VALUE RE-ORIENTATION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A PAPER PRESENTED BY THE STATE DIRECTOR,
NATIONAL ORIENTATION AGENCY, CHIEF ANDY NWEYE AT THE NYSC ORIENTATION CAMP,
NONWA BATCH B 2011 ON THE 20TH OF JULY, 2011.
v The term “value” refers to the worth, importance,
desirability and usefulness associated with an object, idea, behavior or
phenomenon.
v Core values are the
consistent and ending principle which individuals, groups, organizations or
nations hold or use to guide and drive their actions and achievements in the
course of life and living. Thus, Core
Values remain constant in spite of governmental, technical, social and
political change.
v Chapter II, section 23 of
the 1999 constitution stated that “The National Ethics shall be Discipline,
Integrity, Dignity of Labour, Social Justice, Religious Tolerance, self
Reliance and Patriotism.
These seven core values are expected
to guide and drive the achievement of National goals by Nigerians. Specifically, Nigerians political, Economic
and Social Core Values are;
POLITICAL
v Patriotism
v Respect for National
Anthem
v Recitation of National
Anthem and pledge at functions
v Care in handling of the
Flag
v Commitment to National
Unity
v Participation in the
electoral process, census, support for leaders and belief in leadership by example
ECONOMIC
CORE VALUES
v Handling of National
Currency
v Accountability
v Shunning of corruption
v Patronage of made in
Nigeria goods
v Thrift and investment.
SOCIAL CORE
VALUES
v Punctuality
v Good Neighborliness
v Child rights
v Responsible citizenship
v Shunning of anti-social
behaviors
v Equitable development
v National Integration and
dialogue
Respect for one another, elders,
constituted authorities and the laws of the land.
PERCEPTION
OF CORE VALUES
v Individuals only acquire
and identify with value that enhance
their existence and personal survival
v There is underlying
assumption that the participants were already aware of the core values and the
core values have to be issued to them whatever the circumstances
v The danger in this
assumption is that citizens will not readily internalize the core values since
they were not part of the process of identifying them. (There is the possibility of Alienation).
THE WAY
FORWARD
It is imperative that we begin to
retrace our steps towards revitalizing the moral fiber of all segments of the
Nigerian society through the enunciation, propagation and inculcation of
appropriate positive values capable of sustaining a modern democratic,
scientifically orientated, multi-ethnic, multi-religious, plural society.
STARTING
POINT
Core value is our traditional
belief. It must not be any imported
value from western world to us. Our
beliefs must be sustained.
EMPHASIS
The indigenous education,
demonstrated that our society had a proud past in terms of uplifting ethnical
values. The advent of western culture
eroded vital societal value system because of exclusion and neglect of vital
indigenous culture. For instance, the
medium of instruction in our schools today is mainly English language, even
though Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba are included as languages to be taught. This made majority of the students to loose
focus of cultural values and norms relevant in our traditional society.
COMMUNITY
DIALOGUE/TOWN HALL MEETINGS
People are involved in identifying
issues that affect them. They make
purposeful contributions to bring about transformation and development. Involvement of people in identifying core
values has the merit of sensitizing the citizens to them and hence the
internationalization of the values.
In virtually all communities where
community dialogue is practiced, there is usually the general effort and
responsibility by the individuals to uphold and promote values willingly which
gives rise to rapid development in such communities.
v Core Values must serve as
the driving engine of development, growth and progress. Therefore, for good governance, there must be
value re-orientation to correct the moral degeneration in our society such must
necessarily be based on our roots.
v Good governance does not
just exist in a vacuum. There must be
conscious efforts by aspiring leaders to understanding governance.
Instances – Governors Amaechi,
Fashola and Akpabio understudied their predecessors, Odili, Tinubu and Atta
respectively. They were able to discover
the loop-holes in governance which gave rise to squandermania and other corrupt
practices. They were able to close some
of these loopholes thereby minimizing corruption and increasing internally
generated revenues. There is no gain
saying, that these have been instrumental to the transformation in these states)
Rivers, Lagos, Akwa Ibom) within such a short time as governors of their state.
INSTANCES OF
RIVERS STATE
v Demolition of illegal
structures
v Greater Port Harcourt City
BLUE PRINT
ON
v Education
v Road projects
v Transformation etc.
These are people orientated projects
trusted to pass the test of time.
THE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, VALUE RE-ORIENTATION AND
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A PAPER PRESENTED
BY THE STATE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ORIENTATION AGENCY, CHIEF ANDY NWEYE AT THE NYSC
ORIENTATION CAMP, NONWA BATCH B 2011 ON THE 20TH OF JULY, 2011.
