Value System is the principle of right and wrong that is accepted by an individual or a social group.
The first thing we need to do, to get rid of this mess called corruption, is to review and reorder our values because our values define our sense of judgment. When a child is born, the child cannot differentiate between what is right and what is wrong, but the society in which the child grew up helps him or her to determine what is morally wrong and what is morally right. In other words, the child’s environment shapes his or her ideologies and determines his or her moral values.
THE COLONIAL ERA
We heard a story of what happened before and shortly after Nigeria’s independence; it was said that a shopkeeper could leave his or her shop for another engagement and while the shopkeeper was away, any buyer that came around would drop his or her money on the table and pick whatever he or she came to buy.
Wow! The transaction took place in the absence of the shopkeeper. We wondered what could have made such miracles to take place in those days - ‘values’ i.e. in those days, we placed more value on our integrity, good name and morals rather than money.
MONEY AND POWER DRIVEN SOCIETY
Today, we are in a society where almost everyone wants to be richer than his or her peers, and some people go to the extent of killing a fellow human being just to become rich and powerful in order to attain a high status in the society. Corruption has given birth to so many megalomaniacs suffering from a psychological disorder called megalomania i.e. obsessive desire for power and wealth. The definition of success has changed over the years and it is rather unfortunate that we now define success to be “being rich and being powerful” In fact; the new editions of our dictionaries now define success to be the attainment of fame, wealth and social status. When the younger generations get to read this, then it spells doom for our continent.
Nelson Mandela said “Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will. Success is often measured by the amount of wealth someone has amounted, but it’s far from that. Everyone’s entitled to their own definition of success, yet money always leaves people becoming greedy for more. You should redefine your definition of success, to more measurable and life- worthy things such as having a career you love and enjoy, being able to surround yourself by family, living freely and wherever you want to”.
We think that sounds more like it; Madiba said what is exactly in our mind and to complement this, we will say:
Success is the ability to make
impact in your generation
and also to leave a good long
lasting legacy behind for the
upcoming generations
JESUS CHRIST, A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF SUCCESS
In order to justify this definition, we will give you a perfect example of success: Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He came to die for the sins of mankind and if not that He accomplished His assignment and He was successful there will not be anything called salvation today for us all. That is a perfect definition of a successful life. We need to first of all re-define success before we can totally eradicate corruption in our continent because:
Your definition of
success defines how
you go about achieving
it
We mean if you have a wrong perception of success i.e. “being rich and being powerful” you will do anything to be rich and powerful and on the other hand, if you have the right perception of success as displayed by Jesus Christ i.e. “impacting your generation and leaving a good long lasting legacy behind” you will do anything to impact your generation and leave a good long lasting legacy behind.
BEGIN TREATMENT FROM THE MIND
Most African countries have been making the same mistake of fighting corruption from the outside only through anti-graft agencies and other security agencies but little or nothing has been achieved because corruption is a disease of the mind and the treatment must begin from the mind. Therefore, we need to fight corruption from the inside (mind) and the outside (anti- graft agencies); and until we begin to do these, success in the fight against corruption will continue to be an illusion. Firstly, there is need for us to accept that there is a driving force or motivation behind corruption and deal with it, thereafter, we can fight corruption externally.
WHAT IS YOUR MOTIVATION?
Now back to our talk on values, another sincere question we need to ask ourselves is “what is our motivation?” We mean the rationale behind everything you do. This is a very crucial point that we need to take with all seriousness because our tendency of being corrupt is determined by our source of motivation. Have you ever wondered why some passionate, intelligent and valiant individuals, who were human rights activists and anti-corruption crusaders before they got into public office, suddenly changed after they got into public office? Did you bother to ask about the rationale behind their actions and the so-called selfless service they were rendering to the public before getting into public office? It might be very difficult for us to ascertain their source of motivation until they get into a public office, but we assure you that once they get there, their source of motivation (money, power etc.) will be evident to everyone.
As Africans we all have to do a reality check on ourselves individually to ascertain our source of motivation in life and if it is anything close to money, fame, power, wealth, luxury and any of those perishable stuffs you have the tendency of being corrupt if the chance falls into your lap.
LEADERSHIP IS SERVICE TO THE PEOPLE
We are always bewildered when we see elected or appointed public officers throwing parties after being elected or appointed into a public office to serve the people. The question is, why the jamboree? Well our answer might be as good as yours. They say and we quote “our days of hardship are over, now it is time to get rich”. What a pity? Such celebrations are of no use because they send a wrong signal and notion about leadership to the society, in other words, the wasteful and needless jamboree makes the society believe that leadership is all about being superior to others by virtue of the appointee or the elect’s new position rather than being at the service of others by virtue of his/her new position. Therefore, all celebrations should be after the successful completion of a corrupt –free and impactful tenure in office as a leader.
Leadership is not about being
superior to others but it is about
being at the service of others
MOTHER TERESA’S LIFE OF SERVICE
We believe you must have read or heard the story of Mother Teresa, and if you have not we would tell you some things about her.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, commonly known as Mother Teresa was born 26 August 1910 and she was a Roman Catholic religious sister and missionary who lived most of her life in India. She was born in today's Macedonia, with her family being of Albanian descent originating in Kosovo.
Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation, which in 2012 consisted of over 4,500 sisters and is active in 133 countries. They run hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis; soup kitchens; dispensaries and mobile clinics; children's and family counseling Programme’s; orphanages; and schools.
Mother Teresa was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2003, she was beatified as "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta" [3] though she is dead; she lives forever because her legacies live forever. The life of Mother Theresa is an epitome of leadership by service per excellence. Today, we have many St. Teresa Churches like we have St. Paul, St. Peter etc. What a glorious life she lived!
