Revival of national value system must be holistic
16 October 2024 |
4:11 am
As an idea to boost moral values in the country, the proposal by the Federal Government to set up a National Citizens Value Brigade across primary and secondary schools in Nigeria appears exciting.
As an idea to boost moral values in the country, the proposal by the Federal Government to set up a National Citizens Value Brigade across primary and secondary schools in Nigeria appears exciting. The plan is overdue, coming at a time that immorality, weird behaviour and patently evil conducts have permeated daily discourse, and cut down ethical standards. According to its plan, the government hopes to strengthen the national value system in primary and secondary schools with a view to curbing all manner of misbehaviour and acts that are not in tune with the traditions and norms in the country. Upholding a high ethical standard certainly requires more than setting up a brigade in schools; it demands that leaders lead by good example to inspire followers. Action does speak louder than words. The relevant poser therefore is: Are the leaders ready for what it takes to achieve the goal?
It is not enough for the government to now realise the imperative of good behaviour in national life, it should also appreciate the enormity of damage that erosion of virtues and values has done to the country and the threat that the menace poses for the future. The truth is that the country’s value system has collapsed. The narrative should go beyond strengthening, to rebuilding. The Nigerian populace was long due for moral rebirth because the country has long been enmeshed in seemingly intractable decadence, with dire consequences for national development. The ‘pot’ of virtues and values, bequeathed to Nigerians by her founding fathers, and which underlay the respect the country once had in the comity of nations, had been long broken, not by the current pupils and students in primary and secondary schools but by generations before them who witnessed the golden era of moral uprightness and social justice in the nation but failed to live virtuous life and, therefore, cannot serve as role models for the younger generations.
While the focus on primary and secondary schools is aimed at raising new generations of ethically sound Nigerians, it is worthwhile to incorporate all citizens in view of the fact that moral standards have declined terribly at every step of the national ladder. Today, there is no group or class of Nigerians that can be exonerated from the rottenness. For the objectives to be realised, leaders, most of whom have through their behaviours and actions shown that they lack the character for the offices they are holding, must be ready to live a virtuous life and be role models for younger citizens. If the value demanded of children is not seen in leaders, the country may be chasing shadow.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its meeting on September 23, 2024, in Abuja approved the setting up of what is to be known as National Citizens Value Brigade across primary and secondary schools in Nigeria to raise national role models with patriotic fervour to mirror the nationalism the country desires in citizens. Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris said the Council approved some changes in the Ministry’s policies to strengthen the national value system as it expressed dismay at gradual erosion of values, especially among younger Nigerians, a development the leaders said had given rise to all forms of misconduct and acts that are not in tune with Nigerian traditions and norms. In addition, the Council approved the inclusion of a national value charter to be made mandatory in basic and post-basic school curricula.
Standard behaviours will form a crucial aspect of the topics to be taught in civic education as well as instituted and adopted by government appointees at the point of entry into the public service. In other words, national value will not just be part of the school curricula; it will also be instituted among the appointees of government. For example, at every retreat at the inception of every administration, members of FEC should be trained on the national values and they will be expected to exhibit the values in all their official duties throughout their period in office.
The government should be inculcating in the children virtues and values that can help in tackling gradually the myriad of moral challenges facing the country. Among them are honesty, fairness, patience, patriotism, tolerance, compassion, integrity, respect for human life, social justice, dignity of labour, prudence and self-control. The task must begin from each household. Good parenting is crucial to making progress. If the home front does not get it right, it may be difficult to progress at the school level. In many homes, parents are the main problem. There are those who encourage their children to cheat during examinations in schools, steal, and engage in criminal activities in the struggle to become rich quickly without any job at hand. These days, some children sent to school come home with expensive cars, phones, clothes, and some are even buying plots of land and building houses without their parents asking the source of the sudden wealth, amid the escalating menace of money making ritual, kidnapping for ransom, armed robbery and similar criminal activities in the society.
Sadly, the practice of ostracising people whose source of wealth is shrouded in secrecy, as a way of discouraging unclean and unmerited wealth, has waned and the society is in trouble for it. Many children know that their parents’ hands are not clean, that their source of income is questionable. Many parents cannot be role models even for their own children. It is very sad.
It is the same narrative in the corridor of power. This project will only succeed if the country’s leaders are ready to live exemplary lives. The country is in a mess today because many of those who govern are not men and women of character. They cannot serve as role models for the young ones. To persuade someone to be of good behaviour, the same value must be visible in the personality of the person admonishing. The person advising against stealing should not be a well known thief, or an embezzler of money meant to develop the society. Those canvassing social justice and patriotism should not be seen to manipulate the system to divert public property, national resources to their private companies. Those who seek obedience of laws should not violate the same laws. Mentors should not make promises and refuse to keep them; nor sign agreements that they later renege on. People should not make laws and refuse to allow the laws to work, or constantly fail in their responsibility.Indeed, for this moral rebirth project to achieve its objective, parents and the nation’s leaders must exhibit the virtues and values that they ask other Nigerians to imbibe and uphold.
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