By Efio-Ita Nyok |26 June 2015 |5:26am
It was Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher, who opined that change is a constant, in fact, the only constant phenomenon in reality.
It has been contended by some that society, basically, has three strata, namely, economy, politics, and culture/religion. And in view of the concept under review, it stand to reason then that there may always be change in economic, political and cultural/religious ideologies by which human activities in every society is guided. This preamble is what characterised Nigeria's political scene in the ongoing fourth dispensation where the electorate decided to switch from the erstwhile ruling party, to wit, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the present All Progressives Congress.
While I must observe that the majority of Nigerians who voted for one or the other party, didn't vote in view of an economic, political, or cultural ideology. We largely voted out of sentiments and variant emotionalities. That is to say that the APC succeeded in ousting the PDP in the center basically by harping the notion of 'change' rather than issues. The masses only changed from the acronym PDP to APC. The 'change mantra' worked for them. The PDP picked on 'transformation', but the problem with this concept was that Nigerians couldn't relate with what the PDP was transforming into: from PDP to what? 'Change' was branded and marketed better than 'transformation'. So, Nigerians decided to make do with the former than the latter.
From the above brief analysis, it could then be said that we are in an era of change in Nigeria both politically, economically and probably culturally/religiously. And this trend of change is courtesy of the APC.
But the burden which this author intends to address is to analyse the nature of the change we are referring to. Precisely put, in Nigeria's contemporary political dispensation there is an established 'change agent' as well as a 'change milieu' within which the change is to be experimented. The change agent here is the APC and the change milieu is Nigeria's body-politic. However, it should be reasoned that the change agent, the APC, must have been changed before attempting to change the Nigerian body-politic. Or, as they attempt to change Nigeria, should they be immune to change?
This inquiry has become important in view of designated observable trends going on in Nigeria's political clime. Sequel to the swearing-in of the President Mohammadu Buhari, the understandable corollary was the election of the National Assembly (NASS). As usual, the party hierarchy in the APC may have tipped some senators-elect as well as House of Representatives elect for the offices of President of the Senate, Deputy Senate President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker, etc.
Particularly, Lawan Ahmed and Femi Gbajabiamila were earmarked by the APC for the offices of Senate President and Speaker of House of Representatives respectively. However, Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara emerged as both Senate President and Speaker respectively against the decision of the party hierarchy on that fateful day of 9 June 2015 to the gross disappointment of some power centers including the presidency. But the presidency had to conduct itself properly before the observant public and international community by issuing an official statement expressing it's comfortability and intention to work with the present hierarchy elected by the majority of the 469 members of NASS.
Albeit, some shakers and movers in the APC mayn't have been comfortable with the decision of APC members of NASS in this regard such that they had to express their discontent by rejecting the decision of NASS. And they have not ceased to challenge the authenticity of the decision of NASS. Again, yesterday 25 June some APC elements in NASS had to turn down the decision of the party again by deciding to elect Ali Ndume as Leader of Senate instead of Ahmed Lawan. In the House of Representatives it turned out to be a free for all affair as Speaker Dogara decided to repeat the feat of 9 June yesterday. What transpired as resulted is no more a secret.
From the foregoing, the trend that some leaders of the APC has failed to grapple with is that the 'change' that they initiated after 16 years of the fourth republic, has a meta-narrative character. By 'meta-narrative', I mean to say that change has a tho and fro in-course. Change cannot be restricted, manipulated or controlled by anyone -either its agent or milieu. Change is free, and that is why it is called change. If it wasn't free it couldn't be tagged change. Again, change cannot be predicted. This goes to affirm my earlier thesis that change is free. It operates in spite of itself, its agent and milieu.
In essence, the fact I am attempting to demonstrate is that the APC should prepare for a bumpy ride of change ahead. The hay days of political god fatherism is over. In fact, it is dead and buried without a hope for resurrection. The hierarchy of the APC cannot chose to determine who the next leadership of NASS would be, as the PDP were wont to doing, and think that it would go just that way. Nigeria is now evolving from the body-politic of a strong man to that of strong institutions. This is the trend of change. It should be drummed into the political psyche of the powers that be, namely, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Atiku Abubukar, Mohammadu Buhari, Bukola Saraki, Yakubu Dogara, Obasanjo, etc that the dispensation of change which has been initiated will proceed despite their dispositions, permutations, anticipations, resolutions, decisions, etc. Goodluck Jonathan, the immediate past president perceived it and decided to cooperate with her by conceding defeat. Should he had acted otherwise, change would have prevailed at all cost. This is the meta-narrative paraphernalia of change.
