THE issue of moral bankruptcy is a difficult topic to navigate due to the fact that morality is subjective. However, I do not share in such cloned sentiments which are meant to act as excuses for actions that are unbecoming. We all know the margin where decadence is seperated from decency in every given society.
It is an obvious fact that the country has a problem of moral standard, which has been compromised by almost everyone. We can argue forever, but within us, we all know we do not carry any form of morality in the tablets of our hearts.
What influences morality range from locality, religion, traditions, norms or culture or a mix of these concepts. There are arguments on whether national cultures, which relates to public consciousness, is the deciding factor on our national moral bankruptcy. We might disagree or agree on this argument, but what is certain is that all facets of our national consciousness have been badly affected when it comes to morality. From the communities, educational institutions, homes to places of the Supreme Being worship, we notice are now sanctuaries for agents of immoralities. The question now is, if these places have been so affected, diluted, desecrated and abuse, where exactly do we turn to for moral rectitude?
We may veil all that shows we are morally foreclosed on the surface, but on a closer look, we cannot but see very deep crack in our moral foundation.
There are some few selected indicators to show our moral bankruptcy. This indicators cut across all our national spheres. From the uneducated, the educated, the rich, the poor, the pious, hardened criminals, the celebate, the promiscious, the religious, the irreligious…across the lines, we cannot fail to notice the moral impoverishment that has deeply permeated our national consciousness. The moral corruption trickle down from our leaders down to the followers. It is difficult to pin-point any part of the national sector that is immuned from moral bankruptcy and corruption.
The university professor/scientist given grant stays at home and later gives fake data. The journalist goes for the brown envelope and reports dirty news. More than 90% of the police officers are brazenly corrupt as part of their call to service. The pastor works on the gullible to freeze their already deplated pockets while he keeps a mistress in a cranny there in South Africa or and Kenya. The businessman conspire with tax collectors to shortchange the nation. The importer deliberately import fake goods, even drugs and beverages that harm and kill his citizens all in the name of profit. Executive officers of large corporations do not think they need to be ethical in their business dealings; they evade taxes easily and pollute and corrupt the environment and the civil servants. Illicit drugs are peddled by some of us to destroy your children and mine. What can we say about those who produce agricultural products who are into dangerous farm chemicals and banned pesticides that amount to destruction of the environment and contamination of water? What about doctors who allow women to get abortions even when there are specific legislations against this? Who are those that visit brothels where venereal diseases are bought and distributed to homes and families? Are we not part of those who ought to produce food for the nation but rather export from the surplus labour of the poor who cannot feed their own families? What can we say about lawyers who encourage you to go to court because of his fees when he knows you have no case to submit? Who are those supplying small arms to kidnappers and common criminals? Who is the judge that will free on plea bargain a politician that has stolen billions but commit a food thief to years in harrowing prison? He is a father, a brother, a husband…he is one of us. In government, what exactly can we say about the legislative, executive and judiciary arms? They are part and parcel of the menace from the federal to the local governments. Tertiary institutions are now moulders and tranformative byways of the moral corruption. How do the female students become sex victims to lecturers that are fathers is an open secret – there are plethora cases in courts. This least is endless.
The society, the community is an accomplice on this moral bankruptcy. Who is able to resist the society that pulls you out of virtue? The criminals are godified in the society. They get chieftaincy titles, sit in front pews in churches, get appointed to governing boards, become Justice of Peace.
Like a twig, the nation’s moral path is crooked and broken in places such that the soul of Nigeria’s consciousness is rotten and decayed.
That there is no moral bankruptcy is living a lie – this denial, delusion and deception is to the detriment of more generations to come. We must accept this national failure.
The national psyche needs a rebirth, deconstruction and reconstruction. There need to be communal regeneration of our displaced virtues. We must replace our failures and redeem our old traditional cultures which must be virtue-centered. We must hang in the streets of shame the fruitlessness of the moral pandemic that have ravaged homes and institutions and the government. There must be deliberate enactment of larger and more national transcendent goals. This will done with the aim of confronting the fact of our national failure. We must discard our delusions to be honest with the truthfulness of our collective failure as a people. We must be devoted to the commitment of a regeneration of our value systems as Africans that for good and bad had adopted a different civilization alien to us. We must identify the vulnerable, weak, the fragile, disinherited… so that we can erect a divine moral library inside each of us. Yes, for Nigeria to attain a moral righteousness away from our near moral destitution, we must change our national attitude.
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