Literature on the concept of change show that change management is an oxymoron like ‘ holy war ‘ as change cannot be managed. The experts thus concluded that the best way to confront change is to be prepared for any eventualities by continually improving one’s self or organization. Change they concluded can be faced by learning, growth and development. They illustrate this historically with the example of American President Abraham Lincoln who fought the American Civil War to free slaves and became one of the most successful and impactful US president after a life dogged by failures and personal difficulties and mishaps. Lincoln famously took change and difficulties he faced with the famous statement – I will prepare myself and my time must come.
It is from the perspective of this Lincolnian statement that I look at the topic of today in terms of the events that happened this week which we will focus on. The first is the killing of over 35 people in the Airport and Metro in Brussels the capital of Belgium and that of the European Union and the statement issued by Turkey that it warned Belgium when it deported one of the suicide bombers involved when he was deported in July last year. Yet the man found his way to Belgium to kill innocent people this week.
The second was the visit of the US President Barak Obama to Cuba, a very historic one for that matter and the import of his speech to an audience in Cuba during which he tried to sell American market economy, human rights and gay rights to the people of Cuba. The third is the reported kidnapping of over 100 women and some girls by Boko Haram in Adamawa state and the reported suspicion of people in the area that some security officials could be aiding and abetting the terrorists presumably for a fee . The fourth is the reported Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Lagos state government with Kebbi state to buy rice and other agricultural produce from that state and sell in Lagos state which has the largest market for such produce not only in Nigeria but in the entire ECOWAS region. The fifth is the statement credited to the GMD of NNPC Dr Ibe Kachikwu that the fuel queues giving Nigerians nightmares nowadays will not go away till May 2016, a statement that has fuelled a mad rush for fuel, hoarding, and escalated the black market price of the scarce commodity. Let us now examine how the statement credited to Lincoln could be applicable in all the situations and events identified this week.
First let us look at the intelligence gaffe that made the Belgians to ignore the Turkish warning. Was it ought of incompetence, ignorance or arrogance or all of these?. Obviously the Belgians could have downgraded the Turkish warning because Turkey is not yet a full EU member which has proved to be a costly and murderous mistake. Turkey has always been at the heart of Europe even though it is Muslim. But it is not an inferior nation to any EU member including Belgium. Turkey founded by Kemal Ataturk in 1923 was an offspring of the Ottoman Empire that ruled Europe for centuries and its security and intelligence institutions are efficient especially in fishing out the sort of people that the Belgians ignored to their own peril last week. So for the Belgians they did not prepared themselves to face change like Lincoln did and the result was the bomb disaster that claimed innocent lives this week. The same can be said of the kidnapping of the women in Adamawa state by Boko Haram and the fears expressed on intelligence lapses or sabotage by those expected to protect fellow Nigerians. The government must investigate and bring such intelligence or field officials to book. They are treacherous to say the least as they are running with the hunted and shooting with the hunters and benefiting from the awful carnage This should not be allowed as it is the duty of the Nigerian government to protect all Nigerians no matter where they live from any insurgency especially that of the infamous and blood thirsty Boko Haram. It is not enough to say terrorism is a global problem not peculiar to Nigeria and sit back. Our intelligence community must be on their toes to foil Boko Haram notoriety and mayhem and not only be reacting to them when the harm was done or closing the stable doors when the horses have bolted from the.
Next, let us look at the Obama visit to the US and its import for world peace and security especially at this point in time. Obviously President Obama would have prepared himself immensely for the Cuban visit like Abraham Lincoln thought and Lincoln is indeed Obama’s favorite US president, but has Obama’s time come on this visit ? I honestly think the answer is no which is unfortunate but I will show why. First except for making history as the first US president to visit Havana in decades the visit is simply ceremonial and does not create any economic opportunities for the US or even Cuban citizens who view it with suspicion . I watched the US president trying to compare the American way of life – free speech, human and gay rights to a socialist nation where the gap between the rich and poor is shorter and where the basics of life -education, shelter and employment are available and affordable without the luxuries associated with American life and I really felt the US president lost his way to Havana and should quickly return to the White House in Washington. He dared to incite Cuban youths and bravely too by referring to President Ronald Reagan’s speech in Berlin – Tear this wall down- at the Berlin Wall which was believed to have been part of the reasons for the collapse of the Cold War but he asked Cuban youths to build new things rather than tear anything down. I am sure the wily old man of Cuba and unrepentant socialist Fidel Castro will be wondering if American presidents ever learnt anything new in their dealings with Cuba except to think of it as part of the US backyard, a notion that the US president’s speech has cemented even more than anything else.
Anyway, Cuban youths are well educated and know what Obama said in his Cairo speech that led to Tahrir Square revolution in Cairo Egypt in 2011 and know how the same US president abandoned Egyptian youths and their new found democracy to their plight when the Army came to wipe them out and take over.
In addition President Obama is a lame duck president under whose watch someone like Donald Trump has become a front runner for the presidential candidacy of the Republican Party in the US. Trump has already thrown the typical Trump verbal bomb by laughing at Obama that the Cuban president was not on hand to receive him in Cuba which is true. More importantly Trump has said Obama is a security risk in the way he has handled ISIS and the fact that the Brussels bombing happened when Obama was on a visit to Cuba has not helped matters as it portrayed US president as fiddling in Cuba like the ancient Roman Emperor Nero while Rome and this time Europe and Brussels were burning which is not a good analogy at all.
Lastly we look at the efforts of the Lagos state government to create food security and the NNPC attempt at transparency that backfired. Actually both are good preparations except that one achieved its objective and the other backfired which means its time has not really come. In the case of Lagos state the state can be said to be following the moral of the Chinese statement which said – Dig a well before you are thirsty. This is because food insecurity puts Lagos state in a perilous security situation as the recent Mile 12 riots showed that even security forces can be partisan when it comes to food matters. So one can salute the effort of the Lagos state government which would create jobs for Lagos youths and unleash a new breed of Ibile rice distributors to ginger the busy economy of the state.
In the case of the NNPC MD’s forecast of the truth of regularization of the availability of fuel; the former Mobil executive probably thought he was in the US. He was even reported to have said he was not a magician to produce fuel from the blues which has led to the Unions calling for his head or resignation . Obviously he should know better now or go for a refresher course with a former Mobil executive now the ultimate Nigerian politician and former governor of Lagos state, Asiwaju Dr Bola Ahmed Tinubu on how to play politics in Nigeria. Unavailability of fuel can lead to social upheaval and political instability and insecurity and the GMD of NNPC must look before he leaps and also know that a stitch in time saves nine especially when tempers are frayed at the fuel stations where Nigerians spend the better part of their days looking for fuel to take them to work to eke out a precarious experience even as they expect a change for the better. Again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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