When President Muhammadu Buhari took over power in May 2015, many Nigerians expected him to wave a wand and bring about change.
They felt that their votes had hired the right man who would immediately fix all that was wrong with our country.

But, while delivering a speech to commemorate Nigeria's 55 years of independence from the UK on 1 October, President Buhari made it clear that he would not do the job on his own.
He invited every Nigerian to share the burden of change with him: "We all have a part to play to bring about change.

"We must change our lawless habits... We must change our unruly behaviour... To bring about change, we must change ourselves."

Few of us who live in Nigeria can deny knowledge of exactly what our president was talking about.
We are quite familiar with ubiquitous unruly behaviour:

-The Nigerians who will never stand in any queue, who must make their way to the front as soon as they arrive

-The drivers who will never stop at a traffic light, who consider it anathema to allow an empty space in front of their vehicles

-The invisible individuals who excrete piles of solid waste on the pavements, night after night

-The staff who take three weeks' leave to attend their father's burial, then another three weeks later in the year to attend their father's burial, again. "That first one was my father who paid my school fees," they say. "This one is my biological father"

-The mothers who threaten the head teacher with fire and brimstone because their children were punished for coming late to school

-The bosses who, in the presence of their entire staff, praise you for your excellent work skills, then wink and ask if you also have excellent "bedroom skills", while everyone present bursts out laughing

-The top government officials who show off their importance by the number of people jam-packed into their waiting rooms. They give you an appointment for 7am, knowing full well that they do not intend to see you until 10pm

-The air hostesses who frown throughout the flight, to avoid giving you the false impression that they are at your beck and call

-The "big men" and "big women" who scream "Do you know who I am?" when you ask for some identity before they can be allowed through the gate

-Those who ring the airline to request that the flight be delayed for their sakes, while their fellow passengers gaze out of the aeroplane windows for an hour, wondering why the flight is delayed, this time.

I could go on and on. The catalogue of unruly behaviour in Nigeria is endless.
And, like President Buhari has pointed out, for the country to move forward, these bad habits have to change.

But change will require more than passionate appeals from revered leaders.

For many Nigerians, unruly behaviour has become ingrained. It is now a case of "I know it, but I just can't help it".
Back in 1983, when he took over power in a military coup, President Buhari enforced his "War Against Indiscipline" (WAI) with the help of armed personnel, who punished unruly behaviour with instant penalties, such as frog jumps in the street.
WAI worked. Nigerians began to behave themselves.

But times have changed. Today's Nigeria is a democracy. Doling out instant corporal punishment in public with soldiers both administering and executing justice goes against the country's constitution.
A good place to start would be to understand the origin of this unruly behaviour.

Would you do this in London?

The same Nigerians who find it impossible to queue up at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos immediately stand in line when they arrive at Heathrow.

And you are unlikely to hear a Nigerian "big man" barking "Do you know who I am?" to a cleaner on the streets of London.
He knows that he could easily end up spending the night in jail.


My father once told me how anyone who defecated in public was punished back when he was growing up.

The pile of excreta would be set alight, and a generous quantity of red pepper added to the flames.
Doing this was believed to cause the culprit's anus to begin to burn and itch wherever he was. And this belief acted as deterrent against people defecating in public places.

In today's Nigeria, where weak modern institutions have replaced traditional checks and balances, hardly any deterrents against lawlessness exist.
People have become used to getting away with almost anything. Many Nigerians consider themselves a law unto themselves.

But, anything is possible. President Buhari wants Nigerians to change and change we can.
After all, the Europeans who berthed on Africa's shores in the colonial era were able to replace entire peoples' habits with completely new and different ways.

Muhammadu Buhari at a glance:

-The 72-year-old is first Nigerian opposition candidate to win a presidential election

-Military ruler of Nigeria from 1984 to 1985 until deposed in a coup

-Poor human rights record during that time and a disciplinarian - civil servants late for work had to do frog jumps

-A Muslim from northern Nigeria, he is seen as incorruptible


Nigerians of today can learn new habits.

The past few decades have seen Nigeria inviting all manner of experts from far and wide to assist with recommendations and solutions for our country's diverse issues.
We have had the economic experts, the financial, security, political, agricultural, trade, health, but now may be the time for the Nigerian government to engage psychologists, experts at uncovering and disabling the inner forces that drive undesirable behaviour.

These behaviour modification experts could develop special programmes for leaders at different levels.

They could collaborate with government corporations and private organisations.

They could tinker with the curriculum in our country's schools, infusing regular lessons with programmes that would produce Nigerian citizens who would consider the effect of their every action on the world around them.


By Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani


Link:
www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34422258
cc:lalasticlala,ishilove

Link:
www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34422258
cc:lalasticlala

Ask me

That isn't a problem for Buhari to solve, time will take care of that

No, the president cannot stop that and it is not his work to. There are law enforcement agencies in every state and it's up to them to see that societal rules are upheld. This unfortunately is not the issue, you might be surprised.

Nigerians (we) are lawless and are eager to flout the law just to satisfy our sense of belonging. What would a typical Nigerian do at night when he sees a traffic light around Ikeja at about 10:30pm with no traffic warden around, no traffic jam, little or no vehicles at that point? He'd readily ignore the light since no one is watching! The same applies to us all. What happens when we're not being watched

Even the security and law enforcement agents on assignments would readily ignore traffic rules because they're on uniform and are duly recognized by everyone.

I believe Nigerians would come around someday to see this but I can say it's not anytime soon. Some of us flout rules for a living and there's nothing anyone can do about it, lest we say we've been taken to the military regime once more.

Whats the point of this epistle?

Trust me people will start falling in line even without any frog jumps...

By the time you are punished with fines..

Nigerians hate being fined

Justt passing bye.

Warlord3000:
Trust me people will start falling in line even without any frog jumps...

By the time you are punished with fines..

Nigerians hate being fined

Seconded

can we give him a chance

larrymoore:
can we give him a chance

Seconded

the Dullard has no plan for Nigeria , he never expect he will win election

Warlord3000:
Trust me people will start falling in line even without any frog jumps...

By the time you are punished with fines..

Nigerians hate being fined

True, we hate fines but what happens when law enforcers are not around at that said point in time? We go back to the same lawless, uncouth, unruly and annoying system wherein one would be branded and a slow poke simply because he couldn't stand the rave of the moment. We're lawless until every Nigerian out there come to reckon with the fact that wrong is wrong and must not be practised whether supervised or not.

You cannot say a child has a sound reading culture just because he reads when his parents are around. What happens when the parents are not there is what describes the child.

Orjioorji:
the Dullard has no plan for Nigeria , he never expect he will win election

Let's give peace a chance.Be a better person

Orjioorji:
the Dullard has no plan for Nigeria , he never expect he will win election

mtscheww what's this one saying... *yawns*

Menace2Society:
Let's give peace a chance.Be a better person

But the guy is right. He's a dullard. Nothing personal but he is.

mensdept:


But the guy is right. He's a dullard. Nothing personal but he is.

Be a better person.How would u feel if someone calls your father such kind of name?

[size=18pt]My people are uselesless , my people are indiscipline![/size]

According to saint Buhari only him is not koworpt!

This is exactly how this same useless govt used their own mouth to condemn the economic and financial state of the nation when assuming power thinking they where hurting the last administration not knowing they were actually scaring investors away!


Now the fool is describing the people that elected him to lead as the problem.

No be today!

This is exactly how buhari will later swing in on the same plebs that jubilated in the dirty streets of the Southwest when Buhari overthrew a duly elected civilian president. They also went estatic when the Buhari regime threw politicians in jail not knowing that these were the only opposition to a despotic military regime. Not stopping there, the Buhari regime will later gag the press and jail journalists doing their job with decree 4. After silencing any form of opposition and cristiscm Buhari will then take his despotic rule to the same plebs that welcomed his arrival with campaigns like WAI which will see the cells of kirikiri busting in their seems.

It is 1984 all over again!

Warlord3000:
Trust me people will start falling in line even without any frog jumps...

By the time you are punished with fines..

Nigerians hate being fined

Army man go flog your yansh you go still dey smile...

suffering and smiling!

This poster I am quoting above is your typical dysfunctional Nigerian who was brought up under the cane !

You Nigerians do not respect the laws but only fear the reparcursions that will follow when you break the laws of the land.

This is exactly how your parents trained you like house pets. You are conditioned by the cane and used to fiat and only respect those who wield the big stick!

This is mental slavery and nothing more!

Buhari is that fulani with a big stick to whip you cows into line!

How can you justify punishment as a deterrent to stoping crime? The real root of the problem lies in your dysfunctional upbringing.

When you get away unnoticed then you remain free .

Jonathan was never good for this lawless country because Jonathan was a perfect gentleman who was not fit to be your leader.

You people deserve Buhari to whip you into line.

Severally, I have seen posters here during the era of GEJ clamour for military rule and we have also read how an APC chieftain has called for the suspension of the constitution to give Buhari full dictatorship powers.

THE ONLY CHANGE YOU APC ZOMBIES WHERE SHOUTING FOR WAS TO TAKE US BACK 30 YRS TO A DRACONIAN ERA.

