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WORLD RUNNING OUT OF PEOPLE WITH INTEGRITY?

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LOOKING at events around the world I got to the unfortunate conclusion that the world might as well be running out of people with integrity to assume leadership roles; particularly at political level.

The strange thing is that those who are seemingly qualified tend to lack character and integrity - traits that society seems to demand more and more nowadays. Truth is, there are no saints out there, and as society we need to make do with what we have. This applies to the global village, international community or intercontinental and country levels.


First, it was FIFA where, when it was time to elect the president and his team came up, a lot of skeletons started creeping from the closets, and that by the way, became a major embarrassment for the leadership - the end result was that the president lost re-election. And now across the seas, and as far afield as the USA, sparks are flying as presidential nominees engage in a war of words as politicking gains momentum ahead of that country’s elections.


Scandal after scandal is brought to the fore to discredit one another. All this being a case of political manoeuvring in order to gain favour of the electorate by assaulting each other’s integrity.
In neighbouring States, it’s no different. I mean we have seen how things played out in the run-up to elections - accusations were flying and sitting presidents were also not spared from the assault by the opposition.

And now with some countries looking to replace certain figures in government, candidates are put through rigorous and grilling processes in order to ascertain if those looking to take over the roles have their integrity intact.
The AU also has a stalemate in its hands - the election of the secretary general, with 28 of the 56 member States abstaining from voting - I believe because they can’t seem to find someone they can trust with the role.


And the more you see a number of them dropping from the race, despite having appropriate qualifications, the more you see how integrity has become such a scarce resource. Finding qualified people with integrity is like finding a pin in a hay stack. Question is, what has become of society? Is this a new phenomenon - or is society on a downward spiral of moral decay?


 I think it is not totally a case of moral decay; at least not just that alone, but also a case of development in the information age - news is now freely shared over ICTs instantaneously and audiences are treated to up to the minute updates on developments around the world. So, society is more informed than what it used to be in times past, and with press freedoms getting wider and wider there is more transparency compared to times past.


That said, it has to be accepted that integrity is indeed a character trait that has not been promoted in modern society.
Our society teaches winning at all costs. People no longer subscribe to the values of fair play today; as they continue to pursue their advancement or achievement both financially and politically.

Some people in politics, prefer to play dirty and paddle deception just to get ahead, to the point that not all that they say about the opposition has to be taken seriously. They seem to subscribe to the notion that politics is, after all, a dirty game - and seek to hide behind this veil.

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