Nigerians’ Travails, Endless Hunt for Change and the Gathering Storm: Where Lies the

Hope?
A spectre is haunting our fatherland. What a spectre!, that is occasioned by the palpable
atmosphere of discontent, feelings of dispossession, sense of abandonment and ignominy of
existence writ large in our land. Horror-struck and appallingly exasperated that in a land flowing
with milk and honey, 3-daily square meal and decent living are luxuries which only few can
avoid, the economically dispossessed and pauperized people of the land felt decimated by the
powerful few who have made the common resources of the land, their exclusive reserve.
Socio-politically manipulated and short-changed by the powerful few who steal their resources
and votes and yet still their voices; people of the land are increasingly incensed that their
destinies have been annihilated and pride, wickedly encroached.
Sickened by their miserable educational system which produces wretched pundits and spineless
literates, the people of the land are more than ever, psychologically dispirited and feel humanly
violated.
Appalled by collapse of their health sector, traumatized that their roads are easy access to death,
dismayed that lawlessness and the culture of impunity are the order of the day, the people of the
land are bored and mystified with the worsening emptiness of their daily lives.
Albeit all these, people of the land still determinedly nurse a hope of a better tomorrow which,
day-in, day-out, fades with every passing second and dissolves into the fogginess of uncertainty,
hence deepening the menacing spectre of hopelessness that is abound in the land. In turn, this
debilitating situation has exacerbated the ominous clouds of haplessness and tribulations in the
land, the decimating consequences of which have necessitated the expedient hunt for change- a
reversal of the tide.
What do we do?, where do we go?, and from who do we seek change, the people of the land are
asking themselves? In search for clues, people of the land increasingly became more religious,
only to realize that the more religiously disposed they become, the more hapless their plights
deepen. Are we abandoned by God?, or Could it be that God will only those who help
themselves, deepening the prevailing spectre of hopelessness in the land? Believing that they are
not abandoned by God, people of the land are now battling with the second question by finding
out what should they do so as to themselves? Since the writer of this piece of is a member of the
drifting Nigerian community, permit me to provide a lead in what we need to do to help
ourselves. In doing this, can I seek your indulgence to laconically X-ray what landed us in this
miserable obdurate situation.
To a large extent, you may want to agree with me that gross leadership irresponsibility is the root
of our sticky situation. Continuous disregard for our common good and wanton abuse of our
resources for aggrandizing purposes by those leading us resulted into the crisis of the
mismanagement of resources. In turn, resources mismanagement created the atmosphere of
economic incapacitation and hence, the problem of poverty that has been decimating our lives.
Since poverty made survival and decent living practically impossible, our people became
increasingly desperate and resorted to corrupt and anti-developmental ways of making ends
meet. Corruption thus became a societal thing which assumed various forms in different aspects
of our lives. As the problem of poverty in our land increased, our parental institution started to
experience alarming decadence, hence, the corruption which has nearly ruined it. Consequently,
our land became dominated by deviants and uncultured ones, therefore, the prevailing spate of
lawlessness. In effect, the place of peace in our society became substituted by restiveness and
insecurity of lives and properties. The cumulative effects of all these is the spectre of
hopelessness that is abound in our land today.
Given that the leadership irresponsibility is the root of our dilemma and that lack of discipline is
the cause of leadership irresponsibility, therefore, one may argue that indiscipline is root of our
predicament. Here seems to lie the beginning of the solution to our problems, therefore
indicating that discipline is that which pinpoints what we need to do, where do we go and from
whom do we seek change.
Since we all desire change, a change whose bedrock is discipline, and therefore, it is our
desirable

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments. Jim Rohn

It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that
enabled us to follow through.” Zig Ziglar quotes
Nothing is more harmful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more
than numbers, gives one army superiority over another.
George Washington
He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding
(Proverbs 15:32).”

. Everyone wants to change, but change demands desire and discipline before it becomes
delightful. There is always the agony of choice before the promise of change.

Larry Lea
In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over
themselves...self-discipline with all of them came first - Harry S Truman
We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The
difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.-- Jim Rohn

"I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who
willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the
community over its injustice, has in reality the highest respect for the law." Martin Luther
King Jr.

