BETWEEN NIGERIA LEADERS AND ETHICAL VIRTUES

The recent financial and leadership crisis rocking the Nigerian political scene has proved once again that all we have in Nigeria are leaders with no definite core values. Over the years the Nigerian society had been over ridden with no definite values thereby throwing the Nation into one that does not know where it is heading. One dictionary defines values as a principle or belief that influences your decision but the principles and beliefs guiding the average Nigerian leader are self centred.
There are some essential in fact Values that are fundamental. I think there are only three values that are truly fundamental -- that truly determine the kind of society we must have and the kind of lives we should live as individuals and that are permanent matters of permanent relevance. The three values I speak of are honesty, competence, and unselfishness. And of the three, honesty is the most important because, without it, competence is not attainable and concern for others is less likely by far because one is not likely to know, understand or sympathize with the position of others.
Honesty is foundational. Without it disasters occur, and without it there can be no competence. For competent thought and action depend on knowledge of the truth of a situation and knowledge of its actual facts. There was some level, of dishonesty with regard to our Independence, the civil war, political assassinations in the 80’s, the gulf war, revenues from the Oil booms, marginalisations, the Niger-Delta, the 2005 air crashes, the Nigerian politics, elections, financial misappropriations and our civic life in general. Had full-bore truth been the ruling factors in these matters, events like these would never have occurred. It was some form or level of dishonesty that created those situations. What is true of the public life is true as well of private lives. If we look back at our life, I would venture that, as often as not we will find that problems and traumas were caused by, or at minimum were necessarily accompanied by, some form or level of dishonesty.
Competency is a value whose necessity is widely acknowledged, and is ultimately one of the fundamental recipes necessary for the success of a society. The need for competence in order to achieve success is, I note, of peculiar relevance to public and private life today. We are always told that most of our problems are caused not by incompetence, but by failure of governmental organs to communicate with each other. We are equally told (as always) that the remedy is a new structure for intelligence operations. But the truth is that incompetence was the reason for the air mishaps, and all the new structures in the world won’t solve the problem we face if incompetence persists.
With regard to incompetence supposedly not being the reason for those disasters, we are told that nobody could foresee the use of outdated airplanes flying over our heads, nobody foresee the states of our road on which innocents souls were lost everyday, nobody foresee those pipeline explosions, nobody foresee the Lagos bomb explosion of January 2002 and other foreseeable disaster. Despite all these, nobody in the government could foresee those disasters. It is sheer incompetence. Incompetence was the reason for those disasters, and if it persists we will have more disasters of one sort or another. For the fact that incompetence leads to disaster is virtually a law of life. We need to inculcate the morals of competence in our lives.
Furthermore, the value of caring for others, not just for oneself (unselfishness) is spoken of favourably but is most often honoured in the breach in a Nigeria society where, since independence, unbridled greed has become the ruling principle and plutocracy and oligarchy have become dominant features. Many people find that unbridled selfishness is not a satisfactory way to lead a personal life, and at the civic and political levels it has in the past led or contributed to such shaking events as the civil war, ethnic rivalries and the various military coup d'état. No good can come to a society where lack of concern for others is the guide to action. There is need for us to have a conscious awareness of people living with us.
As the Nigerian society becomes larger and more complex, the need for value based leader is seriously needed. We need a leader who knows what he or she value. A leader that recognises the importance of ethical behaviour. A leader who can exhibit both their values and their ethics in their leadership style and actions. An average present day Nigerian leader had never identified their values in the society which make the mistrust the citizens have in them understandable. If leaders can identify and share their values, by living the values daily, it visibly will create trust.