A wise man once told me: “Nigerians are mules, everyone
who can, kicks at them.” The thing is, the more things
change, the more they feel the same. In 1984, Major-
General Muhamadu Buhari as military tyrant diagnosed
“indiscipline” as Nigeria’s national malaise.
The sexy power word in those days was “summarily.”
Buhari promised that the military government of which he
was head would “summarily” deal with any Nigerian who
was found wanting in “discipline.” He quickly launched a
“War Against Indiscipline.” It caught on fire.
Nigerians were pressed to “behave.” They began to queue
for buses and other services in places like Lagos, notorious
for jumping queues. That was the greatest achievement of
WAI: Nigerians learnt to queue. Military governors
sometimes arrived the gates of government secretariats
very early, and waited for government workers who arrived
late.
Late-coming civil servants were humiliated, made to kneel
down irrespective of their office or positions, or age, and
frog-jumped as punishment for coming late to work. In
some cases, they were “summarily dismissed.” Buhari’s
government authorized armed soldiers to raid warehouses,
and seize the goods of traders accused of “hoarding
essential commodities.” That was in a period, of course,
when “ESSENCO”was very scarce. Buhari’s War Against
Indiscipline, stemmed from his genuine convictions that
Nigerians were an undisciplined lot, and had to be forced to
obey the simple laws of the land, and of courtesy.
Recent evidence suggests that Buhari continues to believe
this as a fundamental problem with the Nigerian character.
Last week, our friends, Dr. Barry and Claire Mauer had us
all over for a party for Claire’s birthday at their College Park,
Orlando, home. We were all going at it, with a little wine and
sherry, and that good stuff, when Shanti, another friend of
ours said, “I hear your president say all you Nigerians are
unruly, and you need to stop being unruly!” I too had heard
that the previous day on the BBC.
It was big news for the BBC that president Buhari’s
Independence Day message to Nigerians was that Nigerians
were “unruly.” It triggered their fancy so much that they
made such an event of it. They brought a Nigerian, whose
name I do not now recall, and Ghana’s Elizabeth Ohene, to
talk about the “unruliness” of Nigerians as claimed by a
president who increasingly seems really disconnected from
the Nigerian reality. In the symbolic moment of Nigeria’s
55th anniversary as an Independent nation, more sober
considerations should have been made regarding the
trajectory of Nigeria’s journey, the transitions that have
been made, and the true reasons for the failures of Nigeria.
We should rather celebrate the hardiness and resilience of
Nigerians in the face of a terribly confused administration
as Buhari’s is turning out to be.Ordinary Nigerians must not
be made to carry the can for failed political leadership this
past fifty-five years, of which Buhari has been a distinct
part. The President had not much to say to Nigerians except
that Nigerians are unruly and discourteous, and must
change, in order to achieve development. Actually, this is
the worst Independence Day speech I have heard of any
Nigerian president. It had no concrete facts. It simply was
high on the weed of self-indulgence. On such a symbolic
day, President Buhari should have celebrated Nigeria, and
offered it hope.
There are ordinary Nigerians laboring heroically to turn the
disadvantages of being Nigerian into something hopeful,
and meaningful. Nigerians are not unruly. The Nigerian child
I know is taught, right from the home, to be courteous, and
respectful of people, especially, older people. Nigerians
know to “throway salute” when they meet you. They say,
“Afternoon, sir!” “Enlee ma!” “I boola chi e!” and so on.
Nigerians are not, by their very nature, or even by
acculturation, unruly or discourteous.
Our political leaders have been unruly and discourteous.
Those are the real culprits and makers of our national
malaise. They have very little regard or respect for the civil
and economic rights of Nigerians. Anyone who suddenly
arrives at political office, begins immediately to see the rest
Nigerians as adversaries and enemies; people who must be
contained and repressed, and garrisoned.
Nigerians are constantly infantilized in the minds of the men
and women who arrive at power. That is the true meaning
of unruliness: to ride rough-shod on your county men
because you have the privilege of the protections of public
office.
It is unruly of public office holders to capture the road on a
hot, uncomfortable, tropical day, with sirens and a long
convoy, and horse-whip people to the sideways, and travel
freely while the rest must deal with congested traffic. It is
unruly to shield political power holders behind the barricade
of high walls inside government buildings, while the rest of
Nigerians are left to the vagaries of crime. I think President
Buhari must first, look inward.
As president, propriety demands that he be accompanied by
no more than his police orderly in public, while the secret
service organize his security with unseen and invisible
agents, who mingle with the crowd, without harassing
Nigerians with an overwhelming image of armed power. It is
the image of overwhelming force, especially modeled by the
military that has created the psychological crisis that has
reduced Nigerians to its current social miasma. Nigerians,
subjected to force rather than governance, since 1966, are
suffering from the trauma of social violence, and are
reproducing that violence. They know nothing else but the
unruliness modeled by the makers of the public system: the
government, and political leadership. It will not do merely to
preach order, curtsey in society, when the conditions in
which Nigerians live make it possible.
If there was a well-organized public transport system,
Nigerians would have no need to “rush.” But in a city like
Lagos, with a population over fifteen million, to have only
one means of moving that population is madness in itself. It
is nightmarish, and the social pressure of moving about in
Lagos which ought to, like cities even half its size, have an
underground system, a surface metro system, a water
transport system, as well as well-kept roads that do not clog
up movement, makes courtesy difficult, and unruliness only
a means of survival.
A man who has no access to clean public toilets, must
defecate, and if he cannot find any will be forced to the
indignity of relieving himself in public. To prevent that, it is
incumbent on governments to provide clean public toilets in
strategic places, to prevent such unruliness. The
government itself must model the meaning of courtesy, by
treating the public with the highest respect in public.
A government officer, like a policeman or soldier or tax
collector, who harasses any member of the public is
modeling unruliness; a government who keeps armed
soldiers and police on the highways and streets where they
harass Nigerians, is an unruly administration, and will
reproduce an unruly nation.
A government that offers, not work, but whips to Nigerians,
will create the kind of social pressure that will make civilized
conduct impossible. So, President Buhari should for a
moment, get off the back of Nigerians. Nigerians did not
elect him merely to preach, they elected him to act. So, to
make Nigerians more courteous, the government should
begin a work program, strengthen internal regulations and
enforcement codes in the public service, provide public
infrastructure, enough to make an aggressive search for it
redundant. That will reduce the kind of social pressures that
make Nigerians unruly.
www.vanguardngr.com/2015/10/buhari-my-people-are-useless-my-people-are-senseless-my-people-are-indiscipline/

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