Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Condemned to History

I was tempted to buy it. After staring at it for about 2 minutes, it brought about a nostalgic feeling that i still can't accurately describe. Those were the days. So what was I staring at with such mental concentration? A picture. Let me rephrase: A classic picture. I was at the Silverbird Galleria during the holidays when I came across an exhibition of reputable photographer Sunmi Smart-Cole’s valuable work from the last 3 decades.Now, there were many fascinating & eye-catching pictures on display that day (including one with OBJ & Pope John Paul II both sitting across a table,wittily titled: CONFESSIONS).However, the framed picture that truly captivated me was the one named ‘War Against Indiscipline’. It was an aerial shot showing about 100 lagosians impressively queuing up for a commercial bus in 1984.The line was so organized that one would have easily assumed the nigerians on it were professional queuers (if there’s such a word).If that isn’t nostalgic for you, then I seriously doubt anything can be. I practically had goose-bumps looking at it.1984.The time when President Buhari, along with the admirable late Brig.Gen Idiagbon, had come close to ensuring we, Nigerians, were disciplined in most aspect of our public lives.
I clearly remember watching the network news on NTA those days (involuntarily, I must add, as a lack of cable TV limited everyone’s viewing choices).I would always laugh at video footage of civil servants being forced, by their superiors, to frog-jump for coming to work late. Thoughts of the humiliation the offenders’ kids would go through, in the hands of fellow students at school the next day, stayed perpetuated in my head each time. Things were organised then. One pissed or threw rubbish on the road at their own risk etc.Well, 24 years later that is ancient history now. In fact, many youths today never experienced ‘those days’ when there was some degree of sanity in our public behaviorial patterns. Today, indiscipline is practically embedded in our DNA.Almost as inseparable as a hen and her young. The first instinct of most of us in a place that involves a lengthy queue is to see how he/she can bribe his or her way to the front. We (including my humble self) are all guilty of this. Easy examples are at times of fuel scarcity, visa quests at the embassies or entry into a show/concert.In a way, economics has a key role to play in this continued decay. My point is this: the security guard who,say in the embassy, is supposed to ensure orderliness is hungry and earns peanuts.Expectedly, he’s ready to enable anyone beat the lengthy line or large crowd, as one as he/she can part away with 100 bucks. Same mindset with the fuel attendants & filling station chaps during times of fuel shortages. If you are not ready(or able) to part away with something, one would languish for hours in the queue.Another simple reason for the apparent extinction of discipline is because our leaders have failed to lead by example.
As I stared at Mr. Cole’s incredibly captured shot of history that sunday afternoon, I wondered if we could ever get back to the type of discipline that was visually evident in that bus stop.Actually, I still wonder.Sadly, the response can come from portions of the biblical saying: ‘It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for…..’.
You fill in the blank.

8 comments:

olaide said...

----Nigerians to behave in a civilized way uh
anyways maybe if the that regime 'Buhari/Idiagbon' had stayed for a while we would have been singing a different song now!

Anonymous said...

Chakams, I feel you. I really believe things will get better; because without hope then whats the point?

Indiscipline is the bane of our existence and if you really look carefully at every yawa that we have in Naija it boils down to indiscipline. Its a shame we don't have leaders in the mould of Idiagbon (although you can argue that being military made it alot easier).

Economics has everything to do with; can you imagine what it must feel like to be hungry and standing in 30+ degrees Celsius of heat and not knowing where the next mal would come from... In that situation anything goes, so letting someone who bribes him N100 jump the queue is the least of his problem.

I use to be skeptical about Naija but I believe that with time certain things would have to change (they already are) and change for the better. The question is when?

Our parents generation have made a right mess of Naija and our generation would have so much work to do to change it... What saddens me though is that alot of us have different priorities and many really don't care.

I made a promise to myself to stop talking about our problems but to start doing something about it. No solid ideas yet but we are working on it.

Chakams said...

Chigo,i agree with you(especially with your last paragraph).Sadly,everybody's mindset is tuned to some form of indiscipline already.It would take serious work for things to change for the 'visible' better.Yes,while i agree that the responsibility rests with each & every one of us,its Govt's duty to ensure enforcement & 'leadership by example'.Unfortunately,that's still a long way from happening.Fingers firmly crossed,though.

Anonymous said...

Some people think that democracy is the cause of our problems... when IBB and Abacha were in power, they were embezzling money but it was kind of centralized... now every body has their hands in the cookie jar...

i agree that our parents made a big ol' mess of things, but the future doesn't look to bright for our generation... our eye to dey strong, and nobody send the next guy.

For example... my brother's street gets really bad when it rains, so he went door to door asking everyone on the street to contribute to fix the road... of course most people gave him the run around... weeks later it rained heavily and people with sedans couldn't drive their cars into their houses. Shortly after, half the street went and bought SUV’s instead of fixing the road.

Anonymous said...

lol @Ally post.... Typical Naija mentality be that, instead of them fixing the road they went and bought SUV. Only Naija people can think like that; they forget that the SUV will eventually be wrecked by all the water they have to trawl through to get home.

But another point is that (although this is alien to Nigeria lol) is that it is the government that should be fixing the road and not the residents. LGA and councils should be doing these things but we all know that doesn't happen.

Our generation is worse; every man for himself and no one really cares about what happens to the society as a whole as far as they can travel every year and do their shopping in jand and yankee, go and chill and have their steady action. All these things are what I believe kills us. We have nothing if we do not have a pride in who we are as a people.

I guess we can shout all we want to about being proudly Nigerian, but what tangible thing can you attribute your pride to. Me for one love Naija because of its people. Nigerians everywhere are resilient, they are funny, they are enteprising, they are hard working (although some are fraudulent), they are proud and as a nation we could be anything we want to be.

I just wish that we can do something to change the lot of millions of Nigerians that go through hell because of the innefficiencies of this thing called the government. I am still searching for answers...

Anonymous said...

When Nigerians are in a different environment they "magically" become capable of behaving like human beings. For example, when you fly out of Nigeria, the same people pushing and screaming in Lagos a few hours before suddenly queue and speak politely as they go through immigration . . .

Chakams said...

@Aisha,dat's as spot-on as a sniper

Anonymous said...

Chakams,
If the trend of 1984 continues you will see hundreds of human rights activist shouting ''this is democracy''

Now that things are bad they and indeed nigerians are complaining.
The truth is that Nigerians do not really know what that want baring in mind that we are special breeds.