When we stop changing we stop growing. Great ideas still need adaptation and modification in order to succeed. Most people become willing to change not because they see the light, but because they feel the heat. It is a sign of strength to make changes when necessary. But, the longer a people are in error, the less open they will be to change. Hope built on lies is a false hope. We have been creating energies to think up excuses for our failures in Nigeria. Obstinate men or women don’t hold opinions rather they are imprisoned by their opinions. Our leaders cannot build their reputations on what they are going to do. Let us believe and behave the change.

Our past was not the news utopia for which many pine. News is socially constructed. Most political news flow from the political actors; whose tactics it is, to manipulate journalists to reflect their self interests. Political elites are the unseen hands trying to define the political reality. Press statements and releases are news participant’s attempts at self reporting. Political news is manufactured products concocted by political strategists. The Nigerian press should be active in shaping, interpreting and investigating political subjects. They should stop taking cues from disgruntled politicians. The media should engage in public service journalism.

Yes! The season we are, calls for the practice of revolutionary journalism. The forgery of the senate standing order 2015; should move from being politically centered news to media centered news. The media should investigate, if there was any amendment to the senate standing order 2011; and how the senate standing order 2015 came into existence. The media should stop reporting the news from the participant’s point of view. The issue is lacking activist moral urgency in its reportage. The void in activists rhetoric’s, is been exploited by the shameless politicians and the public is confused about the issue. The media should place the issue in its proper perspective. The trial of the senate president and his deputy for criminality is not a political question.

Heretofore, our leaders have no intentions for building a moral society. And, the citizenry was not thinking free. So, we got a buffet democracy. Our episodic memory will never fail us. Our politicians became clinical treasury looters. We were helplessly reduced to becoming political-by-standers. Our politicians became kleptomaniacs. Oaths of offices are taken as mere ceremonial activities. And, our leaders became leech and we got leery of them. So, change becomes a philosophical necessity. The political and social systems had adapted to the corrupt political environment in the past. Now, we should adapt the environment to our needs – corruption free society. The change philosophy demands constructive citizenship.

Therefore, let the voice of conscience speak in us all. Some of our politicians are still suffering from Status Symbol Syndrome. They have refused to factor equality before the law into their change philosophy. They are applying the Big Man theory, to fighting crime and criminality. Nigeria is not actus purus. Change is a transition from bad to good. Those who are possessed of the “Big Man mentality” are suffering from hysteresis. They are acting in a manner that is not appropriate for the change situation. We can feel their intellectual burping. They cannot differentiate between Rights and duties. So, in their vain imaginations, they feel they can manipulate public emotions for their selfish interests.

The political behaviour of some of our politicians suggests, they need psychiatric evaluation. The intellectual scaffolding of the forgery of the senate standing order 2015 smacks of political deviancy. The building of false theories from false basic assumptions is pseudo intellectualism. The senate cannot apply the principles of beneficial ownership to their fake senate standing order 2015. The said document was not the product of any legislative process. The senators must conquer themselves on this issue. Otherwise, their cry of freedom will end in the murmur of regret. The character of our senators, will determine the quality of legislation, we will have in Nigeria. The forgery of the senate standing order 2015 is a living truth. No amount of political blackmail can diminish it.

Hereupon, the change philosophy demands we should have a new paradigm of thinking; and behave in accordance with reality. I have a consequentialist argument, about the forgery of the senate standing order 2015. It will be a serial self deception for any person to justify the said document in the public space. The senate cannot use a fake standing order to make laws for the nation. Those who are becoming feisty, because they had been exposed should have a rethink. My scripture tells me in the book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 7 Verse 9 that; “Control your temper, for anger labels you a fool”.

Our politicians have no conviction. Telling lies against the truth is to mislead the message recipient. But social proof can be drawn only from communicator credibility. The use of argument based persuasion; had proven that, our senators are political hirelings, with no national interest. They are only working for their money. Salisu Buhari, was tried in 1999 as speaker of the House of Representative for certificate forgery. He was convicted and later pardoned. The House of Representative did not make funny insinuations about it. The senate can take a cue from this and rescue itself from suffering institutional pathology.

Finally, the indiscretion of our senators will get the worst of them. Nigerians have the political right to be informed about the forgery of the senate standing order 2015. The Nigeria senate is not a cult. Our senators, should inform their constituents about the senate scandal. Silence is not golden in this case; we should name and shame our political criminals.

All political fault lines must be corrected in the country. Nigerians are tired of excuses and impunity. Our institutions must optimize performance and service delivery to the public. Intellectual liberalism is not a license to distorting the truth about the forgery of the senate standing order 2015. The trial of the senate president and his deputy, over the forgery of the senate standing order 2015, is not a political trial. They are not tried for their political convictions and beliefs. The circular arguments of both them, shows they lack conscience. In the words of Patrick Henry “We shall not fight alone. There is a just God”. Let the change be! Nigerians are watching.

Force Bray is a Citizen Journalist

lol...! not meaning to sound cynical but this piece succeeded in evoking laughter out of me; a painful laughter.