We need to change our character. We need to change our mindset. We
\nneed to love this country and work for it to bring the desired change we
\nall need.<\/p>\n
I have been diligently following the recovery of public funds from certain
\nindividuals like Service Chiefs, politicians, business men, contractors,
\ncivil servants etc and I have been asking why we steal what we do not
\nneed, while we steal and steal and will not say enough is enough, and why
\nwe steal for ourselves, for our children , for grand children, for our
\ngreat grand children and even generations yet unborn. I am told that “our
\nforeign exchange reserves plummeted from $62bn in 2008 to $30bn by 2015,
\nat a time when oil prices were at a historic high, reaching a level of
\n$114 per barrel in 2014.By comparison, Indonesia, another oil producing
\neconomy with a high population, increased its reserves from $60 billion in
\n2008 to $120 billion in 2015” about the same time. Now who is to blame?
\nYou blame the government, the rats in NNPC, the rats in the MDAs,the rats
\nin the Budget office, their cronies and associates, their hangers on etc.
\nThey are all Nigerians.<\/p>\n
A Professor from the University of Lagos once took a weighing machine to
\nthe markets in Lagos to verify the claims of Nigerian Manufactures
\nconcerning the weight of their products. None of the products passed the
\nsimple test. The products weighed below what was written on the labels.
\nNow who is to blame? Fathers and Mothers who pay for their children to go
\nto special centers to write their examinations are not government
\nofficials. Special Centers are where students go to be helped to pass
\ntheir exams. The criminal organizers of the scam buy the question papers
\nfrom WAEC Officials and get experts to provide answers which they now
\nhandover to these students at special centers. What about some Medical
\nDoctors who run baby factories where underaged girls are lured with say
\nN50,000 to get pregnant and when the babies are delivered these Doctors
\nand their collaborators sell the babies to would be buyers ranging from
\nN500,000 to N1,000,000? Are they not ordinary Nigerians citizens? What
\nabout the Lawyers and Judges Including the well respected SANs who run
\nfrom one court to another to defend those who looted the nation to bones?<\/p>\n
What about the ordinary Nigerians who connive with government officials to
\ndefraud government and sabotage the system?\u00a0 What about our contractors
\nwho collect money for projects and use it to buy more cars and marry more
\nwives? What about government officials and ordinary Nigerians who connive
\nto loot the nation and stash the money abroad and sometimes such funds are
\nnever recovered? What about the ordinary Bankers and Bank MDs who help
\nthe looters to keep stolen funds and even help to open several Accounts
\nwithout sticking to the rules of the games? What about the Governors,
\nSenators , HOR members, traditional rulers, leaders of thoughts etc who
\nencourage criminals to destroy government installations in the name of
\nagitations?\u00a0 What will you say about University Teachers who demand sex or
\nMoney for students to pass their exams? What about those who go to collect
\nour scarce foreign exchange earnings promising to use it to import raw
\nmaterials only to take the dollars to the black market and make millions
\njust for making phone calls to the right people in the corridors of power?
\nWhat about those who use our scarce foreign exchange to go and import
\ntoothpicks, toilet rolls, toilet soaps, etc? What about those who divert
\nmilitary hardwares to the enemies or those who work for the enemies of the
\ncountry for personal gains? What about the church leaders who connive with
\nany government in power just for personal gains instead of speaking truth
\nto power in tandem with their callings? Police who erect illegal
\ncheckpoints across Nigeria to extort money from ordinary Nigerians are
\npulling the country down.\u00a0 Those rats who add thousands of names ( ghost
\nworkers) on the pay roll to steal billions every month are pulling the
\nnation down gradually.I can go on and on.<\/p>\n
The truth is that some of us used to say that Nigeria is what it is today
\nbecause of what our past leaders have made it whether they are civilians
\nor military but today I am singing a different song. My experience since I
\nleft the University of Nigeria in 1985 is that all have contributed to the
\nmess we find ourselves today. The little wrongs things we have been doing
\nin our homes and\u00a0 offices have magnified in no uncertain terms to become
\nthe big problems we have today as a nation. A nation fails because we have
\nfailed as a doctors, engineers,\u00a0 lawyers ,\u00a0 teachers, soldiers,\u00a0 police,
\nfathers, mothers, presidents, ministers, senators, house of reps members,
\ngovernors, commissioners, artisans etc. Governance is a collective
\nresponsibility. Government must show the way and the citizens must obey
\nthe law and do the needful. Citizens must change their attitude and
\nmindset for this country to join the comity of developed nations.<\/p>\n
Joe igbokwe
\nLagos, Nigeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The ‘CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME’ campaigns kickstarted by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari is being misunderstood as if the President is shifting the Change he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n