FEATURE ARTICLE

Yemi AdegbiteSaturday, August 9, 2015
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Brampton, Ontario Canada

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THAT THIS CHANGE MAY ENDURE!

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PC and General Muhammadu Buhari came to power on the platform of making a change, and change is the only phenomenon that is permanent in nature, so whether we like it or not, change will come at its own time. Every organism undergoes change continually, and paradoxically too, change is resisted by every leaving thing. Many reasons had been adduced to the organism's resistance to change by many scholars, but that is beyond the scope of this essay, and it is still a subject of intellectual debates and conjectures. We all can still remember how much was spent by APC and GMB to sell their campaign of CHANGE, and all of us can vividly remember how much naira and dollars were sacrificed by the PDP to ensure that the status quo be remained, the rest is now history.

One thing is clear, the successive governments did not only ignore Nigerians, and indeed they also insulted them by the level of rots, impunity, corruption, ostentation, and lackadaisical attitudes of the ruling elite towards Nigerians and their welfare. The last Jonathan regime was the worst offender! He surrounded himself with his cronies and apologists who will only sing his praise and tell him what he wanted to hear, and they lead him to his pitfall. Every voice of reason became ranting of a loafer to his hear and he was deluded by soothsayers around him. When Jonathan fell from power, not so surprising though, all his cronies could say is "Sayonara!" One of his ardent and fiercest supporters said that he was not made by Jonathan, and that he will be after Jonathan is gone, he concluded by saying that he is a friend of any government in power, that's very unfair.

Soon after Buhari took over, Nigerians in their characteristic manner became so impatient, they want the change almost immediately, they want to stampede him to come with a quick fix, names start to fly around, "he's too slow", "where is the change your promised?", "General go slow", ,"baba go slow", "where are your ministers?" etc. General Buhari who is very smart and intelligent than Nigerians actually give him credit for stood his ground and would not be stampeded into making mistakes, he is aware that every quick solution is a false one. He said it very clearly during his US visit that he is not in a hurry to appoint his ministers, until some fundamental change and structures had been laid down. Albert Einstein described insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and then expect a different result. Gen. Buhari asked himself which one is better: to join a slow train that will eventually arrive at the station, or to join a super-fast train that will jump the track and derail? Of course, he chose the former. Many Nigerians could not fault him on his choice, we have seen many governments come and go, but Nigerians have been worse off each successive time, government in, government out, but the same degrading condition remain unchanged! This is the right time for the CHANGE!

The Nature of Change.

There is no single acceptable definition of change, but by its very nature, change is very slow, it does not mean a speed of jet, and how you see change depends on which side you are. (Imagine how an APC man and a PDP man will define change). When you a passenger in a car, you see a different terrain of the roads, but when you take the driver's seat, you see the roads differently. Wayne Dyer, once said, "If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." Someone likened change to driving in a fog, you may not be able to see far, however you can make the entire tip that way. Change could be for better or for worse, depending on which side of the divide you are, and wherever you are, change has and adjustment period which differs from person to person. The final consolation is that change seeks a better place at the end, and change is done, when you realized that everything is different. This is the best time for all Nigerians to embrace the change that is currently being introduced by the Buhari's APC led government because, change is seamless and less painful if you change before you need to change! That sounds paradoxical, but the fact is that change can flow smoothly if you flow with it, but could be bumpy, rough and jerky if you resist the change, because it does not look for a place to rest, just the next place to serve as a launching point, it is continuous and recursive.

For this change to happen and endure, Kotter (2007) identified some pitfalls that change leaders must avoid: thinking that it is easy to drive people out of their comfort zones, putting forward a complicated vision that is communicated in vague language, and putting powerful individuals who resist the change effort in influential positions. Promoting new leaders who do not exemplify or personify the new paradigm shift will equally be counterproductive, just as much as assuming that the new change has come to stay too soon and allowing the laggards to infect the change "troops". All change leaders according to Kotter (2007) and Kouzes & Posner (2003) must adapt quickly in order to maintain the speed, create a sense of urgency, build linked arm coalition, form a strategic vision, enlist volunteers who believe in your vision, empower them and remove barriers, generate and celebrate short term wins, sustain acceleration, and lastly institute an enduring change. I do hope that the nascent change unfolding in Nigeria will endure and mature with time.

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