moral education : panacea for purposeful leadership …

MORAL EDUCATION : PANACEA FOR PURPOSEFUL LEADERSHIP IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIA

BY

OKEY STELLA-MARIS-Ph.DFACULTY OF EDUCATION

CROSS RIVER UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGYCALABAR08036717132

Email:

AND

NDUM, VICTOR ETIMINSTITUTE OF PUBLIC POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION

UNIVERSITY OF CALABAR, CALABAR08033024981

Email:[email protected]

ABSTRACTOver the years, the Nigerian nation has undergone severe leadership crisis and has experienced failure and inability to translate policies into reality without leaving the citizenry worse than they were. Incidentally, those saddled with leadership responsibility are not properly educated and have unfortunately not been able to internalize the possible moral values that would guide them into doing the right things. Having a competent, proactive, effective and purposeful leadership that is capable of transforming its highly chorused great potentials into real economic and political power has been quite elusive. This is simply because of the failure to be adequately educated and identify the essential moral values that sustain the various societies now constituting the modern Nigerian society and infuse such values into our social system. Hence the consequent leadership failure becoming inevitable. This paper examines the concept of leadership and elements of purposeful leadership, education and moral values. The paper focused on the need for education and the inculcation of firm moral-values as the means to engender purposeful leadership in the contemporary Nigeria. It recommends among others, the strengthening of our educational system and creation of awareness of the need for the citizenry to be properly educated and morally grounded especially those vying for leadership positions at all levels; a shift in paradigm in our social system that would restore the lost moral values in the society and ensuring internalization of the core moral values.

Keywords: education, moral values, purposeful leadership, contemporary Nigeria, ethics

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CONTEMPORARY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCE . VOL.4 NO. 2 . PUBLISHED ONLINE NOVEMBER, 2015

COPYRIGHT © 2015 COJAS/RIN

INTRODUCTIONThe ultimate goal of education is to equip the graduates with appropriate knowledge, and competencies that will enable them to meet the expectations and demands of the contemporary economic world. Achieving and maintaining economic vibrancy and excellence involves ensuring that only the right quality and quantity of the befitting and necessary factors are invested upon. Moral values are chiefly instrumental in determining purposeful leadership and these could possibly be passed on through the process of education especially at the lower level.One major cause of misrule in Nigeria is lack of intellectual training and discipline, on the part of leaders at all levels. This does not, however, mean that adequate intellectual training is necessarily a guarantee for good leadership, but it does help in this regard. The central theme of Plato's Republic is that society has to be governed by people-men and women-who have, through careful training attained the proper knowledge of human life and know the meaning of goodness in all its forms. Such knowledge makes a proper understanding of the purpose of leadership possible. Good and purposeful leadership is a function of wisdom, understanding and knowledge. It demands unusual virtue, intelligence, education, a great deal of experience, imbibing the core moral values and many other qualifications which cannot be expected to be possessed by any one person. So, our leadership failures arise largely from the leaders themselves, from their intellectual incapacity, lack of discipline and political inexperience, not so much from the political institutions, not so much from the system. Once the operators of a given political system lack adequate knowledge and intellectual training, the system will not work. Much depends upon the operators of the system. For instance, Nigeria after independence practiced the Parliamentary system of government, West minister model of democracy as bequeathed by her British colonizers. It did not work, but it is still working in Britain. The Military struck with the coup de tat of 15th January 1966. Then began the direct involvement of the military in Nigerian politics (1966- 1979; 1983-1999). Between 1979 and 1983, the Shagari administration operated the presidential system (the White House model). Intellectual incapacity, lack of discipline and political inexperience on the part of our leaders lead to venality of office. Having a competent, proactive, effective and purposeful leadership that is capable of transforming its highly chorused great potentials into real economic and political power has been quite elusive. This is simply because of the failure to be adequately educated and identify the essential moral values that sustain the various societies now constituting the modern Nigerian society and infuse such values into our social system. Hence the consequent leadership failures become inevitable. This paper examines the concept of leadership and elements of purposeful leadership, education, moral values. The paper focused on the need for education and the inculcation of firm moral-values as the means to engender purposeful leadership in the contemporary Nigeria.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKThe concept of leadershipEze (2002) posits that “all over the world leadership is the most important factor that determines whether a nation can develop or not”. He further argued that such leadership be free, intelligent, brave, patriotic, people-oriented, and destination-bound.

