Our reading of Professor Godwin Sogolo today dwells on his severe moral indictment of Nigeria’s political leadership.
Catalysts that rupture our morality
What the above illustrates is that in Nigeria, ethnicity has been the major catalyst of our ruptured morality, the symptoms of which include corruption, nepotism and other forms of discriminatory practices. Indeed, going by Ekeh’s analysis, there could be more than “two publics”, which is to say that moral discrimination is a universal attitude determined by multiple forces.
Under normal circumstances, evil exudes moral repulsion and condemnation while good deeds are commended and encouraged. In those days – especially in pre-colonial times and, perhaps, soon after political independence – acts of violence and criminality were greeted with revulsion and outright moral condemnation. One easily recalls the feelings of national outrage elicited by an incident such as the killing, by security agents, of an innocent protesting student, Kunle Adepoju, at the University of Ibadan in 1973. Today, incidents more brutal and more sordid than this occur on a daily basis. Ours is now a society heavily soaked in acts of violence and criminality – terrorism, cult wars, acts of murder, assassination, armed robbery, kidnapping, banditry, rape, etc.
Growing moral insensitivity
Very disturbing is the growing insensitivity or pervasive lack of moral feelings in our society. It is commonplace today in Nigeria to witness scenes in which adults and youths gather to watch sordid acts of violence, in cold, expressionless and sadistic moods. In a sense, Nigeria has sunk from the era described by Ekeh to a low level of moral insensitivity, at both the civic and primordial publics.
Today, it is one’s own relative or cousin who would rape one’s under-aged daughter; one’s kinsmen who would arrange for one to be kidnapped and negotiate a handsome ransom. It is a situation of anything goes and nothing evokes moral horror! In those days, elderly persons were accorded respect and given certain privileges. In the Western world, they are called “Senior Citizens” and allowed special provisions such as free transportation and free medical care. Today, Nigerian elderly persons are told by the youths to hurry up and leave!
In those days, when our children indulged in examination malpractices, we chastised them; today, parents and teachers connive, plot and direct students on how to carry out exam malpractices. That is the collapse of the Nigerian moral system. It is sad: it is tragic!
What we have today is selective tolerance of immorality, concession and compromise. As against the old order, the new moral norm finds little or nothing wrong in a situation, for instance:
Where members of the Nigerian Senate openly discuss bribes and misappropriation of public funds; and then insult our collective intelligence by saying it is prayers that they have sent to members’ accounts;
Where state governors, who have ended tenures of looting and plundering, buy their way into the Upper Chamber of the Nigerian Legislation;
Where an official contract is drawn up with a budgetary provision for “Ransom Payment”, and
Where the Police Force itself officially organises and pays ransom for the release of a kidnapped police officer.
In those days, the payment of ransom, if ever, was done secretly and anybody found to have done so, was severely rebuked as encouraging criminality. Today, ransom payments are done almost openly and sometimes even publicly declared. Increasingly, violence, insecurity and brutality are becoming the norm rather than the exception.
On corruption, the pillage of our commonwealth, by politicians and other public officials has gone ballistic in the past few decades. Indeed, stealing of public funds has been unrelenting in upward march, as Nigeria leaders no longer steal in millions (except foreign currencies) but in billions and trillions of naira. A front page story in the Vanguard Newspaper of Saturday, May 4, carried the news headline of: “How 58 Ex-govs allegedly looted N2.187 trillion, in the same edition of the Newspaper which carried the story of Ex-governor Yahaya Bello’s battle with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the allegation of money laundry involving the payment of $720,000 paid to an American Institution as his children’s school fees.
It is not surprising that the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of Nigeria has always been abysmally low. In 2002, ‘Transparency International’ ranked Nigeria as 101 out of 102 countries surveyed, with Bangladesh as the most corrupt country in the world. Nigeria’s ranking for 2023 (21 years after), may have improved slightly but the position of 145 out of the 180 countries surveyed, remains appalling! As to be expected, the country’s ranking on the Human Development Index (HDI), measured by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) corresponds with the nation’s level of corruption: in 2022, Nigeria’s Human Development Index was 161 out of the 193 countries surveyed, again very close to the bottom.
Nigeria’s moral crisis is a clear manifestation of the social distance existing between the individual and the state, the origin of which is connected to the failure in governance, manifested in an ineffective educational system that is incapable of inculcating in our youths sound moral values. These failures raise the important issue of loyalty, and perhaps also the question of legitimacy, as perceived by the individuals and the various sub-groups in post-colonial Nigeria. It is a situation in which the moral and political authorities of the State have been weakened.
The distortions have been exacerbated by the inability of the state to fulfill its obligations to the citizens. Loyalty is a reciprocal, attitude. So, it is either won or lost on the basis of mutual exchange. Today, the responsibilities of the Nigerian state have been virtually taken over by the primordial communities. The communities take care of the members’ welfare needs, including the problems of birth and death; they construct roads, bridges and other infrastructure through self-help; build schools, hospitals, medical clinics and even provide financial support for their members in times of special needs.
As the state becomes more irresponsible, and as it increasingly abandons its civic responsibilities, so is its moral authority weakened. Indeed, this is a violation, by the state, of its contractual obligation to the citizens and no such state has the legitimate right to expect the loyalty of the people. As the loss of the state translates into the gain of the primordial unit, ethnicity continues to grow as a powerful force in the moral consciousness of the people.
Rising illiteracy in Nigeria
A major failure of the Nigerian state is in the scant attention it pays to its responsibility of educating the Nigerian youth, a responsibility that is being gradually transferred by the state to the private sector. Today, despite an increase in the number of public educational institutions at all levels, private institutions have virtually rendered state institutions worthless in the provision of quality education.
The effect on the Nigerian middle class is catastrophic and overwhelming. An average family, with two to three children, is saddled with the task of having to pay millions of naira (far beyond their meager earnings) as school fees. How some of them cope, especially civil servants, is a question that boggles the mind. What cannot be hidden are the frustrations of millions of Nigerians who have been abandoned by the state to cater for themselves.
It is sad that a large number of Nigerian youths – estimated to be over 10.5 million – are out of school, going by the 2022 figures released by UNICEF and UNESCO. These children have no access to education of any sort. For those with access, the dominant impression is that the quality of their education remains doubtful. Indeed, it is generally believed that most Nigerian educational institutions are beginning to turn out only streetwise graduates who place a high premium on craftiness and manipulative skills but are lacking in any sense of morality. Instead, they tend to be transactional in their dealings, almost seeing every social interaction as a business deal.
Such attitudes constitute a threat to the well-being, if not the survival of our society, particularly our capacity to partake in and derive optimal benefits, from the 4th Industrial Revolution.
To be concluded next week.
Afejuku can be reached on 08055213059.
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