Let values reorientation begin in Aso Villa

The National Orientation Agency (NOA), on September 11, 2024, announced it had commenced implementation of a National Values Charter, as part of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. According to the minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, the charter seeks to renew national pride and reshape civic values among citizens. He added that the essence is to foster moral, ethical and cultural reawakening among Nigerians.

In December 2023, the Ministry announced it had put together a committee to fine-tune the Values Charter. According to them, “Nigeria’s Values Charter embodies a social contract between the country and its citizens. It will serve as a blueprint and policy for a national values system, defining us as Nigerians and undergirding our personality as citizens.”

The charter is to consist of the Nigerian Promise and the Citizen Codes, which have seven pillars each of obligations the government and the people are to discharge. The goal as proposed was to transmit core shared values and policies that will unite the people and power their aspirations, nationalism and pride.

In April 2024, the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, emphasised the need for a revamp of national values. He confessed in a radio chat that; “we have not created the conditions for the Nigerian man to call himself a Nigerian, proudly. We must create the conditions. That’s the difference between what we are doing now and the past. It takes two to tango. You cannot ask citizens to do all of this without the country itself showing commitment. That’s why it is a charter.”

The charter, he explained would include seven strategies for the restoration of national values, with compulsory Nationalism Studies in schools (primary to university) as well as introduction of Citizens’ Brigade to replace Boys’ Scout and Girls’ Guide. Lofty ideas.

To be clear, the Constitution of the Federal Republic, 1999 is the number one Social Charter in the land and it is supposed to be supreme. The Constitution has defined the State, who the citizens are, as well as obligations of the government to the people and what citizens owe the State. But this social contract aspect of the Constitution is highly disregarded by elected officials who swear to uphold the document.

Failure to abide by the Constitution has seen successive governments expend funds and time in the bid to redefine and redesign the polity piecemeal. These efforts don’t seem to go far, which some blame on the fundamental disruptions along the path of building the nation. That’s another story.

During military regimes, they too tried to decree the ethos of national identity, discipline, honesty and hard work into existence. There were different programmes, including a ‘War Against Indiscipline’ (WAI), that tried to correct the malaise of lateness to work, bribery, extortion and improper attitude in public places. They enforced the ‘queue culture’ to ensure decorum in large gatherings. The gains were short-lived.

Indiscipline and bad behaviour get exacerbated during civilian governments, no doubt. Perhaps due to insufficient knowledge of the rule book and reluctance to enforce rules due to collusion and connivance. Political authorities turn out to be the most lawless and undisciplined.

President Tinubu addressed a gathering of Nigerians during his recent visit to China, where he admonished them to be disciplined because the Chinese society is very disciplined.

Hear what President Tinubu told them: “I cannot tell you more, except from the embassy, that China is a very disciplined society and we have to be disciplined too. Without discipline and commitment, we cannot build a nation that is respected everywhere in the world.”

One cannot but agree with Mr. President. In the task of fixing and rebuilding Nigeria, commitment is key as well as the discipline to push ahead when things seem hopeless, as they are today. But the leadership must set practical examples for citizens to emulate.

Discipline involves training citizens to obey rules or to abide by a code of behaviour, using punishment to correct infractions and enforce commitment. That’s the dictionary explanation of the word. More than that, checks with Meta AI (2024), yielded more on the word discipline, as the foundation for achieving success in various aspects of life, for self-control, responsibility, accountability, focus, perseverance and time management.

President Tinubu claims he’s eager to replicate the good roads, good schools and non-stop supply of electricity he saw in China back home. He said to achieve that would require taking hard decisions and the discipline to live with the hard times.

With particular reference to China, Meta AI (2024), further shared how the culture of discipline has played a significant role in China’s rapid economic growth and evolution as world’s second largest economy, from a subsistence agrarian background in just decades. Key elements of that culture are; respect for authority, social hierarchy, self-control, hard work and education.