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A leadership that understands psychology of leading and applies it to development of the people must be at the helm of affairs of men.Peretomode (2003) and other scholars have argued that leaders are not born but made. According to them, some of the basic esentials of leadership are (1) the ability to persuade others to work towards defined objectives enthusiastically; (2) interpersonal influence directed through the communication process towards the attainment of goals; (3) initiation of a new structure or procedure for accomplishing or changing organization's goals; (4) influencing the actions, behaviours, beliefs and goals of one person by another with the willing cooperation of the one being influenced. From these some elements of leadership can be identified. For one thing, leadership is not an isolated activity but one that involves others – followers or subordinates whose cooperation is crucial to the success of the leader. Leadership involves the use of influence as distinct from forcible domination or coercion. The process of leadership involves an unequal distribution of power among leaders and group members. The giving of directive for example, flows from the leader to the subordinates and not vice versa. Leadership is a process, which means that it is a continuous, ongoing activity directed towards the accomplishment of goals as its ultimate outcome (Ijeoma, 2004).In the opinion of Okeke (2006), leadership may also refer to the act or practice of guiding, supporting, facilitating, initiating, giving feedback, suggesting, protecting, commanding, linking, interpreting actions and modeling. Ogonor (2004) sees leadership as the process of mixing reasonably with the group, integrating group members, organizing, dominating, communicating, controlling, recognizing efforts of group members and prodding members to be productive. Also, whoever would qualify to be called a good leader should be capable of active listening, visioning, clarifying, questioning, confronting, reflecting, feelings and coordinating. He should also show adequate human relations, technical and intellectual skills and knowledge, emotional stability, administrative ability and ability to motivate others to accomplish group goals.

According to Okeke (2006), the leader is usually a very powerful minority. The leader injects into a particular situation his/her legitimate power, abilities, competencies, motivation, expectations and personality attributes. Every situation has its peculiar features which may include special tasks, resources, history, physical setting, social structure and availability of resources. Followers may be regarded here as staff, colleagues or subordinates. These are individuals who are led by the leader. The three leadership elements of leader; followers and situation must show positive correlation otherwise efficiency of the process will be in jeopardy (Nwufo, 2004). Concerted efforts should therefore be made to ensure congruency of the three elements.

Leadership Styles Some of the common leadership styles according to Ijeoma (2004, pp. 69-71) are: 1. Autocratic Leadership Style - This style of leadership is characterized by force and

command. The leader always imposes his/her wishes, desires and ideas on the followers without consideration for the opinion of the subordinates.

2. Democratic Leadership Style - Here, the ideas and opinions of the followers are

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highly considered before decisions are taken. It is the opposite of the autocratic type of leadership. The process of decision making here is mostly by consensus or by voting where necessary.

3. Charismatic Leadership Style – This style of leadership is associated with the peculiar characteristics of the leader. Traits like body built, power of oratory, intelligence and others that secure respect, loyalty or allegiance of others wherever the individual finds him/herself makes the person a charismatic leader.

4. Laissez faire Leadership Style – This is a French term which is interpreted to mean, “Do as you wish”. Here, the leader exercises very little control or influence over the followers. Members of the group or organization are left alone to decide on how to accomplish tasks.

Qualities of a good leader Akinade in Omemu, (2015) identifies some of the qualities of a good leader as follows; possession of technical skill, human skill, conceptual skill; emotional stability, ability to motivate others, honesty, commitment to duty, clear vision and goal. Similarly, a good leader should be able to take decisive decisions, plan, communicate effectively, organize and coordinate activities and evaluate work from time to time. However, Adebayo (2000) states that a good leader must be able to demonstrate the following attributes: tact, efficiency, brilliance and charisma, modesty, good sense of judgment, foresight, ability to delegate, sympathy and consideration, flexibility and catholicity, imagination and perseverance, experience. Other attributes required of an ideal leader to motivate or ginger people for socio-economic development include; the initiative to start things and keep them alive, listening with open mind and being considerate of the feeling of others, welcoming the ideas of others and acting with understanding towards them even wild suggestions, bringing out the best in people, easy to work with, accurate, thorough and reliable, tactful, yet forceful and firm, never quits or complains, emphasizing that each person has a contribution to make to the common effort, being pro-active by planning carefully in advance. Apart from the above, the virtues of transparency and accountability are essential.

