Ethical Issues and Nigeria’s Quest for Development

Abstract

Development is highly desirable in any society because it enhances people’s standard of living anywhere in the world. However, there are some basic procedures to follow in doing business and in the handling of government activities before development can take place; and the Nigerian society is not an exception. With the use of secondary data, the paper examines ethical issues and Nigeria’s quest for development. It observed the lack of proper ethical standards (PES) and behaviour as a way of carrying out business and government transactions by the citizens and public officials as the major obstacles to the realization of Nigeria’s quest for development. The paper therefore recommends that for the nation to achieve its goals of development, the Nigerian government should inculcate into the citizens, the need to imbibe PES and behaviour as a way of life both in public and private sectors of the nation’s economy. These could be achieved through the imposition of stiffer penalty on those found to be involved in an unethical behaviour, no matter their position or status in the country; which would serve as deterrent to others.

Keywords: Ethics, Ethical issues, Government, Business Transactions, Development, Nigeria