Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer. He identified seven “social sins” that he believed could lead to societal decline and suffering. These are wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, politics without principle, and worship without sacrifice. He was very much on point with those submissions. Indeed, I believe that is what is plaguing our dear country.

I am very much concerned with the moral turpitude going on in this country.  A report in the May 25, 2025, online edition of this newspaper reported that “The village head of Guiwa community, Garba Mohammed, has been arrested along with 13 others for allegedly supporting and shielding armed bandits operating in the Mashegu area of Niger”. It’s not the first time. In April 2022, the Zamfara State government dethroned two emirs and a district head over allegations of aiding the activities of bandits terrorising communities in the state. Those affected by the government’s decision include the Emir of Zurmi, Abubakar Atiku; the Emir of Dansadau, Hussaini Umar; as well as Sulaiman Ibrahim, who used to be the district head of Birnin Tsaba. Can you imagine that? Those who are supposed to protect their people are the ones selling them out to bandits for pecuniary gains. Does that make sense?

Who are the people committing vandalism of national assets like oil pipelines, electricity transmission towers and the like? Are they not ordinary Nigerians? Did they realise that they are saboteurs? Are they aware that what they are doing is economic crime? Do they care? Recently, in Abuja, where I live, most of the manhole covers were looted by some unscrupulous citizens and sold off to some metal and iron dealers in the local markets. One of the miscreants was caught by a CCTV camera using a Sienna bus to pack the manhole covers. When the police swung into action, some of the looted assets were discovered at Dei-Dei market here in Abuja. The PUNCH of February 10, 2025, reported, “The Federal Capital Territory Police Command announced the recovery of 125 stolen manhole covers in Abuja, reaffirming its commitment to cracking down on criminals targeting public infrastructure. According to the command, the latest recovery was made on February 4, 2025, during intelligence-led operations in the Dei-Dei area, where officers discovered the stolen items hidden in a pit.”

It’s easy to blame the government for every conceivable evil in Nigeria. We routinely take swipes at the politicians for being corrupt but fail to see how we, as ordinary citizens, contribute immensely to the underdevelopment of our dear country. Imagine those who engage in internet scamming, banditry and kidnapping. What justification do they have to plunge their fellow human beings into untold hardship and misery? These fiends duped and plunder soft targets in the name of getting even with society, which they claim has been unfair to them. They forgot the popular saying of American civil rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr, which says, “If we do an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, we will be a blind and toothless nation.”

If you go to the local market for shopping and you’re not vigilant, you’ll be ripped off. The food sellers sometimes sell with false or padded measurements, and the butchers sometimes use formalin, a poisonous substance, to preserve their meat so that it won’t go bad easily. There are fruit sellers who use carbide and other harmful substances to ripen their fruits or preserve them from going bad. These bad practices constitute food poisoning and health hazards.

Early this year, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control raided Aba, Onitsha and Idumota markets, where fake, expired and substandard drugs, wines and spirits with a street value of over N1tn were confiscated. The Guardian Newspaper of May 30, 2025, reported that the Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, explained that the enforcement operation, carried out between February 9 and March 27, 2025, led to the seizure and destruction of expired, banned, and counterfeit drugs worth over a N1tn in three open drug markets, Idumota, Aba, and Onitsha. Imagine the number of deaths and permanent disability that those merchants of death have caused by selling those unwholesome products to unsuspecting consumers. That’s what Mahatma Gandhi called commerce without morality.

Is our politics not without principle in Nigeria? The political class adopted the Machiavellian principle of “the end justifies the means” to capture power. They maim and kill purportedly in order “to serve”. They buy our votes and subject us to quadrennial misery by reneging on their campaign promises. They keep campaigning on the same theme of providing us light and water, roads and bridges, schools and hospitals, security and welfare. Yet none of these campaign promises have ever been fulfilled. Were it not so, Nigeria should not be in the class of countries with a low Human Development Index that she currently occupies.

Nigerian politicians, like many of their counterparts across the globe, indulge in personal aggrandisement. They loot our commonwealth and plunge us into deprivation.

They loosen their belts over their pot bellies while asking us to tighten ours. To Nigerian politicians, service delivery is a mere hollow ritual. A catchphrase. While they have signally failed to deliver on their last campaign promises, they have activated the machinery to capture power in 2027, just two years into the current government. What a special breed of people who are perpetually preoccupied with the next election rather than the next generation!

There is no gainsaying that Nigeria is in dire need of an ethical revolution. We need attitudinal change. There is a need for concerted efforts at nation-building. We must all be the change we want to see. Parents must renew efforts at inculcating the right values in their children. Values of hard work, discipline, honesty, humanity, dignity and integrity. Our religious leaders must purge themselves of all traits of spiritual corruption and speak truth to their congregation by making them live by the core values of their religion. Religious and traditional leaders are supposed to be the moral compass of society. They are shirking in that responsibility. They have joined the rat race for the get-rich-quick syndrome. This is unhealthy and unwholesome. They must retrace their steps and live by the holy grail so that they can lead society aright.

Nigeria’s political class should allow for credible elections and stop undermining the electoral process through violence and financial inducements. The media, civil society and government information and orientation agencies should re-strategise to sensitise people about living rights and nation-building.