There is discontent in the land. A lot of emotional investment was put into electing President Muhammadu Buhari. He was the symbol of our hopes and aspirations, but our victory quickly turned pyrrhic. The evils of nepotism, cronyism, incompetence, ethnic chauvinism and religious zealotry grew more under the man we had hoped would sanitise the polity.
The words – ‘movement’ and ‘coalition’ gained currency when President Obasanjo threw a Molotov Cocktail at Buhari and his administration. He called for the formation of a national coalition to advance the country’s fair. Before then, many of us have started looking for ways to change Nigeria from within and from without. Knowing the world cannot wait for us, building a mass movement for change and national rebirth became an existential imperative.
Movements are built on the basis of what is called the One Percent (1%) Effect. All Nigeria needs for change to happen is to assemble a critical mass of an initial one thousand, three hundred and three (1,303), who genuinely believe in change, are committed to change and can jump-start a change in consciousness. It is called the Math Of Unity. The square root of one percent of a given human population is what is required to change it. Assuming a population of 170 million, all we need are 1,303 active people! It takes only a minority to create an impact on the larger population. The initial actors spread the message through grassroots organising to recruit more people. The more people involved in the change in consciousness, the greater the impact.
In the last three weeks, a lot has been brewing in the political space. Social media platforms have been bombarded with the setting up of all sorts of movements. We have seen lists including all manners of people who have sold us short in the past, pretending to be activists until money landed on the table and the song changed. Many names on a few lists I have seen, evoke anger and surprise. Instinctively, one is forced to ask if we will not be substituting gods for demons?
We need a new way. Perhaps we need to walk a new path. The need to build a national movement or movements, as well as a national coalition for all the movements arose as response to the threat posed to present and future generation of Nigerians by entrenched dysfunction, as well as the urgency for change. The Obasanjo coalition is not creating anything new. It obviously intends to activate existing structures of mobilisation, organisations, and political networks. Is this what Nigeria truly needs at this juncture in time? Will a new coalition automatically mean a change in attitude? I do not think so. If what we are seeing is anything to go by, this intending coalition will be a rehash of 2014/2015. It is the same existing hierarchical and exclusionary structures latching on to our frustration to gain relevance, imposing their strategies and goals to rob and rape us more than before.
Politics is about interests and no one can go it alone. We cannot expect to elect saints or have them represent us. No movement can be a viable force by exclusion. A movement or coalition that is not about the people, but about positions and positioning is not welcome. We must not allow further infestation by the virus in the system, of those simply jumping ship because the one they are in is taking water. We must seek to cure them and infuse them with our own values by setting examples and refusing to go rogue. It is easy to predict that ambition will tear many emerging groups apart before the final alliance that will birth a new party or soon thereafter.
Whether you join or believe in any of the emerging movements, coalitions or political party, nomenclature cannot change Nigeria. Only people can. Nigeria needs urgent re-moralisation and attitudinal change. We need to shun this crippling dysfunction and systemic erosion of values. Each one of us has a role to play. Each one of us must be determined to be exemplars in our communities. Albert Einstein demonstrated this in the Unified Theory. Jesus illustrated it using the power of the mustard seed. Mahatma Gandhi famously says, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Change must start from each one of us for any movement or coalition to change Nigeria.
Credit: Bamidele Ademola-Olateju, Premium Times