EducationThe word “education” was derived from the Latin word “educare” meaning to bring up, to lead out, to raise up, to educate. In its original sense, to educate means acting in order to lead out fully all the potentialities of an individuals.Education involves the total efforts of a community to raise its social, economic and political standard of life. To Majasan in Ndum and Okay (2012), education is the process by which society passes its culture from one generation to another, while Ajayi in Ndum and Okay (2012), holds the view that “education should aim”, not merely at creating and transferring technology, but also at developing people and resources. However, Fafunwa in Ndum and Okay (2012), is of the opinion that “the end objective of education is to produce an individual who is honest, respectful, skilled, co-operative and who would conform to the social order.

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From the foregoing, Education can be said to be the entire process of the development of an independent and integrated personality. This encompasses training and acquisition of special skills, knowledge, attitudes and values needed by an individual to be responsible and which would enable him to contribute his own quota, to the growth of the society of which he is a member. The needs and values of the society cannot be left out if a concise definition of “education” is to be given. Education is a life-long process, and aims at imparting skills needed to live a “meaningful” life and for an individual to adjust well to his immediate environment and the ultimate world or universe in which he finds himself. It can be said to be the process by which 'a sound mind in a sound body' is developed. For education to be worth its while, it must be able to produce a refined mind, body and soul.Education aims at producing a useful citizen. A citizen who is useful contributes both to his personal development and the society in which he lives, and generally, to the world community. If there is one aim of education, it is to become useful as a human being. Education thinkers take off from this point and diverge into how to become useful, what one must do, how one must think and behave to become useful in certain skills, knowledge and attitudes.The mandate of higher institutions is to develop the whole man mentally, morally and physically and to confer degrees on their products who are found worthy in character and learning, to enable them assume leadership roles in their immediate and extended society.

In the context of this paper, capacity building would refer to the overall process of training and whereby the quality of the products from higher institutions are highly assured, that is to say easy graduate from any tertiary institution in Africa has been sufficiently empowered through quality teaching, learning and experiences, to take control over his/her own life experiences. Such empowerment should necessarily help any individual to think more clearly and also be able to examine possible alternative causes of action or realities. This would expectedly create an understanding that all change, if possible, and the knowledge of alternatives, no doubt, would certainly lead to the desired change. ( Idogho, 2011).The invaluable roles and contributions of education in the development of an individual and the society cannot be over emphasized. Many countries including Nigeria, take education as an instrument for the promotion of leadership, national development as well as effecting desirable social change (NPE, 2004). This perhaps, might be responsible for the continuous growing concern of all stakeholders in education industry on changes that are likely to affect it as well as the implications such changes will have on the management and administration of education.

Moral valuesThe term “morals” and “ethics” are mostly used synonymously. “Moral” was derived from the Latin word “moralis” while “ethics” was from a Greek word “ethos”. Ilori in Asaju, Arome and Mukaila (2014) uses both terms to mean the “custom or way of life of a particular group or society”. Samuel (2011) puts forward three related definitions of morality as follows:

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i. The principles concerning right and wrong or good or bad behavior; ii. ii. The degree to which something is right or wrong, good or bad, according to

designed principles; iii. A system of moral principles followed by a particular group of people. Morality

can be deduced to mean the science of right or wrong, good or bad, in relations to a particular society.

Moral education as a Programme of study teaches the pupil or students about behaving in accordance with a certain standard of what is good, while rejecting the bad. It focuses on the values that are good and worthwhile, and also teaches individuals how to cultivate such values and manifest them in their behaviours (Samuel, 2011). Moral education involves the choice of material and individual's moral development to bring about moral conduct built into habit.Values can be defined as broad preferences concerning appropriate courses of action or outcomes. As such, values reflect a person's sense of right and wrong or what “ought” to be. “Equal rights for all”, "Excellence deserves admiration", and that“People should be treated with respect and dignity” are representatives of values. Values tend to influence attitudes and behaviour. For example, if you value equal rights for all and you go to work for an organization that treats its managers much better than it does its workers, you may form the attitude that the company is an unfair place to work consequently; you may not produce well or may perhaps leave the company. It is likely that if the company had a more egalitarian policy, your attitude and behaviours would be more positive. According to Massey in Asaju, Arome and Mukaila (2014), values are formed during three significant periods: 1. Imprint period from birth to 7 years; 2. Modelling period from 8 –13 years; and 3. Socialization period from 13 –21 years. Personal values provide an internal reference for what is good, and help solve common human problems for survival by comparative rankings of value, the results of which provide answers to questions of why people do what they do and in what order they choose to do them. Over time the public expression of personal values, that groups of people find important in their day-to-day lives, lays the foundations of law, custom and tradition.

