Law, without sword, is mere words, so says a philosopher. According to Obilade, every society, primitive or civilised, is governed by a body of rules which the members of the society regard as the standard of behaviour. Indiscipline, according to the Cambridge University, is a situation in which people do not control their behaviour or obey rules. If someone is compelled to offer one word in replacement of indiscipline, the word would undoubtedly be disobedience. It is a sign of primitivity and uncivilisation. The only cure to indiscipline is punishment. It is important to note, jurisprudentially, that the philosophy behind punishment is not in the pleasure of any government or parent to inflict injuries on its citizens or children, but for deterrence.
Indiscipline is so destructive that nations have collapsed on the strength of indiscipline which stems from their unwillingness, failure, or refusal to voluntarily obey the laws they freely gave to themselves. African countries are the poorest today in the world, despite the abundance of resources in the continent, because of indiscipline. They are like people living in the midst of the ocean but having dirt entering their eyes. The more disciplined a nation is, the more prosperous it becomes.
Rwanda, a tiny, landlocked East African country, came out from a genocidal war about three decades ago caused by indiscipline. Through the revolutionary restructuring of the country, Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, restored discipline in Rwanda which instilled the spirit of obedience to the laws of Rwanda in the hearts of the Rwandans and this change in attitude radically transformed the country to the extent that today, when the tiny Rwanda sneezes, the mighty Democratic Republic of Congo, with its vast resources and land, catches cold. It is discipline that promotes a country, not resources. If you give undisciplined people resources, they will use the resources to destroy themselves.
In Nigeria, successive leaders have identified indiscipline as our biggest problem. Unfortunately, when such leaders are given opportunity to lead, they display greater indiscipline. We had a General Muhammadu Buhari, who, as Head of State, declared war against indiscipline, but when he became the elected President of Nigeria, his regime displayed the highest indiscipline known in Nigerian history, only second to Tinubuโs lawless regime.
The institutional foundation of government in a democracy is the political party. Our democracy is so dependent on political parties to the extent that thereโs no room for independent candidates in Nigeria. With this constitutional hindrance to independent candidacy, any indiscipline in the political parties would inevitably dovetail to the entire nation.
Indiscipline started with the formation of the political parties from 1999. The parties wrote their constitutions and vowed to be governed by them. Thereโs no single political party that has been faithful to the spirit of its Constitution from 1999. This disobedience to their laws is more egregious in the matter of internal democracy and the primary elections. For the avoidance of doubt, the position of the law in Nigeria today is that a party is 100 percent responsible for whatever it makes of itself. Even the courts do not have jurisdiction to impose any leadership on the party. This, obviously, is a good law. The implication of this law if the courts would sustain it, is that any party that does not get its act together will collapse and die. Itโs shameful that the three major political parties, All Progressives Congress (APC), People Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), are not governed by elected executives. They are all governed by Caretaker Committees because of endemic indiscipline.
The cost of indiscipline is unquantifiable. In 2007, Ifeanyi Ararume won the gubernatorial primary election to contest for the governor of Imo State under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). His party refused to support his candidacy. It gave the ticket to another politician. Ararume won the case at the Supreme Court for the restoration of the gubernatorial ticket. Yet his party officially did anti-party action against him and rather supported Ohakim of the Progressive People Alliance (PPA) to win the gubernatorial election in Imo State. Ohakim later defected back to PDP and President Obasanjo openly praised him as a man of his words because he promised to come back to PDP if the party helped him to defeat its own candidate and he did. What a country of official indiscipline.
Chibuike Amaechi won the gubernatorial primary election of PDP in 2007 in Rivers State, but was replaced with Celestine Omehia. The only reason Obasanjo gave was that the primary election had K-leg. No law was said to be breached by the primary election. Not even an interim injunction from the court stopping the party from removing Amaechi could sway them. Amaechi took his case to the Supreme Court and won. Celestine Omehia was removed by the Supreme Court and replaced by Amaechi who didnโt face the electorate at a general election. The indiscipline in the party compelled the court to declare a person who didnโt participate in a general election, who was not chosen directly by the people, a winner. This judgement introduced a lot of instability in Rivers State and Nigeria in general.
In 2015, the PDP lost the presidential election to the opposition party, APC, due to complete breakdown of discipline among itโs ranks. Seven governors and other high ranking officers of the PDP walked out on the sitting President and leader of the party, Goodluck Jonathan, in a rally ground because of allegations of betrayal of trust and breaching of earlier agreements. They formed New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) and merged with the opposition party, APC, to fight their own party, PDP. They defeated their own party that till today is still in the opposition.
It is important to note that as all these acts of impunity were going on, there was no punishment meted out to all the offending members of the political parties. PDP continued to regress in their fortune until they are now at the lowest ebb. Because the indiscipline of 2015 was not punished, the indiscipline of 2023 became a custom in PDP.
The 2023 presidential election was historic. It marked the first time APC conducted election that would not return an incumbent to power. Going by the awful performance of the APC government under Buhari, one would have expected an easy ride for the opposition. The victory for the opposition was lost because of indiscipline. The Constitution of PDP was very clear on how the President of the party should emerge in each election year. Section 7(3)(c) was clear that the Party shall pursue its aims and objectives by โadhering to the policy of the rotation and zoning of Party and Public elective offices in pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness.โ The interpretation of this section is very clear. There are six geo-political zones in Nigeria and two sections of North and South. The interest of equity, justice, fairness demands that the presidential power should rotate not only between North and South, but among the six geo-political zones. The PDP was clear in mentioning โrotationโ, which is between North and South, and โzoning,โ which is among the six geo-political zones.
From 1999 to the presidential election of 2023, three geo-political zones have produced the presidents of Nigeria. They include North-West, South-West, and South-South. Three others, which include South-East, North-Central, and North-East have not produced. At the turn of 2023 presidential election, North had just produced a president for eight years. Obviously, it was to rotate to the South. In the South, it was only South-East that had not produced a president. It was a straight forward turn of the South-East to produce the next president by the Constitution of the PDP. Atiku Abubakar was very clear that it was the turn of the South-East to produce the president and if the party respected this provision he would not run but if not, he would run.
The Governor Ugwuanyi Committee on zoning of party elective posts ordered all posts in the South to go North and vice versa, in preparation for same action to be taken in the zoning of public elective posts under Gov Ortomโs Committee. Gov Ortom was an ally of Gov Wike and surprisingly, the Committee held that the presidential post should be thrown open to all rather than being zoned to the South-East because Gov Wike would have been cut off if it were zoned to the South East. At the end of the day, just to drive home the point that he supported the throwing of the presidential primary election open to all zones, Wike vowed to support any candidate that emerged from the convention.
He contested and lost and still refused to keep to his vow. Wike joined four other governors in a G5 conspiracy against their own party. This led to the loss of the presidential election by their party to APC. What a total lack of discipline. As at today, the incompetent PDP has not punished the governors and other party members that were involved in the anti-party activities. Wike even has become a minister in an APC government and has promised to support the presidential ambition of APC candidate in 2027. Generally, most PDP members, seeing that there is no punishment for anti-party activities, have openly declared support for APC. Practically today, PDP is dead, and the remaining members sound like clowns. What indiscipline cannot destroy does not exist.
Credit:The Sun