Read President’s full “Change Begins With Me” speech
Read President’s full “Change Begins With Me” speech
President Muhammadu Buhari, on, September 8, 2016, launching the “Change Begins With Me’’ campaign in Abuja.
The initiative is aimed at educating and enlightening Nigerians to appreciate the values of accountability and integrity.
Read Buhari’s full speech below:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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’.
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.
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.
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”
Thank you all for your kind attention
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