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Nigerian gov't launches national campaign for "attitudinal change"

Xinhua, September 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday urged citizens of the country to imbibe a culture of attitudinal change, and the change of mindset in private and public life, as the government kicked off a national reorientation campaign against bad conducts.

The national reorientation campaign, tagged "Change Begins With Me", is spearheaded by the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism. It is aimed at achieving a paradigm shift in the ways things were done in the West African country.

At the launch of the national campaign at the Nigerian Presidential Palace in Abuja, Buhari said the government had been aware that the nation was "passing through a challenging moment where hardly anything works in a normal manner".

According to the Nigerian leader, over the years, many had attributed this phenomenon to "the total breakdown of core values" in the country.

Buhari urged the Nigerian citizens to think positively and act likewise, always.

"Let us summon a new spirit of responsibility, spirit of service, of patriotism and sacrifice. Let us all resolve to pitch in and work hard and look after, not only ourselves but one another," he said.

"Rather than sit back and complain endlessly, we have decided to act pragmatically, with the launch of this national re-orientation campaign. The campaign will not be a sprint but a marathon that will run the course of our tenure. We are under no illusion that the changes we seek will happen overnight, but we have no doubt that the campaign will help restore our value system and rekindle our nationalistic fervor." he said.

Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Lai Mohammed said the national reorientation campaign has no political, religious or ethnic coloration.

He said the campaign will be carried out in all the major languages of the country, while calling on local media for support, particularly by allotting airtime for the campaign clips.

In propagating the campaign, the government would leverage heavily on the social media and mostly engage youths, he added. Endit