"The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families......." – John Adams, June 2, 1778.

The adults in each family must be beacons in establishing and upholding values, virtue and standard of conducts to help etch the basic code of conducts to export to the nation. The first authority figures in the life of any family are the parents. If the parents are malfeasance in the family life, they will export that to the village, region and nation.

What Nigeria has today is a default sense of family values whereby when one is looting their village resources. The kids are in celebratory mode as they dance to what then East Central State Sole Administrator late Ukpabi Asika's - 1967-75 entrenched as attitude/behavior on state resources; 'It is my/our turn to chop,' as my God has buttered our bread'. Since 1970, Igbos/Nigerians have taken this behavior as their leadership continue to squander resources as opposed to the attitude of 'no one should leave their brother/sister behind’ before war.

Asika's attitude is an example of how bad conduct by a leader became a tradition and custom, which goes to support Igbo people saying; 'when bad behavior is allowed to continue unabated, it becomes a tradition.'

In Nigeria, where adults behave delinquently, the family foundation is weak, and by extension the nation is weaker. It is more weakened when the cream of the crop who are supposed to be the standard bearers of good conduct are the worst cadre of bad behavior.

Do we need people to go around demanding to be called using prefixes and suffixes such as Dr., Engr, Prof, Nze, Igwe and Chief, Barrister/Attorney (among others) that most Nigerians aspire to append before and after their names? When others are striving to find cure for aliments affecting their nation and race, the Nigerian seems to be engulfed pursuing titles either so [s]he is falsely accorded some status which is used to defraud the people.

In the factors of production, human capital is the most valuable and Nigerians hardly appreciate that as they put emphasis on mineral deposits and hardly developing the brain capacity to unleash what are potent to enhance this odd collection of folks who were stitched together in a 1914 amalgamation. In 3 years, Nigeria would have existed as a corporeal entity for a century with more than 51 years as an independent but dependent nation.

How much longer before an urgent sense of commitment and effective leadership are etched into the sense of Nigerians? As the most populous black nation in the world and a member of the world's 10 top nations by population, her conduct by extension is an indictment on the black race and Nigeria holds and owe a duty to make positive difference. As Nigeria goes, I am afraid, so goes the black race. What a shame!

The University of Nigeria motto notes: 'To restore the dignity of man.' Can dignity be restored when it never existed? Go figure!!!.

Ejike E Okpa ii
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