CSO, House of Reps. to partner on conference for ethics and values national

The Civil Society for Ethics and Value Development Initiative (CSEDI), an NGO, has said that it is organising a national conference on ethics and values with a view to institutionalising national ethics.

Making this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, the Secretary-General of the organisation, Mr Tajudeen Toyin-Oke, said that the objective of the conference was to evolve a legislation that would assist the executive and the judiciary to move the nation forward.

He said that CSEDI was partnering with the House of Representatives to ensure the implementation of the outcome of the conference.
According to him, the conference will be held at two levels.
He said that a state level conference would hold across the 36 states of the federation simultaneously from Nov. 29 to Nov. 30, 2017, while the national conference is scheduled for Dec. 11.

He explained that the reports from the state level conferences would be discussed at the national conference.
He further said that an experts group would further deliberate on the outcome of the national conference and come out with recommendations on ways to uphold national ethics.

“The constitution listed seven items of national ethics which are discipline, integrity, dignity of labour, social justice, religious tolerance, self-reliance and patriotism.
“If you look at these seven items one after the other, you will see that one of them would have been able to solve some of these current problems that we have as a nation.

“As a nation, we have neglected these seven items; so what we are trying to do as a civil society is to see how we can bring it back on the front burner.
“This is to see how we can start making Nigerians to voluntarily comply with national ethics.

“We are not only going to be looking at the MDAs and the public sector, we would also be looking at the private sector.’’
Toyin-Oke said that states within the same geopolitical zone would discuss issues affecting them.

He said that for example, states in the North-East would discuss curbing religious violence and extremist attacks in Nigeria while the South-East would focus on “addressing agitation for restructuring, a critical overview of social justice and patriotism’’.

Other topics to be discussed include ethical best practices, emphasising on the importance of ethical leadership both in the public and private sector, he said.
He expressed the hope that the outcome of the national conference would help chart a roadmap for the institutionalisation of national ethics and engender a paradigm shift in the negative attitude of Nigerians.

Furthermore, the secretary-general said that the organisation was also supporting the speedy passage of the bill on Ethics and Values initiated by Hon. Osai Osai (PDP), representing Ndokwa /Ukwuani Constituency of Delta State.

He said that the bill had passed all the stages at the House of Representatives and would be taken to the Senate for concurrence.
He said that the bill, when signed into law, would address the problem of unethical behaviours in the country.

Patrick Okohue with Agency Report