|
 advertisement
|
n my previous article on the war against corruption, my focus had been on corruption in high places and some possible ways forward. In this article I will seek to revisit WAI from the perspective of 'catching them young', in consonance with the Yoruba proverb which says 'ati kekere ni ati npa eka iroko'.
Our value system is at present questionable in Nigeria and our children and youths had been the recipients of the wrong indoctrination. This is why we need to correct the ills and diseases of corruption at both ends of the spectrum. We need to discipline and correct adults as we must reshape our youths and children who are in their formative stages, through the formal (school) and informal (societal/home) approaches.
My urge is fueled by the fact that the clarion calls for WAI, further open up some aspects of the possible strategies to combat indiscipline in Nigeria. While we can imprison the corrupt adults, we are not able to do the same to our youths and others who can be shaped from childhood. It may be too late, to delay teaching them till a later stage in life, when they may already have been formed and corrupted. Societal reorientation through curricular intervention in schools and other subtle campaign methods will cause, even children, to call adults to order, when adults demonstrate acts of indiscipline and corruption in homes and in public places. This is the essence of this need to revisit and reconfigure the War Against Corruption and indiscipline.
In the belief that we all have a stake in the peaceful and orderly new Nigeria, I will like to add my voice to this call for the sanitation of Nigeria. I was a part of the vanguard on WAI since the inception of the different phases in 1985. At that time, as a University Don, I saw the need to introduce education, in addition to the Military force, utilized in the initial prosecution of WAI. It was also understandable then, to use force, since it was the military era, with the characteristic power-coercive approach to effect change. I was concerned about how the war was being prosecuted and did not like the corporal punishment aspects of it, especially from their military standpoint.
I believed that friendliness and gentleness were better than force and fury, used in the initial WAI prosecution. Consequently, I designed an educational package for both the young and the old, based on all the phases of WAI. That package was severally tried out and evaluated and found to be very effective in influencing peoples' attitude and behaviours and also in moderating our value system as a people. That package was named WAI but later changed to NOM (Nation- On the- Move) after the term WAI, became moribund. Today, the force used in implementing WAI is no longer possible or applicable, in a democratic setting. After the Buhari-Idiagbon regime, the pep put into WAI waned, however, the remnants (effects) of WAI still lingers with us even till today. It is gratifying to note that out of the several phases of WAI launched, the queue culture and the monthly environmental sanitation exercise have remained engrained in the value system of Nigerians to date. A new down has come to Nigeria and change is the inevitable and this is the reason for the reconfiguration of WAI.
I was able to make a modest educational contribution to the war against indiscipline and corruption during its initial outing. The merits of that educational package was what encouraged General Emmanuel Abisoye and the then Minister of Information, Prince Tony Momoh to facilitate the promotion of that modest educational package on WAI. It was the Minister of Information, who facilitated the presentation of this educational package to the Presidential Commission on Information, headed by Professor Nzemeru of the University of Port Harcourt. The formal presentation was made by the author to the Presidential Commission on Information at the National Arts Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos. That NOM package was subsequently produced for use in the early 1990s by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
In my new awareness of the pervasive nature of indiscipline and corruption, all hands must be on deck in curbing all forms of this malaise. In the newly designed educational package on indiscipline and corruption, information has been aggregated and synthesized as a dynamic way for the re-orientation of Nigerians, young and old, male and female, poor and rich in the new global era. It is gratifying to note that in this the era of change, everyone is in agreement that there can be no change in Nigeria, at the exclusion of corruption! Security, unemployment and Corruption are like the three sides of the local cooking stove (aaro) which are still in use in the rural area of Yoruba land. It is impossible to cook a good meal without these three stands (supports). This can be compared with these three inseparable serious problems in Nigeria. The security threats to our sovereignty, through insurgence cannot be ignored. The prevalent unemployment in the nation is contributing to the insecurity of lives and properties as well as discouraging the youths from meaningful educational pursuits. Corruption in every sector of our economy has been talked about but given the requisite attention until now, with the new Buhari regime.
