President Buhari Is Not Trying To ‘Tame’ Nigerians – Minister

Sequel to a publication in British newspaper The Economist in a report at the weekend entitled: “Nigeria’s war against indiscipline, Behave or be whipped” wrote that President Buhari wanted to “tame” Nigerians with the “Change Begins With Me” campaign.

However in a statement by Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Lai Mohamed, said the word “tame” suggested that Nigerians were “some kind of wild animals that must be domesticated.”

“This is not true. In his speech at the launch of the campaign on September  8, the President,  a globally-acknowledged leader, who believes strongly in the rule of  law, left no one in doubt that moral suasion, the very antithesis of  force, will be employed to achieve attitudinal change among Nigerians.

“In that speech, the President said I am therefore appealing to all Nigerians to be part of this campaign. To the best of our knowledge and, surely the knowledge of those who own the language, the words “appeal” and “enforce” are not synonymous.

In its rush to discredit the “Change Begins With Me” campaign, The  Economist, a widely respected newspaper, fell below its own standards by choosing to be economical with the truth. Enforcement is not part  of the strategies to be employed under the Campaign, and nowhere has it been said that the ‘moral polic’ will be unleashed, as reported  by the newspaper.

“In writing the story, the paper did not even deem it  necessary to speak with any official of the government, thus breaching  one of the codes of journalism, which is fairness. It chose instead to  quote a ‘critic’ of Mr. President in a perfunctory manner.

The statement also accused the magazine of making the same mistake that most critics of the “Change Begins With Me” campaign have been making.

“The campaign, which the President said will help restore our value  system and rekindle our nationalistic fervor”, is not designed to  shift any responsibility to Nigerians, as many have erroneously said.

It is an all-inclusive campaign that was designed to start with the  leadership. That much was explained by the President when he said the  government would “drive the campaign” and that it must be strongly supported by all concerned individually. “Change Begins With Me” was designed to start from the President, then trickle down to the Vice President, ministers, other top government officials and to all citizens.  “What is the campaign asking Nigerians to do? Be the change  they want to see in the society. In other words, if we all want an  orderly society, for example, the motorists among us must obey traffic  rules, our aggrieved youth must stop destroying public property,  patent medicine sellers must stop selling fake drugs, commercial  vehicle drivers must stop taking alcoholic beverages before driving  etc.

“There is nothing extraordinary or over-burdening in all these. We are the fundamental units of the society. If we are not willing to  change our ways for the better, we cannot expect a better society.”

CC:The Nation