The Restoration of Ethical Practices will Ensure Good Governance-Prof. Olagoke

Ethics are crucial to how the manpower in governance shall positively influence the scheme of things. These are principles of morality, the science of the good, and the nature of the right inclusive. The greater satisfaction in governance, except when the consciousness that comes from being good and doing right are in the minds of all those involved-elected, appointed, and employed. 
The disregard and disrespect for professional, organizational, and institutional ethics have almost brought Nigeria to its knees. In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head, and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabiut Olagoke says that the restoration of ethical practices is a precondition for ensuring the emergence of good leadership and governance. Excerpts :
The myriad of challenges confronting the country has been traced to the disregard and disrespect for professional and organizational ethics. Why is this so?
The fundamental fabric for the reinforcement of human existence work together for the purpose of peaceful co-existence and development could be traced to the organized colonies of the ants, termites, and bees because of the natural respect for divine laws among them, their organized ways of doing things follow the ethical principles which are presently been eroded today by human beings, most especially in areas where underdevelopment characterize the features of their programs and efforts. If to date, observers of the ethical practices remain the secrets of their maintained and sustained organizations, human beings, therefore, must think about their follies in been irrational in doing things by resorting to the learn the lost glory from the ants, termites, and bees. The Nigeria situation was not as bad as it is today because, in the colonial era, that gave us the standard quo of the civil and public service ethics of the technical practice of officialdom, from the secretarial firmness in keeping records and auditing professional ethics emerged for the graduates of our institutions who specialized in various disciplines because they are part and parcel of feeder links for the government activities to be productive without loss of goodwill.

The laws of the land, based on our culture were respected by all even before the intrusion of religions such as Christianity and Islam. Nigerians who accepted these religions then were happy to discover in the Holy Bible and Quran based on their chosen faith; that they had been following the right path in their culture, at least in the area of the culture and tradition, with respect to good character and the best attitude. For example, there had been keeping of good neighborliness on the ground as well as a high-level power of accommodating visitors. The dignity of labor was part of our grandparents and society will never condone any form of laziness from people. The Hard work principle was their watchword. This was the reason why it was easy for them to be good Christians and Muslims, after accepting Jesus Christ and Allah respectively.
The only snag with people then was idolatry which could be encouraged to be discouraged because of the fatalistic consequence whenever occasion warranted abuse or misuse of power for those who could not manage their anger or control their temperament.
One now wonders why the present-day educational rejuvenation and evolution of the emerging houses of God are unable to tame the weirdness of the present time that is dirt-filled of all who had condemned by the tow Holy books, our religious adherents who dominate the entire population is following.
Today, there is moral disintegration among the people who claim to uphold our culture and traditions.
There is a need to challenge the relevance of the Mogajis, village heads, and traditional rulers such as the Obas, Emirs, and Obis, on the need to restore human dignity through effective sensitization of the people for the essence of integrity in the society and purposive leadership.
If this can be achieved, it would be a matter of shame to the adherents of Islam and Christianity, who are used to claiming the superiority of their religions over others, if they cannot restore for us the sacredness of the Bible and the Quran as relevant articles of faith for human survival.
For in these books or curricula, attitudinal values dominate the subject matter to be instilled in the adherents to be thoroughbred professionally,  with role modeling characteristics of been ethically responsible to save the places of work and the society at large.
Corruption and institutional indiscipline are now the order of the day, not only among the politicians but also among civil and public servants, religious leaders, and the elite with good academic background and certain traditions, such people must have passed through some schools to attain some degree of educational relevance.
Each one of them equally must have faith-based organizations he or she attends in the name of religion before finding themselves in any political party or as technocrats in the civil or public service and must have belonged to particular professional bodies before been appointed or elected into various leadership positions to manage in trust our sovereign wealth.
Lack of ethical practices will ever lead to a loss of goodwill in industries, Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, and the government as a whole for the nation to bear the brunt of underdevelopment.
It is, therefore, a common problem of monstrous dimension for the nation to have clusters of frivolous and wayward people as the best of citizens.
This is because all problems emanating from murdering merit will bounce back to undermine the need for excellence in our various efforts-be it the community or the nation.
We must equally remember that character attestation and our acquired aptitude determine our altitude or height of desires in life.
If we, therefore, continue to make money or create wealth through fraudulent practices, Nigerians will not be able to meet up with global competitiveness or global best practices which may make us be species of inferior quality, who will ever be found wanting outside the shores of Nigeria.
Equally, when we have defective clusters of agents of socialization the wherewithal to effect changes would be very much difficult starting from the perspective of our culture and tradition, our traditional rulers must embrace merit, good attitudinal values, and value-laden records of antecedents as primary considerations to anybody they want to recognize by giving chieftaincy titles.
Religious people must teach the scriptures and role model the best characters and moral excellence to their adherents and in society as their contributions to the restoration of ethical practices by all and sundry. The educational pedagogues must live by the behavioral objectives of what they teach, while the government must for effectiveness, fund our education appropriately and accordingly in line with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) and United Nations Children's Fund(UNICEF) recommendations. The institution of marriage must promote good parenting of responsible biological and social responsiveness for the children's wellness to be sustained in an environment of sustainable marriage.
The issue of fidelity and increasing profile of love must be primary in the areas of managing proposed couples by the counseling psychologists, these are the only way e can have credible people in government who will rather shun business as a usual syndrome in governance, but uphold credibility in leadership, the sacrifice of personal pleasure for the success of the state and proactive measure in policy formulation and implementation.
The focus of the government must therefore be on the promotion of an inclusive society in an environment of social justice, for the nation to progress and produce strong institutions rather than strong individuals and people of high intellect, who are disciplined.
The restoration of ethical practices at the individual, organizational, and professional levels are sacrosanct to achieving the leadership desires and the people's expectations in governance.