What Change really implies..

In university, I was never sure if the lecturers were doing it on purpose but it seemed they were hell-bent on pitting us against each other.

Making us choose what school of economic thought we believed in or thought was superior to the other, they’d organize debates for us and make us argue for and against a particular school of thought.

While they thought they were doing their jobs as teachers I thought they were trying to force us to choose one school of thought over the other.

I didn’t think it was necessary to choose just one school of economic thought to stick too for life. It did not seem necessary, I thought it was boring.

Classicals, Keynesians, Neo-classicals, etc each have good points in their arguments and some points that don’t make sense at all, (like half the things floating all over the internet.)

The best way I thought I could handle this was to merge all the good points from the different schools of thought instead of choosing just one with all its flaws.

That’s what I think change should be about; taking the good parts of a thing and improving on it (not discarding old ways totally.)

Pause. My grandfather met my grandmother on his way to the farm, my mother met my father at a church fellowship, ergo, I think I’m going to meet my partner on social media.

Just because I meet him on social media doesn’t mean we’ll have an absentee wedding as it is in the manner of some now. Of course we’ll observe all the necessary marriage traditions that should be observed and we’ll ignore all the other parts that seem archaic or outrageous (like flogging the groom).

About a year ago, my country Nigeria ushered in a new administration with ‘Change’ as its motto. They (no, not DJ Khaled's infamous antagonists) sang about change so much during campaigns that Nigerians believed and voted them in with high hopes.

One year on and we’ve not seen any signs of this change we were promised. Instead things are worsening. Fuel queues are longer, exchange rates and costs of living are higher, incomes are stagnant and in some cases lower as some employers have had to cut down salaries and staff numbers to be able to cover production costs.

In summary the economy is a mess.

The economy is not the only sector affected by this bad change. There are cases of increasing attacks by herdsmen and then the issues of Biafra seccesionists too.

For a government that promised change we are many steps in the wrong direction...

In my opinion the flaw in the change of this government is that like my lecturers back in school, the guys in charge are concentrating on discrediting the achievements of the past government as opposed to building on the good areas from the past and moving forward.

A new government doesn’t necessarily mean everything new. The new government should and must have its aim and objectives it hopes to achieve of course. But what’s wrong with completing any projects left behind by the previous government that are logical? This seems like a no-brainer since we are all interested in the good of the nation. Or am I wrong?

That’s one of the major problems of government at all levels in Nigeria. If a government’s tenure is over or an official dies then all the projects they were executing should not be abandoned. These projects are often left for years without completion and in rare cases completed after special interventions. Why?

What I’m trying to say is the present government should learn to chuck the bathwater, not the baby.

Yes, discard all the parts that were bad then incorporate your own bright ideas. Your good ideas are not mutually exclusive to those of your predecessors. And that’s what I think real change is.

Kesed Ahava Northcott.