RELEVANCE OF VALUES IN NATION BUILDING

Values are derivatives of thoughts and inner desires. It is driven mainly by our beliefs and cultural system. Values are a set of human beliefs upon which characters, behaviors, and general attitudes are built. They are principles, beliefs, and convictions that drive our moral and ethical behaviors. Every human is a product of Nature and Nurture, there are Intrinsic characteristics of human beings that are bad and undesirable by nature. Some of those bad conducts are inborn and are given expressions even in little children. They show aggression and throw tantrums whenever their egoistic desire or selfish inclinations are not met. No one taught them, but it was inborn and inbred. It is called Id in psychology, which is expressed by greediness, selfishness, avarice, and little or no consideration for others.

However, within human DNA also lies the ego and superego. While the ego tends towards the Id, the superego is more considerate and is willing to delay gratifications.

Examples abound of expressions and appetites tamed by the superego within the human psychological make-up. The superego is the element that got nurtured over nature to make humans function in an acceptable form and find expressions in sharing with others, showing kindness, mercy, forgiveness, love, delayed gratification, patience, gratitude, and all those moral values that we all desire to see and receive from others.

Fundamentally, man is created in dignity and with greater value content than animals, owing to the ability to think, create and decipher, however when a man refused to acknowledge his true worth in following principles that govern his status as a preferred entity in creation, the outcome was that of a debased behavioral pattern and conducts not too different from that of a beast. 

 WHAT WENT WRONG?

 The hierarchical setup in society is aimed at ensuring correctness and alignment with the law and natural standards, however, what we see is a departure from the norm, Leaders have become children, a child knows that he knows not, he needs someone to teach and guide him, but when leaders are children in knowledge, attitude, and competence, the nation suffers.

Leaders are to live to serve people and be guided by the law. What went wrong was a fundamental shift from those natural principles that govern behavior within acceptable normative standards, the rule of law has become the rule of men. Men made the rules and created a backdoor for escape when they broke and violate the rules. No nation or organization can prosper under such an equation. Without adherence to the law with divine inspiration for normalcy, with every violation of the law, problems are created. When problems are created, only the application of the law can restore it back to normalcy.

In a world where consumerism and materialism have become the norms, and again, given the influence of the corruptive environment over character building, we fund that education, which ostensibly is the core of learning has suffered and has been offered on the altar of craze for wealth and other avaricious tendencies. Values have been thrown out of the window in most social settings, especially in the African space and domain.

 When it comes to Nation’s building and development, three major components are required to achieve a society, devoid of poor values, poor morality, and poor ethical standards as well as the disenabling environment. These factors are as follows:

1.           Infrastructure

2.           Education

3.           Justice process system

 These factors are the bedrock of any civil society that focuses on making human welfare and general well-being a pivotal goal for existence. The interaction of these three (3) produces a strong, viable, and enabling state in most use cases. Where these are lacking, we found that the society or nation will plunge into a state of pariah or it will become so poor showing and displaying the obvious characteristics of a failed state.

Education is central to the creation of the required human capital that will operate in our Justice process system, where rights are preserved, laws are enforced and accountability is entrenched. Without quality manpower with the right competencies, infrastructures can not be developed, maintained, and sustained for a better life. This is a menace that threatens to sweep the nation because the number of children that are out of school is increasing in Nigeria and across Africa, Nigeria population adds 70milion children every year, however, the National budget for education is criminally and abysmally low every year. More children shall be out of school in the coming years, there is no credible plan or means by which the government can provide employment for them all when they became ripe for such. It has been predicted that by 2030, Africa will have about 50% of the young people in the world. When this fact is juxtaposed with weak and moribund infrastructures, poor production capacity, dying industries, ailing economy, an uncertain political climate, poor health system, and wide-scale insecurity, the stage is set for unprecedented chaos and calamitous atmosphere that could be legendary in size and scope.

 In identifying the roots and causative agents for poverty in a Nation, Prof. Pat Utomi in his book ‘Why Nations are poor’ identified six major factors responsible for the poverty and misery in any Nation.

These are as follows:

1. Leadership

2. Culture

3. Institutions

4. Human Capital

5. Policy choices (legislature)

6. Entrepreneurship

From the list above, a combination of Leadership + Policy + Culture determines the Human Capital quality, which in turn drives the institutions of any Nation. Human Capital also forms the nucleus of the entrepreneurship sector that drives productivity, giving impetus for economic prosperity and political stability.

All these six variables are interdependent and not a single one can be allowed to go out of sync with the rest, the resultant effect of such laxity shall be quickly felt and it reverberates across the rest variables, altering their net contributions to national development and growth in the direction that is undesirable.

If we consider the country Nigeria, it has become very obvious that lack of good and sincere leadership across all the areas of concerns, be it home, government, religion is very visible. The leaders are themselves, a product of a bad and decimated culture, whose tools of respect are faulty. Parents no longer have the time and moral discipline to instill good values first by example and second by nurturing their children to imbibe and internalize moral principles and learnings that can assist them in molding their life in tune with fundamental principles and ethics such as:

1. Discipline

2. Faith in God and country

3. Patience

4. Hard work

5. Knowledge acquisition

6. Perseverance and endurance

7. Integrity/honesty

8. Selflessness

The absence of these qualities and principles has become the bane of our society. Meanwhile, these principles are what the protestants preached and practiced in the western world and Europe that led to the invention of many things that improve living and brought the West to become a wealthy nation with overacting dominance across the world.

In conclusion, therefore, What went wrong was a departure from the fundamental principles that govern behaviors, what went wrong was the refusal to obey these divinely inspired laws and apply them to our lives, at home, at school, at our market places even in Churches and religious centers and of course in Government, if this is done, it will become our critical wisdom value and credible platform of exchange for total wellbeing.

 Finally, If we hope to see improvements, better life, better education, good infrastructures, a trusted Justice process /system, credible health deliveries, a safe and secured society, a rebranded national reputation that is respected globally, we need to DO THE RIGHT THING. Commitment to uphold and practice the rule of law and hold ourselves accountable to its ideals and superiority, regardless of who is involved, is the path to national emancipation and liberty, from the dangerous precipice we are currently standing as a people and as a race. Let us do the right thing at home, Let us do the right thing at School, Let us do the right thing at our market places, let us do the right thing in government offices and positions we are holding, we will begin to experience the change that we all desire to see.