Ademola Araoye
A community is defined by its ethics. In the absence of the ingrained protocols of ethics, there is neither community nor society. It is the reign of anarchy. The dictionary gives a simple ordinary definition of ethics as a discipline dealing with the good and evil. Associated with the ethical is the delineation of both the moral obligation and behavioral etiquette of every member of the community. Moral etiquette covers the norms of legitimate behavior, participation, reciprocity and the interaction of the individual with the whole and vice versa. The ethical is thus related to personal conduct in a variety of social contexts that conforms with accepted standards. At the sub systemic and organizational levels, it is normative that ethical protocols inform expectations of conduct across many professional and specialized bodies. This is imperative for the good of man and society. The ethical is therefore about the consolidated codes, even if informally taught, in traditional societies, and institutionalized norms, in formal settings, of shining the light for all to see all that transpires. It is a mechanism to protect society from the harmful quirks of the individual as well as assure the pursuit of the common good of society. Ethics provide the approved guidelines to check opaqueness in the modalities to be adopted in pursuit of legitimate goals. Ethics is thus the bedrock of every human gathering and underpins the smooth functioning of every community of practice across all disciplines. As the bedrock principles for interactions among the human race, ethical precepts are unbounded in time and space. They are thus transcendental and constitute the underpinnings of human civilization by which every human action is evaluated and validated across space and time. Ethical purity in the pursuit of any endeavor equates excellence. There is no room for relativized ethics or excellence. A nation is imperiled when it absolutely rejects ethical considerations that are imperative to the functioning of every civilized community. The integrity of every people is enhanced when there are stout ethical parameters that are fundamental to its reason d’etre as a nation. This principle percolates to the individual level in navigating the often challenging labyrinths and imponderables of life both in good and, especially, in bad seasons.
Accordingly, every Yoruba alludes to the concept of ‘’Omoluabi’’ as constituting a code of ethics to direct personal behavior and human action. Numerous other injunctions such as ‘’Eniab ire kiirinloru’’ further break down the ethical code into morsels of digestible directives for practical guidance. The Omoluabi code forbids the well brought up or thoroughly nurtured or rightly socialized to walk in the dark. It is a clear metaphor to avoid the ethically opaque in threading the difficult contortions of existence itself. The end does not justify the means, as the means adopted actually ultimately validate the integrity of the laudable objective attained. Acquiring wealth is legitimate. Hard work is the sanctioned route to wealth. You succeed through hard work. If you acquire wealth without visible hard work and through opaque and dubious means, then you are considered as ‘’Olowo Igbo’’. There is no claim to communal respect for the Olowo Igbo. Rather, success through underhand methods invokes communal snide and rejection.
A classic expression of the formal codification of ethical principles governing professional practice and relationships is the Hippocratic Oath to which physicians are sworn. The Hippocratic code of ethics imposes respect of patient confidentiality, the imperative of avoiding harm, and upholding the integrity of the profession, among many others on practitioners of medicine. It is germane to highlight that of these, the requirement ‘’First do no harm’’ (Primum non nocere) is part of the original norm of medical practice. In more accessible expression it refers to a commitment by the practitioner that ‘’I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm’’. These codes of ethics confirm legitimacy on every human, social and professional interactions. A breach of the code invalidates the whole enterprise and may, additionally, criminalize the very pursuit of the objective. This fundamental canon is applicable to all facets of human life. This ranges from business management through governance, law, administration, politics, sports usw…
In Ethical principles, Larry Choncoat the University of Texas adumbrates that the principle of beneficence guides the decision maker in the public policy formulation process to do what is right and good. He advances that this priority to “do good” makes an ethical perspective and possible solution to an ethical dilemma acceptable. This principle is also related to the principle of utility, which states that we should attempt to generate the largest ratio of good over evil possible in the world.In very difficult situations, similar to beneficence, Chonco notes that the ‘’least harm’’principle deals with situations in which no choice appears beneficial. Warfare is such an odious instance. In such cases, decision makers must seek to choose to do the least harm possible and to do harm to the fewest people. Finally,in all cases, even in most unacceptable horrendous instances of the imposition of a death sentence, policy must be seen to respect the autonomy of the individual, and positively not undermine the integrity of the individual human. The violation of the autonomy of the individual, by implication,threatenssocial harmony. Respect for the integrity of every strand of humanity equates respect for the sanctity of human life. Accordingly, Chonco highlights the principle that decision making should focus on allowing people to be autonomous—to be able to make decisions that apply to their lives. Thus, people should have control over their lives as much as possible because they are the only people who completely feel the realities of their personal situations, including their emotions, motivations and physical capabilities.The individual understandsthe demands of their circumstances as well as their chosen type of lifestyle. Inclusivity and participation is thus key in ethical public policy making. These are core nuggets for seasoned and sophisticated leadership in politics, public governance and humanistic public policy formulation.
