PROTOCOLS:
I welcome you all to this important occasion of the
launching of the National Re-orientation Campaign, called ‘Change Begins With
Me’. Nigeria today is passing through a challenging moment where hardly anything
works in a normal manner. Many have attributed this phenomenon to the total
breakdown of our core values over the years.
2. It is safe to say today that honesty, hard work,
Godliness have given way to all kinds of manifestations of lawlessness and degeneration
in our national life. This is why we have among our cardinal objectives
‘change’, which implies the need for a change of attitude and mindset in our
everyday life.
3 I need not mention the serious effort we have engaged
in since the inception of this administration on the fight against corruption in
our public life. With the progress we have so far made in that regard, we feel
the need to ensure that we put in place the necessary sustainable framework for
action and measures that will help to entrench and consolidate the progress
achieved so far.
4. This we believe can best be maintained through
attitudinal change, and the change of our mindset in private and public life. The
campaign we are about to launch today is all about the need for us to see
change not merely in terms of our economic, social progress but in terms of our
personal behaviour on how we conduct ourselves, engage our neigbhours, friends
and generally how we relate with the larger society in a positive and
definitive way and manner that promotes our common good and common destiny, change
at home, change in the work place, change at traffic junction, change at
traffic lights etc.
5. This campaign is part of the determination of our
party to seek to carry all Nigerians along on the journey to a better and
greater society that we all can be proud of.
6. There is no doubt that our value system has been badly
eroded over the years. The long-cherished and time honoured, time-tested virtues
of honesty, integrity, hard work, punctuality, good neighbourliness, abhorrence
of corruption and patriotism, have given way in the main to dishonesty, indolence,
unbridled corruption and widespread impunity.
7. The resultant effect of this derailment in our value
system is being felt in the social, political and economic sphere. It is the reason
that some youths will take to cultism and brigandage instead of studying hard
or engaging in decent living; it is the reason that some elements will break
pipelines and other oil facilities, thus robbing the nation of much-needed
resources; it is the reason that money belonging to our commonwealth will be
brazenly stolen by the same public officials to whom they were entrusted; it is
the reason why motorist drive through red traffic lights, it is the reason that
many will engage in thuggery and vote-stealing during elections; it is part of
what has driven our economy into deep problem out of which we are now working
hard to extricate ourselves. Every one of us must have a change from our old
ways of doing things, we cannot fold our arms and allow things to continue the
old way.
8. We must resist the temptation to fall back on the same
partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our country for so
long. Let us summon a new spirit of responsibility, spirit of service, of
patriotism and sacrifice, Let us all resolve to pitch in and work hard and look
after, not only ourselves but one another, What the current problem has taught
us is that we cannot have a thriving army of rent seekers and vested interests,
while the majority suffers.
9. Rather than sit back and complain endlessly, we have
decided to act pragmatically, with the launch of this National Re-orientation Campaign.
The campaign will not be a sprint but a marathon that will run the course of
our tenure. We are under no illusion that the changes we seek will happen
overnight, but we have no doubt that the campaign will help restore our value
system and rekindle our nationalistic fervor
10. I am therefore appealing to all Nigerians to be part
of this campaign. Our citizens must realize that the change they want to see begins
with them, and that personal and social reforms are not theoretic exercise. If
you have not seen the change in you, you cannot see it in others or even the
larger society. In other words, before you ask ‘where is the change they promised
us’, you must first ask how far have I changed my ways ‘what have I done to be
part of the change for the greater good of society’.
11. While the government will drive the Change Begins
With Me’ campaign, it must be strongly supported by all concerned individually.
In this regard the private sector is a major stakeholder. Indeed when the
campaign succeeds, it will impact heavily on the private sector. A punctual,
diligent and hardworking staff can only be of benefit of not just himself or
herself or the organization they work for but to various governments whether at
local, state or Federal level.
12. While congratulating the stakeholders, especially
Ministry of Information and Culture and the National Orientation Agency for conceiving
this campaign, I charge all to pursue the campaign with vigour and ensure its
sustenance by taking it to all the nook and crannies of this country, with the
aim of getting the buy in of the old, the young, the rich, the poor
irrespective of gender or other social positions.
13. Your Excellencies, Honourable Ministers, Members of
the National Assembly, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is now my pleasure to formally launch
and handover the instrument of the Change Campaign tagged Change Begins With Me
to the Honourable Minister for Information and Culture, for transmission to all
Nigerians and friends of Nigeria. Indeed I say to the glory of Mighty Allah,
“Change Begins With Me”
14. Thank you all
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