The More Things Change … : A Return to 1984

Nigeria has had a rough going in the last ten or so days. The series of unfortunate events began with the Olympic football team finding themselves stranded in Atlanta due to a failed or delayed payment to the airline that was to charter the young men to Brazil. Delta airlines, like a gift from above, came to the rescue of our team and charter them without upfront payment. The team was able to get to Brazil just in time for their first game, saving us from having to forfeit the match. Delta airlines new ad reads (not really but it should) as such: “Delta Airlines: Saving countries from embarrassment since 2016”. Well, just one to date.To add insult to injury, our attire for the opening ceremony was left behind in Nigeria . Since we could not of course be paraded in the nude, our beloved Olympians showcased Nigerian culture in the traditional attire of our faux-healthy politicians, “the tracksuit”.

One of the more controversial news stories was the decision by the Central Bank of Nigeria to subsidize the pilgrimage to Mecca, providing Forex for those travelling at the rate of 197 Naira to the Dollar. Considering the current parallel market rate is almost 400 Naira to the Dollar, Nigeria,a country that claims it is broke, cannot afford this subsidy not to mention that Nigeria is a Federal Republic and a secular state. It has no business in these matters yet it has an unfortunate history of mixing religion and state, this current government deemed this intervention was wise given the economic climes.The argument for the subsidy has been that since we changed our monetary policy after the Christians got the previous government fixed rate, that Muslims should get the same benefits of the old monetary policy.

Nigeria: where everything must be reciprocal regardless of what common sense dictates.

We need to do away with subsidizing religious pilgrimages in the future; not because we cannot afford it, though that is a good enough reason on its own; but because we are a secular state and, by definition, should remain neutral in matters pertaining to religion.

I was initially going to write about that policy decision but then yesterday morning I came across something making the rounds that I could not believe. Ladies and gentlemen, after retiring in 1985 , the War Against Indiscipline band is back and ready to begin a new era 30 years later. An archaic policy is making headlines as the newest example of this administration’s inexplicable forays back to the 1980’s.

A brief overview about the The War against Indiscipline. It was a policy started by the Military administration of the then Head of State,General Buhari, with the intention of addressing the perceived lack of public morality and responsibility in the Nigerian society. In a nutshell it tried to end or curtail crime, unruliness, uncleanliness, fraud etc. Harsh punishments were meted out to culprits, suspects and victims alike as the police and military took this new power and terrorized the Nigerian populace . I will give one glaring example of the unreasonable extent of the punishments: cheating on an exam could land a student in jail for up to 21 years!!. It was a policy that in hindsight had devastating effects on many families who ended up with jailed, injured or killed family members. People were also just not free to go about their daily lives in peace, loitering for example could be seen as an offence.

But in the Nigerian way, when there is glaring evidence that a policy or decision did not work, we must, seemingly without much thought, bring it back for reconsideration and in this case, implementation. A country of distorted revisionists if there ever was one. President Buhari has once again demonstrated his love for “the good ‘ol 80’s”, and since we got him to, partially, give up on his ‘strong Naira’ ambitions. We are now burdened with this new item of nostalgia.

This is an explanation of why this was a necessary move from NOA DG:

“in this era of insecurity, violence, kidnapping and other forms of social vices, the role of the WAI Brigade in civil intelligence gathering cannot be over emphasized. It is in this regard that I call on you to encourage your members across the country to redouble their vigilance in the local governments, wards and their various villages, so that we can contribute our quota towards building a secure society.”

Sighs*

The Nigerian government’s ability to simplify and over complicate a matter in the same breath is remarkable.

There are so many other things the Nigerian government should be spending their time doing. We have no coherent policy direction when it comes to the military, the economy, safety and security; we have not, as far as I know,dealt with the budget issue; inflation and unemployment are rising; infrastructure is still moribund. Yet what we come up with is a brigade against indiscipline to “save our nation from decline”. The way the government celebrates mediocrity and incompetence with such pomp and fanfare; I was astounded that they held a press conference for this! Someone or some people in charge of Nigeria and its future actually think this is a logical policy decision in 2016. I should not be surprised though. This is very much in line with our honorable minister statements on masquerades being a viable avenue for youth employment. The terrible and lazy ideas keep pouring in with no end in sight.

Nsogbu di, we are in trouble.

I don’t want to say that I have given up on the Buhari administration. He has only completed a little over a year out of the four the constitution currently grants him. While it has been a year filled with gaffe after gaffe and with no coherent direction on many pressing issues, there is still a little under three years left to right the ship. Though I must reiterate, if these sort of policies are what this administration is going to be implementing, then we are in for an even bumpier ride than imagined. With hindsight, it is usually easier to weed out bad ideas. The decision to go ahead with this must mean that either the people in power are devoid of good ideas or that someone is not willing to listen to those ideas,or both. I find it hard to believe that, in a country of over 150 million people, some intelligence and backbone did not trickle into the government. But hey, here we are. 50 plus years of these sort of decisions and still going strong.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” 
― Albert Einstein

In the case of Nigeria we are making the mistake of doing the same thing over and over again. There is an adjective used to describe those who partake in such damaging pursuits… I will leave it at that lest I am deemed worthy of the brigade’s attention.

One thing is for sure, Nigeria is in desperate need of good ideas and leaders who will have the strength to properly implement them. President Buhari, despite the current evidence, still has an opportunity to do something that most of his predecessors have been unable to do: truly transform the country and set it on the path to greatness. With a diverse economy and a safe and secure country, the wheels of development will pick up. Policies that are implemented have to be in line with that vision, but this administration so far does not seem to fully grasp the urgency of the situation.

This brigade is hopefully the last jaunt to the tumultuous past that this administration embarks on. We need positive change now for the sake of Nigeria’s future