TIP: bUHARI IS NOT YOUR BABA. HE CAN NOT INSTILL DISCIPLINE WHERE YOUR USELESS PARENTS COULDN'T!

It starts from

LeOstrich:


Army man go flog your yansh you go still dey smile...

suffering and smiling!

This poster I am quoting above is your typical dysfunctional Nigerian who was brought up under the cane !

You Nigerians do not respect the laws but only fear the reparcursions that will follow when you break the laws of the land.

This is exactly how your parents trained you like house pets. You are conditioned by the cane and used to fiat and only respect those who wield the big stick!

This is mental slavery and nothing more!

Buhari is that fulani with a big stick to whip you cows into line!

How can you justify punishment as a deterrent to stoping crime? The real root of the problem lies in your dysfunctional upbringing.

When you get away unnoticed then you remain free .

Jonathan was never good for this lawless country because Jonathan was a perfect gentleman who was not fit to be your leader.

You people deserve Buhari to whip you into line.

Severally, I have seen posters here during the era of GEJ clamour for military rule and we have also read how an PAC chieftain has called for the suspension of the constitution to give Buhari full dictatorship powers.

THE ONLY CHANGE YOU APC ZOMBIES WHERE SHOUTING FOR WAS TO TAKE US BACK 30 YRS TO A DRACONIAN ERA.

TIP: bUHARI IS NOT YOUR BABA. HE CAN NOT INSTILL DISCIPLINE WHERE YOUR USELESS PARENTS COULDNT!

Whoever your English teacher is has cheated you and if i I were you.. I will ask for a full refund

Nowhere in my post did I advocate for corporal punishment.

But if you don't know what FINES are.. Will help your ignorance..

Don't thank me

This is what a "fine" is.....

Warlord3000:


Whoever your English teacher is has cheated you and if i I were you.. I will ask for a full refund

Nowhere in my post did I advocate for corporal punishment.

But if you don't know what FINES are.. Will help your ignorance..

Don't thank me

This is what a "fine" is.....

Fines are also a form of punishment !

My point , Mr Olodo is that govt has no business instilling morals and etiquette in their citizens!

Govt's only responsibility is to provide the enabling socio-economic and conducive security conditions !

Don't these same indiscplined Nigerians adhere to rules and regulations when in Europe?

Even here in Abuja, you can hardly find some one defacating in open places . Why ? Because even a mad man will not want to spoil a clean pristine enviroment!

Tell your useless state governor to employ street cleaners and see if people will continue throwin trash on the road.

Tell your useless state govts to tar and expand roads and see if road rage will not disappear!

Tell your useless governors to provide adequate and descent public transportation and see if Nigerians will not be in so much in a rush!

The truth is that most Nigerian cities especially in the Southwest are nothing but glorified village slums with a jungle vibe!

How do you expect some one to act like a gentleman on the streets of Lagos when places like Ojuelegba are like the jungle?

Go to Calabar and see what civility means. The city is clean and the people are civil. Even if you import a die hard lagos tout into Clabar he will mellow down

LeOstrich:


Fines are also a form of punishment !

My point , Mr Olodo is that govt has no business instilling morals and etiquette in their citizens!

Govt's only responsibility is to provide the enabling socio-economic and conducive security conditions !

Don't these same indiscplined Nigerians adhere to rules and regulations when in Europe?

Even here in Abuja, you can hardly find some one defacating in open places . Why ? Because even a mad man will not want to spoil a clean pristine enviroment!

Tell your useless state governor to employ street cleaners and see if people will continue throwin trash on the road.

Tell your useless state govts to tar and expand roads and see if road rage will not disappear!

Tell your useless governors to provide adequate and descent public transportation and see if Nigerians will not be in so much in a rush!

The truth is that most Nigerian cities especially in the Southwest are nothing but glorified village slums with a jungle vibe!

How do you expect some one to act like a gentleman on the streets of Lagos when places like Ojuelegba are like the jungle?

Go to Calabar and see what civility means. The city is clean and the people are civil. Even if you import a die hard lagos tout into Clabar he will mellow down

Lol nothing can be more pathetic than being a semi literate

But now that I can see you haven't got the rational thinking skills but likes epistle to buttress your "point" if we can call it that.. Will let you wallow in your hatred for the military or any government in fact..

Parting shot...... Speeding fine/ticket is used for those over speeding

Parking ticket is used as a fine for those who their vehicles ain't properly packed

Etc..

All this are forms of fines even in the so called "developed nations" of the world to create a sense of orderliness..

But will leave you with your laissez-faire thinking.

Last reply from me

Oh by the way.. You are very bitter pained BIGOT...

LET IT GO... it's not good for your health

What's happening here? Why all the fuss?