Ethical Degeneration in the Nigerian Public Service and the Quest for Honesty and Integrity: The Case of Oyo State Civil Service

The State of morals among accounting practitioners and professional public servants in general has indeed been appalling. Apparently, one witnesses ethical disintegration in virtually all the hitherto sacrosanct spheres of public and corporate life. This study is a novel endeavour to unravel the overt and covert causes of ethical degeneration among accounting practitioners and public servants in the Nigerian public service; and to systematically examine the various interventions by successive regimes to bring about moral sanity and decorum in the ethical disposition of Nigerian public servants. The study approached this issue by doing a general review of literature on corruption, ethics and accountability in the Nigerian public service. The primary data, which reinforce this study, are derived from questionnaire analysis and personal interview. The study found among others; first, that the perquisite condition of life that could motivate good works are absent in the Nigerian polity; second, that accountability institutions are either impotent or absent; third, that comprehensive national planning that could check ethical misconduct are absent and, fourth, that the Nigerian leadership is in itself corrupt and not transparent. In the end, the study concluded that there is no end in sight for unethical behaviour among professionals and public servants except fundamental attitudinal re-orientation backed-up by purpose and good leadership is undertaken at all facets of public life.