The Trouble with Nigeria

By Msonter Anzaa

To begin this piece, I want to make two things clear. One is that I am not attempting to substitute a similar-titled book by Chinua Achebe, published many years before I was born, and which treats the subject matter more broadly. Two, I do not consider that the trouble with Nigeria can be reduced to a simple matter that can be exhaustively discussed in a piece like this one. In fact, this essay addresses only an aspect of the larger army of problems facing this nation.

Achebe opens his book with these words. “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership.” Indiscipline is just a chapter in that book, and I intend to discuss it here.

Recently, the Benue State University was shut following an incident involving a truck driver who knocked down and killed two students along the Makurdi-Gboko road. This is typical of what goes on across many of our institutions where students have had to protest because of needless deaths caused by indiscipline on our roads. Following the riots, the state government has commenced construction of speed bumps on that portion of the road. Meanwhile motorists have discovered that they have to spend extra time on that portion.

Now, the question is, why do we choose to make life so difficult ourselves? The answer is indiscipline. From not keeping to time to not joining the queue, we outdo one another in acts of indiscipline. And we hold down Nigeria as a result. For example, we spend huge sums of money to build very smooth roads for ourselves – but we soon realize that because we are not more disciplined than wild animals and turn those roads into killing machines – we spend more money to roughen the roads by building speed bumps on them. I watched a mighty truck struggle to climb over the bumps, making a great sound that attracted unusual attention and uncomfortably shook the vehicle itself, and I wondered what the driver had on his mind. Did he ever wonder why it was necessary to build those bumps in the first place? Did he wonder why it was so difficult to control motorists’ speed without having to build obstacles that inconvenience vehicles and actually compromise safety? Why do we seem not to possess the basic minimum discipline possessed by human beings elsewhere? We drink yoghurt while on the road and fling the container right onto the middle of the road and speed away not minding the safety consequences for other road users or the dirty look it gives to the environment. We drink pure water and throw the satchet anywhere and walk away without any feeling. It seems to me that as a people, we have lost all feelings. This unconcern about our external conduct; this indifference to the cleanliness or otherwise of our environment is indicative of an inner, more serious condition of disorderliness, un-cleanliness and rot.

This dirtiness of mind manifests everywhere in our national life. Take politics for instance. Nigeria is the only country in the world that is always amending her electoral law each time an election approaches. Yet, some people still believe the Electoral Act cannot guarantee free and fair elections. Then of course, we have a problem with the very form of government to practice. We began with the parliamentary system but failed. So we thought the presidential system was better and adopted it. But several years later, there are loud calls for a Sovereign National Conference. All these exist because we seem to lack the discipline to make the system work. No system is perfect in its own self. Instead, its operators discipline themselves to make it work. JAMB has withheld results from some centres for malpractices. Now, what laws can we make against the primitive and retrogressive desire to acquire marks, certificates and everything? In fact, we have become an acquiring nation. We acquire degrees, chieftaincy titles, political offices, awards, national honours and more wealth than we would ever need. It is indiscipline!

We may not notice, but we are actually victims of ourselves. Achebe complains that “We have given ourselves over so completely to selfishness that we hurt not only those around us but ourselves even more deeply . . .” Yes, the truck drivers who do not have the patience to be a little orderly on the road may soon find out that they have to slow down completely to climb over speed bumps. Even “divine intervention” will not work in Nigeria if we expect it to come with no obligation to ourselves. We need to consciously begin to prepare for the change we desire. Or to use Mahatma Gandhi’s words, “we must become the change we seek in the world”. Let us deliberately pay attention to these little things and develop a national culture of discipline and maturity. When we do that, we would be building a new Nigeria where, like someone said, “our children will not grow up shouting NEPA!”