It beats me that some experienced and politically active Nigerians would believe and still believe that real positive change would be brought about now by these same political actors who have been around in the governance arena without bringing about any real positive change.
CAO.
On Thursday, 25 June 2015 14:20:27 UTC+1, Ayo Obe wrote:
I don't think so. Nobody has been "lost" because they supported APC or its campaign slogan of "Change", but a lot of ugly primordial sentiments were revealed as the reason behind many people's support for PDP and its own slogans of "Power" and "Transformation", including right here on this forum. Does Nigeria lose because "credible persons" get down off the fence and express political preferences? It may well be that those who prefer to stand aloof and criticise from the supposedly non-partisan sidelines now have to ... do what? Think for themselves? But we are all still here: the ones who supported one side, the ones who supported another ... and the ones who - because they themselves were still waiting for perfection - assumed that those who were no longer waiting, but had opted for 'Change' were claiming to have found it. So no persons have been lost, and I dare say that their credibility remains - as it always has - in the eye of the beholder.The credible argument for change came in several parts, chief of which was that Nigerians needed the experience of changing an incumbent central government, to bring them out of the inaction/detachment caused by their perception of themselves as helpless and unable to influence events.Of course there are some die-hard Buhari supporters who saw him as the answer to all Nigeria's evils well before the last elections and politics as the art of the possible became a reality. Time may yet prove them right. For sure, it's ridiculously early to start crowing, or to write Buhari off after less than 30 days, but whether there js crowing or not, even if he has been written off, he will still be there, so in the end, what will count will be what he has to show as actually having been done, and not just how well he (or his army of spokespersons) have been able to spin it.But many people held their noses and voted for Buhari not because they saw him as was the fount of all good things to come for Nigeria, but because they wanted to remove the incumbent government and the ruling party which had not only become arrogant and complacent in power, but had sat down and watched while a huge chunk of the country was lost to murderous insurgents, doing little or nothing not merely because it could not, but because it had written the people affected - fellow Nigerians - off. That attitude was voiced out by the President's wife when she spoke about "Trow'way" children, but the President's "Terrorism is like measles, every country has to go through it" approach was something one didn't need to be a "credible person" to require a change from.Indeed, setting up "Change" as a scam, or the reason why "credible persons" voted the Jonathan administration out is setting up a bit of a straw man to beat down: I remember that when - in 2008 - the then NDI Country Director invited the Nigeria office to reflect on the victory of Barack Obama who had also campaigned on a slogan of "Change", I had to tell him that we in Nigeria were old hands when it came to "Change" or "Chaangi" campaigns.
AyoI invite you to follow me on Twitter @naijamaThe pity is that Nigeria lost a whole community of hitherto credible persons to the "change" scam.
CAO.
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