‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ that destroys a nation, an insightful book the late Mahatma Gandhi doctored on global cankerworm, is still a masterpiece because of its in-depth discerning of the factors responsible for human catastrophe and dislocation. But then, are we learning the lessons of the enlightening document owing to the fact that we are conspicuously drifting towards global anarchy?
Before departing the world, Gandhi assiduously worked to produce the educative work and aptly identified these grievous sins as follows: politics without principles, religion without sacrifice, knowledge without character, science without humanity, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, commerce without morality. Obviously, he wanted to reform the world through intellectual struggle and writing at a time when others were acting the scripts of the prophets of doom. If these thorny issues were adequately addressed according to the noble intent of the Indian nationalist, the world would have been a better place to live in with peace and love as the strongest pillars of our existence.
To deepen our reflections, the evolution of these dogmatic thoughts serves as a universal message for passionate scrutiny to liberate ourselves from these contagiously and destructively social pandemic. For many years to come, this idealistic therapy will continue to be unequivocally uncontested because Gandhi, even now, is vindicated by historical and global events related to unfolding human calamities as a result of perpetuation of those great sins. He describes them as ‘deadly sins’ but they seem to be acceptable norms to the mischief makers who perpetuate them because of selfishness and the insatiable desire for enhancing moral decadence. This great legacy of creating social awareness stemmed from his indefatigable wisdom for humanity to possess dignity and establish a desirably social order.
In addition to Gandhi’s philosophical construction, of what use are values without ethics? This is a fundamental question concerning values which are not augmented by necessary ethics. It is another crucial point that must attract our concerns and reflective analysis, juxtapose them vis-a-vis our existential challenges so that we get ourselves out of falling victims of human conundrum. Values must be mixed with ethics to play a symbiotic relationship for a successful living. Therefore, values minus ethics can lead actions prioritising personal gains over what is morally right, potentially causing large scale harm or injustices. While values are the foundation of our strong beliefs, ethics provide the framework for applying those values in a way that is morally sound and show what we want to do and achieve in life.
Despite teaching national values in our schools, young Nigerians are solvent of national values for the cultivation of value oriented mind and positive character development. Are we teaching the right concept in a wrong setting that many students are bankrupt of national values? Can the teaching of national values be effective when some leaders are ethically corrupt? In other words, of what use are political, cultural, religious values if the custodians of politics, culture and religion can defy the demands of ethics? Scholars can spend hours teaching values without correlating them to the fundamentals of ethics and no achievement is recorded in the end. Another typical scenario is teaching people how dangerous corruption is but without admonishing them how not to be corrupt.
In a country where democracy is evolving without the required ethics, values are misplaced and misappropriated. For instance, the value of freedom of expression is either abused or denied. The value of equality is more theoretical than pragmatic. The value of people’s oriented government is more of misappropriation of a defined democracy, thus making ethics a great victim. We must, therefore, go back to the school of ethics for the consolidation of value embedded system.
Nigeria’s democracy offers values without ethics which often produces crisis of morality. I taught a student who is now a lawmaker in the Jigawa State House of Assembly. I spent much time to instill in him values of honesty, hard work, perseverance and what have you not only as a teacher, but also as a reliable agent of extra curriculum activities. If I had not deployed the required ethics, I wouldn’t have given him the right training for personal development. Consequently, an emerging value of legislative work does not consider ethics to balance my dignity of labour.
What I am saying is that our default ethics are discriminating, with Nigeria’s democracy concentrating huge resources on unessential without commensurate results. Currently, the ex-student has invested a whopping N400 million building a gigantic college of hygiene in just two years. It is expected that he will spend the same amount to complete the project. In the next three years when I hope to complete my 35 years in the civil service, my gratuity will not be more than N4 million! Thus, the value of legislative role has defied the ethics of an egalitarian setting to save and promote my noble career as a nation builder with a considerable significance. But this is part of the dividends of Nigeria’s democracy!
Drawing a typical example of value with ethics is the German experiment where the value of teachers go with the ethics of being the highest paid public servants in Germany. When confronted to alter that ‘highly ethical action, by judges, doctors and engineers who demanded the same salary as teachers, the former Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel categorically queried them, “How can I compare you to those who taught you”? Merkel had demonstrated an incredible value for teachers with a corresponding ethical resolution.
Meanwhile, the value of the ubiquitous technology is wantonly plundered through the unethical use of its mass products by dubious consumers. What triggers the original mind into perplexed mood is the abuse of the social media content which is an avenue for the highest display of unethical representation. We are all witnessing how the social media platforms are increasingly becoming a social cancer promoting hatred and divisions. They are a training ground for sociopolitical upheaval in which the principles of ethics are thrown to the dogs.
On a larger scale, the value of Nigeria is not only in its growth but also in the ethics of its development. The greatest value that we can preserve for Nigeria is that of patriotism which is becoming a ‘scarce commodity’. Where we often miss the ethics is that many of us preach jingoism but we break the joy of demonstrative patriotism in which we speak more than we do. Sadly, the value of aspiring to be a nation is squandered by blatant and unethical issues such as tribalism, nepotism, regionalism and the other unethical ‘isms’.
In a nutshell, therefore, values carry all friends but ethics are susceptible to having foes because we are in a state of ethical poverty.