Education, moral values and purposeful leadershipWhile acknowledging the fact that the major problem with Nigeria is squarely a failure of leadership and the unwillingness and the inability of our leaders to rise up to their responsibility, and coupled with the challenge of personal exemplary leadership style, which are the hallmarks of true leadership (Mohammed, 2004). It is arguable that a corrupt or bad society cannot produce honest and transparent leaders.Agomuo (2013) points out that most of our public office holders are people who are not capable of running their own homes, but have manipulated their ways into high leadership positions through the already corrupt electoral process. Some others lament the accidental emergence of political leaders who are unprepared. There is no doubt that the selection process is marred with malpractices. Also, the political institutions such as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Judiciary and Political Parties are either weak or corrupt, or both.According to Asaju, Arome and Mukaila (2014), the nation desires a transformational

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leadership with shared purpose and vision. Are there any change in our approaches and dispositions? Are we still holding to our core values? For instance, when politicians give N200, N500, or sachets of 'salt and maggi' to the people during electioneering campaign, the electorates are quick to forget their sufferings in the last four years, and fail to think of how they would suffer in the next four years, thereby losing their values of integrity, selling their conscience cheaply and mortgaging their future lives and that of their children's children. More so, in view of many Nigerians, a public office holder is a failure if he does not steal from national treasury to favour his primordial interest, or his people while in office (Samuel, 2011). As Babalola (2010) rightly opines “as long as we keep having followership that demands patronage, handouts and favors, our search for true leadership will be long and winding”. How can a society get a true leadership fix when the people celebrate failed leaders? How can the society get it right when public officers who enriched themselves with pension funds (i.e money of those who have served the country with their productive years) and walk freely on our streets or use the stolen money to buy chieftaincy titles. How can such society get it right? It is unfortunate that the endemic and dangerous evil of corruption in Nigeria has eaten deep into every facet of our lives and establishments. In the very past, religious leaders, teachers, lawyers and judges were the custodians of our core values of honesty, moral integrity and social justice. But the reverse is the case, where the so-called religious leaders (clerics) are charged with fraudulent and dubious acts. A university professor was sacked and sentenced to jail over sexual harassment of his student. Law makers collect bribes and shortchanged investigation reports. Judges are shamefully retired over age cheating and so on. In a society where values of integrity and honesty are rooted in the hearts and minds of its leaders, such judges must be made to face the full wrath of the law, and pay back all the salaries and emoluments he enjoyed illegally. This could serve as deterrent to others. But the culture of impunity has over taken social justice in Nigerian judicial system. The supposed salvaging institution like the educational institution is inundated with bribery and corruption. From top to bottom, the management of the educational sector and the academic environment are no exception from the scourge. Allegations of admissions racketing, trading of gratification between teachers and students for better grades and outright diversion of funds provided for running the institutions by the management abound. Rational thinking Nigerians should be dissatisfied with the current state of affairs particularly the unbridle crave for materialism regardless of its moral implications on our society. This calls for urgent value regeneration by means of education.In general, the whole process of education involves imparting knowledge of good and bad, right and wrong into the learners. Education in this perspective is seen as pedagogical instrument designed to enable an individual acquire highest intellectual, moral and aesthetic capabilities. Hence, the meaningful exposure of an individual to education as a process and as an end in itself frees the mind from errors and corruption (Samuel, 2011). No wonder, some experts argue that the quality of education in any society is an indication of its future development potential. Education at all levels, as Soludo (2013) posits, “Whether as a consumption or production of good, is a key pivot of developments”. This is because there can hardly be any transformation in the economic, social-cultural or political system without a functional value based

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educational system. Any society which pays lip service to its education is doom to fail.The emphasis here is on the need to use moral education as a means of providing the Nigerian populace with vital information on the relevance of good character, and embracing positive value system. On its part, moral education as a Programme of study teaches the pupil or students about behaving in accordance with a certain standard of what is good, while rejecting the bad. It focuses on the values that are good and worthwhile, and also teaches individuals how to cultivate such values and manifest them in their behaviours ( Samuel , 2011). Moral education involves the choice of material and individual's moral development to bring about moral conduct built into habit, which remains internalized in the individual even as a leader.

