Integrity as Factor of Production

EDGY OPTIMISTO BY binna Chima

Factors of production are essential inputs used in the production process. Economics generally identifies the four factors necessary in the production process as land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship. These are elements that work together to create goods and services, and they play an indispensable role in determining the efficiency and success of any economic system, as well as in determining an economy’s output and growth. So, effectively utilising these factors is critical to achieving long-term economic productivity and a continued positive trajectory in growth.

However, Prof. Emmanuel J. Nwosu, in his book titled “The Challenge of Poverty in Africa,” has identified a distinctive factor of production which he termed the integrity factor. This factor to him is the next highly critical and indispensable factor in production and in the economic growth and development process after labour (human resource) itself.

For him, integrity goes a long way in determining the direction the application of labour ultimately takes. That is, whether labour-power is used positively to the overall advantage, interest and good of the collective, or whether it is used negatively to ruin the collective interests, hopes and aspirations. He further argues that labour-power has to be duly and formally qualified in terms of its moral or ethical content, in order that the direction of its effects on the economy and society can be understood and predicted.

“The integrity factor, because it inherently denotes efficiency in its positive meaning, must become the most important variable in the determination of success or failure of leaders and other categories of workers, and in the assessment of the workability and effectiveness of any theory or philosophy of education, management and development,” he wrote.

I completely align with this position because Nigeria’s lived economic experience repeatedly confirms it. Time and again, policies have failed not for lack of ideas, manpower or capital, but because integrity was absent at the point of execution. Where rules are bent, contracts inflated and accountability compromised, every other factor of production underperforms.

In Nigeria, countless pieces of evidence spanning virtually all the areas of human endeavor since 1960, when the country attained Independence, prove overwhelmingly that Nigerians in the first category are the ones who have contributed most to the ruin of the economy and therefore to the perpetuation of unabating mass misery and penury, through menacingly corrupt activities at workplaces or at other occasions.

For instance, civic tech organisation, BudgIT Nigeria, a few months ago revealed that it uncovered over 11,000 projects worth N6.93 trillion inserted by the National Assembly in the 2025 budget, which underscored growing concerns about transparency and fiscal discipline. BudgIT had described the development as a deeply entrenched culture of exploitation and abuse, which it had alleged was led by top-ranking members of the National Assembly as a means of frittering public funds meant to support national development.

Additionally, recent data from BudgIT’s Tracka platform, showed that nearly all federally funded projects in Nigeria that were abandoned despite full payment to contractors are concentrated in just five states, highlighting deep weaknesses in project execution and post-disbursement oversight that national capital budget performance figures often mask.

Specifically, it revealed that 97.5 percent of abandoned federal projects tracked nationwide were found in Taraba, Abia, Nasarawa, Adamawa, and Ogun States. In value terms, the projects account for N7.8 billion out of the N8 billion tied to abandoned projects where funds had already been released.

Taraba was said to have recorded the highest share of abandoned projects at 29.90 percent, followed by Abia with 20 percent. Nasarawa accounted for 10.53 percent, Adamawa 7.48 percent, and Ogun 7.14 percent, according to the report’s state-level analysis. The findings were drawn from Tracka’s latest project-tracking exercise, which assessed capital project implementation under the 2024/2025 federal budget.

“This is no longer a funding problem. These are projects where money has been released and contractors paid, yet nothing was delivered. That points clearly to failures after disbursement,” Head of Tracka at BudgIT,  Osiyemi Joshua said.

Equally, productivity suffers from integrity deficits as in many public institutions, merit has been replaced by patronage. Recruitment, promotion and posting are often driven by who you know, not what you can do and it becomes a fiscal burden.

This concern, which is not just a failure of governance, but a deep betrayal of public trust, was aptly captured by the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who, in an interview noted that the absence of proper upbringing, which manifest in a deep-seated lack of integrity, was a major factor affecting the quality of leadership in Nigeria.

He had stated: “We don’t have a sense of disgust for people who hold public office and amass wealth. Instead, we reward them with more appointments and opportunities to enrich themselves, and this is what Nigeria has become.

“We have been ruled by people who have no values, no respectable legacy, and no desire to leave one. These are individuals who define themselves by what they own—how many houses, private jets, or billions they have in the bank.”

Clearly, our country requires a moral revolution that calls for accountability not only from those who govern, but also from the governed. Leaders emerge from society. They are not aliens. A corrupt society will, almost inevitably, produce corrupt leaders. If we hope to end the era of impunity and recklessness, then the change must start beyond those in Abuja and the corridors of power.

We must stop treating corruption as a political phenomenon and begin to see it as a personal choice. True reform begins with personal integrity in the little things. From refusing to accept money to vote, holding power to account, demanding competence, and not being complicit in everyday fraud. We must embrace cultural reset, collective awakening, refuse to laugh off or normalise failure and, above all, see integrity not as an exception, but as a norm so as to progress as a country.

Integrity is therefore no longer a moral footnote but a decisive factor of production that shapes trust, efficiency, and sustainable growth in both public and private sectors. Without integrity at the core of leadership and enterprise, even the best resources, reforms, and innovations will fail to deliver lasting value.