‘Dare To Struggle: Dare To Win. The Mantra Of Change’ By Barr. Tunde Braimoh

Lagos State House of Assembly Chairman House Committee On Information, Hon. Tunde Braimoh within the week represented the Honorable Speaker, Rt H  on Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa during this year’s Lagos State University [LASU] Law Student Dinner and Award Night where he delivered the speech, ‘Dare to struggle: Dare to win. The mantra of change’. A very encapsulating speech that wowed the audience, hence he was  given a standing ovation. The content is hereby reproduced.

It is a delight, honour and pleasure to be called to speak on this apt and apposite subject “ Dare to struggle: Dare to win. The mantra of change “ which is not only philosophical, and thought- provoking but is also contemporaneous to present day Nigerian politics.Einstein’s definition of madness is” doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results”. That underscores the preponderance of change especially when we desire a better state of things.Also American President Barack Obama is famously quoted to have said“ You are the change we seek.

Do not look any further for the change. It begins with you and the time is now” The import of this is that change can not be personalized or procrastinated, it is about everybody and at every time.It is a common saying that only change is constant and that the Earth itself is not static. It is a moving object. A manifestation of change.Change is desirable, no doubt. However, human nature is complacent and to drive the necessary change, strains and stress must take place. When there is no pain, there is no gain, the glittering gold was a piece of crusted rustic iron in its original state. It underwent series of fire and brimstone before re-branding.Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Leader APC has a favorite quote which also forms a practical and major part of his working principles. He often says “power is never served a-la-carte” that is power is never given for the asking Shakespare said “if wishes were horses, then every beggar will ride”. You have to match your words with action; walk the talk they say.

Human psyche is naturally adaptable therefore, change even when beneficial is often resisted and sometimes even repelled.

Let me illustrate the audacity of hope in galvanizing and gravitating change with two common place examples in Nigeria.

First is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He was one of the 6 AD Governors of South West Nigeria in 1999. Because he dared to be different by being independent and focused he was singled out for political persecution, annihilation, asphyxiation and exhilaration by the PDP led Federal Govt in 2003. He held on tenaciously and courageously As it turned out, all his Brother South West Governors who held unto President Obansanjo as he then was for their political salvation and survival were all guillotined to political extinction while only Asiwaju, the stone rejected by the bricklayer survived, triumphed and became the cornerstone. He remained the only AD Governor in the entire 6 states of the South West In the wake of the 2003 General Elections.

From that low of one, he preserved, endured and re-surfaced to obtain 4 more states in 2011 and by 2014, his tendency had controlled 19 states; Today his party the APC controls 23 states in Nigeria.

Another human illustration of the topic in discourse in the President himself, Alhaji Muhamadu Buhari he ran for Presidency under the ANPP in 2003 and again in 2007. He continued to struggle, all to no avail in 2011 under CPC until the dint of hard work, courage and determination paid off in 2015 when he won under the APC.

He dared to be different at a time when the vogue was to join the PDP which at the height of its glory controlled the whole of 26 of Nigeria’s 36 states.

Surely, it took more than mere rhetoric’s or wishful thinking to confront such a colossus. But the zeal for change was burning in those compatriots and they would not rest until their good became better.

However change is a living subject. It is an ever constant and current phenomenon. To achieve his desire of a Great Nigeria, the President must not rest until even the better he has achieved becomes the best.

Corruption is the acceptable value in the Nigerian society of today. In basic Sociology, a norm is the moral standard of a society. Where your people are bad and you are good, you will be bad. At the same time, where your people are good you are bad, you will still be bad. In other words the society mirrors you in accordance with its own standards.

In Nigeria today, whenever anyone is opportuned to be elected, appointed or selected into any public office especially those capable of dispensing favours; friends and families of such a person would throw huge parties and make merry in anticipation of nepotistic or favoristic dispensation of the National heritage to them alone.

This is the people’s standard.

Their own belief. The breeding place of corruption. The reversal of a modern-age country to the stone-age where everybody took as much as he could grab.

Culture, beliefs or practices are however also very dynamic and change in accordance with societal, especially international, trends.Up to the early forties, a custom existed in the Igbira tribe. If a man married a woman and that woman deserts him without refunding the dowry paid on her by the man, any child or children that the woman might have for any other man while the dowry remained unrefunded would belong to the former husband who was not so refunded of his dowry. This was the culture did not take coguscane of the intrest of the child or children who biologically did not belong to the man and who naturally would have no affection or love for them and would most likely treat them as slaves. This was the position until some agents of change who dared to differ took the case to the then Supreme court which declared that particular native law and custom, repugnant unconsonscionable and offensive of natural law and justice.The President has donned the toga of change. He needs another mantra of the game changer. He must change the orientation, the beliefs, the customs, the culture the norms all of which make corruption fashionable. He must introduce modern and international tenets that makes a monster of corruption and make same inappreciable and unacceptable.

It is incumbent on us the ultimate beneficiaries of the positive change to support and encourage him from the simple to the complex, micro to macro, family setting to communities, let us embrace positive change and make the difference for our congenial benefit. Remember Obama said “it begins with you and the time is now