NORTHWEST UNIVERSITYFACULTY OF EDUCATION

SEMINAR PRESENTATION HELD ON THE 17TH FEBRUARY, 2016AT SENATE CHAMBER, NWU KANO

EDUCATING FOR MORAL INTEGRITY IN THE CONTEXT OF AN AFRICAN CONCEPTION OF BEING

Dr Saheed Olanrewaju JabaarDepartment of Arts and Social

Science Education

Outline

• Introduction • The Moral Crisis in Nigeria• Yoruba Conception of Being• The Concept of Moral Integrity• Moral Integrity in Yoruba Ethics• Implications for education

Introduction • Moral principles are prerequisites for social harmony.

• Education transmits values that make people to become human.• Quality of instruction should be oriented towards inculcating values.

The Yorubas are Sudanic – speaking African people inhabiting south west Nigeria and part of Benin and Togo.They speak a language called Yoruba which belong to the Niger – Congo family of African languages

The Moral Crisis in Nigeria

• Lack of moral integrity manifests in fraud, dishonesty, and subversion of truth and justice.

• Moral corruption impedes national development.

• Nigeria was ranked 136th most corrupt country in the world and 3rd most corrupt country in West Africa. (TI, 2014)

Yoruba conception of ‘Being’

• Being is a generic term which represents all existing things.

• Man, in Yoruba belief system is made up four components: Ara, the physico– material element,Okan – the physico psychic element, Emi - soul, and Ori – the bearer of destiny.

Ara (Body)This is composed of the flesh, bones, intestines, blood, heart and so on. The activities of ara are controlled by physical laws.

Yorubas also have a normative dimension to the usage of ara. the usage of ara sometimes seems to suggest that it refers to the whole person as when it is said that: are re lo mo, meaning that he is concerned only about himself.

When the needs of the physical body are met without regard to the needs of other components parts of the being, human well being will not be holistic.

Okan (heart) appears to have a dual characteristic to YorubasThere is okan, the heart which is the physical organ which is concerned with blood circulation and there is the usage of okan as that which is concerned with mental activities and feelings.

Emi (Spirit)

• Having emi gives the title elemi (living thing) and this makes the created being a ‘possession’ of the Supreme Deity

• Being a living things demands that the being should not be maltreated.

• It continues to exist after the dissolution of the body and its subsequent abode is determined by how well it lived on earth.

Ori (bearer of destiny)

As the physical head occupies a place of prime importance in the physical well being of man because it harbours the brain, the inner head (ori inu) is regarded as an individual’s personal divinity which caters for his or her personal interests

What is moral integrity?

• Integrity is a term used to describe, evaluate and recommend people with regard to the quality of their sense of honesty and truthfulness.

• Moral integrity is constitutive of some virtues. Some of these virtue are related to the ‘self’ while some are related to ‘others’ the diagram below explains this:

Self regarding virtues:Courage

ConsistencyConstancy

Practical wisdom

Moral Integrity

Other – regarding virtues:HonestyFairness Justice

Sensitivity

Moral Integrity in Yoruba ethics

• The word eniyan has both ordinary and normative meanings.

• Yoruba understanding of moral integrity is the commitment of the moral agent to socially shared values.

• One should reverse the role when performing an action by putting himself or herself at the receiving end.

• A person of moral integrity to Yorubas is Eni to see fokan meaning someone who is inconsistent and unreliable) and therefore cannot be entrusted with something of importance. .

Implications for education

• Education should make individuals to be conscious of the dignity of the human person by way of reconciling the self interest with social well being.

• There is urgent need to restore character formation to a central place in schools.

• Teachers should be hired not only on intellectual grounds but also for their moral qualities.

• Learners should be educated to critically appraise their social and cultural practices.

Thanks for your attention