The problem with Nigeria is not in the lack of ideas. Human and material resources are also not in short supply in our great Nation Nigeria. The task of reengineering the Nigerian society and transforming our value system is the task for all of us. It cannot be done as a one-time or one-shot antidote. Rather, it is a subtle and enduring approach that may succeed in doing the trick of wiping out corruption from our society. The subtle characteristics of gentleness and friendliness which are better than force and fury will be effective in purifying the Nigerian society, at the early stages while the heavy penalties to be inflicted on corrupt older individuals will suffice in cleaning up the system. The consequences of corruption should now be serious and heavy to serve as deterrents to erring Nigerians. In the new Nigeria, corruption should henceforth become a taboo!
The integration of new and desirable values into schools curricular at all levels deserve some educational attention. The use of this package for civics and related general studies subjects in higher institutions and in the society at large, may contribute in inculcating the new Nigerian values into the fertile brains of our youths. We need to accelerate the campaign to rid Nigeria of corruption and indiscipline in various forms as a matter of urgency. Nigerians, young and old must be good ambassadors wherever they find themselves. Image laundering must be part of our activities, to show the whole world that we have reshaped our destiny and remolded our integrity. We have two recent testimonies to our credit. The unprecedented Ebola Success Story and the successful Democratic Elections of 2015 remain as our tenable evidences of a new Nigeria. Sanity in governance must follow with the new administration.
This is why the new government will not only talk about indiscipline and corruption but institute effective measures which are long-term, and short-term and be committed to the new measures. The war against Indiscipline and corruption cannot be a crash programme at all. It should be a systemic, on-going and a never ending war. One hard fact to remember is that corruption did not start in our lifetime. It had been in existence from time immemorial. Corruption is everywhere, however, some Nigerian have crafted their own approaches to dishonesty, fraud, looting and corruption. This is unfortunate and worse still contaminating the Nigerian children and youths, to no end. The new government will need to craft some more dynamic approaches to curbing corruption for the sake of posterity. It is in this light that a call for a reconfiguration is in order. Such reconfiguration and control approaches can be done without needing to re-invent the wheels. The wheels are here and ready, to move our nation Nigeria forward to the next level of integrity, transparency and accountability.
The role which education can play in curbing indiscipline and corruption is indeed enormous. Our value system can be brought to the level of modesty in so many ways. Through social re-orientation of the society and various types of campaigns and education, we can bring corruption and indiscipline under control. It is a fact that in any society, where there are no consequences for bad behaviours, there can be no discipline and corruption thrives. The consequences for corruption and related vices in Nigeria from now on, should be made stiff, to serve as deterrents to others. For example, in civilized societies, people drive carefully, not so much because of their personal safety or civil obedience to the law, BUT because the consequences of getting in an accident are grave; get a ticket, get an increase in car insurance, lose driving privileges eventually, waste time on Police intervention at time of accident, if accident leads to bodily injuries, medical bills may be high. In extreme cases, offenders may be jailed. All these penalties translate to money and untold other losses (integrity inclusive), which might be too much for those in civilized countries. These are some of the reasons why those people will choose to be disciplined always or as much as possible. This may in fact, be the genesis of the discipline in civilized cultures of the world. Nigeria will also inflict and enforce penalties for indiscipline as time goes on. Every Nigerian needs to be held responsible for his or her behaviours at all times. This is the only way to achieve a lasting democracy as well as a peaceful and law abiding citizenry.
If Nigeria will make the consequences of corruption and indiscipline very drastic, people will behave themselves. People should be made public examples for their indiscipline and corrupt behaviours. In a subtle manner, people who have looted can be approached to respect themselves and return their loots to avoid incarceration and untold embarrassments to their families and friends. We know all these people and some of these funds can be recovered 'quietly' and as quickly as possible. As I wrote in my earlier article, many 'money-bags' in Nigeria can be summoned to a summit to contribute to bail Nigeria out. If calculated drastic steps are not taken to recover the loots, no matter how capable and well intentioned the present administration is, it may remain crawling for the next four years. God forbid! The war against corruption should be a reality and not a mirage. Let's all pull the bull by the horn.
The time is now to rid Nigeria of corruption and indiscipline. Every Nigerian should endeavor to be good ambassadors everywhere they go. The public needs to be informed and educated about many bad behaviours, which are easily taken for granted, 'as our norms', but which constitute indiscipline. Let the WAI campaign commence and let us start to witness the new trend, which will make us all proud to be called Nigerians. A reconfiguration of this war against indiscipline and corruption is a necessity in our new democratic dispensation of change.