[For more on politics, please see the article ti

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to
justice, peace and brotherhood.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

cipline means the willing submission of a person to rules, regulations and instructions to
someone recognized by society. It is a willing and polite discharge of one's duty towards others
in society. Discipline must be observed by everyone of us in all walks of life. One should be
disciplined whether at home, in school on the play ground, on duty, in the office or in the army.
Discipline is a virtue. It provides mental strength to discriminate good from the bad and to
defend the right against wrong.

The strength of a nation lies in discipline. No nation can progress unless its citizens are
disciplined. Citizens of a disciplined nation work in a spirit of co-operation and unity. Whenever
a country is suffering from internal strife with no unity and moral values among the citizens, it
loses self confidence and an opportunist neighbour often takes the advantage of the situation.
That's why Chanakya once said, "United we stand, divided we fall."

Some people misunderstand the meaning of discipline. They say that discipline leads to blind
submission to authority and it negates our independent freedom. This is a misconceived notion
and a wrong interpretation of 'discipline'. Discipline doesn't mean slavery. A disciplined person
has full freedom but the freedom of a disciplined is such, it neither disturbs the society nor
interferes with other's freedom. The word discipline comes from the word 'disciple'. A disciple is
one who learns and is constantly aware of his learning. For example, A trainee to a carpenter,
learns from a master carpenter how to keep tools clean, how to use tools correctly. If he puts this
learning into application, in this particular aspect he is disciplined. If a person is disciplined in a
particular aspect, it is very easy to spread the essence of this discipline to the other areas of his
life. The importance of discipline is well recognized in every aspect of life.

Nature is the best mirror of perfect discipline to all of us. The earth, the sun, the moon and other
planets are governed by certain laws to maintain perfect harmony and beauty. Any deviation
from these set rules, will spell an utter disaster in nature.

Discipline is the backbone of the nation. Only those nations where people have a sense of
discipline can prosper in all fields. They even rule other nations. Discipline is a valuable asset at
all levels of the society. A family having no discipline becomes a den of quarrels and is
ultimately divided. An educational institution having no discipline doesn't impart value based
education. That is what one can see in some of the states in India. To study or not to study, to
teach or not to teach, to attend the classes or not to attend the classes - all is left to the sweet
wishes of the students and teachers. Thus the standard of education has gone to dogs. That is
why parents want to educate their children in Missionary schools and Public schools.

Indiscipline has become a trait in the society today. In India, indiscipline is seen even in
legislative assemblies and the parliament. Chairs and mikes are thrown by the members at one
another. Abuses are lashed. What can we expect from such politicians? The indiscipline of the
political leaders is reflected on the whole society. The whole nation suffers. The country doesn't
make progress.

Discipline should be the first criterion of the family. Parents must bring up their children in
congenial disciplined atmosphere and teach the right values to transform them into balanced
adults. Therefore, they can give their best to the country as disciplined citizens.

Discipline is necessary for both the teacher and the taught. A good teacher has a great
responsibility of keeping a high image of his personality in the society. He can't do it unless he
maintains an intellectual and more discipline of a high order. No student will obey and respect an
indisciplined teacher, however high may be his knowledge.

Similarly only a serious and self disciplined student achieves something worth in the life.
Indisciplined students just wander here and there, waste away their precious time and energy in
useless activities and later on repent in life. They soon learnt that there is no shortcut to success
and it is only through consistent hard work and self discipline that they can achieve their
objective in life.

Importance of discipline can't be underestimated in games and sports too. A team can't be armed
forces a certain code of conduct. It demands unquestionable loyalty to the country and to the
superior officers, a spirit of fellowship and readiness to cope with emergency. It is the duty of a
soldier to obey the orders of his commander without any reluctance. No battle has been won by
soldiers who were indisciplined. India's victory in the Kargil war is attributed to the discipline
and dedication of our soldiers who kept the security of our frontiers above their self and
sacrificed their lives for safeguarding the integrity of our nation. Military discipline demands a
high spirit of self sacrifice for the sake of the country, particularly when the nation is in peril.

There is also an urgent need for maintaining discipline in political and social life because
indiscipline has crossed all limits in these areas. Comparing the present political scenario with
the past, in those days leaders fought for freedom and now our leaders have the freedom to fight
among themselves. All these things have lowered the image of the Indian politicians in the eyes
of the common man as well as in the whole world. This has led to an erosion of faith in political
parties and the system. So immediate steps must be taken to restore people's faith in the political
parties and improve our global image. This can be achieved only if every member of a party
follows a certain code of ethics and acts always in a disciplined manner.

