INTERGRITY AND NATION BUILDING
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
Education and educational process
from elementary to higher education is a place we can learn and identify
character and integrity in people. In
our secondary school days a certain student was known to be a notorious thief.
He was a torn in the flesh of every body around him. The school had a great
relief when he withdrew from school voluntarily. Surprise! The next thing we
heard was that he had joined the police force. We thought it was a lie or a
joke or a funny “April fool” until we saw him in full police uniform collecting
money from taxi drivers along the road of a busy market. One day, he was not on
duty but he mounted a road block and was aggressively forcing money out of
every driver. On another day, he forced money out of a person who turned out to
be a police officer who arrested him and eventually sacked him from the force.
After his release from detention, he continued to use the police uniform to rob
until luck ran out of him and his gang. He was arrested and sentenced to death.
This was later commuted to life in prison.
It is interesting that at the
time of writing this essay, the leadership of the police force is insisting on
academic qualifications and moral integrity as part of the requirements for
recruitment into the police force. On
December 22, 2012, Premium times reported that “Nigeria Police College sacks
500 trainees for theft, forgery,” stealing, health challenges and indiscipline.
“The recruit intake Batch 1/2011 course was inaugurated in October 2011. This was revealed by the Acting Commandant of
the college, Adekunle Oladunjoye, a deputy Commissioner of Police during the
graduation of 4,484 recruits in Kaduna.
The Inspector General of the Police, Mohammed Abubakar charged the new
graduates to diligently discharge their primary duty of protecting people’s
lives and property.
I was reading Eugenia Abu’s “In the Blink of an Eye, 2007” with
gusto until I got trapped in her reflection on “As if it isn’t London.” Eugenia
narrated her experience in London and what some Nigerians do with themselves in
“oyibo” empire. She reacts to the attitude of some Nigerians with post graduate
degrees and professionals who are employed to sweep gutters, clean public toilets
and serve as “oyibo” gardeners: “Is this London? Give me a break. London is an
illusion. She queries! Would you not rather earn N500.00 a month (which to us
Londoners is a mere £25 and have a messenger greet you “Morning Madam” than
clean London streets for £500 a month. There is a word for one of the options:
Integrity. For those who chose integrity, home is where to be!” [1]
Given that “home is home” and
that it is difficult to “be a king in another person’s land” the lingering
question is to what extent we have made our communities an enviable home that
one would love to return to. Our traditional societies have a modus operandi
and a mode of law to instil discipline and integrity in the community. Our
communities in the past rewarded virtue and punished vice. Children where
questioned by their parents about where and how they got things that were not
provided by the parents. The greed for wealth was minimal because the value of
name and integrity was held in a very high esteem. Even in marriage, enquiries and
investigations were carried out, to ascertain the integrity of the man and the
moral probity of the woman before marriage. There were checks and balances in
our various communities.
It is obvious that no one can be
intelligent without maintaining one’s integrity. Intelligence that is devoid of
integrity can at best be classed as cleverness that is couched in trick and
masking of a person’s true identity. Such a person lives in fear of being
discovered and so live a life of deception. The fact however is that one may
succeed in deceiving the people around but can not deceive oneself. This
schizophrenic life style that is devoid of integrity marks a person as a
walking corpse. These are the kind of people that should revisit the saying of
Socrates: “man, know thyself!”
Integrity is like “good palm oil”
that needs no advertisement. If Nigerians believe that “there is no
discrimination in excellence”, it will be easy to identify, good, honest,
patriotic and selfless citizens who can add candour and honour to the various
communities and the nation at large. The problem however, is that Nigerians
keep shouting corruption without identifying the corrupt and shameless people
who prefer worldly gains to their names and the attendant reputation. This is
often crowned by giving chieftaincy titles and honorary degrees to people that
are known to be spiritually, intellectually and morally bankrupt. This is not
the best way to teach the future generation the value of life and the honour
that should be a reward for people of true integrity and moral probity.
The word “integrity” is derived
from a Latin adjective, “integer”
meaning “whole” and “complete”. The ingredient of integrity is honesty and
consistency that defines the content of a person’s character. A person of
integrity is accountable and responsible for his or her actions. Integrity is
often manifested in the way and manner a person maintains principles that do
not contradict human nature.
It is easier to dialogue with
people who are conscious of integrity, respect and honour in nation building.
It is becoming very obvious that no nation can be built on deceit and hypocrisy
which is the opposite of integrity. It means that any nation that cares about a
transformation agenda must test the attitude and aptitude of her citizens before
giving honour to those who credibly deserve honour. This would go a long way to
encourage those who are striving to be men and women of integrity. This can be
done by creating various types of job opportunities where the citizens can
contribute to the nation in their different areas of expertise.
When people are challenged with
meaningful responsibilities, they tend to use the given space to display and
manifest their professionalism. Otherwise we shall remain in a world for a very
long time where people are not proud of who they are. We may continue in a
situation where for instance, a medical doctor would prefer to be a politician
or a business man at the expense of his professional fulfilment. Today some
professional teachers are shy to be seen as teachers because of the attendant
poverty in the teaching industry. Today
many people prefer the political industry for solace and succour whereas they
are trained professionals in various fields who should be given a space to build
up their capacity with a high sense of professional fulfilment instead of
looking else where for their sustenance.
I wish every profession is given the true value to such an extent that
every worker would have a sense of belonging.
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