Nigerians don't understand what change is

The national chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Chief John Oyegun has said Nigerians do not understand what change is.

In a recent interview with the Vanguard Oyegun said change is a process and not an immediate destination like the average Nigerian expected during the last presidential campaigns.

In response to the question “Can you really say that your party has delivered the ‘change’ it promised to Nigerians during the electioneering campaigns?”

Chief Oyegun responded, “Change is not a switch that you flick. Change is a process. Change is turning the society away to a new direction. Change means that people must learn new ways of doing things. It did not necessarily mean that from Day One, if you had N100, today, you have N500 in your pocket which unfortunately is the simplistic way that virtually most of the society now seem to be interpreting it.

“Change means attitude. It means people internalising the fact that corruption had almost ruined our country and that fighting corruption, eliminating corruption to the extent possible is not something you just say that the president has made a statement and therefore, from today, there is no more corruption. It is not like that.

“Food on the table in the past was food imported from Thailand and China, spaghetti, all the rest imported from Italy. Champagne imported from France or wherever. That was food on the table fuelled by corruption. Food on the table today means eating what we produce and getting Nigerian farmers to join the road to prosperity because what they produced is bought and consumed.

“They get fair prices for what they produced and the economy benefits. That is already evident. You must feed yourself and not just that, you must try to export if not the food items at least, those agricultural products that are valued as raw materials in other countries. That’s the bedrock. You don’t build an economy on the import of rice from Thailand. We have to get these painful facts very clear because in the process of switching from the easy import of Thailand rice to the locally produced rice, there are painful adjustments to be made. What’s important, yes, everybody says Oh, rice is still N20,000 or whatever. But the N20,000 is still in the pocket of fellow Nigerian farmers.

“The president himself even made an allusion to it which was very good and interesting but that’s just the first stage. Today, there are more pilgrims wanting to go to Mecca, ditto the Christians. Why because, the farmer is now getting so much return that is now able to afford the things he couldn’t before. That’s one evidence that things are getting better. Yes, change is a painful process. It doesn’t come easy. When somebody says look, you should change from wearing this clothe and start wearing babaringa, the process of handling is not going to be an easy one. So, let’s understand what we need.

“That will put things in proper perspective. Yes, there’s quite a bit of suffering in the land but all you need to do is to look forward a bit. Tomorrow, we are going to be an exporter of rice. Can you imagine the fundamental contribution that is going to make to our economy? We are on the way and everyday, things are getting better and the only way prices come down is when you produce more.”