Morality

Greed is an innate characteristic usually exhibited by people with excessive lust and a craze for materialism.
Psychologically, it is viewed as hereditary. In this wise, if not curbed at the early stage of childhood, it could become a biological fluid for impunities.
The affected individual grows up to become greedy by acquiring wealth beyond the fundamental needs of man to live in affluence or an ostentatious manner. This is known as Timocracy.
This is a state wherein every available opportunity to serve becomes a golden opportunity to accumulate wealth illegally, without recourse to transparency and accountability.

The greedy individual eventually becomes selfish by violating the fundamental rights of others to access good life.
Low Human Development Index in several nations is a fallout of the activities of such nations' greedy leaders.
Such nations become overwhelmed by various forms of crimes such as pick-pocketing, terrorism, ritual killings, armed robbery, car snatching, kidnapping among others.
The solution to this is Psychological  Counseling Therapy at the formal and informal educational levels.
The cultural setting must not compromise the need for every person to uphold the principles of self-esteem and integrity.
Our value system must not condone vices such as greed, covetousness, and avarice.
Again, in a sizable number of nations, political office holders who attained positions of trust through the assumption that they are competent and fit to occupy such offices, have proved that the basis of their election and appointments revolved around false premises. Their acts of commission or omission plunged their countries into multifaced economic problems such as unemployment, hunger, and poverty.
In the final analysis, when we live as solutions to other people's concerns, worries, or problems, we would not be lured into the temptation of greediness, selfishness, and the grasping desire to possess material things.
Above all, firmness or deterrence is always an effective mitigating tool to reduce or curb vices such as greed or avarice.

Human kind will continue to have challenges of discipline and morality when the primary agents of socialization  fail to function to meet the needs of the individual species constituting the society.

When the parents fail to meet the needs of their children and wards, the home front would suffer from having effective control and management.

Unfortunately, the products of the home constitute  the elements of the schools, religious bodies and government establishments. Education without discipline may produce a nuisance, who will have a consequent negative impact on the society.

Let us remember that most of the prominent armed robbers, drug dealers and fraudsters could be rated to be well educated, but with serious lack on the issues of moral discipline, hence their impact will ever be that of serious security risk and a serious barrier in the way of developing the nation. Hence our present decadence.

Products of the home are the raw materials in the houses of God, expected to be socially and spiritually rejuvenated under their religious leaders. Unfortunately too, most religious leaders are driven into the houses of God not by self interest or true divine call, but by the desire to boost their lust  for ego and to satisfy their economic needs.

This condition is making religious adherents  to be worse off in character and attitude, when they are challenged  with the responsibilities of office, this has made the Ministries, Departments, Agencies and Institutions to suffer for lack of discipline and moral upbringing from their various homes and houses of God to their various places of work.

This is why the erstwhile dignity of labor fabric is already destroyed for all organizational ethics to be set aside for a free fraud spree.

The process of electing and appointing people into various positions of power is characterized by sentiments of ethnicity, nepotism, tribalism and the goal of business as usual in offices, in place of service in office and selfless service  to humanity.

It is another institutional indiscipline to have records of non-credible election exercises to have our leaders in place.

Vote buying and a scenario of juicy positions going to the highest bidder constitute the formation of government, the consequence is the two extreme regimes of kleptocracy by the few and destitution and abject poverty for the largest population of voters with the consequence of government inability to create  or generate employment, provide basic amenities and to facilitate  infrastructural development. Are these environment of poverty not enough to generate a state of insecurity, institutional indiscipline and abuse of opportunities , when impunity dominate our  general attitude to the level of sinful acts and flood of criminality.

If we are to use the factor of religion to revive education in comatose, raise the hope of the people already distressed, frustrated and depressed, the parents and the clerics need  to work together by agreeing to implement the provisions of the scripture, monitor adherence attitude and develop a mechanism to estimate and evaluate individual understanding and spiritual progress development. Religion presently is too naked to have reasonable impact on the adherents because the divine design of the goal has been trivialized into a poor state of entertainment, false miracles and commercial enterprise against the tenets of free spiritual healing(Matt10 : 7-13, Quaran  11 : 51-52). With these tenets followed, there won't be any need for anybody to dilute the sacredness of religion through unnecessary magical wands.

Besides this, charity  begins at home, hence there is  the need to work on the provision of  of Quaran 16 : 90 to build a strong base, '' Allah commands justice, the doing of good, and giving to kith and kin, and He forbids all indecent deeds and evil and rebellion : He instructs you, ye may receive admonition.''

Let this apply to all facets of our lives including the systems of all agents of socialization-home, school, faith based organizations, various associations and unions, Ministries, Departments and Agencies and government as a whole. Let it start from you and  from me.

Prof. Sabitu Olagoke

Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide,Wakajaiye, Ibadan, Nigeria