On ethical deficiency in Nigeria

The role of ethics in any organisation cannot be overemphasised. It is paramount in all ramifications. For any organisation to thrive, an ethical standard must be put in place and followed at all times.

For instance, a particular organisation’s ethics says “Costumers are kings,” but how many of its customers are actually treated as kings?

An example is the fact that petrol attendants were kings during the recent fuel crisis in Nigeria. You could be in a queue for several hours, yet it might never get to your turn because of illegal queues.

Politically, when you are told to “join the queue,” it means that you are not wealthy enough to contest for a lofty post and it might not be your turn until you are fed up.

Ethical deficiency has negatively affected many things in the country. Apparently, people are deviating from moral ways of life into immorality on a daily basis.

Whatever transpired last week between Bianca Ojukwu, a former Ambassador to Spain and Ebele Obiano, the wife of the immediate past governor of Anambra State, was as a result of ethical deficiency.

There are hostilities in so many of the political parties these days as a result of the refusal to follow the ethical standards in the parties. Truly, there is no one who does not know the importance of ethics in any organisation.

A Yoruba adage says ‘aluwala olongbo, ogbon ati ko eran je ni,’ meaning, a cat’s ablution is a deceptive tactic to consume the available meat.

Media organisations are not left out when it comes to ethical deficiency, especially in the case of bloggers and untrained journalists. A professional reporter should be unbiased in his day-to-day reportage but many no longer follow this ethical rule.

I therefore implore the people at the helm of affairs to prioritise ethics in all sectors for the betterment of our country.

Rev. Oladimeji Michael Olalekan,

Ibadan.