THE MAN IN THE MIRROR

Change is widely spoken of, often challenging to initiate and sustain but more often than not the outcome is pleasurable. The Problem is we often see it as some abstract thing, or some sort of philosophy outside our reach.
A friend asked me a while ago why I bother myself about the "dirty" politicking of Nigeria. . . .my reply " because i believe that my seemingly little involvement will culminate in the big change we want to see". I don't believe in waiting for change, I believe in being or bringing the change I desire. If we all were to wait for the change, by who then will that change come? We all will just continue wallowing under the pressure of the present.

Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States and is the first African-American to hold that office. He is considered an icon of change,representing the liberation of African-American; but it will interest you to know that the first African- American to run for that Office was Attorney Frank Beckwith in 1960, and from then on many other African- Americans ran for the coveted office until 48years later(2008) when Obama was elected the first African- American President of the United States. I bet when he(Frank) considered contesting for the office of the president at a time were racism was at its peak, he must have seemed crazy or unrealistic. As unrealistic as it was he succeeded. Not because he won but because he and other african Americans who contested after him created the integral success which became complete when Barrack got into office.  All those who ran for office before him were little pockets of change,each making an impact of its own till that glorious day when Obama was sworn in. On that day, Obama wasn't standing on his own victory alone, he's victory stood on the loss of every African American who ever ran for that office. Change never comes in one big swoop, change is dynamic, a little here, a little there,making up the big whole you eventually see. They say Little drops of water....bla bla (you know the rest) lol.

                      

Let's come home to Nigeria. Like it or not, we all desire to see Nigeria change- we want to have roads tarred to our doorsteps, we want to have power 24/7 so we don't have to carry chargers and power banks around, we want to be safe and secure in our neighbourhood. Live in houses without massive burglary proofs and padlocks like it is in yanki. Abi? 

in summary, we want a Nigeria our kids would be proud of. But we can't achieve that when we are indifferent to our environment and to the instruments of change within our reach. Call politics dirty all you want, the fact remains that your choice to stay away or at best make a bad choice will ultimately come back to hunt you. And if you have decided to stay on the sidelines of contributing to change, you can at least support those who have chosen to create change. The more good people WE get into the "bad" politics, the better the politics will be. A pastor gets into politics and we castigate him calling him being "equally yoked"- how else do we want change to come. Gani Fahweni a popularly acclaimed upright man ran for office many times, the only votes he got were those from he's family members. If we want to see change then we must participate in creating it. We must become aware of our environment; know that who becomes the ward councillor, the local Government Chairman, the State Governor and the President is our business because their decisions though far away affects our every day lives.

As the year comes to an end with another political period on hand, make up your mind not only to see change but to participate in it and most importantly to be the change you want to see. Do the simplest of things- be patriotic, vote, encourage others to vote, do a critical analysis of candidates, make choices devoid of sentiments( objectively). If we can do these then, perhaps we may just be at the threshold of that glorious day. 

Ok, I know it gets really difficult to think of a different Nigeria, a better one. It's difficult for me too. Many times I've had experiences that made me wish I could pack my bags and just leave. Biko let's try. Even if the change doesn't come in our time, it will, some day. let's do it for posterity. Abeg use your church mind.

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek"- Barack Obama