It is no news in this 21st century that Nigeria is slowly whirling up to a state of lawlessness. Socio-economic and political challenges such as ritual killings; kidnapping; armed robbery; terrorism; assassination; manslaughter; political corruption; political hassles and riots; killings of relatives by other relatives; drug trafficking; money laundering advanced free fraud (419); high rate of unemployment; inflation; the execrable state of the educational system, but to mention a few have proliferated in our beloved country, Nigeria over the decades.
In our quest for political and economic development, most people who have high moral principles and standards neglect them and behave otherwise. We are not criminals advocating unethical behavior. We all hope to bring up our children to be honest, with the desire to build a prosperous and peaceful nation Nigeria. The cultures brought together in our nation also had high ethical standards at inception. In fact our traditional African cultures were modeled on morals. Research in history has it that "Afrikanerdom" was prompted by strict adherence to spiritual values. Those who trace their origins to other countries also recognize high concepts of personal and social responsibility. It is a known fact that many of our people are religiously inclined. There is an inherent dogmatic culture in every single Nigerian, be it Traditional religion, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, or Islam, there is a similar call to personal and communal ethical behavior. Even, humanists and pagans who are unbelievers accept the same universal moral goals.
Sadly, the so-called systems imposed by colonial masters defeated the intended purpose of creating a society of high moral standards. Nevertheless, all countries which have passed through a major social change to establish new objectives, structures and modes of behavior in the promotion of integrity have found out how rewarding it is. Countries, nations and establishments who lack integrity and do not even endeavor to promote it possess the following characteristics namely; corruption, criminality, tax evasion, underdevelopment, political instability, fraud, rape, the abuse of women and children, drunkenness, extortion, and family breakdown, not leaving out violence, these are the outward forms of a diseased social climate which presently exists in Nigeria.
This terrible state has birthed individuals advocating a paradigm shift which is an important factor not to be debated in the areas of personal decisions and uprightness at heart, otherwise known as integrity.
Integrity, in a layman’s language means honesty; uprightness; wholeness; an act of transparency and accountability state of being whole and undivided; and completeness. Integrity refers to a quality of a person’s character. Integrity can be regarded as the opposite of hypocrisy which stems from a Latin adjective integer, which means whole, complete.
Panacea is a universal remedy, otherwise known as cure. It can be defined as a hypothetical cure for all diseases and illnesses. The term is also used to symbolize something that would make all of one’s problems and troubles disappear.
The history and few examples as regarding the moral decadence due to lack of integrity eating deep into Nigeria are cited below.
Ritual killings and kidnapping in Nigeria is a major menace presently engendering social unrest. Adebayo wrote in the Daily Independence, December 2010, p.4,”Kidnapping remains one of the latest additions to the list of violent crime activities in the country. It is now more threatening to the state and national security. At the Capital Old Eastern Region - Enugu State, Igwe Uche Nwachime in Nkanu, was abducted and later slaughtered because his relations had refused to pay ransom on time as requested by kidnappers. In Imo State, Mr. Celestine Ngaobiwu, a member of Imo State House of Assembly and two sons of the Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly were kidnapped. Three persons were also killed when gunmen kidnapped a movie star, Peter Edochie in Anambra State.”
In the same vein, terrorism has been on the rise; consequently making many children orphans, many wives untimely widows, as well as several husbands’ widowers. According to the American International Journal of Contemporary Research Vol. 2 No. 6; June 2012; The terrorist group in Nigeria: Boko Haram group does not mix with local people in the north and lots of its members that speak only Arabic and French come from neighbouring Chad and Niger Republic respectively. This perhaps explains why the group insists that western education is wrong. The group strongly believes in the Koranic phrase which says “anyone who is not governed by what Allah has revealed is among the transgressors”. The Bodija-Ibadan traders’ massacre that took place recently in Borno is a pointer to the fact that Boko Haram, a group of individuals lacking human feelings is still very much in existence despite news about amnesty and several others.