As the never ending turpitude in the evolution of the Nigerian national process has revealed, without the entrenchment of ethics as the foundational underpinnings to the conduct of society, life is nasty, brutish and short; it is a state of perpetual inferno roasting the entrapped humanity in its kiln. Quotidian life is horrible for a vast majority of Nigerians because public policy in the Nigerian ethically desiccated universe is demonstrably inhuman and haphazard. The culture of public policy in Nigeria is thus hazardous to its suffocating humanity. Nigeria is finding out day in and day out that it is built on sinking sand. It is a society trashing, stuck and gasping in a seemingly inextricable quagmire.It is as ailing and insecure as its morbidly corrupt and pretentious elite. In the absence of ethics is a void, a vacuum; both constituting an unbridgeable chasm to any meaningful positive and constructive destination. The many recent publicpolicy fiascos exemplified in the cashless policy of the Central Bank, andpersonal tragedies of the likes of former Deputy Senate President Ekweremadu, that have befallen the country aptly reflect the denudation of traditional ethical precepts and the supplanting of time honored moral codes. In its stead is the ascent of systemic brigandage associated with normlessness in what has become an endless season of national anomie. In this the contrived reductionism of the catholicity of ethical precepts and the convenient project of national elite in relativizing inalienable universal ethical codes, nothing, absolutely nothing, would work. Nigeria is therefore caught in a Babylonian dance trap: for every brittle step forward, ten solid strides are taken backwards. Thus, despite all the hype, life was more abundant in 1960 than in 2023. Public policy, rather than advance the good of the public that is normally associated with the public good, has been deployed to serve the unethical ends of individuals seeking private gains by exploiting the public realm.
Public good is often described as entailing general availability and use by all irrespective of status: non exclusivity. Public goods are generally open for all to use and consumption by one party does not deter another party’s ability to use it. The two key characteristics of public goods are non-exclusivity and non rivalrous. Aspublic goods are not excludable; preventing the use of the good by another is not possible. Whenunderpinned by necessary ethical imperatives, public policy is driven by the objective to guarantee access by all to developments or dividends ensuing from membership of the commonwealth. State funded education, fresh air, security, both personal and national defence, health institutions, and provision of physical infrastructure all belong in public good. Underpinning public good is the ethical obligation of the state inherent in the social contract from which the state itself emanates. In the particular realm of public good is law and order where ethics enthrone principles that undergird social equity, social justice and egalitarianism. In politics, ethics drives public policy toward the provision of public goods and also the facilitation of an environment fostering the ability of citizens to acquire, through legitimate means,private goods.The two should however not be conflated. Business ethics enjoin business enterprises to do no harm to society. In its more contemporaneous expression is the concept of corporate social responsibility. It is to upgrade the social environment of its operational theater. A responsible business organization should leave the community and its environment better off than it met it. At the opposite end of public good are private goods that are not shared.Private goods are less likely to experience the free rider problem. The free rider problem is where some users exploit unimpeded access to a jointly or communally shared product without imputing commensurate contributions to assure the continuity of the provision of desired public good. When public policy becomes instrumental to the conversion of the state to an instrument for mainly or solely the advancement of the private interests of a few individuals or groups of persons, the state has gone rogue. A state assuredly goes rogue, first by unmooring society from its ethical anchors. In this ethically unhinged scenario, the pursuit of partisan loot or private gain in state and society becomes the order of the day. The republic is mortally endangered.
The pursuit of policy of cashless economy by the Central Bank is a case in point. The policy may be a legitimate strategic initiative by any forward looking manager of an economy in the Third millennium.However, context and the ethical imperatives the context throws up matter in validating a hitherto laudable objective. As earlier noted, the ultimate litmus test for the validation of public policy is to assure the greatest good of the greatest number.Positively, public policy must do no harm. That is the ultimate legitimizing hurdle for all policies. Policy environment in this specific case may be defined by the state of digitalization of the target universe, the state of society and the political imperatives of policy. From anecdotal empirical observations and reportssupplemented by statistics from official sources on the state of digitalization of the target universe, serious questions arise.Internet user penetration in Nigeria saw a slight increase between the years 2018 and 2022, going from around 26 percent to over 38 percent and the share of the Nigerian population and internet use is only expected to deepen to approximately 60 percent by 2027.
