The colonial master when they were about leaving called for a referendum. They designed what government should be; we did not design the government system we are operating. It was handed over to us and we never questioned the content because the so called government was made to favour the center and the few fortunate ones. It is a government that allows greed and corruption to thrive. The clamour has remained: whosoever gets to the center controls the power, resources and the people. Because of this, the vast of African nations and the colonized worlds have not known rest, respite or progress. Ours has been a land for savages. The problem in the actual sense is not the people but the model of governance we are using.

Anyone who gets to the center would never be able to effect any meaningful change until we overhaul the present form of government. This will continue until we have strong leaders who would question such system of government and this will require sincere and selfless personalities.

When a government becomes too strong, it weakens its constituency. When much power is reposed in a government, it adapts most of its citizens into herds of communities; and everyone begins to think that his life depends on the central power. When much resources is taken to the center, it automatically create an unmatched grandeur and opulence for those who are fortunate to be at the center; thus making them assume the position of little gods to be worshiped. While those who are outside the corridor of power will go through any length of Machiavellian intrigues to be in power.

The name or type of government being practiced does not matter, what really matters is the content, fruit and dividend of governance. Most of the colonized world including Nigeria may adopt federalism, confederalism or democratic system but they have not been able to undo the subtle system beneath our government system. The strength of a structure is firmly attached to its foundation.

Until the foundation is visited and addressed, no change of worth can be achieved.

The Pot of Death

There is a stolen mandate that has taken away sleep from all of us and we are all awake by the same dilemma. The man in opulence could not sleep because of the marauder. The marauder in turn has no rest because he is hungry, for the man in opulence has taken over his inheritance. Sleep has been murdered, and to rest for both, there must be a middle ground for settlement!

To get the point home I will take a moment to tell us a very good story I heard when I was young. It is not about how true it was but the lesson it scored.

This is the story.

Once, there were three good friends. They had been together for years, no one ever heard of their quarrel, and if there was ever any quarrel, they amicably settled issues among themselves. Their status difference was nothing to them as they were all contented hunters and farmers. They took turn in one another home and had many things in common except their wives of course.

When they did not go to their respective farms they do go on hunting expedition together. In one of such hunting expedition, they had hardly gone far into the forest when a man ran past them like someone who was frightened as he kept shouting: Death! Death! Death!

Hunters in the olden days were trained to be bold and fearless; these three friends looked into one another eyes and agreed to move in the direction where the unknown man ran away from. They courageous inched forward and on the alert.

Almost the same time, they saw at a distance some brilliant bars beneath a tree. They gasped and prayed it should be real. They all rushed forward, felt the bars and smelled them. They lived in an age that used gold, so they agreed these must be real gold.

To be sure they are not being careless, they went ahead a little for more search but could not find anything that represented death or danger. They came back to the tree and were happy about their new prospect of riches.

As they gazed on the large bars of gold, each of them began to imagine how to take ownership of the gold all alone. One of them went to town to buy wine to celebrate their fortune and he had it poisoned along the way. When he came, the other two shot him dead, and they drank the wine only to die from the effect of the poison. They all died around the pot of gold.

Our system of government is the pot of gold that is leading to the death and destruction of countless numbers. Take the pot of gold away and we will begin to live together in peace, love and harmony. The pot of gold has divided us along the line of religion, social stratification, beliefs, ideologies, and ethnicity. Each constituent or group wants to poison or destroy the other to get things closer to its own side. This has led to death, poverty, corruption and conflicts. The negative impact is growing day by day.

Free or unearned riches are death, the more surplus the more adversarial such becomes.

When the colonial masters rule their citizens back in their native land, they rule with different strategies, principles and mindset. But to us, they sold inverted principles, strategies and mindset that made us fight, squabble and get ourselves corrupted on nothingness. They gave us a farce version of “government”.

The government becomes the little god we were all called to serve (government is a figment of imagination which takes its strength from whatever we imagined it to be).

The bigger we make the government, the weaker the society becomes. The much we depend on the government the more retrogressive we will become. This is why Nigeria and many of the colonized nations are where they are today – we depend overly on the government!

If we believe we have to wait on the government for virtually everything, we are likely not going to succeed or make much meaning out of life.
Deliberately or not we have been programmed to think in a certain way. Our creative power has been taken away. Our resilience and strength to strive have been subordinated at the altar of government. When you think someone else is there to carry your burden, you cripple the development of your own capability over time.

As long as we make the government the little god that sees to our welfare, determines our fate and solves most of our life’s problems we are in trouble.

I am not talking about the government being the problem; instead, I am talking about the perception and imagery of government and governance.

The perception of a shadow and the image itself are two different things. If we are frightened out of proportion, we can make a ghost out of a shadow. In reality a shadow is not synonymous to a ghost (perception issue). The perception of government and governance in Nigeria has contributed to why we are where we are today.

Government is neither good nor bad; it is what we make out of it that is important.

The Denomination

The denomination of a good government is this: the empowerment of the people.

The purpose of a government is to empower the people to become more; helping them to realize the best use of their potentials, to help the individual citizen look to self as the answer.

True government should not sap the people or reduce them in any way.
The government should enhance and not adapt the people.

To enhance is to help them become more, achieve more and gain more of what they could become or realize; providing an enabling environment to display their creative ability, talents, gifts and entrepreneurial ability and whatever they possess.

To adapt the people is to convert the people for a different use. This is about abusing the people, taking away their desire, dreams and aspirations because of imposed limitations. At the end, the people turn out to become an inferior personality of their real being.

Backward nations take power from the people and end up adapting them for lesser cause. Weak leaders believe that when you empower the followers, you end up losing them. This is what I call stinking thinking.
A corrupt government takes that which belongs to others; at the expense of the society and uses it for their own ego.

