The Change Nigeria really needs

President Buhari and the all progressive congress rode to victory in the 2015 general election on the mantra of change. The fact the they were able to unseat an incumbent with a candidate who had failed three times previously probably says the majority of Nigerians really wanted a change but can the President and his party truly provide the ‘change’ Nigeria needs? My answer is No.

You see, President Buhari, the APC and a whole lot of Nigerians believe taming corruption is the key to turning around the fortunes of Nigeria. We believe it so much that it was the number one item on the APC manifesto in h1 tags. We believe it so much that we voted a guy whom majority of the people down south (mostly Christians) rejected 3 times because he was seen as a religious fanatic who was going to impose sharia laws if elected. We believe so much so that anyone or thing who can feign an anti corruption posture would have won the elections and that my friends is the reason why I don’t think Buhari can really change Nigeria.

Now don’t get me wrong, we really need to fight corruption, its a plague that has ravaged the country but its no longer our number one enemy. Our number one enemy is ‘We the people and our mentality’. Any change that doesn't start with reorientating and refocusing the minds of Nigerians is comestic and right now, that’s the only change that Buhari is likely to give Nigeria.

The last Governor of Lagos State Babatunde Fashola didn’t change Lagos by “fighting” corruption, he did it by selling his vision for the state to the people. He showed them that a new clean Lagos was possible but to get there, we had to start doings things differently and this should be the message the APC should embrace.

While it is important that looters and criminals face justice, they (the APC)need to remember that there are close to 70 million people who over time have come to see the evils perpetrated by those in power as normal. They are the once the APC should be facing, they are the ones who should be the focus of the Change APC promised.