The invitation by President Muhammadu Buhari to every Nigerian to introspect and engage in value re-orientation cannot be dismissed as many critics have attempted to do. This is because whatever pains the nation is going through today cannot be distanced from the contributory negligence of the people. As it was at the dawn independence, so it still is now that Nigerians are making no effort to reject our convoluted democracy.

President Buhari in Daura.

We cannot continue to blame our leaders who in the first instance could not have gotten into political offices if we had all showed interest in electing our very the best.  For more than half a century, our electoral process has not changed. Less than one third of voters actually vote at elections making it easy for politicians to continue to manipulate the system.

Again, every election records a large number of invalid votes because our people still do not know how to vote. If so, how can we identify visionary men and women who can formulate and execute policies that can improve our living conditions? Thus, the call by the President that we should all change our ways makes a lot of sense.  My only problem with the re-orientation campaign is that, as usual, it is cosmetic.

First, the launch took place at the Presidential villa to which only a handful of people have access. Yet, it is a message for all Nigerians but which may never get to some people even at the end of the tenure of the present government.

Here, I recall a recording by one of my reporters in 1986. He was sent to feel the pulse of the people a few days to the visit of then President Babangida to Benin City. The reporter met a group of people playing table tennis and decided to interview them.

Shocked that none of them knew of the impending visit he decided to ask them the name of the visiting President to which almost everyone answered “it is Shagari” who was not even the immediate past head of our nation at the time.  In earnest, there has always been a wide gap between government and the people because government programmes are always elitist and urban biased. Even at that, how many town dwellers usually get to hear about the programmes?

Public power supply has remained defective making it hard for the few that have radio and television to hear or watch the programmes including this new ‘change begins with me’. In which case, the message may never get into the neglected rural areas. Accordingly, people cannot embrace a policy they neither heard nor understood. If the trend in the last few months in which the Information Minister organizes town halls in some selected state capitals is again followed, government is still not talking to the masses. Instead, she is engaged in the communication of the deaf with city cynics.

It is not entirely bad to reach the few people which our Information Minister appears to specialize in, what is exceedingly bad is to believe that through it, all Nigerians have been reached without developing a feedback mechanism for assessment. Public enlightenment is not a “touch and go” affair. It has to be extensive and domesticated. What is the target audience? How many people were reached?

Did they understand the message? Considering the variations in human endowments, it is naive to imagine that all the people in a hall can understand a message at the same time and in the same way. The truth from experience is that in such a hall many persons who had not eaten for days came in to see if some food will be shared; they don’t even attempt to hear the speaker. To develop a programme like “change begins with me” without a well thought-out scheme on its spread and sustenance is to in essence take effective communication for granted. Unfortunately, the institutional framework for it in Nigeria, which is the National Orientation Agency, (NOA) has become unviable as all it gets these days is subvention for staff salaries.

Its founding fathers had thought its grassroots nature would be ably utilized by government but the latter has continuously misunderstood its strength. Against this backdrop, we doubt if any message by government gets to the people. Besides, even for those that get to hear anything, there is the need to monitor the pulse of the people from time to time. It is important for government to realize that as catchy as its “change begins with me” sounds, it is no more than a New Year resolution which many are never able to implement because old habits die hard.

Every year in the last 5 years, for example, my famous Uncle Ajay tells me of his firm resolve to stop cigarette smoking. Somehow, he ends up consuming more sticks than that of the previous year. Many factors around us, too numerous to mention in this piece, seem to account for his inability to keep his words. Will many of our people on account of certain environmental issues not be like him with respect to our “change begins with me” slogan?

The slogan is catchy and could be useful if we all embrace it, but we must not forget that there are always deviants in all societies. This seems to explain why we have law enforcement agencies. What this implies is that the programme would not just be about people as it would require certain institutions to coordinate what individuals do for the benefit of society. In other words the “me” component in the change programme would refer to individuals, groups, and government especially that of the  present ruling party which has a greater stake because it came to power on account of its promise to bring change.

Accordingly, like Caesar’s wife, the Buhari government must be above aboard in every sphere of life- appointments, contracts, admission in schools, and allocation of projects etc. Otherwise, the change programme would be dysfunctional if the government gets involved in any of the indulgences of its predecessors. Someone needs to say this to our government as it mobilizes people for attitudinal change.