Ethics, Morality and National Rebirth
The choice of this topic is informed by two main considerations. First is the highly commendable effort of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to re-establish the ethical and moral foundations of the Nigerian State with a view to checking the cankerworm of unbridled corruption.
The second consideration concerns the definite need to appreciate the strategic role of the educational system in shaping and inculcating the values we hold and the ethical standards we subscribe to.
Could we really afford to allow our educational institutions to be value neutral and to discharge their basic responsibilities without ethics and morality? Could Western ethical standards serve our developmental needs without reference to cultural norms and ethos of our people and our societies?
It is imperative for us to ask: How well are our universities and other educational institutions prepared to discharge their role of rebuilding the foundations of our ethical and moral system in this country? This task could not be effectively undertaken without these institutions overcoming some basic ethical challenges of their own. The first one is the issue Cultism. Cult activities which were once rare occurrences in our tertiary institutions are becoming deeply entrenched in the system. The presence of these shadowy and secretive groups, taking full advantage of the sophisticated weaponry at their disposal, have perverted due process in many institutions of higher learning, and undermined the integrity of the learning process, with violence and the threat of it, producing better examination results than hard work and academic excellence. Many Lecturers who refused to yield to the new merit regime could be and were indeed murdered in cold blood. Cult activities have also contributed to institutionalize prostitution within the nation’s tertiary institutions.
The second ethical and moral challenge facing our educational institutions is Examination Malpractice. This problem has also become entrenched in both our secondary schools and tertiary institutions. Unlike cult activities which are usually perpetrated with some secrecy, Examination Malpractice is usually done in the open, with the reported connivance of many parents, teachers and examination officials. One of the primary motives of this malpractice is the inordinate ambition to succeed at all cost, with total disregard to the values of probity, honesty and integrity the nation holds dear. What does this speak to the quality of graduates we produce in our system? How can we eliminate corruption in our public institutions when these individuals rig their way to the helm of affairs?
The third major ethical challenge which has been undermining our educational institutions is the culture of psychotropic drugs and the abuse of alcohol. This has become a growing epidemic which is systemically undermining the social order and cohesion of our societies and building a huge underclass which is neither useful to itself nor to the wider society. The drugs culture has destroyed many families and institutions. It is currently threatening the efficacy of our educational institutions in discharging one of its key responsibilities of building a good human being and a good Nigerian Citizen.
How can our educational institutions overcome these challenges and discharge their ethical and moral responsibilities to the nation? It is our considered opinion that we must not leave character building and leadership development to chance. Secondly, it is imperative for government to develop an effective network to tackle these ethical challenges. Where these groups are armed, we must ensure that we involve the security agencies in this network. We must also continuously review and update various laws which had been provided to checking these ethical challenges.
Thirdly, we must also take the teaching of Religion seriously. It has always been our view that morality predicated on religious tenets provided a stronger sanction against errant behaviour than that based on non-religious values. We must endeavour to deepen the understanding of our students of the theology and practices of their chosen religion as it is the ignorance and misunderstanding of these tenets which usually breed bigotry and intolerance. It may also be recommended to develop a proactive and non-evangelical course, Religion and Social Morality, which could be taught jointly by Muslim and Christian religious scholars, to explore the common bases of our religious traditions.
Fourthly, we must also re-establish the study of History as a core subject in our curriculum. We are boldly and systematically becoming a nation without roots and without history. Our educational policy makers have failed to rectify this national embarrassment despite numerous pleas and entreaties. As a result we now have millions of students going through our educational system, without having any knowledge of our old empires, our national history and indeed our national heroes. It is our ardent hope that the Government of President Muhammadu Buhari would rescue the study of history and our cultural values and intellectual traditions from oblivion.
Ethical and moral re-orientation must involve the active segments of our society. Cultism, examination malpractices and the drug culture in our educational institutions cannot thrive without the involvement of various members of our communities. We must take heed of the admonishment of Allah [SWT] that He does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.
Being excerpts from the paper His Eminence the Sultan, President General of the NSCIA, delivered at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru on October 7, 2015.