The dream of every nation is to
catapult itself to a high and sustainable level of socio political and economic
development in all faces. This vision,
Nigeria also cherishes and has over the years initiated plans towards achieving
this however, it has been observed that inspite of these visions which has been
in various development plans, coupled with Nigeria’s enormous wealth of
resources, there has been a seemingly uncorresponding level of development.
This of course calls for a deliberate
attempt by the youths to assume their rightful positions in ushering the much
needed development gives the crucial roles they can play in bringing about
this.
But, needless to mention is the fact
that this can’t be realized going by the prevailing moral decadence among the
youths. Today the youths are
characterized by disrespect for authority, thuggery, kidnapping and other forms of
criminality, rape and illicit sexual escapades, drug and human trafficking,
drug addiction, advanced fee fraud, examination malpractices, smuggling, to
mention but a few. The youths more or
less have been imprisoned and over taken by greed, inordinate ambition, over
zealousness and class craze. The life
lifestyles of some corrupt elites have indeed influenced and resharpened their
attitudes thus given rise to massive corruption and looting of public treasury
to the detriment of the Nigerian masses.
These in no small measure have contributed in constituting as a clog in
the wheel of development.
The rise and change in the tempo of
moral degeneration among the youths indicate that unless concerted efforts are
to stem the tide, Nigeria may well be heading towards disaster. But as hopeless as the situation seems, the
birth of a new dawn is not a mirage if only lessons learnt from past
experiences and mistakes are applied appropriately.
The starting point remains inevitably
attitudinal change and value re-orientation of the youths.
Mobilizing the youths for good
governance and positive change
Capturing the youth for purposeful
leadership and good governance hinges on attitudinal change and value
re-orientation as already mentioned. To
achieve this, all hands must be on deck, the family, religious organizations,
schools, Non-governmental organizations, government, agencies etc.
Attitudinal change must be an all
found thing involving both the rank and file.
It should be strictly enforced but in such a way that new changes are
willingly adapted to. It is important to
note that compulsion to moral rectitude could lead to defiance and outright
loss of the youth if not well handled.
Along this line, leadership must have
to be exemplary devoid of all forms of corrupt practices and unhealthy
rivalry. The youths should be tutored
and encouraged in the line of accountability and constructiveness.
Patriotism and National integration
should be pursued vigorously. This will
encourage them to shun religious or ethnic fracas and focus on factors that
unite Nigerian peoples as one.
It’s also important that government
provides adequate employment and promote dignity in labour. This will lead to downward stride in violence
including hostage taking and kidnapping which have become an easy means to
wealth.
Moreso, deliberate efforts to create
youth empowerment schemes that are home based with the right policies to
motivate creativity and productivity should be embarked upon. The youths should be encouraged to be self
employed as well as employers of labour.
This no doubt will lead to an unprecedented economic growth leading to
significant drop in unemployment. The
reluctant effect will no doubt translate to socio-political development.
Apart from these, behavioral skills
training should equally be embarked upon to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted
diseases particularly HIV/AIDs which are rampant among the youths. A health youth is a wealthy nation.
BE SEEN, BE
HEARD
It is time the youths braced up to
the current challenges and their responsibilities. From all indication, the turn of events is
moving so fast that unless the Nigerian youths have their eyes on tomorrow,
they may never get in touch with today.
The world indeed has become a global
village. Development is shifting from
just mere stability and leadership to advances science and technology. How can the youths keep a pace with the rest
of the world? Certainly not in an
atmosphere of chaos and violence since their potentials can only be maximally
harnessed in an environment of tranquility.
Similarly, the rate at which HIV/AIDs
is ravaging the youths does not mean well for the country. Can the youths
really contribute their quota in nation building if they are bedridden and
eventually cut off at their prime?. A
healthy nation presupposes a healthy nation as earlier stated. Any nation that looses its youth has
automatically lost its future and hope.
Because the youths are not just energetic or vibrant but constitute a
greater percentage of the country’s total population. Therefore every act that may lead to
un-natural death should be avoided.
In the same vain, students should
take their studies seriously. The
quality of future adult life depends largely on the extent to which they take
advantage of available o0pportunities for their development. Otherwise, they will neither be seen clearly
nor heard distinctly and so cannot effectively participate in governance.
CONCLUSION
Finally, the youths should wake up to
their responsibilities of transforming Nigeria to a great and dynamic nation by
turning away from the existing moral imbroglio.
It is only when this is done that the visions 2015 or the noble ambition
to put Nigeria among the first 20 economies by the year 2020 will be realistic.
This is the time to think well, say
well, act well so Nigeria will move forward.
