Drill Instructors Carry On Please!

We have learnt with exhilaration the proposal to give military training to national service personnel.

The observation about the dwindling level of discipline in society is spot on the reason for the proposal and its seeming acceptability especially if it can alter our bad attitudes. Inidiscipline is a moral deficiency which has affected the country in diverse ways.

The spate of corruption, poor attitude to work is among a plethora of moral deficiencies which can only be tackled when we re-orientate especially our youth.

In the public sector it is not only normal to close before the official closing time – it is acceptable to stay away from work when it rains and tell our bosses that it was not possible to report for duty.

The situation has been aggravated with the advent of smart phone and social media. The recent dismissal of nurses who were glued to their mobile phones when patients needed their attention is a pointer to the level of indiscipline in the country.

The increase in productivity which we very much long for can only be attained when there is a paradigm shift in the manner we do things in the country.

It is an expensive project but one which when implemented sufficiently would change the scheme of things in the country.

Ladies making up their faces especially during working hours when customers are waiting to be attended to in public places is so nauseating that we are compelled when we are faced with such situations to ask whether those in charge of such establishments know what is happening under their noses and whether we do not find it necessary to change our attitudes.

Now that the level of indiscipline has reached a stage where an antidote in the form of military training is being envisaged, it shows that efforts are being planned and therefore an official admission that something is wrong.

Without discipline, the various interventions President Akufo-Addo has put in place to change the fortunes of the country would come to naught. That is why we think that the proposal should be thought out properly so that when it takes off it would not suffer logistical challenges and therefore abandoned midstream.

We know that in Nigeria, a segment of the country's     equivalent of the national service scheme, the National Youth Corps, entails military training. Foot drill is the main component of the military training in Nigeria and we think that the implementers of ours could learn some lessons from that country since both of us practice the British military system.

We do not know how the local programme is going to be but we do know that it would be foot drill concentrated because of the maximum discipline this entails.

Whatever form it is going to take, it is our projection that in the end it would change our attitude to work in a manner which can impact positively on our fortunes as a nation.

The current situation is anything but acceptable that is why we do not have any objection to the re-introduction of an aspect of military training for national service personnel and therefore our youth. P'rade Shun!