Nigeria didn’t do badly in the early years after independence in the task to jump-start nation-building. The people were eager and ready to be among the best in the world. The zeal by Nigeria to excel as a country was unapparelled among her peers, in education, industrialisation, infrastructure and nation building. China, India and other emerging powers competed along with Nigeria on the same scale. The regional governments were in a hurry to make their regions great in education, industrialisation and infrastructure. The level of nationalism, patriotism and the discipline to accomplish tasks was high.

Without seeking to reinvent nationalism and patriotism, Nigeria has a pedigree for agencies of government to consult, to enable them advise politicians properly on how to return to winning ways. It’s not just about reading beautiful scripts as Mr. President loves to do, but to demonstrate the political will and discipline to do what he says.

All that Bola Ahmed Tinubu espoused, or stood for, in the time past on the economy and social justice he has today abandoned. The statement he wrote on January 11, 2012, to denounce President Goodluck Jonathan’s attempt to offload the fuel subsidy policy, remains a classic case of podium demagoguery. All the negative backlash Tinubu propounded would happen to Nigerians if subsidy were removed, are the same afflictions he has deposited on the people, without remorse.

During the 2023 campaigns, Tinubu told Nigerians in Abeokuta, that his government would cause the price of petrol to come down; it was less than N200 per litre at the time. Even the Renewed Hope Agenda document, which he announced as his social contract with the people, he has abandoned. Nigerians now have the impression of President Tinubu as a leader who promises a thing but goes ahead to do the reverse. That’s not a hallmark of disciplined leadership.

Citizens are willing to make sacrifices, however, not in the magnitude of economic plagues Mr. President has unleashed, which makes it hard for small and medium scale enterprises to thrive. China couldn’t have started that way. The evolution of China began with leaders who led by example and there were no questions about accountability and transparency. It was easy for everyday Chinese people to key in. That’s not what we have here.

The gap between rulers and the people must first be bridged. It begins with accountability. President Tinubu should understand that democratic power belongs to the people and he is obligated to report to them. You cannot go to China to preach discipline when you are not accountable at home. All of Mr. President’s foreign trips are shrouded in secrecy, just like his predecessor, Buhari did for eight years without giving a damn.

President Tinubu left Nigeria on August 29, 2024, with China as the destination where he had official engagement. The engagements in China, the ninth edition of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCA), were scheduled between September 1, 2024 and September 5. While other African leaders who attended the meeting with China returned to their respective countries, Nigeria’s President lounged in Western capitals, where he incurred bills for taxpayers at home to settle.

Meanwhile, his media handlers invent nebulous terminologies such as ‘work stay’ to cover his unofficial trips to France. The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, wouldn’t do that; no self-respecting global leader would do that and go preaching about the discipline of the Chinese.

The most topical stories today are high cost of petrol, insecurity and corruption. The back and forth between Dangote Refinery Limited (DRL) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), as well as the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) is nauseating and demeaning, for a ranking oil producing country.

The deliberate opacity in the oil sector makes Nigeria look stupid among civilised members of the global community, particularly China, with whom the President went to sign MoUs for loans and partnerships. Let that stop.

Nigerians are not fooled. The drama about pricing and sole distributorship of DRL products reserved for NNPCL is to deny the people the immense benefits of local refining. Responsibility is on the President not to descend into the murky arena. After all, he’s already rich and didn’t come to make money in government. He must demonstrate self-control.

Yahaya Bello and the EFCC drama has unraveled. Again, Nigerians are not fooled. If Mr. President wants to fight corruption, nobody can stop him. All the instruments of law enforcement are in his hands. He can arrest and prosecute any offender.

Finally, Bello Matawalle is in the news. Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State has implicated Matawalle for aiding banditry and terrorism in the Northwest. Former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdullahi Bawa, had an unfinished $2 billion bribery allegation case with Matawalle.

Mr. President, you did not sort that out before you appointed Matawalle as a minister. Now is the time to sort it out, including appointing a substantive minister in charge of Petroleum.

Let the concept of discipline and values reorientation begin with you, Mr. President.