Also, a society that places the weak to rule over the strong is a perverted one; this is an adaptation of the trained hands and those with leadership ability to be subjected to the level of mediocre. As the day is far away from the night, any society that favours the weak at the expense of the strong can never know progress, advancement and greatness. In such situations, the strong is repressed and adapted or fashioned to act below their innate endowments while the weak that is promoted right in his weak state is denied the process of true growth and the satisfaction that comes from achieving what is truly ones due.

A child who gets everything free without his own input often abuse things and the good life itself. The more you pamper a child, the more you lose him. Expose him, let him fight his own battles and he will live to appreciate life. A nation, people, tribe and individuals who live for free things will never realize their true potentials. Just as a spoilt child is menacing, indulging and destructive so is a spoilt individuals who get things they do not labour for or things they do not deserve.

Give people the rights to earn their due and peace will be restored to our land. Injustice, inequalities, and non-equity are together troubling gangrene that is eating health out of nationhood.

A spoilt child will destroy others and finally destroy himself. Children who did not earn their worth often fritters it away through frivolity: bad relationships, waste and addiction. Of what use then is helping a child to destroy himself? In the same way, when we steal from one tribe or group to help a weakling to cover-up a facade of federation, we are only helping to destroy what we tend to pamper. Time to think deeply: there is nothing really free except what will end up gagging a man’s capability of a truly rich life.

Match opportunities with growth; create a level playing field as each is helped to become better. Let the citizens find their joy and satisfaction not in things but in the very process of becoming, sacrificing and giving.
A true government is positioned to empower its citizens to realize their potentials and to find meaning to their own lives through active contribution to the wellbeing of the world they belong.

INTRODUCTION

Over the years diverse and several intervention programs had been designed by government, corporate organizations, religious bodies and individuals to bring changes and transformation into the nation. We need to appreciate those whose efforts are of sincere hearts and purposes.

Although we are yet to be where we ought to be, those efforts together had taken us so far. Without noble efforts as such, the nation would have been worse for it: lives have been preserved, civil wars checked and unrest nipped in the bud. If there be any reprieve or rest, it is for the sake of these relentless efforts.

We need to applaud the efforts of these men and women who so believe in the future of Nigeria above the general sentiments around them. On their shoulders rest the dawn of a new era, when the nation will rise majestically in prominence in the comity of nations as we become the center of a new world;with civilized culture, transformed laws, customs and values that uphold growth and development of our realms.

We should be humbled by those great efforts, many of which are not seen by many of us. Some did these at the backside, in hunger and wants believing and stretching, hoping and wanting for the days ahead when songs of comfort will break forth from every lip: I know some of them. In this labour, some have died, yet others remain strong and steady. Together, they are the heroes on the sidelines.

You may not be known or celebrated, but I can tell you, God holds you in high esteem as a repairer of breaches and a builder of nation. I say unequivocally, may God bless you as you keep labouring for a greater Nigeria.

My own effort is like one of those unknown heroes of our nation. For some two decades ago I have had the panting and desire to see my country,Nigeria become great in every sense. Ever since, I have been busy in one capacity or the other on the project Nigeria. But all my efforts were also from the minor.

In the year 2009, I conceptualized a thought of national rebirth and rebranding: “I AM THE CHANGE NIGERIA NEEDS”, which has begun to gain momentum and recognition.

My belief is that the individuals have the power to bring changes to Nigeria. Clusters of individual efforts coming together build a nation.

Along the line a political party in Nigeria picked “Change” as their party slogan. Then I wanted to rest my oars but after a while, I realized that their concept of change was not exactly what I conceptualized, so my team began work again. This was year 2015 AD.

In the process of time, I saw a course program by The World Bank Group titled: Citizens Engagement, the Game Changer for Development? Going through the course program, I saw very much similarity to the concept of change designed in The Real Change Nigeria Needs project. Upon the completion of the course, my artefact and the sum of my project was scored to be among the best. The change project submission strongly pushed me to score distinction at the end of the course. The World Bank Group assessors recommended that the model be translated into a national intervention program, and a particular assessor believed that its usefulness could serve as a template for nations in quest of meaningful transform.

The same concept is hitherto elaborated into a book to serve the needs of hundreds, thousands and millions who might be looking for a model upon which to build a transformation ideology.

I want to believe that this book will serve you and will be of vital usefulness as you become the change the world needs.

You are the change!

WALE ADEWUMI

World Bank Certificate of Distinction
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The slide version of the artifact can be viewed at this link:

http://www.slideshare.net/fireword/final-project-sustainable-change

Many books have been written on moving the nation forward. This book is different as it goes straight to the root of Nigeria’s problem and will further serve as a template for every nation seeking for meaning. It is the road map to national greatness.

I have this to say. I have to confess that this is a brilliant work to help create extraordinary transformation in individual, corporate and national frontiers.

My personal interest in national issues has projected me to occupy several offices in the public sector and once as Nigeria Ambassador to Philippines. On this premise, I have always and will continue to give my full backing to projects that will assist my country move forward: this book is one of such.

The Game Changer for National Transformation shows us convincingly why we are where we are as a nation and the simple secrets that can move us forward are embedded from the first page to the last.

It is a well balanced book articulated to speak to all irrespective of religion, political affiliation, tribe or group.

In this book, you will learn a step-by-step process that can move you and those around you forward. The strategies discussed are so logical, inviting and beneficial to create breakthrough for those who want to transform their world seamlessly.

This is a book for leaders.

Sit back as you explore this life changing book.

Dr Yemi Farounbi  
A Statesman and former Ambassador to Philippines.