By Tonnie Iredia

At an informal gathering a few days back, some discussants expressed concern over the possibility of the much awaited change in the nation’s public affairs turning out to be a mirage. Their position is based on a number of concerns.

To start with, there is the feeling that with too many members of the defeated Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) defecting to the winning All Progressive Congress (APC), it might be business as usual after all. The kinds of PDP leaders who have been falling over themselves to congratulate the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, could cause some apprehension that he may be overwhelmed by the well known nation’s political hawks who are already warming up to him.

The argument is that the nation may soon be shocked to find the same faces in strategic positions thereby taking us all back to square one. While no one can predict what our politicians can do as some of them are always in every government, it seems obvious that this time around, there is no going back. Change is not just coming; it has come before its inception date-May 29, 2015.

First, the incumbent is not succeeding himself. That in itself is a change that may be hard to reverse because the victory was neither by a small margin nor was it really contentious. Another change the nation has already experienced is that unlike the last 4 sets of elections, particularly the 2011 elections, massive destruction of lives and property did not happen. It is indeed a significant change that for the first time in the history of a presidential election in Nigeria, the loser conceded defeat and refused to create room for those who always benefit from violence to swing into action. One change that many Nigerians have overlooked is that for the first time too, President’s Jonathan supporters obeyed him.

In the past, they hardly listened to good counsel; a good example being their refusal to allow the man to govern as they harassed him 2 years before time to seek re-election. All pleas that their request was a distraction and that it was against the law to campaign before 90 days to an election fell on deaf ears. Those were the days when the Secretary to the Government of the Federation had to travel from one location to another across the nation to formally receive signatories of ‘millions’ of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria urging the President to re-contest. These have all changed.

The beauty about change is that when its time comes, nothing stops it. This perhaps explains why all efforts to stop the coming change in Nigeria failed. The attempt to alter the course of change through postponement failed as 6 weeks rolled by, within the twinkle of an eye, without a change in the nation’s political disposition. In the same way, the rumour that plans were underway to remove the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Attahiru Jega through pre-retirement leave did not come to pass just as the attempt to arrest change through a campaign against the use of the all important Card Reader did not work. Indeed, because the time for change had come, legislators who previously used their offices to legally prohibit electronic voting were hypnotized by change to formally lift the ban before the same change swept many of them off the scene. Change being that powerful, that it may not come is irrational as nothing can stop change. As the old saying goes, the only thing that is constant is change. Thus, those who fear that change may not come after it has come should be less worried.

The conduct of electioneering leading to yesterday’s Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections cannot but be commended.. The air of civility was everywhere. No hate speeches except the isolated case of Lagos where one of the best of our Obas got caught. Judging by his well known peaceful demeanour, perhaps his speech was taken out of context as some of those he reportedly threatened applauded the speech when it was made.

In any case, media coverage of politics has since returned to normal giving their toothless regulators no hard times. As a matter of fact, anyone visiting Nigeria for the first time may have thought he was in Europe except for our bad roads, inadequate public supply and outright poverty. These are what must change now. Luckily, signs that they will change are already visible with the automatic recovery of our battered naira as soon as the results of the March 28, 2015 Presidential elections were released. Its fate will no doubt get better by the day as the incoming administration will have no cause to abuse it as was done before

We must give the benefit of the doubt to General Buhari to use his proven disciplined character to give the nation a new sense of direction as he has promised. As earlier canvassed in this column, what Nigerians desire is real change and not sloganeering. If food for instance becomes cheaper, it would be obvious that agriculture is being well managed. Under that circumstance, news items about how millions of farmers have gotten fertilizers and GSM phones would be extraneous.

The same is true of our economy, better value for our naira; equitable distribution of wealth; real employment etc are better than economic terminologies of gross domestic whatever. Nigerians are tired of their well-being been stated like the old weather report which rather than predict rain so we can take our umbrellas to work, reveals scattered thunder, partly cloudy etc.

If the change that is coming takes that cosmetic posture, this column and well meaning Nigerians will cry aloud again irrespective of what we are called. It would be a calamity if insensitivity to criticisms is again adopted because it has since become clear that if the out-going government had listened to voices and redressed concerns instead of dismissing us as yesterday’s men’, the nation would have been the better for it. So, welcome to a changed Nigeria.