On That Ignatius Ajuru Varsity Example

What is the big deal about someone returning a lost-and-found item, some people may ask? Under normal circumstances, where corruption is not the order of the day and the integrity level of the people is very high, it wouldn’t make a headline that someone finds a lost item and returns it to the rightful owner. But in a society where the reverse is the case, such saintly act is a very big deal which should not go unnoticed.
That is why the recent action of the Management of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Port Harcourt of honouring a student, Mr. Ami Victor Ugochukwu, who returned a misplaced smart phone to the owner must be applauded. The Level 100 student of Political Science was said to have returned the phone worth thousands of naira to the owner, Dr. Pat Spencer, a lecturer in the institution, even when he had no phone of his own.
As a way of showing appreciation to Victor and encouraging other students to be of good character, the university showered him with the following: A certificate of honour; four years’ comprehensive scholarship covering school fees and little for his upkeep while in school; cheque from the University to refund him his Year One fees already paid; his photograph will be displayed on the University’s Electronic Billboard of Excellence for 6 months. The exemplary student had also been named as Student of the Year.
This reminds me of the incident of January 23, 2015 where a cleaner at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Josephine Ugwu, found a forgotten sum of $28,000 and other foreign currencies totaling about N12million and returned it to the owner.
In fact, the two stories have a lot of similarities. Like Victor who has not even a “torchlight phone” and was presented with the opportunity of owning an expensive smart phone, Josephine whose monthly salary was a paltry N7, 800 had the opportunity of becoming a millionaire overnight should they have yielded to the temptation of taking what did not belong to them.
Again, Josephine was called all manners of derogatory names by her friends, colleagues and strangers on the social media for being “so foolish” and choosing poverty over wealth; more so, as that was her third time of returning money she found in the course of her duties at the airport. Victor must have been confronted with similar mockery by other students and friends who must have seen his act of integrity as being stupid and foolish.
Furthermore, for their rare, saintly gestures, both of them got some handsome rewards from their establishments and other organisations and individuals. The Lagos State House of Assembly recognized the cleaner’s good deed with the prestigious National Orientation Agency Citizens Responsibility Award for Outstanding Character. Her employer also raised her salary among other rewards.
Again, the action of Professor Ozo-Mekuri Ndimele and other management of IAUE must be commended and emulated by other institutions, organisations, groups and individuals. In a country where banditry, kidnapping, deceit, fraudulent activities, living false lives, armed robbery, theft and other social vices are the in-things, particularly among the young ones, it is imperative that those who choose not to join the crowd and exhibit high levels of integrity and ethical values should be celebrated.
It is high time concerted efforts were made to cultivate high moral standards among Nigerian citizens as, according to experts, the quality of a country’s human resource base is a dependent variable in the national development efforts. As a nation desirous of development, we ought to have a national value system which the citizens must be made to adopt.
And that’s where the National Orientation Agency (NOA) comes in. In March 2012, the agency launched the “Do the Right Thing Campaign”, which we were told would open a new channel for the promotion of sound ethical values in our society. The then Director General of the agency, Mr. Mike Omeri, was quoted as saying that through the campaign which was launched in collaboration with Global Priority, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), the image of the country would be revamped; 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.
Eight years down the road, what has been achieved? Is the situation not worse now than it was then? Some staff of the agency, during a phone-in radio programme recently, alluded to poor funding as the main challenge of the agency. This is an issue that ought to be given urgent attention by the government at all levels. The country, particularly the youth as the future hope of the country, is fast derailing and if nothing is done to redirect them positively now, it might be too late tomorrow.
However, educationists would always tell us that children learn from characters of their parents and adults around them more than through spoken words. That means, it will be very difficult to expect young Nigerians to be honest, upright, not people that would do anything to be rich when we the parents, leaders in churches and secular society do the opposite. If we want the young ones to be honest, we, especially those in authority, must be honest in the management of the nation’s resources.
Having said that, our youth must always be guided by the cliché “as you make your bed, so you lie on it” in all their dealings. If they want a better future, they should strive to do the right thing irrespective of the norm in the society. Our two earlier stories of Victor and Josephine should serve as an encouragement for them to continue on the right part even when they are not seen. As the saying goes, “it pays to be good”.
Conclusively, let us listen to Josephine, “People should appreciate what they have. People do a lot of bad things because they are not happy with what they have. With the little I earn, I try to manage it well. If I can’t manage that small money that I earn, even if I begin to earn N1 million, I will still not know how to manage it.
“So, I am telling every Nigerian to be happy in any situation they find themselves. Don’t be faster than your shadow because so many things will go wrong. Sometimes things get bad because people want to be like others. All fingers are not equal. It is true that God promised those who serve him riches, but people should be careful how they go about it.”

By: Calista Ezeaku