By Amgbare Ekaunkumor, Yenagoa
In a bid to lay a good ethical foundation for good governance, Bayelsa state government plans to commemce recruitment of eight hundred youths to be spread across the eight local government council areas for enforcement of ethical standards in compliance with the federal law establishing the National Agency for Ethics and Values Compliance.
Speaking with newsmen in Yenagoa on Tuesday, newly appointed Special Adviser to Governor Douye Diri on Ethics & Values Orientation, Chief Morris Joshua Eluan-Sokari, hinted that his first priority in office is to embark on a three-weeks civil/paramilitary training on ethics and values for selected youths from the eight local government areas of the state, who will serve as ethics and values corps members in tandem with the mandate of the National Agency for Ethics and Values Compliance.
Chief Eluan-Sokari reiterated that the inauguration of the Bayelsa state chapter of Ethics and Values Orientation Corps is essential in the fight against corruption and other social vices in the present globalizing world, noting that the issue of integrity and public morality have become more demanding under the prevailing circumstances in our national life.
The yet to be inaugurated ethics and values orientation corps, according to the governor’s aid, will among other things, inculcate such qualities as honesty, fairness, dedication, commitment, and transparency in the citizens, being the building blocks for a fair, just and egalitarian society.
“My office seeks to recruit and train 100 youths in every local government area as members of the Ethics and values Orientation Corps.
“The mandate of the corps will include, subtle enforcement of discipline, entrench acceptable moral order among citizens with a view to strengthening institutional capacity to foster good governance in the state”, the Special Adviser said.
He further explained that members of the proposed ethics and values orientation Corps, will be made to undergo a special civil and paramilitary training to prepare them to fight indiscipline in whatever form and manifestations, drug addiction and substance abuse, cultism, crime and criminality, including deviant behaviours among adolescents, in addition to carrying out youth periodic sensitization and enlightenment programmes on ethical behaviours.
Members of the proposed paramilitary Corps, he noted will also engaged in teaching the virtues of loyalty, commitment, dedication, patriotism and selfless service with a view to changing negative attitudes for a better society through seminars on attitudinal change.
The Special Adviser also said his office will collaborate with the ministry of education to form ethics & value orientation clubs in schools, churches and non-governmental organizations to achieve the goal of revamping the value system of Bayelsa State along the lines of discipline, just as he maintained that morality and ethics are part of a way of life and cannot be separated from all other aspects of life
experiences because moral education aims at promoting students’ moral development and
character formation.
The law establishing the National Agency for Ethics and Values Compliance seeks to provide legal framework for individuals and organizations to observe specific ethical standards, to develop and promote best practices in integrity, develop codes of ethics, receive complaints on breach of trust and code of ethics, conduct investigations on acts of breach or violation of public trust and to recommend to the Director of Public Prosecution in the state for appropriate action to be taken against any public or private officer alleged to have been engaged in unethical behaviors, and to institute and conduct proceedings in court for the purposes of recovery or protection of public property.
It will be recalled that former Special Adviser to former President Goodluck Johnathan on ethics and values orientation, Dr Sarah Jibril initiated the Bill to establish the National Agency for Ethics and Values Compliance, with the aim of curbing unethical and corrupt practices in Nigeria.
The Bill was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on Oct 3, 2017 and July 19, 2018, respectively.
