Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, has said that without a solid moral base, the country’s social, economic and political development will be in shamble.
Speaking with FREEDOM ONLINE in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Adelabu stated that he shuddered to think of a Nigeria of intellectual giants, astute economists and politicians without the relevant moral values as internalized through the socio-cultural orientation and espoused by religion.
‘’We need to relate our development to our values system. To do contrary is to entrust the safety of the insane man into his own hand which is a recipe for self-destruction. Consequently, a scientific modern Nigerian society without a sound social and moral base will be her worst enemy in terms of the human misery, fear, insecurity and barbarism that would be self-inflicted in the process of a misguided scientific advancement’’.
Adelabu explained that “if a country produces” intellectual giants” but who are “moral dwarfs”, it is simply producing obstacles to its own development. The purport of this is that morality is germane to social growth and development.
Said he, “Therefore, to extricate morality from the Nigerian society is to destroy the very essence of the society, thereby inviting anarchy and disorderliness. Morality is a necessary tool for the survival of human society. It is vital to the survival of any society because it is the basis of all social structures and institutions’’.
The financial expert noted that the problems which besiege the country are anchored on non-compliance with or total neglect of moral principles and these have led to the doldrums we are experiencing in our private and public lives.
This, he added, shows that national growth and development depend largely on the good sense of justice, moral worth and responsibility, conscientiousness, devotion to duty, selflessness, probity and honesty exhibited by the leaders and the led.
‘Adelabu further submitted that “nations often have constitutions used to establish the groundwork for their social, legal and ambitious future. It establishes the basic relationships between the citizens and their rulers. It defines rules for good and bad practices, laying down laws against taboos while preaching certain practices as essential. This generally is the means of identifying the nation’s values or value system.
‘’ It is assumed that a nation’s value system is sacred and could extend beyond that nation’s boundaries. All nations are supposed to be proud of their value systems, just as a person is proud of his or her upbringing and character and would try to impress that behaviour and beliefs on others. Basic values are traditional and historic, reflecting aspects of the experience that each nation went through since its inception as a national unity. Where are values like honesty, integrity, good neighbourliness, religious tolerance etc that once defined our society? Whatever also happened to being our brother’s keeper?
“Today, we’ve grown so numb and we are no longer shocked when people are slaughtered in a senseless terror campaign by some deranged individuals. As a result, we now have internally displaced people in the country, yet we carry on as if all is well. Everything has been reduced to politics’’.
The former CBN deputy governor advocated urgent need for a re-orientation, a re-engendering and a re-focusing on our moral values with the view to actualizing our potentials and harnessing our resources both human and materials, for a greater, purposeful, egalitarian and vibrant society.
‘According to him, as a result of this, all hands must be on deck to actualize this goal. In this regard moral instruction and education must be given a pride of place in all our educational institutions starting from the primary to the tertiary levels.
Also, he stressed that every citizen must imbibe the culture of moral value recognizing that society is real only to the extent to which the members are instructed and guided by their value system.
“This presupposes that every social institution such as the family, the church, the schools and the government must take the culture of punctuality very seriously, we must preach against insolence, violence and other vices which will project the nation in bad light’’, Adelabu asserted.