WHOM DO WE CELEBRATE IN OUR SOCIETY?
Who are those that receive national awards and recognitions? Are they the same set of people that have looted the nation’s treasury or the true and patriotic citizens? Come to think about it, if a man is being celebrated for stealing from the people who are celebrating him, then it takes a “nincompoop” not to go back to the treasury to steal more from the people so he can get more recognition from them and have more influence over them. In other to get out of this mess that we have found ourselves in Africa, we need to stop celebrating corrupt individuals and begin to celebrate true patriots.
CORRUPT INDIVIDUALS SHOULD BE TREATED LIKE OUTCASTS
We have to come to a point whereby the society frowns at corrupt individuals like we used to have in the pre- colonial and colonial era. In those days, anybody that went against the standards of our society was always ostracized and such individuals will not be seen among the people anymore. Today, we welcome them with open arms and honour them for stealing from us. Though it might be difficult to ostracize people from the society but when the society discourages an act of corruption, disciplines whoever is involved in any form of corrupt practice and treats such individuals as outcasts by not allowing them to attend public functions, social gatherings etc. Then, it is as good as ostracizing such people from the society.
Corrupt Individuals
should be unwelcome
at public functions and
social gatherings
THE ROLE OF RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS IN FIGHTING CORRUPTION
For ages, religious organisations have always represented institutions that uphold moral standards and we strongly believe it is time to re-establish that mindset in the people.
Religion has a big role to play in all of these because the religion, the politics, the military and the economy of any country are the four pillars of that country. Therefore, understanding this reality coupled with the fact that religion is an integral part of our lives in Africa; is an effective way to transform the mind of the people from “a corruption-prone mind” to “a corruption-immune mind” by teaching the true and unadulterated morals.
True and Unadulterated
Morals Transform a
Corruption-Prone Mind to a
Corruption-Immune Mind.
WAKE-UP CALL TO RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS
All religious institutions need to wake up to their responsibilities. Virtually every African represents one religious institution or the other. Therefore, the influence of religion on each African cannot be over emphasized. Morality still remains the fundamental principle that guides every religion and as a matter of urgency, should be used to salvage our continent from this dreadful and destructive monster called “corruption”. Our hypocritical way of life must also find its way into the abyss if we want corruption to be a thing of the past in our continent. We need to uphold our religious tenets such that these tenets should not be confined to the walls of our places of worship alone, but we should begin to profess what we confess.
ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL
This is a new phenomenon among political leaders in Africa which is “Robbing Peter to Pay Paul”. This phenomenon is prevalent among African leaders; their moral values have been so demeaned that they steal money under the guise of “Charity”. How does it work? While the husband is busy stealing from the public treasury, the wife goes about setting up “kangaroo” charity organisations in the bid to receive undeserving glory and praises from the people. A dinky amount out of the stolen wealth of the public is transferred and used to run these charity organisations all in the name of helping the less privileged in the society. At the same time, a substantial amount of the stolen wealth is transferred into their foreign account or spent on frivolities. It has become so pronounced that in a report published by The Guardian (a British daily) on 15 July 2014, it was disclosed that while western countries send about $30bn in development aid to Africa every year, more than six times that amount leaves the continent, "mainly to the same countries providing that aid". [4] In other words, more than $180bn is being stolen every year. We dare not have the guts to say Africa is a poor continent, after all these reckless looting by some greedy leaders. In fact, it is the richest continent but a sleeping giant.
For Africa to progress, we need to change our avaricious and grasping attitude towards life and be hard-nosed towards getting rid of corruption in Africa.
THE “I AM WORTH CONCEPT”
Concerning our attitude towards life, the first question we need to ask is “what defines us?” i.e. what is of importance to us or what is of worthwhile quality to us. Here, our value system is of utmost importance. Firstly, the concept that a man is worth some amount of money is a big problematic concept.
Let us go back to the etymology of the word “worth” which is “weorþ” from the Old English and it means "value, price, price paid, equivalent value amount, monetary value”. We now understand the meaning of worth from the definition above. Think about this, how much is the monetary value that can be placed on a man that is composed of “spirit, soul and body” we believe your answer is as correct as ours, absolutely no amount of money can buy the spirit, soul and body of a man because money itself is man’s idea and creation. Then, here is the big question; why should a human being (spirit, soul and body) place monetary value on his/her life; after the ultimate price, which is priceless has been paid for us all i.e. the blood of Jesus. We make funny statements like, I am worth five million dollars, I am worth 10million dollars and some even say I am worth one million dollars. We call them “Human being with a price tag” jokingly, probably they are for sale and that is the price to be placed on them; absolutely not us.
Wherever this “I am worth concept” came from, it is a big problematic concept that we need to deal with before we can totally eradicate corruption in Africa and the world at large. It has successfully created a craving and aggressive society which is unreasonably competitive such that people can do and undo to increase their monetary value and status.
FROM CREATION
From the history of creation, the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. Therefore, we were specially created in the image of God and we have no estimable value hence, it beats our imagination when we begin to place monetary value on our lives, understanding the fact that, money itself was created by us as a medium of exchange.
This “I am worth” concept has snowballed into what is now also one of the causes of corruption in our continent today. It is sad that we now worry and have sleepless nights over how we can own fleet of cars, edifices, fat bank accounts, business conglomerates etc.
We voraciously amass all these things not minding what it will cost for them to be acquired, even if it will cost the life of other human beings.
As a matter of urgency, we need to abolish the “I am worth” concept because it hasn’t done us any good, but rather, it has created an unduly aggressive society with grasping and money-grabbing individuals. So, it is crucial that we move from money driven society to morals driven society.