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Ethical Orientation: Key to the Sustenance of the Fight Against Corruption in the Power Sector in Nigeria

Kingsley Uzoma Ahumibe, Kingsley Onyemekara Emecheta FCPA, Adigwe A.C. Ngwuruakor, Augustine Obinna Okeke

Abstract

Nigeria carried the largest electricity access deficit of any country in the world in 2023, with close to 87 million Nigerians still without a grid connection despite decades of reform and enormous public investment. Indeed, such a deficit is principally attributable to the endemic corruption that has become characteristic of the fabric of Nigeria’s national life. This paper seeks to propose ethical orientation as a strategy to combat corruption at all levels of our private and public life, with a focus on the power sector. As several recent studies and experiences since 1999, the beginning of the current democratic dispensation, reveal, corruption is not confined to any one regime, military or civilian. However, all professions have a code of ethics, which is regarded as a code of conduct that all spheres of endeavour are supposed to respect. Since the power sector is regarded as the main engine room for stimulating national economic development and increasing productivity, it has also been embroiled in corruption in various forms, as this paper will show. This has significantly impeded the overall development of the country, and thus, deserves an in- jpaswr depth analysis. To provide a good background of the study, this paper employs descriptive, documentary, and qualitative approaches to data collection, using both primary and secondary sources and applying content analysis. The ethical utilitarian theory forms the theoretical basis of the study. The paper posits that corruption has caused enormous damage to the country; thus, ethical behaviour, which will be encouraged not merely by moral persuasion but also by institutions willing to apply sanctions, offers the most feasible path to a less corrupt public and private life in Nigeria.

Keywords

CorruptionEthicsEthical OrientationPower sector.

References

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