President Buhari has launched the
“Change Begins With Me’’ campaign at the Presidential villa today
September 8th. According to the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai
Mohammed, the campaign is aimed at educating and enlightening Nigerians
to appreciate the values of accountability, integrity and inculcate
positive attitudinal change.
SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI, AT THE LAUNCH OF
THE NATIONAL RE-ORIENTATION CAMPAIGN, CHANGE BEGINS WITH ME, AT THE
BANQUET HALL OF THE STATE HOUSE, ABUJA, ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8TH 2016
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 for your kind attention