Whispering Drums With Maigani
by Musa Ibrahim
War against indiscipline: faces and cases
"A government that measures its effectiveness and successes on the number of forced retirements and dismissal of public officials, and takes delight in the suffering, misfortune and downfall of others, must be a sick, inhumane, and indisciplined government..." - Anonymous ApopthegmIt was the 12th day of September in the blessed year of our Lord, 1977, and God's own beloved country, Nigeria, was tottering with benigned trepidations towards a sworn change of political leadership from military dictatorship to a civilian constitutional government. Olusegun Obasanjo, the country's nebulous leader at that time was on a speaking spree. At the opening ceremony of a military college - the Command and Staff College - at Jali, Kaduna, Obasanjo delivered what has gone down in history as one of his most coherent speeches ever.
Tagged the "Jaji Declaration", Obasanjo appealed to all Nigerians to wage war against indiscipline. Said he: "The Nigerian society as of now, in spite of our efforts since July 1975, is not sufficiently disciplined, fair, just, or humane… Discipline implies restraint and self-control in individuals for the good and happiness of all. It is the axial principle on which my idea of society rests..."
That idea of society according to Obasanjo, must be manifested in the following aspects - good leadership role, acceptance of political obligations, need for economic and social discipline, need for individual and collective patriotism, need for fairness and justice, and desire for the creation of a humane society. And as far as Obasanjo was concerned, Nigeria did not possess any of these attributes or values. It was therefore an indisciplined society. But as head of the government of the day, he failed to provide the leadership role that will usher in the disciplined society of his dream.
And just as the regime had accused the overthrown military regime of Gowon of "indecision, indiscipline and even neglect", the Obasanjo military regime also became a regime of plunderers with its only real achievement lying in its attempt to create new political institutions, a consequence of the decision to demilitarise, to hand over power to a popularly elected civilian government not later than 1 October 1979. When that day came, Nigeria was still an indisciplined society.
Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Nigeria's popularly elected civilian president in 1979, did not rule by decrees, nor were his utterances and injunctions with "immediate effect." His human and political inadequacies notwithstanding, he worked towards providing a good leadership role for his country by living a simple and decent life thereby setting the course for those under him to be economically and socially disciplined. He did not strive towards being a landlord nor a farmowner in the magnitude of his soldier-predecessor. He realised the need for a disciplined Nigerian society and realised too that the leader had to set the example and the pace.
Through his immaterial quest, he did set the example and when some insatiable gormandizers in his government failed to take heed and emulate him, he laid-off over 90 per cent of them from his cabinet. And with another mandate from the electorate, he took the message for a disciplined society to them by launching an Ethical Revolution and creating a Ministry for National Guidance. Courage and initiative are the things needed in a leader if he wishes to change things. Shagari had both the courage and the initiative, and he would have changed things.
Buhari and his Brigade when they came, came in too much of a hurry and had no agenda at all, yet still claiming to have the answers to all of the country's economic and social woes. supported these Faced with an identity and leadership crisis, they decreed that they were an off-shoot of the Murtala-Obasanjo regime, and as Murtala had said to Gowon, they also told Shagari and the Nigerian electorate that "the leadership, either by design or default, had become too insensitive to the true feelings and yearnings of the people.
The nation was being plunged inexorably into chaos." Buhari also added that the politicians were "indisciplined" because they had turned Nigeria into a "beggar nation". Even before then, Sani Abacha, the heralder of the coup had announced that " unemployment figures including graduates have reached embarrassing and unacceptable proportions..." and according to him this was an act of indiscipline on the part of the civilian government. So the military junta decreed that its first priority was to instill discipline into the Nigerian intellect.
Tunde Idiagbon and his legal assembly were to provide the framework for transforming every Nigerian into a disciplined individual, and soon after, they decreed that the War was to be fought in stages or phases. Already, four phases have come and gone. Phase one was aimed at providing orderliness and the need for an individual to wait for his turn when in desire for any social services. Phase two was geared towards promoting better work ethics among the populace with a view to preventing idling, loitering and reading of newspapers at the office during official business hours. Phase three sought to promote nationalism and patriotism among all Nigerians. The basic ingredients of this phase are that every Nigerian must wave the national flag at all times, and be able to recite the national pledge and sing the national anthem even in his sleep. The fourth phase launched recently is aimed at combating corruption and all forms of economic sabotage. All very laudable objectives one might say, but the sad thing is that one year after, the campaign has only had a cosmetic effect on the Nigerian populace for several obvious reasons.
One reason for the abysmal failure of the campaign is the crude and cruel way it was, and still is, being implemented and enforced. Societal discipline is never synonymous with military discipline - a fact which the proponents of WAI have failed or refused to acknowledge. And so to try to transform a whole country into a parade ground in order to instill discipline into its populace as the soldiers have been doing, is bound to be very ineffective. Even those who supported these measures at the beginning did so out of fear of the whip and other physical disciplinary measures which the soldiers were notoriously dishing out. Besides, with a gigantic problem of unemployment lack of food, shelter, clothing and a general need of the people to survive, a situation which the military leadership created and is not able to solve, the WAI campaign is seen as an inane diversionary tactic of the regime and therefore something not to be taken seriously. Most importantly, WAI is failing because of an existing vacuum in leadership roles. Realising and arguing that it is at the level of public leadership that the angle of discipline should be set. Nigerians have concluded that their present military leaders are themselves undisciplined because they lack the discipline, honesty and vision to set an example.
First of all, the soldiers negated their important moral duty to defend the motherland and its territorial integrity and and staged a coup using violent means against constituted government and authority, which act was in itself a manifestation of gross indiscipline.
Then came the rentrenchments, cuts in workers' salaries and benefits, and the imposition of austerity measures, with the promotion and increase in the perks and salaries of the military leaders indirectly juxtaposed. Having stated that Nigeria was a beggar nation under the civilian government, the military leaders, in allocating crude oil contracts to themselves took to cheating, lying and deceit (aspects of indiscipline) and was soon pumping oil above the production quota given to the country by OPEC. The result was an utter humiliation of Nigeria at the recently concluded OPEC meeting in Geneva.
They said it was Un-WAI for public office holders to operate bank accounts outside of Nigeria, yet when it was reported that a strong man in the regime had a substantial foreign money stolen from him, the government pretended not to hear. Again, during the currency change exercise, the media reported that they saw 53 suitcases pass through customs and immigration unchecked. The military leadership said it was nobody's business and no sanctions First of all, the soldiers negated their were imposed.
A fortnight ago, Buhari had the temerity and the impudence to accuse members of the academic community for "involving in activities that bear no relation to their academic pursuits," saying that such things were Un-WAI. What is Buhari doing as head of state? I am sure his military training in Aldershot, London, and the US Army War College at Carlisle Barracks did not include governing or perks and salaries of the military becoming a ruler of a country. To have even been in that position is an act of indiscipline and is Un-WAI.
So, let the phases of WAI continue, but as for me and my house, we shall continue to be Un-WAI.
