Nigerian president threatens new 'war on indiscipline'
Muhammadu Buhari's warning revives memories of years when Nigerians were whipped for not forming queues at bus stops
For decades, it has been notorious as one of the most lawless, corrupt and chaotic countries in the whole of Africa. Now, in an effort to improve Nigeria's reputation, the country's new president, Muhammadu Buhari, has decided that reform must begin from the ground up - in homes, offices, schools, bus stops and anywhere else where "unruly behaviour takes place".
Mr Buhari, a tough ex-general, made an extraordinary televised address on Thursday in which he bluntly told fellow Nigerians that the only way life was going to improve was if the entire country dropped their "lawless habits".
"We must change our unruly behaviour in schools, hospitals, market places, motor parks (bus stations), on the roads, in homes and offices," he said. "To bring about change, we must change ourselves by being law-abiding citizens."
In a country with 140 million people, and which is wracked by rampant poverty and the Boko Haram insurgency, embarking on such a moral crusade might normally be seen as a recipe for political failure.
Boko Haram militants are one of the many "unruly" threats facing Nigeria Photo: AFP
However, on the question of getting people to mend their ways, Mr Buhari has something of a track record.
During his previous tenure as president in the mid-1980s, he won plaudits for his infamous "War on indiscipline", in which civil servants were ordered to do star jumps if they turned up late for work, and commuters were whipped if they did form orderly queues at bus stops.
Even cheating in an exam could earn a student several years in jail.
That, admittedly, was back when Mr Buhari was in office as a military ruler, having seized power from a hopelessly ineffective civilian government in a coup d'etat in 1983.
In his bid to be re-elected this year, he promised voters that he was now a "a converted democrat" who would not the use ruthless methods he had deployed in the past.
But his campaign also played heavily on his image as a tough ruler, which many Nigerians say is just what the country needs to defeat Boko Haram and end the corruption that continues to squander its oil wealth.
Elsewhere in Thursday's address, made on Nigerian Independence Day, Mr Buhari struck an otherwise low key tone.
Firm hand... many Nigerians like Mr Buhari's tough style Photo: Ben Curtis/AP
He said that "moderately encouraging" progress had been made in improving Nigeria's woeful public electricity network, and that efforts were now under way to "sanitise" state-run oil industries, long notorious for graft. He also claimed Boko Haram had been "severely weakened", despite the group killing more than 1,200 people since he took power.
But his comments about "unruly behaviour" will prompt speculation that some new form of the "War on Indiscipline" may be coming back - even though other Nigerian politicians have already taken a leaf out of his book.
Babatunde Fashola, the outgoing governor of Lagos,won huge plaudits for attempting to clean up the notoriously disorderly city, whose residents' reputation for hustle and brusqueness makes them West Africa's answer to New Yorkers.
The governor famously put himself on the side of the law-abiding "little man", once arresting an army colonel who was driving illegally in one of the governor's newly-built bus lanes. He then berated him in front of television cameras.
Indeed, Mr Buhari's new war on indiscipline cannot start soon enough, according to a recent article in Nigeria's Sun newspaper. It said that a new "cultural orientation" towards good behaviour was essential to copy the economic success of countries like Brazil or China.
"The War Against Indiscipline was a classic example of orientating the people towards a given policy direction," wrote Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma. "In inculcating discipline in public places, Nigerians learnt to queue at bus stops, petrol stations, banks, shops, and even water taps. This was just as they learnt not to dash like rabbits across Expressways instead of using overhead bridges."
