Alan Cohen:
It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.
Andy Warhol:
They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
Barack Obama:
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
Felix Adler:
We cannot adopt the way of living that was satisfactory a hundred years ago. The world in which we live has changed, and we must change with it.
These are just a few quotes that help me to think about the change we need in our world today as citizens of this country. What stares me in the face as I read about change is the fact that change is not a function of time but rather a function of individual and collective responsibility.
I read somewhere a few days ago that responsibility is simply 'response-ability'. That is the ability to respond. We all have the responsibility to effect a positive change.
When we are confronted with unwanted realities, our response-ability is to respond positively by being pro-active about what we can and should do to remedy the situation. Most of us are just reactive rather than proactive.
We don't have to do things the same old way. Kudos to governors like Fashola of Lagos state and Namadi of Kaduna who have decided that out with the old style of governance and in with the new! Who says successive governments have to keep battling with the unfinished projects of their predecessors? Who says traffic in Lagos can't be improved, and old rusty railway tracks in Kaduna can't once again function the way they were originally designed to. Now people can get from one part of Kaduna state to another cheaply and easily. Kini big deal (what's the big deal) about that you might ask? Well you might not get it if traveling by train is taken for granted where you reside. For me it's a big trip cos I get high on progress. Years back I used to travel by train to boarding school. It was so easy and stress-free. But like a lot of other things in this country, the whole system just collapsed. I just hope the progress can be sustained. One day, like a slowly growing forest fire, the whole country will be lighted up with a fully functioning and well connected railway system. Then people will remember it started with just one state.
Whether it comes slowly or at lightning speed, one thing is sure- change is inevitable. However it must be the kind of change we want- positive change. And that my friends depends on our ability to respond (remember? - responsibility?)
