Better Nigeria: Is Buhari The Change We Need?

By Iphie Obiechina 

CHANGE!!!

A word we have heard a lot of in this New Year, it has to be the Nigerian word for 2015, and we haven't even gone through the first month of the new year.

This word has become a slogan for the APC, it has been a word rolling on the lips of almost every Nigerian, whether old or young, but most especially the young Nigerians. Before I go into what my opinion on what change should really mean and what it has come to mean to the average voting Nigerian, I would first like to see what the dictionary defines the word change to mean.

The word change has a lot of meanings, but I would go with the ones closest to the meaning of the change we have been chanting about in Nigeria. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines change to mean ‘to make (something) radically different”,  ‘to replace one with another’, ‘to make a shift from one to another”. Going by these different meanings stated, change is simply the process of making something different from the norm, something different from what we are used to. In Nigeria, the word change has come to be associated with the presidential candidate of the APC, General Muhammadu Buhari, in this light change can be taken to mean something or rather someone different from our present leader, His Excellency Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

This is not a political post and so I am not going to go into why you should vote one candidate over another, I believe everyone who is voting is an adult and has already made the decision on who he or she would vote for, there is no need to go into all that. I would rather like to talk about what the word change should really mean to us, as opposed to what it means now.

I updated my personal message (PM) on Blackberry Messenger (BBM) sometime ago, and it read in these exact words,

‘Buhari  is not the change Nigeria needs, do not be deceived’

As expected, this was an update that raised a lot of arguments, both for and against the message; it served it’s purpose. The idea was not only to start a conversation about change but also to sample what the different opinions on what change should mean.

Most of my contacts took my update to mean that I was a GEJITE, they felt I was pro-Jonathan and that all I was trying to do was to indirectly campaign for the President. Are GEJ and GMB the only presidential candidates we have contesting at the upcoming elections? Let me digress a little bit and do some political education. We have 14 candidates contesting, below is a list of their names along with the political platforms they are contesting on.

1.     JCI Sen. Tunde Anifowose-Kelani - Action Alliance (AA)

2.     Rafiu Salau - Alliance for Democracy (AD)

3.     Alh Ganiyu Galadima - Alliance Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN)

4.     Dr Mani Ibrahim Ahmed - African Democratic Congress  (ADC)

5.     Ayeni Musa Adebayo -  African People’s Alliance (APA)

6.     Muhammadu Buhari - All Progressive Congress (APC)

7.     Chief Sam Eke - Citizen’s Popular Party (CPP)

8.     High Chief Ambrose N. Albert Owur -HOPE Party

9.     Comfort Oluremi Sonaiya (the only female contestant)- KOWA Party

10. Chief Martin Onovo – National Conscience Party (NCP)

11. Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan – People’s Democratic Party (PDP)

12. Allagoa Kelvin Chinedu – People’s Party of Nigeria (PPN)

13. Godson Mgbodile Ohaenyen Okoye – United Democratic Party (UDP)

14. Chief (Dr) Chekwas Okorie – United Progressive Party (UPP)

Note that the All Progrossive Grand Alliance (APGA) has adopted Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan as its presidential candidate.

Now you know that your choices are far beyond just GEJ and GMB, but I am not going to deny the fact that I am a GEJITE or a JONATHANIAN or whatever it is his supporters are being called right now.

My update wasn't about trying to get you to vote for Jonathan, it wasn't even about trying to get you not to vote for Buhari. It was simply about starting a conversation, a conversation that would get you to see the role you had to play in the change we all desperately want to see in our beloved country.

I got asked by some of my contacts who were outraged that I didn't think Buhari was the change we needed, they went on to ask who I felt the change Nigeria needed was, my answer to them was simply ‘YOU AND I’. Most went on to argue that an individual really couldn't do anything and that what we needed was a leader who would change Nigeria. I was disappointed to see that the youths didn’t understand the power they had to bring about change, they couldn't even see that change is a state of mind, it is a way of life that goes beyond who the leader is at a certain time. There were others who agreed with me that we could indeed bring about change if we really wanted to do that. It was pleasing to know I wasn't alone.

We have a lot of power in our hands, one that goes beyond just voting in a leader we see to be the leader we need to bring about the change we want to see. We have the power to change ourselves first and become the change we want to see in our society. Voting in a leader that would bring about this change is important, but an elected leader only gets eight years at most if he gets re-elected after his first tenure. What happens after his eight years are up, we revert back to status quo ante?

The most important change has to come from within; it has to come from a people who are willing to see things change. Jesus came with the message of salvation, yet there were still Jews that weren't ‘saved’. We have to work for the change we hope to see, it has to come from us the citizen as well as our leaders. The change we need in Nigeria is not about the pretentious calls we make on TV or to the various media houses for change. It is about the little things, it’s about a change in the way we do things, it is about a change in our attitudes towards our country Nigeria and all that concerns Her. It is about change in our attitudes towards obeying the law; it is about the little things that add up to bring about the change we seek.

It is important that our leaders are the first agents of change, but it is very important that we all become agents of change.Your first duty as a change agent is to get your Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and then go out to vote for whosoever you believe is an epitome of the word change. It doesn't matter if GEJ gets re-elected, or GMB gets elected, you have to become a leader of change even if its its just within your household. Go ahead to be the change you want to see, it doesn't matter if you think you are alone, there would always be others who would follow in your footstep.

Be the change you want to see, become a change leader.