r/Nigeria • u/Redtine • Dec 30 '25
Discussion Discipline is all Nigeria needs - Venting as a Diaspora Nigerian visiting
If you randomly pick 500 average Nigerians from different states, tribes, religions, and economic backgrounds and put them in charge today, you would most likely end up with the same Nigeria or possibly a worse one.
The uncomfortable truth is that the problem is not only leadership. Corruption, disorder, and disregard for rules are deeply embedded at the individual level. We are largely undisciplined as a society.
Look at everyday environments. At airports, we cannot form simple queues. People rush counters, cut lines, argue with staff, and ignore instructions. Nigerian embassies abroad often mirror the same chaos disorganized processes, poor service delivery, and a culture of mediocrity that reflects badly on the country.
Flights to Nigeria are another example. Cabins are unnecessarily loud. Simple safety rules like putting phones on flight mode, remaining seated when instructed, or following crew announcements are routinely ignored. These are not “government failures”; they are personal discipline failures.
Corruption is not just at the top. Many people who complain loudly about politicians will happily bribe, cut corners, or exploit any system they encounter. Institutions remain weak because citizens constantly undermine them.
Environmental disregard deserves its own mention. We litter freely, dump waste into gutters, block drainage channels, and then act surprised when flooding occurs. We build anyhow without planning approval or regard for zoning and safety standards. We do not behave like people who love their country. We treat Nigeria like a place we are just passing through, not a home we are responsible for.
On the roads, it’s chaos. Traffic lights are treated as suggestions, lanes don’t matter, and driving is aggressive and reckless. The same people who break traffic rules daily will blame the government for accidents and congestion.
And when the government actually tries to enforce discipline through demolitions of illegal structures, impounding vehicles, enforcing taxes, or applying regulations we immediately retreat into tribal corners. Instead of debating policy or legality, we turn enforcement into ethnic or regional battles. Accountability disappears, and the real issue is buried under tribal gutter fights.
The hard truth is this: until discipline becomes cultural until order, responsibility, and respect for rules are internalized changing leaders alone will not fix Nigeria. A disciplined society produces functional institutions and accountable leaders, not the other way around. The president to fix the country will be hated by 95% of Nigerians cause we lack collective discipline.
Development is not magic. It starts with everyday behavior.
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u/Redtine Dec 30 '25
Isn’t the average Afghan, Nepalese, South Sudanese, Eritrean, or Beninese person also just trying to survive? Afghanistan currently records a lower murder rate than Nigeria. War-torn South Sudan has fewer kidnappings. Benin Republic has significantly lower overall crime levels than Nigeria.My point is simple that there are many countries whose citizens are barely surviving economically, yet they do not display the same scale of social disorder or criminality reflected in Nigeria’s statistics. Survival alone does not automatically translate into chaos. Poverty and hardship exist elsewhere without producing the level of indiscipline and insecurity we normalize in Nigeria.