THE CHANGE WE NEED

By Cosmas Ilechukwu
General Overseer, CRM.

NATIONAL CHRISTIAN CENTRE, ABUJA
25TH October 2009.

Text: Ezekiel 22:25-27, 30-31

Introduction
The world is moving on the fast lane, but as a nation, Nigeria still taking a nap. By the time we wake up, the rest of the world would have left us behind. We need a change! The nations with whom we began the race for greatness have all gone so far ahead of us that we are unlikely to ever meet up with them. The real problem, however, is not that we are lagging behind our mates, but that we seem not to be aware of it. Who will raise the wake-up call for us? Tim Irwin spoke of “emotional wake-up” calls that motivate action. This is what we have negatively heard as a nation in the militancy in the delta regions and the spate of kidnappings in the nation. This was also what we have just heard, positively, in the successful disarming of the militants. The question still remains however, as to whether we have the political and moral will to respond to these calls and follow through with transformative actions that will lift our nation? Will our leaders do what is necessary to sustain the process? Let’s wait and see.

In our text, God sent a prophet to give a wake up call to the nation of Israel in the time of Ezekiel. When will our own prophet emerge to call Nigeria back to conscious life and effective actions, so that the labours of our heroes’ past will not be in vain?

The Change We Need
We need changes in all the basic systems of society. The human society stands on a tripod of three systems, namely, the religious system, the political system, and the economic system. For the society to run effectively each of this system must be made to function well. Where any of the systems is not functioning well, the society will malfunction. Where the three of them malfunction, the society is doomed to imminent collapse unless the right things are done. The Nigerian society, regrettably, happened to fall into the category of the societies where the three systems are tottering. A Chinese Proverbs cautions us, “If we do not change our direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.”

What do these systems mean?

1. The Political System refers to the ways and means a given people agree to make decisions about their common life. Politics, essentially, is the agreed-upon means by which a society orders its life through the making of public and private decisions. This is done through one of several ways a nation can choose to express its political identity such as monarchy, diarchy, democracy etc. We have chosen democracy in Nigeria, which is that form of political self-expression of a nation that allows people to make decision through their elected representative. For democracy work, the electoral process must be ordered such that the will of the people is sovereign.

What does God demand from the political system of a nation? He demands a politics of justice.
The political system of ancient Israel has two indispensable components –the king and the judge (presidency and judiciary)
The kings–Deuteronomy 17:14-20.

14“You are about to enter the land the LORD your God is giving you. When you take it over and settle there, you may think, ‘We should select a king to rule over us like the other nations around us.’ 15If this happens, be sure to select as king the man the LORD your God chooses. You must appoint a fellow Israelite; he may not be a foreigner. 16“The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the LORD has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.’ 17The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the LORD. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself. 18“When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the LORD his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. 20This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way. And it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel.  (NLT)


The Judge –Deuteronomy 16:18-20
18“Appoint judges and officials for yourselves from each of your tribes in all the towns the LORD your God is giving you. They must judge the people fairly. 19You must never twist justice or show partiality. Never accept a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and corrupt the decisions of the godly. 20Let true justice prevail, so you may live and occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you. (NLT)

But what kind of politics do we practice in Nigeria today? We practice a politics of oppression and injustice.
25Your princes plot conspiracies just as lions stalk their prey. They devour innocent people, seizing treasures and extorting wealth. They make many widows in the land ( Ezekiel 22:25, NLT).

The Economic System refers to the commonly agreed procedure a society’s goods and services are generated and distributed. We have chosen a free-market economy in Nigeria. For this to work, adequate legislation to regulate quality, competition and consumers right among other must be put in place. The key question here is, how do we as a people choose to create and distribute our wealth?

What does God demand from economic system of the nation? An economics of equality based on equitable distribution of goods and services –Deuteronomy 6:10-11.
10“The LORD your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. 11The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land.(NLT)

But what kind of economics do we have in Nigeria today? An economics of exploitation!
Your leaders are like wolves who tear apart their victims. They actually destroy people’s lives for money! 12There are hired murderers, loan racketeers, and extortioners everywhere. They never even think of me and my commands, says the Sovereign LORD.  (Ezekiel 22:27,22, NLT)

The Religious System is that which inculcates the society’s essential beliefs, values and basic conviction on which that society constructs its life together. It is concerned with what constitutes the ultimate value of a people.

What does God demand from the religious system of the nation? A religion of loving relationship with God and fellow human beings –Mark 12:29-31 (See Deuteronomy 6:4-6 & Leviticus 19:18).

29Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. 30And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbours as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

What do we have today in our nations? A religion of hate and violence. A religion of domination.
26Your priests have violated my instructions and defiled my holy things. They make no distinction between what is holy and what is not. And they do not teach my people the difference between what is ceremonially clean and unclean. They disregard my Sabbath days so that I am dishonoured among them” (Ezekiel 22:26).

These systems are divine bequeathals to humankind for the effective running of the human society. Whenever they are abused, humanity is inevitably plunged into problems and difficulties. Whenever the nation of Israel abused the systems of society, God would send a prophet to warn them. This was the case with Ezekiel in our text.

How To Achieve The Change
30“I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one. 31So now I will pour out my fury on them, consuming them with the fire of my anger. I will heap on their heads the full penalty for all their sins. I, the Sovereign LORD, have spoken!” (Ezekiel 22:30-31)

Societies go bad because of the attitudes and behaviours of people who make up that society.
If change must occur in any society, it must start with people. You must change and become a good person. Mahatma Gandhi said, "We must become the change we wish to see in the world."

Once you have changed for good, you must become a catalyst for change. Then you must model goodness and fight for the good of our nation. You must no longer be indifferent about the plight of our nation, feeling powerless and asking what difference can an individual make. The truth is that human society is changed the way it is built –one person at a time. John F. Kennedy said, “One person can make a difference and every person should try.” You can never tell what a great difference you can make until you try.

You must reclaim your right to be who you are and dare to be different when that is the only way to uphold your integrity.
Refuse to run with the crowd if they are not running in the right direction. Reject the dictum that says “if cannot beat them, join.” To do so is deny your personhood and comprise your right to make a difference you are created to make. If cannot beat them, stand alone –then you will discover there can be virtue in loneliness. Change requires that we paddle upstream—it's obviously much easier to go with the flow. But most people who have served as agents of change have had to go against the tide. Robert Frost underscored this point in his epic poem – “The Road Not Taken”:
I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.


You must be guided by your values, if those values glorify God and add value to human life.

You must team up with those who want to catalyze positive change in our national life and its systems.
Margaret Mead, the late American cultural anthropologist said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” It will take a critical mass of committed people to stand strongly together to press for the need for transformation in our nation if the change we need must come.

Our leaders must lead in line with Dr Peter Drucker definition of leadership.
Leadership, he said is “the lifting of man’s vision to higher heights, the raising of man’s performance to a higher standard, the building of man’s personality beyond its normal limitations.” Three key job of leadership are defined in this definition, namely:

First, it is the responsibility of leadership to cast a compelling vision for the people.
The leader is as relevant as the vision that he or she is pursuing. Where there is no vision, the bible declares, people perish (Proverbs 29:18). Casting a strong vision enables a leader to generate hope for a better tomorrow in the people and therefore provide them with the momentum for effective action. Hopelessness prevails in a nation where the leadership does not have a vision that gives the people a clear expectation for a desired future. A visionary leadership will give rise to a nation of visionary people. The present national leadership is trying to do this in its Vision 2020 and the Seven Point Agenda.

No leadership of any nation will go too far in pursuit of a vision if it does actualize a massive buy-in from the people. As the individuals go so goes the nation. We are a nation of apathy when the national interest is the issue. We can only achieve greatness as a nation if and when the individual Nigerian is encouraged to accept his or her Nigerianness and feel proud of Nigeria as one nation under God.

Secondly, it is the responsibility of leadership to create enabling environment for enhanced productivity by the people –“raising human performance to higher standards.”

As a nation we must change the attitude of expecting reward before work. It has been rightly observed that the dictionary is the only place where reward comes before work. Why should a contractor be paid fully before the contract is fully executed? Why should civil or public servants be paid salaries they did not earn through hard and value-creating work? My mother taught me that when a person eats food the person did not earn, it will taste like sand in the person’s mouth. Nigeria as a nation must learn to reward productivity and not longevity in service. Why should a lecturer download stuffs from the internet and sells to students in name of “handout” and he is not sent to jail? Why should students pass exams they did not sit for and we turn around to complain about falling educational standards? Do we really have unemployed or unemployable graduates? Let us not talk about the disgraceful attitude of our police men on our roads. How can we ever become great if we despise the dignity of labour and see work a mere drudge? Is work what we do for a living or what we live to do? Thomas Carlyles said: “Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life-purpose; he has found it, and will follow it.”

Until we change and begin to see work as an authentic expression of who we are and the most fundamental way we honour and worship God, our question for greatness will remain what Shakespeare described as “a tale told by a fool, full of sound and furry signifying nothing.” Somebody has rightly observed, “The society, which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” Are you listening, Nigeria?

