President -Elect General Muhammadu  Buhari (rtd.) at the weekend spoke to newsmen in his home town, Daura, Katsina State after casting his vote on a number of issues. Here are excerpts on how he intends to handle indiscipline in a democratic rule…

You introduced the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) as military leader. Several years later, one of the biggest problems in Nigeria today is indiscipline. How do you intend to handle this?

I will mention how it came about. When we had our first Supreme Council meeting and governors were appointed, in my office, it was only me and the late Tunde Idiagbon. We discussed and agreed that the main problem of Nigeria was indiscipline. If we could get majority of Nigerians to accept it, whichever level they are, we will make a lot of progress. I could recall that I advised that we should approach the Ministry of Information because there are a lot of people with first degree, masters and Ph.D who are sociologists and criminologists who are just warming their seats, that they should get together and come up with a programme that would last for years and not just for six months and fizzle out. That was how we came about war against indiscipline. It was very well thought out. It was a military system.

In democracy, people want a lot of freedom, but if they see the restraints in advanced democracies in Europe and America, they will realise that discipline is forced on people. There are things that, no matter how much you want to do them, you can’t do them. I think that we have suffered enough as a people and I think that people are more prepared to behave themselves now.

About two years ago, I made some remarks in Hausa and people felt because now, some senior civil servants who are Directors either at the state or federal level can’t educate four children because the level of education has gone down so much. Those that can afford will rather send their children to Ghana or Sudan and those who can afford it more send theirs to America and Europe because the educational system in Nigeria has virtually collapsed.

Therefore, we feel that by voting APC into power, Nigerians are placing confidence in us. On security, economy especially unemployment and corruption, I believe that Nigerians will give us the understanding to make sure that we get our priorities right. Education is going to be very important because when you educate the people, you solve half of your problems because there is a level that an educated person will not accept. But when people are sentenced to illiteracy, when they are exposed to all manner of social vices such as ethnicity and religion, they will resort to fighting themselves.

Credit: leadership