PARADIGM SHIFT

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."Steve Jobs

When i hear people rave and rant about poor governance in Nigeria, it simply brings few questions to mind; 1. Do we have a good government yet bad citizens or
2. Do we have bad citizens but good goverment or then 3. Are the government and the people both corrupt? In order to settle the score between leadership and followers in Nigeria, we need to call a spade, a spade. Talk, the last time i checked the mall was still very cheap and Nigeria needs much more than talk to change. I have heard......... "We can no longer afford politicians who play games with Nigeria's future". Chinua Achebe, Nigeria’s foremost novelist, had noted that the trouble with Nigeria (his home country) was leadership.

For better governance, citizens need more access to information; budgets and local taxes need to be transparent. Women and youth need equal opportunities in business, and agriculture policies need to be developed openly. Bad governance is broadly recognized as a root cause of poverty, often equated with global trends such as youth bulge as a force able to rapidly undo development efforts or fuel conflict. On the other hand, governance success has the potential to quickly leverage and sustain development gains. I have also heard....... Governance is one of the most important issues of our time. Without accountable, reliable, farsighted governance, the global challenges and the needs of the population cannot be adequately addressed. Also, poor leadership can severely cripple a state’s economy and social welfare.

The political uprisings that have swept Nigeria over the past year represent the most significant challenge to our leadership. Many of our leaders are scrambling to suppress real or potential threats to their rule. The repercussions of this backlash have been felt across the North. I know........ We need pragmatic and visionary leaders to move Nigeria forward. Nigeria and Africa need leaders like Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. Nigeria needs a visionary leader. A leader that is committed to the core values and that embodies a sense of personal integrity and radiates a sense of vitality and will. A leader with the understanding that Nigerian values and liberty are under attack. I realize........ Nigerian government power is delegated away from the people symbolically and geographically.

We elect leaders that we will send across the country to Abuja where they will vote on laws that will affect everyone, instead of keeping them close where they are more accountable and can tailor specific “solutions” to problems. Federalism does not make the resulting laws any more justified, but it increases the accountability and decreases the power of our rulers. Federalism is not the means to achieve a free society, but rather a principle slowing the growth of large-scale government mandates. We may not have a king to dissolve state assemblies, but we have a federal government quietly drawing all power to itself. However, the truth is......... it is not only our right but a responsibility to elect the right set of people to administer the functioning of the country. Only those who perform their duty towards the nation have the right to raise their voices against the system... the big question now is "Where are the citizens who have truly performed their duty towards Nigeria?" Who are the bad leaders we complain so much about? Are they not citizens like you and i who found their way to the seat of power.... we are the leaders and the leaders are us.

 If we can change, they will change! The common denominator that leaders and followers seek in Nigeria is the single catalyst that leads to change and it simply is a PARADIGM SHIFT - a change from one way of thinking to another. It's a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis. It just does not happen, but rather it is driven by agents of change. Change is difficult. Human Beings resist change; however, the process has been set in motion long ago and we will continue to co-create our own experience.

I am a change agent.... are you?