Each one of us must take responsibility for our national development and growth. There must be attitudinal change among Nigeria with respect to work. Walter J. Ong (Jesuit philosopher) observed, “Work is what is not play, and play is what is not work.” The problem we have in Nigeria is that we cannot differentiate between the two; therefore, we often mistake one for the other. Dexter Yager said: “A professional doesn’t work nine to five. A professional does what the professional needs to do to make the professional’s business work.” The bible commands that the person who does not work should not eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10), unfortunately, in our nation people eat without working. Laziness is resting when one’s work is yet undone. We rest at work and naively hope to be great in 2020.

Thirdly, leadership is “the building of man’s personality beyond its normal limitations.”
People are the greatest asset of any nation. A nation is only as developed as it intellectually capital, which has been defined as “the collective knowledge of the people.” Our Federal Universities of Technology have their equivalent in Indian Institutes of Technology. While the Indian Institutes are producing some of the best engineers in the world today, our universities of technology are busy churning out professors in liberal arts and graduating students who are not able to differentiate between Albert Einstein and Fela in terms of the passions that governed their lives. We need to change!

Talking about how intellectual capital can drive the economic growth of a nation, Philip Emeagwali said “For Africa, poverty will be reduced when intellectual capital is increased and leveraged to export knowledge and ideas. Africa’s primary strategy for poverty alleviation is to gain debt relief, foreign assistance, and investments from western nations. Poverty alleviation means looking beyond 100 percent literacy and aiming for 100 percent numeracy, the prerequisite for increasing our technological intellectual capital. Yet, in this age of information and globalization when poverty alleviation should result in producing valuable products for the global market and competing with Asia, the United States, and Europe, shamefully, diamonds found in Africa are polished in Europe and re-sold to Africans.

“The intellectual capital needed to produce products and services will lead to the path of poverty alleviation. Intellectual capital, defined as the collective knowledge of the people, increases productivity. The latter “by driving economic growth” alleviates poverty, always and everywhere, even in Africa. Productivity is the engine that drives global economic growth. Those who create new knowledge are producing wealth, while those who consume it are producing poverty.”

This linkage between intellectual capital and enhanced national productivity is a major reason Nigeria must invest in the qualitative education of our young people. We must be able to provide world-class education in Nigerian schools – from Nursery to University. Anything good cost money. Good education is costly anywhere in the world. It takes wisdom to prioritize quality education for our children in this nation and go for it cost what it may. When they are out of school, we must make them work and make sure they earn their pay. For this to happen, Nigeria as nation must embrace meritocracy as an inevitable companion of democracy.

When The Change We Need Happens.
The primary work of the church in any nation is to call the nation –the political, economic and religious system –to surrender to the Lordship of Christ. 
“For through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together” (Colossians 1:16-17 NLT).

Therefore, nothing falls outside the purview of the church as we labour to bring His kingdom of justice, equitable distribution of wealth and on going relationship with God and each other into every sphere of our national life.

Paul emphasized that Christians should bring into national life a transformed life style that bespeaks of our new life in Christ. This transformed public life will be characterized by:
* Honesty in all our dealings with others - So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbours the truth, for we are all parts of the same body.(Ephesians 4:25)
* Avoid resentful attitude - And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry,(Ephesians 4:26)
* Earn your living through sincere work – 28If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need.(Ephesians 4:28)
* Positive communication – Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.(Ephesians 4:29)
* Honour the Holy Spirit –your Divine aid at work -And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30)
* Sue for peace and harmony as much as it lies with you in the place of work –31Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behaviour. 32Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:31-32)
* Avoid the sex trap -3Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people.(Ephesians 5:3)
* Everything Paul was trying to say can be summarized in one sentence of the first verse of Ephesians chapter 5 -Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.

Conclusion
Most of people find it hard to let go of the familiar and to move out of our comfort zones. If you are in this position, you are not alone. However, it is important to know that successful people and nations realize that they may have to make some crucial changes in order to reach their full potential. Max Dupree said: "It is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are." Therefore, if we must reach our full potential as a nation, we must begin to make the necessary changes that will take us there.

Paul did not think that change can occur in any nation or city without sacrifice. He clearly acknowledges that Christian engagement in public life is a spiritual warfare.
12For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12 NLT)

We must fight with the unseen demonic forces that have hijacked the political, economic and religious systems of our Nation, through their human collaborators. To be successful in this cosmic confrontation, we must be careful to put on the whole armour of God so that have done all we will stand tall for Christ.