APC's Change May Not Outlive GMB Unless..

APC's POSITIVE CHANGE MAY NOT OUTLIVE GENERAL BUHARI UNLESS...
by  Ogiri John Ogiri.

Call me a PDP member and you are wrong. Call me a highly conservative individual allergic to change and you are still not correct. This is because I hardly represent either of the appellations above. I am a very neutral, non partisan person (at least I lay no claim to the membership of any political party in this country, even though I am very enlightened politically). Besides, I love Change. I need it and there is no better time for a positive Change than now. It is not funny having no decent job several years after graduating from school. Several years after leaving school,  so many ordinary Nigerian graduates still roam the street in search of non-existent jobs. The situation is even worsened where one discovers that job vacancies in government Ministries and Departments are for sale and only the highest bidders get such jobs. What about adequate housing for the common man and woman? Only God knows how many millions of poor Nigerians sleep on street corners and pavements because they can not afford housing, not mentioning the insecurity they face.  Unfortunately, all these are happening as a consequence of government corruption. This has aggravated the already heightened tensions, disillusionments, and frustrations of the ordinary Nigerians. Consequently, at such a time as this when we are faced with these challenges, all I can clamour for is Change-Real Positive Change that can assuage, if not eliminate, these ugly situations. This is why when the All Progressive Congress (APC ), the leftist opposition political party that produced the Nigeria's President-elect Rtd Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in the March 28,2015 general election, designed, articulated and anchored its ideological manifestos on Positive Change, and presented them, a huge majority of Nigerians -young and old, rich and poor, Muslims, Christians and traditionalists, educated and non-educated, business individuals and market men and women etc keyed into them, working and campaigning tirelessly and brazenly to install Change in the Nigerian socioeconomic and political System. It was like doing what Barack Obama, during his campaign for change in America, told  the Americans "Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek". And so the Nigerian people decided to take responsibility for their future by voting for change believing that if we did nothing, the status quo we so abhor would continue to fester. Everyone had to become involved in the campaign( both covertly and overtly ) for change. After all, " A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things. That is why we fight-in hopes of a day when we no longer need to. ( Barack Obama ). And today, it is a reality. Change has been voted for, Change has been chosen. Change has come! What's more, a greater change has been effected- Change from political rascality, Change from a do or die affair politics to a humble, more mature political behaviour. This is what the outgoing president, Dr Good Luck Jonathan has represented; this is the legacy he has bequeathed to Nigerians; this is the legacy he would want to see endure long after he has gone. Do not try to bamboozle me into conceding with you that Good Luck Jonathan did not have a choice given the numerous powers at the disposal of every president. Absolutely he had a choice to manipulate the results of the election in his favour or out rightly annual the entire process, like it was done during the regime of Rtd Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida in 1993, and plunge the country into untold political crises but he chose to tow the path of Peace for the love of country above selfish, parochial or lilliputian interests. Such magnanimous display of cosmopolitanism is only typical of those who truly love this country. And now we have the Change. Glory be to God. " Free at last, thank God we are free".

However, judging from the way large numbers of people, particularly some former PDP members who we think laid the foundation for the current challenges of corruption, impunity, etc are decamping( and will still) decamp to APC, (since every politician loves to boast, "we are the ones in power") I am beginning to doubt if the true positive Change mantra of the APC will outlive GMB. The worst of all is that APC in many states welcome and celebrate these last-minute decampees. I wish they knew that old habits die hard. Do not get me wrong, I didn't say all PDP members are bad, or am I insinuating that all APC members are good people. Far from that. What I am saying is APC must be careful with some people they welcome and may still welcome into the party- it doesn't matter if they publicly tore their PDP membership cards. That's not the point. The point is that Nigerian people need those who can represent and drive true Change to its positive end. GMB and APC must be able to put together a team that will be able to take Nigeria to the promised land where milk and honey flows like water from the fountain, a team that will lead us out of the sweltering desert of corruption, injustice, impunity, general insecurity, high unemployment rate and general indiscipline, into an enduring oasis of justice, respect for the constitution and rule of law, security, flooding jobs for the youth and where honesty and discipline towers like skyscrapers above the sky. By voting for change, we have all put our hands on the arc of history ready to turn it towards enduring hope and APC is highly expected to provide the needed leadership where it has been lacking. This is why I think APC and GMB must be careful with some people in their fold and those likely to join them. Unless absolute caution is exercised in this regard, we may be in for a change that will not last beyond GMB.
Ogiri John Ogiri lives in Abuja.
You can access this write up via www.ogirijohn.blogspot.com or ogirijohn2014.wordpress.com