Lagos — National Orientation Agency presented a book, Survey of Nigerian Core Values to the Nigerian public recently. At the presentation, the custodians of Nigerian cultural values stressed the need for active engagement of all citizens in value re-orientation as a key to national development.

"Nigerian schools today are troubled by examination malpractice, corruption, and poor reading habits amongst others. As children, we believe that adults cannot lead us astray. So, we copy them only to find out at last that they are misleading us by the time it is too late. This portrays us a nation without values; a nation that is stagnant. If we must have the right values, we must begin to retrace our steps now", Samuel Derek, a secondary school student admonished while highlighting reasons why our society is perpetually kept in a circus web of anti-social value system.

Derek made these comments recently at the public presentation of a book, 'Survey of Nigerian Core Values' by the National Orientation Agency (NOA) in collaboration with the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State. At the presentation, stakeholders agreed that Nigerians must engage in value reorientation before any hope of national development can materialize. They also discussed causes and effects of many social ills the nation is bedevilled with today.

His intelligent analysis captured the hopeless situation of our youths and unborn generation as being engineered, fashioned and conditioned by the older generation especially those categorised as the independence generation.

Before and soon after independence in 1960, there were high expectations by Nigerians and the international community alike, that the country will become one of the world's economic super powers in a few years.

This hope was premised on the fact that the geographical location called Nigeria was endowed with all the necessary ingredients needed to take the young nation to any desired developmental height-natural resources, rich arable land and top quality human capacity.

Unfortunately, this dream has remained a mirage till date, much to the consternation of the world. Although most Nigerians blame successive leaders of the country for our inability to match our developmental potentialities, very few have admitted that the failure of all aspects of our national life is traceable to the colossal erosion of our core ethical values.

This has led to passionate calls by prominent Nigerians like Alhaji Yusuff Maitama Sule for a change of attitude and values through a bloodless Cultural Revolution. Sule was one of the speakers at the gathering.

"Let us revive the past glory and values which are lacking today and what we need most that is still lacking is discipline and unity", Sule said.

Speaking further, he x-rayed the challenges of the Nigerian political system and concluded that the most viable solution is to pattern our democracy according to our culture through what he called Afrocracy.

"We need to pattern our democracy according to our culture and I am advocating for Afrocracy; democracy according to African norms and values. We must be ourselves in order to make progress", he said.

In the same vein, the Director-General of NOA, Alhaji Idi Farouk said that our traditional rulers such as the Emirs and Chiefs, including our elder statesmen as the custodians of our cultural values, should be involved in reviving and re-inventing our glorious past of sound cultural values.

Farouk noted that it is fundamental to remember our history in order to make use of it in the right way in what he calls "knowing the past to adjust the present in order to address the future."

In his address at the event, Governor of Plateau State, Mr. Jonah Jang regretted that part of our cherished African heritage, which includes peace, co-operation, unity, growth and development had been lost.

Jang warned that a society without values is a failed one, stressing that values define the decisions a people make about their lives. Like a compass, values give a people direction that leads to greater development.

Speaking further, he highlighted the fact that the nature of our contact with the British colonialists had impacted positively and negatively on us, hence we are expected to choose what is good and throw away what will endanger our society.

"Our enriched value system has been set aside such that Nigerians have chosen to live perverse lifestyles as if we have been a society without values," he said. The Governor posited that the practice today where some politicians perceive politics as an avenue to corruptly enrich themselves instead of advancing the lives of the masses that brought them to power is a corruption of our traditional values. "They do not share in core political values of accountability, transparency and the rule of law."

Echoing Jang's comments, the Minister of Culture, Tourism and National Orientation, Senator Jibrin Bello Gada posited that "the culture of unearned income which gives primacy to money rather than productive effort and net contribution to overall output is a key factor hindering the attainment of the productive potential of the country."

Gada reminded his listeners that the 1999 Constitution stated that the national ethics shall be "discipline, integrity, dignity of labour, social justice, religious tolerance, self reliance and patriotism."

These values, he stated, are expected to guide and drive the achievement of the Nigerian dream. Unfortunately, there has been a steady weakening of our national value system which included honesty, discipline, good work ethic, excellent inter-personal relationships, ethnic and religious tolerance among the citizenry, humility in leadership as well as transparency, accountability and probity in public office and private transactions.

He said, "These qualities were prevalent in the polity before and after independence in spite of unfavourable colonial policies on traditional and religious institutions of the country." For Gada, the civil war with its attendant negative effects on the family and social infrastructure led to a gradual deterioration of societal value systems.

He claimed that this was further worsened by the distortions brought about by prolonged military rule. Gada also worried that the family value system is being threatened as we no longer see the customary respect children must accord their parents and other elders of their community. He lamented that youths are now usually guilty of all forms of anti-social behaviour such as vandalism, examination malpractices and cultism, which affect the progress of the society and the nation at large. The Minister noted that these problems have greatly affected Nigeria's pace of development generally.

Gada then posited that as Governor Jang rightly opined, "Unless such issues are addressed through proper value-reorientation, we shall have a long way to go, while the dream of a new Nigeria will remain a mirage." There is light at the end of this dark tunnel however. The good news, according to the minister is that since the return of democratic governance, there has been increased national consciousness to arrest Nigeria's declining national values with a strong anti-corruption commitment, servant leadership style and the rule of law.

He added that the present administration is poised to institutionalise respect for constituted authority, transparency, accountability and probity in public affairs as well as the private lives of Nigerians. Gada stressed that the second National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (2008 - 2011) and the Seven-point Agenda of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua appreciate the role of the value system on production, service delivery, governance, peace and security.

He also claimed that the administration is committed to the use of the school system, the mass media, the National Orientation Agency and other agents of change to inculcate in the minds of all Nigerians, the values of the rule of law, servant leadership philosophy, the virtues of dignity of labour, legitimate means of livelihood, peaceful co-existence, tolerance, aversion to theft, falsehood, corruption, protection of public assets and rendering selfless services by those in position of public trust as key values to be imbibed.

He also explained that the book, 'Survey of Nigerian Core Values', was aimed at enabling the National Orientation Agency generate requisite data for value re-orientation programmes and strategies.

Governor Jang however suggested a different approach where he expressed the belief that to get it right as a country through reorientation, individuals and leadership at every level of government must see ethical reorientation as a challenge and set the example for others to follow.

Social institutions such as the family, the church, mosque and schools must take up the gauntlet to ensure that every Nigerian under their authority sees the importance of conforming to national values, he asserted.

This point was reinforced by Gbong Gwom Jos, Elder Jacob Gyang Buba who noted that, "unless and until those who call themselves Christians or Muslims practice their religion piously, we are going nowhere. Islam is peace and Christianity talks about love; God has given us the power of choice but it does not include the power to fight for him."

As Nigeria searches for a way out of moral decadence steadily retarding the progress of the nation, the public presentation could not have come at a better time as it harvested several other opinions from different persons, with the central theme being the need for Nigerians to return to their core values if we are to realise our developmental aspirations.

Most participants were of the opinion that the basic reason some countries are more developed than others is that the developed countries place higher value on their culture, people and arts.