One year after: How APC ‘changed’ Nigeria
That Nigeria has ‘changed’ in the last one year the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration is not in doubt anymore. Everywhere you turn, you see the ‘change’ in people’s faces and actions.
Just take a sampler: In the past one year of the APC administration, Nigerians had to contend with several bouts of petrol scarcity. Having tried all measures to end the scarcity to no avail, the APC-led Federal Government two weeks ago hiked the pump price of petrol from N87.00 to N145, That action ‘changed’ the prices of goods and services across the country and it has not funny at all.
To show how Nigeria has changed in the past one year of APC’s administration, Nigerians have grudgingly accepted the new fuel pump price. The organised Labour which condemned the hike and threatened strike, had their rank broken, as some groups pulled out of the strike, leaving only the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and a few other allies to go on with the strike. In the end, the strike failed to make the APC-led Federal Government to shift grounds. The NLC eventually called of the strike without achieving anything, no thanks to the fact that Nigeria has ‘changed’.
Many who hitherto made criticizing government under the immediate the past administration a past time have suddenly gone quiet in this era of change. They are no longer on television, radio or in newspapers, deriding government. Rather than take the APC administration to task on its many failings, they look the other way or at best call for understanding from Nigerians.
The civil society organisations, labour unions, lawyers and human right activists among others, who were busy organising all manner of protests over perceived failings of the erstwhile administration have all gone under to ‘save’ their heads and businesses. Suddenly because Nigeria has ‘changed’, they are no longer holding the country hostage through their protests despite many untoward happenings in the polity.
Because Nigeria has changed, we have all been told to be patient with the current administration, something those who are urging Nigerians to do insisted should not be extended to the erstwhile administration.
If you doubt that Nigeria has indeed changed in the one year that the APC has been in power, then look at what has happened to the Naira in relation to the US dollar. Again, if you are in doubt that Nigeria has ‘changed’ under the Change party, ask housewives or better still visit the market. The feedback you will get will confirm to you that Nigeria has indeed ‘changed’.