Other essential headlines for digital adoption and use in Nigeria in early 2023 are that:
There were 122.5 million internet users in Nigeria at the start of 2023, when internet penetration stood at 55.4 percent. Also, Nigeria was home to 31.60 million social media users in January 2023, equating to 14.3 percent of the total population. Meanwhile,only 34 per cent of Nigerians have bank accounts and only 9 per cent use digital platforms for transactions. It is thus clear that on the basis of these facts alone, rational policy making would have foreseen that a cashless policy, as desirable as it is, is not a project that would advance the greatest good of the greatest number at this time. The policy thus failed the ultimate test of ethical policy making. In the wake of this failure were collapse of small scale enterprises operated by the most vulnerable in society, frustration induced orchestrated insanity, loss of faith in public policy. All these impacted harmony as society was placed on tenterhooks. It is yet to be seen, if the escalation in inter-ethnic tensions had anything to do with the cashless policy.
Logical reasoning therefore imposes a scrutiny of other potential factors that drove the implementation of a predictably failed policy by known highly acclaimed intelligent officials of the state. This is against the background of the absence of any rational explanations as well as the troubling reluctance of the Executive branch to respect the decisions of the Supreme Court on measures to mitigate the harm to society by a public policy gone awry. The political factor becomes compelling. Speculations were rife that the timing of policy execution was a calculated move to impact the outcome of the presidential elections. If correct, that would also constitute a grievous breach of ethical code. In a universe where public policy has been instrumentalized for private gains through the process of seemingly ‘legitimized’ partisan looting of the commonwealth, the end of politics is, obviously, not the good of society. Because politics is anarchic and ungovernable in an ethically devaluated universe, the search for unbridled partisan loot in the public realm has no guardrails for transparency, decency, integrity and honesty. The national process is devoid of all pretensions to morality or any codes of behavioral restrains. Elections in the decadent political sphere unleashes the very worst of impulses of negativity of the system. Every one tried to outfox the other. Accordingly, the cashless policy was unleashed as part of indiscriminatehurling of offensive missiles: the sink, the commode, the door, the ceramic, the pot and anything and everything, including private dirty linen,to hurt opposing gladiators as arsenals across factional lines. It was an intra-class war for absolute control of the treasury to achieve mostly private ends. The elections thus had nothing to do with the ignorant mass of impoverished foot soldiers dying on all sides. Neither the elections nor the cashless policy was aimed at advancing the ethical mantra of the greatest good for the greatest number. The resulting chaos and interminable elite vituperations with no end in sight in consistent with the prognosis of realistic observers of the culture of chaos as the imprimatur of a debased society.
Individuals live in amoral vacuum and are socialized in Nigeria to cut corners. A cardinal morsel for existential thrivingin Nigeria is mental conditioning to suppress moral compunctions that are innate in Man. Socialization in this clime emphasizes goal attainment without commensurate attention to the legitimacy of means to desired ends. As shown earlier, the impact of the cavalier attitude to ethics and morality on national life has been catastrophic. It is against this background that the ethical dimensions to the sad and tragic circumstances of former Deputy President of the Senate cannot be overlooked. The case of Senator Ekweremaduand his wife Beatrice NwannekaEkweremadu is a mirror image of our society’s abject rejection of ethics in our lives, even when in pursuit of legitimate and compelling ends. Charged with conspiracy to arrange/facilitate travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting, the guilt pronounced on Senate Ekweremadu and wife must elicit deep introspection of the Nigerian way.
It was the failure of Ethics and the nonchalance of the Nigerian system that are co-guilty with the charged couple. Was a Nigerian doctor not involved? What interventions did the Board of Ethics and the counsellors of the renowned Nigeria Medical Council make in the pre travel arrangements and agreement? Who spoke to the young man who volunteered his organ? In a notoriously hierarchically arranged society with elite weaponization of poverty as ends of public policy through the likes of the horrible cashless policy,is there a way to begin to resuscitate Ethics in our endeavors as a nation in being and as individuals in an ethically crisis ridden society? Do our faculties teach Ethics as the preeminent underpinning to all and various disciplines in our academies? To this must be a disclaimer though. This is not an advertisement for further entrenchment of the morally vacuous Nigerian church or mosque or even our satanic brand of spirituality. What is advocated here is ethical reawakening for practical functionality with salience to the promotion of humanistic essences through transparency, respect for the autonomy of the self and spirit,socially constructive utilitarianism, morality over legality- in short the reinstitution of the ethical at the pinnacle of the all arbitrations in navigating the whole gamut of existence.
[1]AdemolaAraoye is former Director of Abuja Leadership Center, a TETFUND Center of Excellence in Public Governance and Leadership at the University of Abuja, FCT. Prof Araoyetrained at the Center for Politics and Policy at the Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, United States of America. He retired from the United Nations as Head of Office for the Consolidation of Democratic Governance at the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)