Do the right thing campaign

National development is not just about the economic and political factors; it also involves the socio-cultural factors and the development of the cognitive, affective and psychomotor aspects of nation building.  When the various factors are considered they advance a nation. In developed societies, part of the strategy for growth and development is the recognition of the moral imperative and its centrality in the realization of a sound and rational society

No doubt, social values in Nigeria is being driven and influenced by corruption, and for some individuals, the quest for ‘easy money’ is a justification for breaking the laws of the land and twisting policies directed toward national development. As a result, unnecessary display of ill-acquired wealth threatens Nigeria and its democratic political process. When the leaders and the people think of public service in instrumental way, accountability declines, and national development is adversely affected.

The increasing moral problems in Nigeria such as corruption, greed, dishonesty, violent crime, political killings, drugs peddling and usage, as well as other destructive behaviours, call for ‘values education’ in the country. 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.

Therefore, when the National Orientation Agency (NOA) launched the “Do the Right Thing’’ campaign in March 2012, it was described by observers as a new channel for the promotion of sound ethical values in the Nigerian society. In fact, some observers believed that the campaign will principally aid the achievement of the salient goals of the Transformation Agenda of the federal government.

The Director-General of NOA, Mr Mike Omeri, at the launch of the programme, expressed the determination of the agency to revamp the country’s image via the campaign. He stated that concerted efforts would be made to restore the cultural values and ethics of the Nigerian society, as part of designed efforts to showcase the country’s greatness, sovereignty and socio-economic viability to the outside world. Also, he stated that national values constituted the social capital of any nation that truly wanted to become great in every sphere of life, adding that the country’s government and citizens were also expected to embrace the values. Furthermore, he said that any nation that was desirous of any meaningful development ought to have a national values system, which its citizens must necessarily adopt, in efforts to achieve national development goals and strategies. As part of efforts to strengthen the “Do the Right Thing’’ campaign, NOA organised a national workshop on the salient themes of the campaign for only public officials in Abuja last year and was expected to cover other cities and higher institutions across the country.

We note however, that explanations of morality and national developments reveal that sustainable national development must be founded on moral values; discipline is also added as a moral value. This implies that those values must be understood by those committed to national development and the entire society. Thus, Do the Right Thing campaign is obviously timely and capable of inculcating high moral standards and transforming people’s mindset; but not many people are aware of the campaign after two years. The strategy of selective target audience is not sufficient to achieve the kind of expectation desired.

The campaign should be massive, continuous and driven by the mass media. It must be sustainable and should be carried to the people in the cities and in the rural areas, even to the offices, market places and motor parks. Thus, government should fund this project adequately; the NOA should reach out to corporate bodies, public and private as well as relevant civil societies for partnership. The achievement of the objectives of the transformation agenda would be a far cry except we begin an aggressive re-orientation of the mind-set of Nigerians to do the right thing always.