CONCLUSIONAll concerned with leadership at all levels must be committed to the nurturing and maturation of a well-organized, strong, visionary and purposeful multi-party political system with the organizational depth and durable popular support for democratic effectiveness and legitimacy. Government at all levels in Nigeria should be one whose word shall be its bond, exhibiting the best example of accountability, trustworthiness, honesty and public spiritedness in the discharge of its onerous duties of managing the Nigerian state. Our ambiguous loyalty to Nigeria must be replaced by a robust commitment to our nation. Emphasizing the need to use education as well as moral values in engendering a purpose-driven leadership in the contemporary Nigeria remains worthwhile.

RECOMMENDATIONSThe paper makes the following recommendationsi Continuous strengthening of our educational system and creation of awareness

of the need for the citizenry to be morally educated, especially those vying for leadership positions at all levels.

ii A shift in paradigm in our social system that would restore the lost moral values in the society and ensuring internalization of the core moral values

iii Nigerian leaders must undertake real programmes that would positively change the mind set of the citizens and create confidence in the followers.

REFERENCES

Adebayo, A. (2000): Principles and Practice of Public Administration in Nigeria. Ibadan, Spectrum Books Limited.

Agomuo, Z. (2013). The Nigerian Leadership Question. Retrieved:12/12/2015 from http://www.businessdaynigeria.comdoi/nigeria-leadership-question/html.

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Asaju, K., Arome, S. & Mukaila I. (2014). Leadership crisis in Nigeria: the urgent need for moral education and value re-orientation . Public Administration Research, 3, (1), 117-124.

Babalola, R. (2010, March 23). The paradox of a nation: a social economic perspective. Economic Confidential, 4(39), 33-39.

Eze, N. (2002). Leadership Psychology in National Development. paper presented at the National Conference on the Challenges of Democratization in Nigeria organized by the Faculty of the Social Sciences University of Lagos July 2002.

Federal Government of Nigeria (2004). National Policy on Education, (4th ed) Lagos: NERDC Press.

Ijeoma, M. E. (2004). The Administrative Leader, In Nwagwu, N. A., Ijeoma, M. E. & Nwagwu, C. C. (Eds). Organization and administration of education: Perspectives and practice. Benin: Festa Press.

Muhammed, I. (2004). Leadership, the bane of Nigerian Civil Service. Ankpa Journal of Arts and Social Science s (AJASS), 2(1), 49-55.

Ndum, V. E. & Okay, S. (2012). Nigerian educational standard and the challenge of good governance. In Ibenene, O.,Alumode, B.& Usoro, H. (Eds.). The state of education in Nigeria. Onitsha West and Solomon Publishing Coy.Ltd.

Ogonor, B. O. (2004). Management of Education in Nigeria, In Nwagwu, N. A, Ijeoma, M. E. & Nwagwu, C. C. (Eds). Organization and administration of education: Perspectives and practice. Benin: Festa Press.

Okeke, B. S. (2006). Educational planning in Nigeria- A social process approach. Awka: Doone Publishers.

Omemu, F. (2015). Leadership and administrative skills for optimal Universal Basic Education delivery in Nigeria. African Research Review, 9(3),50-61.

Peretomode, V. F. (2003). Educational administration-applied concepts and theoretical perspectives. Lagos: Joja Educational Publishers

Samuel, A. (2011). Moral education as a tool for global change: issues and challenges. Journal of Association of Nigerian Educators, 6(1), 183-188.

Soludo, C. C. (2013, January 21). The university, citizenship and national development in Nigeria. African Development Magazine, 1(60), 60-61.

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moral education : panacea for purposeful leadership …

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