{"id":5792,"date":"2015-08-26T19:25:14","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T19:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=5792"},"modified":"2015-08-26T19:25:14","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T19:25:14","slug":"buhari-administration-and-change-in-nigeria-by-dr-otive-igbuzor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=5792","title":{"rendered":"BUHARI ADMINISTRATION AND CHANGE IN NIGERIA By Dr. Otive Igbuzor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Buhari\"<\/a>The President Muhammadu Buhari administration was inaugurated on 29th May, 2015, a time of
\nmonumental changes across the world. There are a lot of changes taking place with increasing uncertainty,
\ngrowing ambiguity, increasing complexity, access to massive information and new technology.
\nThe past five decades have witnessed monumental changes in the economic sphere. Global economic
\nwealth has increased sevenfold and average incomes have tripled. Yet, poverty has increased to record
\nhigh levels. The major problem is that wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few people while majority
\nof the people live in abject poverty. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its 1998
\nreport documented that the three richest people in the world have assets that exceed the combined Gross
\nDomestic Product of the 48 least developed countries. In 2014, eighty five richest people in the world had
\nthe same wealth as the poorest 50 percent (3.4 billion people). By 2015, only 80 richest people have the
\nsame wealth as the poorest 50 percent. In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
\n(OECD) countries, income inequality is at its highest level in the last fifty years. The average income of the
\nrichest 10 percent of the population is about nine times that of the poorest 10 percent. It has been
\ndocumented that the drivers of inequalities include globalization, skilled biased technological change and
\nchanges in countries policy approaches (ascendancy of neo-liberalism).
\nIn the last ten years, there has been a lot of changes in political leadership across the world. In 2008, the
\npolitical leadership of the United States of America changed from the Conservative Party to the
\nDemocratic Party. In 2011, the political leadership in the United Kingdom changed from Labour Party to
\nConservative Party. In the last decade, there has been changes in many countries across the world
\nincluding France, Italy, Greece, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cote D\u2019Voire, and Senegal. One slogan that has
\nreverberated across the world is change.
\nWe have always argued that change will happen in any society when the conditions are ripe. In our view,
\nfor change to occur in any society requires the presence of objective and subjective conditions. Objective
\nconditions exist when situations are evidently abnormal with huge contradictions which can only be
\nresolved by change. The subjective conditions are the organizational preparations required to bring about
\nchange. There is no doubt that the objective conditions for change has been existing in Nigeria for a very
\nlong time. There is high level of poverty in the midst of plenty. Corruption is widespread, endemic and
\nstifling progress. The wealth of the country is concentrated in the hands of a few. There is social
\ndisintegration with high levels of promiscuity and divorce. Rape is on the increase. There are several cases
\nof incest. There is high level of greed, selfishness and nepotism. The state of affairs is not sustainable. The
\nchallenge has been the absence of the subjective conditions with the requisite organization and platform
\nto mobilize for social change. It was therefore easy for Nigerians to buy into the change agenda of the All
\nProgressives Congress leading to the inauguration of the government on 29th May, 2015. The challenge
\nbefore the government and the Nigerian people is the nature of change and how to actualize the change.
\nWe have argued elsewhere that the kind of change required in Nigeria must be comprehensive affecting
\nall facets of life. The change must affect the four key areas of economy, politics, social and technological.
\nIn the economic arena, there should be change in the structures and institutions of economic
\nmanagement; diversification of the economy; promotion of transparency and accountability and
\npromotion of pro-poor policies. In politics, there should be change of the 1999 Constitution; institutions
\nof horizontal accountability; the electoral system; democratic culture; party financing, campaign finance
\nand Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). In the socio-cultural arena, there should be reorientation
\non social values; re-orientation on work ethics and corporate Social responsibility and
\ninvestment. Finally, there should be focus on acquisition and utilization of new technology. In addition,
\nthere should be change in the way public administration is organized.
\nIn any case, it must be recognised that to bring about change in any country is a process that must be
\nmeticulously thought out and implemented. It should start with accessing the need for change. This
\nassessment should affect all aspects of life of the country including structure, culture, strategies, human
\nresources, organisational processes and leadership. It is on the basis of this assessment that the
\ngovernment can decide on the change to make. While deciding on the change to make, cognisance should
\nbe given to possible resistance. There are many reasons why people resist change. Some people are
\nestablishment or status-quo prone and will resist change. Others resist change because of self-interest or
\nmisunderstanding of the content or nature of change. Studies have shown that globally, about 70 percent
\nof all change efforts have failed.
\nThe challenge before the President Muhammadu Buhari administration is to put in place a strategy for
\nchange and a model for managing resistance to change. A strategy for change should recognise the three
\nbasic stages of unfreezing, moving and refreezing in the change process. Unfreezing is the stage where
\nyou conduct a diagnosis and then unfreeze the old organisational culture. This involves clear
\ncommunication on the negative consequences of old ways while developing new modes of operation.
\nMoving is when you produce a new strategy and initiate new ways of doing things to effect structural,
\ncultural and individual change through effective leadership. Refreezing is a systematic way of
\nstrengthening new behaviours that support change and reinforcing the new behaviour continuously.
\nA model of managing resistance to change will include specific strategies to enlist co-operation of the
\npeople to support the change process. Several approaches can be used to enlist co-operation. The citizens
\nshould be educated about upcoming changes before they occur. The nature and logic of the change should
\nbe clearly communicated. As the change process is going on, the government should listen to the people
\naffected by the change. Training and resources should be provided to the people who need to carry out
\nthe change and perform their roles under the new circumstances. Incentives should be offered for cooperation
\nand punishment should be applied to those who resist change.
\nIn addition, government should recruit change champions. These are people who are passionate about
\nchange, know the nature of change required and are prepared to lead the process of change. They should
\nbe able to develop a vision and strategy for the change process including a description of the state of
\naffairs after the change has been implemented. The vision must be clearly communicated and the people
\nmobilised to support it.
\nNigeria was ripe for change. The Buhari Administration promised change. Nigerians are waiting for the
\nchange to manifest in every facet of life. The government and the people of Nigeria must understand that
\nchange is a process and must be prepared to go through the process to bring the required change to
\nNigerians. Nigeria and Nigerians do not deserve anything less. For the change process in Nigeria to
\nsucceed, the change leaders must live by example; constantly link the change process to the change vision,
\nmission and values; build a sense of urgency and support for the change process; align every process,
\nstructure and system to the change agenda and build the capacity of the people to manage the change
\nprocess. Finally, the change leaders must not only establish and monitor measurable goals, they must also
\nempower the people and ensure accountability in all actions.
\nDr. Otive Igbuzor is a Pharmacist, Human Rights Activist, Policy Analyst, Development Expert and
\nStrategist. He holds a doctorate degree in Public Administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The President Muhammadu Buhari administration was inaugurated on 29th May, 2015, a time of monumental changes across the world. There are a lot of changes taking place with increasing uncertainty, growing ambiguity, increasing complexity, access to massive information and new technology. The past five decades have witnessed monumental changes in the economic sphere. Global economic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[516,197,518,517],"class_list":["post-5792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-dr-otive-igbuzor","tag-mohammadu-buhari","tag-oecd","tag-undp"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Buhari.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-1vq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5793,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5792\/revisions\/5793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}