If coercion and punishment worked as a way to raise disciplined children, Nigeria would not be one of the most corrupt countries in the world, where citizens routinely ignore basic rules like traffic lights and zebra crossings. We hold Western approaches to discipline in contempt, yet our people risk life and limb, selling everything they own to get to those same Western societies. We have failed to build a society rooted in love, respect and human dignity. Our public institutions reek of cruelty. Government officials treat citizens with contempt and disregard. Yet we are always the first to lecture about values, tradition and discipline. If The ends justify the means. then this is the Nigeria those means have produced.