Discipline is seen in Japan, Israel and in most of the European countries. That is why these
countries have made a great progress. Discipline is born out of a sense of responsibility towards
the society among the people. The people in developed countries know their obligations to the
nation. This results in discipline in every field. That is how Japan has made a place for her in the
whole world.

In our social life, we are expected to follow certain norms of social order. Without it life gets
upset and soon goes out of gear. People must demonstrate a sense of discipline even in small
things like boarding buses and trains, buying cinema tickets or vegetables. In one word being
responsible is discipline. If every person fulfills the responsibility, then his dreams as well as his
country's dreams will come true. Therefore, discipline is necessary for an orderly society.
 Without it, the social life would become miserable.

Regards,
Santosh

In the olden days when the majority of the people were staying either in villages or tribes, they
were bound by the strict laws laid down by the head. Any person not following the rule was
punished severely. Today the law enforcing agencies around the world are finding it a Herculean
task to control and discipline the exploding population.

Indiscipline can be said to be the breakdown of moral and ethical values. People are bound by
the law of the land, but once the fine line between right and wrong is blurred it is going to have
an effect on the society and the world at large. Instead of being law abiding and honest, people
are becoming greedy, violent, and corrupt and are ready to go to any lengths to achieve their
personal goals and ambitions. They are no longer ready to wait to get what is due to them but
will steal, snatch or kill. The crime rate and day to day corruption has increased greatly. They
also know how to by pass the law to avoid punishment.

Indiscipline is present in everyday life. It is the way youngsters regard the elders or the way
common civic or traffic rules are flouted. The mind set has become that all rules have been made
to be disobeyed and what they do is right.

It is no use blaming others and it is the responsibility of the parents, elders and teachers to
restrain themselves and inculcate correct values in the children. Rajeshshri1982
in‧dis‧ci‧pline [uncountable] formal
a lack of control in the behaviour of a group of people, with the result that they behave badly
Logman dictionary
the quality of lacking restraint; inability to resist the gratification of whims and desires
Buhari and the mirage of anti-corruption
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Written by Ebenezer AdenijiFriday, 01 April 2011
Muhammedu Buhari

Statesmanship is defined by an impartial concern for the public good.

It also has a lot to do with the content of such a leader’s personal
values. Globally, religious zealotry and ethnic jingoism clearly do not
fit well as edifying values. This is why some watchers find Nigeria, and
the Nigerian political space, somewhat strange. The value system of
some of our national figures could be so overly diseased, and
parochial; and rather than odium, it earns them praise and worship.
For all that the late General Sani Abacha was and represented, it was
bizarre that a section of this country lionised him. The production and
selling of Abacha’s images in this part of the country is still strangely a
brisk business, leaving one to conclude very strongly that, indeed, the
major divide in this country is not situated in geography, but in thinking
processes and value systems.

The issue here is General Muhammadu Buhari, who has been angling to rule Nigeria in the past eight years. Buhari
has been riding on the wings of just one point - purity from official corruption. Buhari has misled the man in the street,
to believe that a clean slate on corruption is just all it takes to be a competent leader and a man of ideas.

Without undermining the critical place of integrity in governance, Buhari’s score-card as

military Head of State, between 1983 and 1985, firmly leaves one with no doubt that personal
integrity, and competence, can be as far apart as the North and South poles. Buhari, as Head
of State, amply showed that an indolent office secretary, who can be trusted with everything in
the office, including office pins, has no more value than the efficient one with itchy fingers.
PresidentJonathan has been around, only for nine months. Buhari ruled this country for close
to two years. It will profit the system, if Nigerians, and the voters, should challenge Buhari on
his achievements in government as Head of State.

It is on record that from 1979 to 1999, no single investment was made in the power sector.
This period included Buhari’s time in office. What steps did Buhari take on the country’s social
and physical infrastructure? Buhari talks about the Midas touch, he will bring to bear on
governance from May 29, yet does not feel any moral pinch, for his tactical side-stepping of his
1983 to 1985 score-card on campaign grounds.

