ALL over the democratic world, the term: “change” is a pet mantra employed by opposition parties. “Continuity” is the ruling party’s counter to this battle cry. After eight years of George Bush (II) and the Republicans in America, Barack Obama of the Democratic Party not only campaigned for “change”, he styled his own: “the change we need”.

In other words, it was not just a desire for the warmongering pro-rich GOP to be rested by the electorate, it was time to introduce Obama’s libertine new deals, look more inward and accommodate the interests of the New Americans and the middle class and minorities.

When the All Progressives Congress (APC) was campaigning for “change”, not many people bothered to pin them down, especially their presidential candidate, to explain what “change” meant. Buhari only told us that he would fight corruption, provide security and diversify the economy. Jonathan fought corruption with technology to get rid of ghost workers, yet there were widespread allegations of corruption against his government.

He battled Boko Haram, a job he almost completed before handing over, yet thousands of Nigerians had lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands more were dislodged from their communities. He diversified the economy, revived agriculture and infrastructure and made Nigeria the largest economy in Africa and its most favoured investment destination; yet majority of the citizens did not feel the impact of these efforts. So, what manner of change would Buhari create to make a difference?

Right now we have witnessed a major change, and we have been promised more changes. But are they “the change we need”? The change we have seen is that the APC has booted out the regime of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) Goodluck Jonathan. That was earth-shaking, as no opposition party has ever defeated a sitting president seeking re-election in Nigeria and the continent as a whole. But is that the change we need? Regime change is only a means to an end, not an end in itself. You can change a regime and later bite your finger in regret.

The second change, which the Buhari Presidency appears to be angling for, is to reduce the number of ministries, departments and agencies of the federal government to save cost. Unless he will also follow up by retrenching the thousands of workers in those MDA’s (which will create bigger problems), he will not be able to reduce the cost of governance. It will only lead to crowded desks populated by redundant government salary drawers; a journey to nowhere.

Part of the Buhari change, we hear, includes going after corrupt officials of the Jonathan era to retrieve stolen funds. We have seen that before, even under Buhari. He did the same in 1984/85. He also sent hundreds of politicians to long term jail terms. But that did not buoy up government coffers by much. It did not stop the shortage of essential commodities in shops. That draconian approach was possible only because he ruled with decrees.

It is not possible today. The courts, the legislature and fellow political stakeholders will frustrate the effort. Look at what happened to efforts to arrest Senator Buruji Kashamu. Just a few days ago, former Minister Femi Fani-Kayode, was discharged and acquitted of money laundering charges levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The only governor that is in jail for corruption today is Mr. James Ibori of Delta, and that is because he made the mistake of fleeing abroad. The rest are in the Senate or at their palatial homes enjoying their loots.

I pity those who see Buhari as a Superman and Spiderman rolled into one.

Let us even assume that Buhari is able to retrieve billion of dollars from the looters. Is it not the same governors and politicians that will spend and eventually re-loot the money? Where is “Abacha loot” brought back under Obasanjo’s regime? Any disclosure of how it was spent? Did it stop politicians from looting? Did it stop even APC governors from deeping their hands into their state treasuries to bankroll Buhari’s campaign, thus plunging them into penury and salary arrears? We wait to see how Superman/Spiderman Buhari will deal with that issue, as these chaps are now fervently crowding around him to be rewarded with juicy federal posts.

What I am saying is that if “change” means removing Jonathan from power, cutting the number of MDAs, getting looters to return stolen funds and possibly jailing them, it will not lead to the change we need. It is a cosmetic change because it does not address the root causes of corruption, poverty, economic wretchedness in the midst of plenty, mass unemployment and insecurity. If Buhari refuses to embrace “the change we need” he will fail woefully after his Superman/Spiderman stunts as he did in 1984/85. The corruption, insecurity and economic rubble will be multiplied by the time he leaves office in four years. The North will simply discard him and float another platform to enable them get another eight years, and the journey to nowhere will continue.

The “change we need” is not a “materialisation of my inventive genius” as Bambulu grandiloquently claimed in John Ene Henshaw’s hilarious play: This is Our Chance. It is not, as the worn cliché puts it, “rocket science”. It is an old idea which frightens the Nigerian ruling class. It is an inalienable truth which the class and region that Buhari belongs to, avoid like the plague because it will force our leaders to think and work. It will take away their parasitic, unearned and enslaving privileges and their right to use nepotism to populate the federal government with people of questionable competence from their part of the country as Buhari is already doing after only a few appointments.

That change we need is constitutional restructuring and establishment of “true federalism”. It involves the decentralisation of the powers of the federal government. The only way to cut down the size of the MDAs without mass retrenchment of workers is to transfer most of the powers of the federal government to the states or more preferably, the geopolitical zones. The Federal Government will exist to defend the nation and guarantee the citizenship rights of its people, while maintaining common services and taking charge of our international relations. The economy should largely be managed by the states (or more preferably, the geopolitical zones) and the private sector, which will pay taxes and royalties to the federal government to look after all of us.

I wonder why Ahmed Tinubu and his political platform went into a merger with Buhari and his acolytes without agreeing on this “true federalism” principle, which is an enduring political philosophy of the Awoist Yoruba, and for which the Igbo fought and lost the civil war. The only way that the North/South West alliance in the APC can last is for the Party to accede to the decentralisation of power. If that happens, the APC will become a darling of even the South East and South-South which cloak “true federalism” in the toga of “resource control”.

There is no manner of “good governance” that can thrive on the neocolonial structure which the military set up to enable a section of the country dominate and freeload the political and economic resources of the nation. No sustainable good governance can be possible under a Spiderman/Superman arrangement because after a little while, “mere mortals” will be back in charge, and the journey to nowhere will continue.

winetapper:
change Koor Balance Nii

That change we need is constitutional restructuring and establishment of “true federalism”. It involves the decentralisation of the powers of the federal government. The only way to cut down the size of the MDAs without mass retrenchment of workers is to transfer most of the powers of the federal government to the states or more preferably, the geopolitical zones. The Federal Government will exist to defend the nation and guarantee the citizenship rights of its people, while maintaining common services and taking charge of our international relations. The economy should largely be managed by the states (or more preferably, the geopolitical zones) and the private sector, which will pay taxes and royalties to the federal government to look after all of us.

OREMUSSANCTUS:
We nid jonathan cum PDP!

hucienda:
What type of Change?