What Change do we yearn for?

I have read and heard so much on the on-going February 14, 2015 election preparation in Nigeria – TV, Radio, Newspapers, Social media; and the vibes that keeps on resonating is that of CHANGE.

Upon searching for the definition of change, Google provides these definitions

• As a verb; change means - to make or become different and/or take or use another instead of.
• As a noun; change is describes as – ac act or process through which something becomes different and/or coins as opposed to bank notes

Let me start by saying that whilst I have no preference amongst the two candidates,  I would like to posit that prior to demanding change and all the other slogans being touted, we must understand the change we yearn for.

For me a look at the two presidential candidates is the case of the pot and the kettle. Like the popular saying goes, the pot calls the kettle black, whilst as we know that they both sit upon the flame which chars their bottom and makes them black.

However with the advent of electricity, t the kettle can now tell the pot that it no longer sits on the flames and as such would not turn black; whilst still achieving the same function of heating water..

But alas, the pot can also make the same submission as pressure cookers which we use in ensuring that we quicken the pace of cooking our food does not require flames, rather like the kettle uses the same electricity to achieve its goals.

Either way we would still come back to our saying that the pot has the right to call the kettle black and vice versa.

Listening to the two major parties in the country – APC and PDP (alphabetical order), each one continues to allege that the other does not want the good for the future of our country Nigeria. However these are two parties that have been embroiled in the biggest crossover war in the history of country politics I have ever known ever since I learned how to read and write and understand the  dynamics of important issues like security, economy, etc.

As far as I am aware, the easiest thing to do is criticize and lay the blame on the door of someone else. This is why the refrain – it was the work of the devil – is quite common and people who drop the line expect to be left off the hook. So how do we get the devil that did the ‘work’? However when we get positive benefits from such offences, we all scream and testify to the goodness of God in our lives and our endeavors.

In my opinion I see change either as a gradual event or from a drastic move to enforce change, which sometimes results in heavy storms that would set the way for the rainbow at the end of it all.

Using the example of one of the greatest change events that occurred in my life time, the election of the first black or is it African-American president in the history of America, change came from a careful implementation of understanding the political climate of America, which had changed over time and which the opposition failed to notice. When looking at the analysis of the Obama election win, I clearly understand how we can put change to be and that is by a better understanding of the electorate – which is now popularly called the demographic campaign.

Has any of the major political parties gone the extra mile to understand the demographics of the electoral population – age, people, working class etc. how can they do that when they do not even understand the fact of who a youth is? It in Nigeria, I hear that a youth can be defined as someone who is above 50 years old.

As the current generation of people who should be leading our country in business, politics, economic discuss, we tend to still harbor the ills of our parents for a war which we played no part. As such we are faced with tribal and religious sentiments rather than face the issues that would build a nation and its generation unborn.

So I ask the question how many of us amongst my generation can boldly beat his/her chest and tell me that he/she does not have some form of relationship with either tribe or other religious groups – by marriage, friendship, business association etc.

Another example would be the working of the British parliament, where despite the fact that they engage in major politicking, the opposition is based on running a shadow government with seasoned technocrats and politicians with the right crop of advisers who will criticize policies not just because the oppositions formulated them, but based on the fact that they are providing the electorate with proposed alternatives that have been well thought through.

In everything we do and/or say we all like to tell ourselves look at how it is done in the USA or the UK, but these parties have been built on the foundations of running governments within their institutions. It beats me many a time when I hear that the opposition has a shadow secretary/minister who is at all times reviewing what the opposition policies are in comparison to what they can offer and are proffering alternatives whether right or wrong.

So like some people have continued to advocate let the parties’ campaign on the basis of the issues bothering Nigerians and let the so called technocrats within the parties tell us with concrete evidence what their plans are.

Well as for me I think this will be a bit difficult, because all I see amongst the parties are just the campaigners who as they speak to you cannot point to any member of the campaign group as the next minister of finance or defense, because we have not created the right institutions within the parties to do this and provide the leaders with what plans have been thought through and will be implemented within the first 100 days of office.

As such what you see after the election is the jostling for positions which now becomes an issue because the financiers of the election are asking for their persons to be appointed to various positions and asking for their candidates who have no clue of the working agenda to run ministries and become advisers. As such each candidate comes with his own agenda and then like Fela said – CONFUSION BREAK BONE.

Finally as I conclude, I want us as individuals and Nigerians to ask not just ourselves but every political candidate a very important question in order to ascertain that we understand the change we all yearn to have – WHAT IS YOUR PLAN AND WHO IS GOING TO IMPLEMENT THAT PLAN?

Anyone who really understands the tenets of leadership will understand that before you even start the season, you already have your team and as we kick off the season you already know your starting eleven, except of course one of your starting eleven sustains an injury before the season starts, when such happens you already know who the replacement will be.

Except we are saying, that as the team leader the plan is to experiment with your team at the beginning of the season and sometimes this might be disastrous, because you just might never be able to catch up with the leaders when you finally get your right selection.

So my fellow Nigerians WHAT CHANGE DO WE YEARN FOR?

IS IT ONE TO TEST OUR ABILITY TO CHANGE USING OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF VOTING - which I believe is necessary for this country because the political class will realize that our votes will always count.

OR

IS IT CHANGE IN THE STRUCTURES OF THE INSTITUTIONS THAT WILL PROVIDE THE LEADERSHIP – This I believe will be the foundation of lasting change in the way we view progress of our politics in Nigeria

This for me is the food for thought else we would only change not for the better but for the sake of change, this sometimes might be very disastrous.

This article was written by Uade Ahimie in January 2015, just before the 2015 Presidential Elections in Nigeria were rescheduled from February to March 2015