In productive climes, Buhari would never wish to breathe a word on the political scene, but this
is Nigeria, a country of anything goes. Buhari’s relevance in today’s political equation rests
squarely with Islamic activism. Buhari was the mastermind and cheer-leader of the blood-
stained Sharia law campaign in the Northern region. It was murderous campaign, given the
massive destruction of the lives and properties of southerners in the North in the wake of
Sharia implementation in the states of the region. In the lead-up to the 2003 general election,
in which he contested for the presidency, Buhari sent out a call that Muslims in the country
should be guided by religion in their voting pattern. As the dangerous religious campaigns
against President Jonathan flourished in mosques in the North, in radio stations in the region
and by text messages, Nigerians, including Sule Lamido, governor of Jigawa State, a
neighbouring state to Buhari’s Katsina, traced the ill-wind to Buhari.

For Buhari’s supporters, it is just enough that Buhari is not corrupt, and more compelling to
those of them that support him among the northern Muslim population is that he is a
northerner, a champion of Islam, who wants to take power back from a southerner, and an
“infidel” Christain. These ethnic and religious contents are entirely the drivers of every single
support Buhari gets in the North. But for the larger health and well-being of all Nigerians, these
must be seen and treated as the active ingredients of religious radicalism, terrorism and
national security risk.

Even in his campaigns in the North, Buhari’s attitude and style have been ominous. His
northern political rallies come across more as religious revivals than political campaigns.
Aware that he is a symbol of Islamic activism among his people, Buhari addresses his
northern supporters, only in Hausa language, and would often not even bother to address the
developmental challenges of the people. Buhari can do these among the northern youth
population that converge for his rallies and get away because, he well understands that their
presence was entirely motivated by religion, Islamic struggle and not governance issues.
If religiousness is all it takes to drive a country on the path of productiveness, development
and service delivery, then let the Janjaweed take over in Darfur, Boko Haram in Nigeria, the
Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and Al Shabab in Somalia. Let Sharia take over in all
Muslim countries, and Canon Law in those of the Christains. May Al Queada over take us all!
But competence is the issue, and Buhari failed woefully, pathetically on this score between
1983 and 1985.

Buhari despises the elite of his people, remaining ominously aloof, rigid and forebodingly one
track-minded. These are all red flags! Nigerians should be circumspect. This man may not be
corrupt, but there are certain alarms about him. Buhari clearly transmits red signals in the
polity. It is clear that apart from the states of the North-West and North-East, his Congress for
Political Change (CPC) would hardly earn 25 per cent of the total number of votes cast in the
remaining states of the federation.

By implication, two zones just cannot earn Buhari the presidency he is looking for, no matter
their voting strength. As a fledging one-man party, his CPC also lacks a strong national
presence, organisational and structural framework needed for strong political in-roads in all the
states for a victory in a presidential election. It is also evident that the Buhari’s personality and
character profile are assets to him only among the Hausa-Fulani of the North-West and partly
North-East, and strictly for the Muslim population of the two zones, but a heavy personal
baggage on him in the entire South, and the Christain-dominated North-Central, with a low
population of the Hausa-Fulani stock. These scenarios promise yet another presidential
election rout for Buhari. The huge worry is whether his CPC supporters, whom he has weaned
on violence and religious bigotry, would allow peace reign after Buhari had gone down on April
9.

Nigerians have been fed excessively with the issue of Buhari as lily-white to the extent that
many now throw up. But I wish I were a presidential candidate. With all these debates, I would
have given anything to have a one-on-one with Buhari. I would have loved to tell him to his
face that the Lateef Jakande’s $60 million metro rail project for Lagos, which he cancelled
immediately after he over-threw the Second Republic, has now accumulated a debt profile of
over $3 billion for Lagos State, making the state the most indebted state to Paris Club in the
federation. I would remind Buhari that Gbolahan Mudashiru, his Military Administrator for
Lagos State, alerted him on the clause in the contract agreement that would yoke the state to
this debt, if the contract was cancelled unilaterally, and that he replied Mudashiru, that he
didn’t care a damn.

Though the fund for the execution of that project which would have given the people of Lagos
an intra-city light train transport system would not have come from Buhari’s Supreme Military
Council, General Buhari, as Military Head of State, cancelled this wonderful project of the state
government, with ethnicity on his mind.

Buhari’s action of jailing Dr Alex Ekwueme, then Nigeria’s vice president, from Anambra, and
keeping President Shehu Shagari, from Sokoto State in a house arrest in Ikoyi was also
ethnically fired. So also was the shorter end of the stick he handed the South, as chair of
Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), in the execution of projects.
Dr Adeniji is a UK-based
chartered accountant