THE federal government will partner with the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, to take the “Change Begins With Me” campaign to universities across the country. Lai Mohammed, minister of Information and Culture, disclosed this while speaking during a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja on Tuesday, May 9, by the leadership of NANS.

According to the minister Nigerian students remain the critical mass of the public who can drive the national re-orientation campaign to success. “I think the biggest news you have given me today is your readiness to work with us on the ‘Change Begins With Me’. I see ‘Change Begins With Me’ as the greatest legacy this government can leave and it is not by accident that our campaign is largely centered around students. We have about seven themes that concentrate only on students. I remember very well about the one that says that ‘I will not sell my body for marks’, which reflects the campaign on moral rebirth,” he said.

Mohammed said: “Change Begins With Me” is about attitudinal change,” adding: ”We must change our ways of doing things starting from punctuality, honesty, integrity, and industry. We have to change the way we do things in such a manner that will benefit everybody. We cannot be doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.”

While acknowledging the NANS’ commendation of the federal government for the rescue of 82 Chibok school girls, he said even though there were ongoing efforts to secure the release of the remaining girls, the government would now work for the total restoration of peace and security to the North East and other parts of the country.

“What is unique about the release of these 82 girls is that it’s only a phase and we are already working towards the release of even more girls. But we have gone beyond looking at the release of these girls, we are looking at total restoration of peace all over the North East and by extension all over Nigeria,” the minister said.

Mohammed said in the area of economy, which was crippled by the crash in crude oil prices and unbridled corruption, the federal government had remained focused in fighting corruption and diversifying the economy away from oil in order to insulate the country from the volatility of crude oil prices.

He gave the assurance that because of the creative approach adopted by the Buhari Administration to restore the economy, Nigeria would soon march out of recession.

Earlier, Aruna Kadiri, national president of NANS, hailed the government for the rescue of the 82 Chibok girls.”

Let me appreciate this government for the victory recently achieved talking about the 82 Chibok girls, it’s a laudable achievement. We want to use this opportunity to congratulate the Federal Government and the Nigerian Military, the DSS, the Police, everybody that has put in effort to make sure that we bring back our girls. We are saying this because Chibok girls are students and they are under our offices,” he said.

Kadiri said NANS had resolved to partner with the federal government in the national re-orientation campaign, tagged “Change Begins With Me”, noting that students and ordinary Nigerians should be the ones driving the campaign.

He also commended the minister for working hard to bridge the communication gap between the government and the people.

— May 10, 2017 @ 15:55 GMT