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 S3xy 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,.......READ MOREE BELOW

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ok

Op do you disagree with the president on this stance that Nigerians are unruly?
Come to Lagos in the last few days and you will really see how unruly we are as a people. Just because LASTMA officials have been told not to be high handed motorists have turned the roads inside out with traffic gridlocks everywhere.
Do you want to talk about how unruly we are when you see the use of power from above? Do you want to talk about how high office holders turn their fellow Nigerians to lesser beings because they occupy high offices which is suppose to be used for the benefit of the same people they trample on?
The list is endless op, in a nutshell, we are unruly and we surely need the carrot and stick approach to make the many unruly ones conform.

I heard that in one of fela's songs.
If you want to get some facts about Nigeria, listen to fela's music.
If buhari can not change Nigeria, I dont think any one can.

really