Presidential adviser on ethics and former presidential aspirant Dr. Sarah Jibril is who one could describe as a stickler for values and ethics. Now on board the president’s team of advisers, she has a lot to share on how to transform Nigeria. She, however says it has to begin from the grassroots Ruth Choji. Excerpt:
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What exactly does your job entail?
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I’m an adviser to the president on human ethics with data on ways that government can change the attitude of Nigerians. The issue now is how we are going to reach our communities and families where the micro-organism are rooted. We intend to do that through the opening of community transformation cencers in every local government area in the country. There centers that will be built by the communities using the youths and people. which will have community farms, industrial parks, cottage industries and storages to be manned with solar energies. The centers will also have open theaters and recreational cencers, workshops, banks, community radio, ICT, meeting halls, ethics and values office, shops, lecture rooms, salons, tailoring, gymnasium, kitchens and so on. This is geared towards making our youths learn ethics, skills for good governance and development, there also will a be community farm. The land for each center will be donated by communities and the equipment to be used will be sourced by the community union, local government, state and federal government.?
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These are gigantic projects, does your office intend to liaise with other government agencies?
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Yes. But I must find the terms with which to relate with the National Orientation Agency. It is not just the issue of liaising with them, we must have our terms of reference listed out. We will liaise with the Code of Conduct Bureau and the Economic and Financial Crime Commission EFCC of course, to stop the people from committing those ?crime. We have had discussions with the ICPC, but we have not crafted out formal letters. Directly or indirectly, we are linking up with the ministry of Education, Youth development and the Federal ministry of Women Affairs, even ministry of environment and so many others. The issue is to advise Mr President on how everybody can come up with an ethics committee.
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Is this a confirmation that our society is short on ethics and values?
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Yes. Without ethics, you will have corruption, lack of ethics leads to criminality, and ethics is the antidote to bad leadership, an antidote to corruption, violence and other ills in the society. We have been talking of women for change; it is all about attitudinal change. If women can be changed, then they can change the entire attitude of the nation because of their influence on the family. It is when people are given good values at home that they eventually become good citizens, particularly the politicians.
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How would this impact on the youths who are the people usually used to perpetuate violence?
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Every person whether white, red, blue, Christian or Muslim learn ?a particular standard from the family, which they confirm to. The youth of this country because of the bombardment of foreign media, receive superlative standard from the government and the media. They expect so much from the leadership and when they don’t get it, they cannot cope. This leads them to all sorts of behaviors, because of lack of discipline at organisational and corporate levels. A lot of them have joined the mediocre in perpetuating evil. Families, schools, everybody must take responsibility for failing the society. Even politicians have failed the nation. If you are in a political position, you automatically become the political father of the whole nation, if you are fair and just, that is political ethics, to teach the right character is to be ethical, to be fair is to be ethical.
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What you are saying is that, lack of ethics is the cause of all the violence we are experiencing?
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Yes. Lack of ethics and values are the cost of violence. No religion whether Christianity or Islam teaches violence. The ten Commandments say that ‘thou shall not kill”, how is it that people have lost the fear of God? We no longer have value for human life
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How do we end this trend and return to the way things used to be?
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I believe we are more than able to overcome. Nigerians are still teachable. We are changeable and adaptable. We are correctable if we have the right model. The time is gone when we talked in the air, now it is time for action. Government will implement polices that will change the attitude and mentality of the Nigerian youth. The local governments are the ones that impact the people directly. The state government’s are only there to co-ordinate the affairs for the local governments, they don’t have direct bearing on the people like the local government level. We have presented the budget to Mr. president, we are waiting for the results. When these centers are open, the money made from them will be returned to the committee for development. The people will open special accounts where the profits made will be deposited. What we want to do is return the resources galvanized by the federal government back to the community.
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One very courageous thing Mr. President has done is institutionalising the office of ethics and values. There will be institute for ethics and values, which will be certified. We hope that eventually, when people are seeking employment, they will have certificate in ethics and values. Even when a person wants to contest any position, even if it is the presidency, such a person must have gone through the institution of ethics and values so that when they come, they will behave rationally. Nigerians will not tolerate anything else from anybody again. It is this collective discipline we lack that is making us to kill, creating more widows, more orphans. And our northern brothers must know this, we are the least developed in the nation. We are the least educated compared to other parts of the country, yet they are not teaching the youth ethics and values. Let us ask the youth: where they getting their equipment, their logistics? Lets ask our mallams and pastors what they are teaching the people, if they continue teaching them to kill, we will never grow.?
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Would you say you are now fulfilled as an S.A after contesting the presidency and losing to the incumbent?
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Of course, I am fulfilled as a human being. I have a good life, spiritually and physically, but politically I can only be fulfilled when these centers are opened. I have an assignment and this is the assignment I am grappling with now. I will be fulfilled when I see women becoming governors, president, good mothers that are producing respectable offspring. We have more bank managers today because women are more to be trusted than men.
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Do you think a woman can emerge president Nigeria anytime soon?
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If I did believe it will I contest? It is our right, why do you think the earth is called mother earth? It is women who are fruitful. They can do better in many ways. We are teaching Nigerians values and ways of eradicating corruption. If you read section 24 of the 1999 constitution, it is all about the duties of the citizens, everything we need to run this country successfully is in the constitution, it might be unbalance The military killed ethics when they said that everything concerning.?
People associate you with politics, do you really have time for leisure?
Talking politics is my relaxation. I feel fulfilled when I talk politics. I feel fulfilled when I share my knowledge with people, help people, I fell fulfilled when I share with my political and biological associates. But I also sleep comfortably, a lot of time. Sometimes, I oversleep that I might have to wake me up. I don’t stress myself unnecessarily. I delegate a lot.
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Most men don’t allow their wives to participate in politics because of the stigma, late night meetings and the rest. What is your take on this?
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Such men have problems with their ego. A female politician who will go to discuss on how to open a baby cencer is the same that will give birth to the baby. The same people who don’t want these wives to come out are the people that will look for mid-wives to come and deliver their babies for them. Supposing this women too were not allowed to go and learn midwifery, how would they have helped other women deliver safely? They want education yet they have polarizd the civilization and want to bring tradition into it. If you want to protect the woman, teach her Godly values, also give her due respect.
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Most people know Dr Sarah Jirbril, the politician, what is your family life like?
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I was married to late Gen Baba Jibril. He died about five years ago. God blessed us with four children, three boys, one girl. The first one is doing his PhD, the other three are in various stages of high institution. I have lots of grand nieces, it is part of my biological fulfillment. I come from a family that are over seventy five percent Muslims. I brought a lot of my nieces up. Religion is not an issue because I don’t interfere in their faith and I don’t accept when somebody interferes with my religion. I am living my name, which is ‘mother of the nation’.