Assassination and manslaughter is an activity that occurs without remorse nowadays. An 18-year old boy killed his own father stabbing him repeatedly because according to him, his father had not satisfied his educational needs. I ask, is that enough reason to kill a human being, talk less of one’s own father? Integrity as a mindset would have refrained such a child from performing a shameful act.
Another prominent example of the failures of nations who depend on a leadership void of integrity is drawn from the catastrophe called the 2007 general elections in Nigeria. It will continue to come to the fore of our national discourse for a reasonable time to come. Also like someone who makes the mistake of telling a lie, Prof. Maurice Iwu, who supervised that election, will have to tell many more in his bid to justify his defending what has continued to be adjudged the worst election ever conducted in Nigeria. While all men of goodwill all over the world have continued to pass a terrible judgment on that election, it is only Prof. Iwu, the then chief umpire, who did not and has not seen anything wrong with it. Even late President Umaru Yar'Adua, the primary beneficiary of the election, had on a lot of occasions acknowledged the fact, and shortly after assuming office, inaugurated the electoral reform committee in his bid to stand out. All these facts notwithstanding, Prof. Iwu, has vowed to continue to defend the election come what may. The fact that the plan to do a shoddy job on the election may have been premeditated may be gleaned from the actions of some people during the countdown to the elections. That selfish act has done nothing but create more problems.
Political criminality and corruption, tax evasion, underdevelopment, political instability has invaded our nation terribly. The $3 million bribery scandal involving members of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on the Fuel Subsidy probe revealed the depth of moral decadence. One of the major actors in the scandal has opened up on what transpired. In an interview published in THISDAY magazine, Chairman, Zenon Petroleum & Gas Ltd, Mr. Femi Otedola, who hitherto was suspected of being behind the $3 million bribery scandal narrated how Mr. Boniface Emenalo, had collected $620,000 from him in a sting operation masterminded by the security agencies. The amount was part payment for the $3 million, which he alleged Lawan had demanded from him to exonerate Zenon Oil from the ad-hoc committee’s report. Otedola, who was opening up on the issue for the first time, narrated how Lawan at the outset of the probe had approached him to get some insight into the activities of the downstream oil and gas sector, the end result was bribery and extortion, another show of shame and lack of integrity.
Several cases of armed robbery have been reported. This ranges from domestic attacks to hijacking people’s personal effects. The prevailing level of systemic corruption in all levels of governance and administration also defeats the purpose of having high moral standards. The state in which we all as individuals exist itself is corrupt. A state is expected to be the organ through which any society mediates its moral values to establish an accepted social morality which members of the society collectively regard as desirable. The state is expected to act as the moral arbiter of that society, and is entrusted with the supreme power to maintain the agreed norms of that society. When a state pursues policies that negate the social morality and values it is supposed to uphold it loses its position as the arbiter of society.
Our debilitated educational system is crumbling daily; a situation that was never in existence at its inception. The issues we grapple with in the educational system today are alarming. Recently, it was polled that about 1.5 million students enrolled for Joint Admissions And Matriculation Board [JAMB]; unfortunately only 500,000 students will secure admissions into universities. A whooping number of about 1 million youth end up sitting at home for another academic year, having wasted time, effort, money, and some sadly lost their lives while transiting to their examination center in Obeku-Ihie, Abia State.
The remedy to the socio-economic and political challenges in our country ranging from corruption, insecurity, persistent terrorist attacks and sectarian violence, kidnappings, armed robbery, mass murder, arms proliferation, as well as fragmented secession threats by some ethnic groups is essentially a change in our paradigm shift or mindset in all sectors of the economy. I propose that the whole country passes through a period of transition in which we seek to aggressively preach the gospel on the relevance of integrity as a remedy to establishing a new and successful modern society. The problems we experience are not different from those in other countries but at this critical stage on the global scene where there is chaos, anarchy and rebellion against governments almost everywhere, we as Nigerians must do something to ensure that our country becomes a truly moral society and not end up in ashes and dusts like some of our neigbours I would prefer not to mention in this write up.