With the efforts at the executive arm of government to inspire CHANGE in all ramifications in Nigeria, there is a silver lining of a breakthrough in the country. The notion of a breakthrough is reaching the desired destination from a torturous journey, not by magic or miracle but by a definitive and systematic process that requires careful planning and patience. This is the gist of President Muhammadu Buhari’s thesis on Process Reform instead of restructuring obsession while addressing the nation on Monday. So, in what way must we reform our processes or must we act to achieve that systematic breakthrough?
There is no doubt that every responsible government acts in the interest of the public, as whatever the government chooses to do or not is the open definition of public policy. Today, we blame our government and the leadership for every ill that plagues our land, expecting it to act with dispatch in public interest. Yet, if government must act with the urgency and intensity we expect, it must necessarily abridge the diverse and often conflicting vested interests that have limited our ability to reach our full national potentials. Therefore, it most step not only on the mighty cancerous toes causing extreme pains in our body polity, but also crush the feeble viral fingers of criminal toddlers.
The problem with our nation is the erosion of a national culture built on INTEGRITY. Integrity is defined as an unimpaired character that stands public scrutiny, demonstrated by a well-ordered private and public life devoid of moral or material corruptibility. When integrity is asphyxiated in any polity, the essence of public service is lost as hedonism and pursuit of vested interests take over the instinct of virtually every stakeholder. We all lament that our constitution is deficient in certain areas and advocate that our nation must be guided by the rule of law, yet we are not united around the core value of integrity that needs to be addressed for the protection of our collective national interest. We all cry for national rebirth or reform without appreciating the depth integrity deficit in our polity.