The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said yesterday that Nigerians largely misunderstood the change mantra with which his party campaigned and won the 2015 presidential election. Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting with the Executive Council of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN), Mohammed stated that though the party campaigned using change mantra, it has been taken by Nigerians to mean that as soon as Buhari was sworn in, the next day, things would change completely in Nigeria.
The minster maintained that Nigerians must understand that things do not happen that way because the country cannot continue to be doing things the same way and expect a different result. “Yes, we know what the ills are; corruption, indiscipline… but it’s not restricted to people at the top. Each one of us has a role to play,” he said. According to him, it is the reason the Buhari-led government is coming up with the ‘Change Begins with You Campaign’. “The malaise crippling the fabric of the society today, ‘everybody is guilty,” he noted.
The Minister observed that an average Nigerian, given the slightest opportunity, would cheat, noting that corruption cuts across professions, age and gender in the country. “Nigeria cannot adequately account for the lives that had been lost simply because some pharmacists decided to adulterate drugs. We cannot quantify how many lives we have lost because of the danfo drivers that wake up in the morning to drink paraga before hitting the road. Most of the traffic bottleneck in Nigeria today is due to indiscipline,” he said.
In moving forward, he solicited for the partnership of members of ADVAN, especially in executing some of its campaign and election promises to Nigeria, to which the President of ADVAN, Mr. David Okeme, pledged its members unalloyed support. In his response, Okeme assured that his members would support government efforts because businesses need a great country to thrive.
“It’s in the best interest of business to ensure things are working well for the indices to be looking up,” he said.He however advised the government to copy some of the models being deployed by corporate businesses especially in the area of behavioral change. The Guardian
