Our values have remained paramount to us as a people. Our fathers built these conduct legacies to enable us exist as a people with honour and integrity. Ethical values are those core values that are highly esteemed. They could be called moral values or simply put: moralities. Some see it as belief system which constitutes those approved good behaviours or the related acceptable principles of right and wrong especially those that are inherently permitted in Ozu social culture. Our fathers laboured assiduously to establish this specific value judgments or codes of conduct which happened to be the consummate Philosophies that represented our judgment of rightness or wrongness of something. It could be inferred that those values became an epithet on our value statement which identified our common ethical values became complementary to our existence as a people. It is understood that value system of most people or society differs considerably. So it may suffice it to say that it is an individual concept subject to choice. But could this be true? Values are molded by virtues, to some extent by vices and most at times by experience. Ozu people should know what our proper moral rules and discipline are and the amount of willingness to see ourselves even our strangers abide by them. Ethics could be the study of principles relating to right and wrong conduct. It is the standard that governs the conduct of a person in a given society. They may also call it moral philosophy because in Ozu we have morals. I may not be fully discussing ethics as that is a faculty of study. Such should left to Kant and Rev. Fr. (Prof.) Michael Uka for that is their center of gravity and field of study. But in the case of Ozu, our moral values are predicated on ethics. Adam Smith (1776), believed that there is a connection between common life and common principles; this he called ‘maxims’. He believed that this connection or connectivity explains the vitality of the principles that should govern human existence which then could be called ‘moral philosophies’.
How does this explanation of this ‘maxim’ connect to us as Ozu people? It may, because, there set of behaviours and principles which I may enunciate few of them subsequently that our fathers expressed. They represent our core values and ethical conducts which they left as a sign on the sand of time for our merit and adoption.
It is a general belief that societies subsists on their values which judges them right or wrong. In our case, these values are determined to be inherent in us as citizens of the land. It may suffice very much here to conclude that Ozu is a society that was built on the principles of good conduct, and egalitarian devotion.
Here are some of the maxims or values that we pride ourselves in:-
1. That we do not take pleasure in evil doing especially when such would affect our neighbour.
2. That we do not fancy witchcraft and diabolism as such would jeopardize our common existence as a people
3. That engagement in financial heist or money ritual is not inherent in us hence our people who tried to trample on this core value of ours met their untimely deaths.
4. That no young person in our society calls an elderly one by his name directly without adding a prefix such as “brother, Ete, Uncle, Aunty, Nene” etcetera, as a sign of respect.
5. That no young person greets an elder with hand in his pocket while stretching one for a handshake.
6. That our men don’t braid their hairs nor plait same like the female folks for such style is abhorred in the subsisting culture of the land.
7. That our widows should be treated with respect and the properties left behind by the late husband’s should not be taken away from them forcefully.
8. Our core value abhors the maltreatment of orphans.
9. We line up according to our age range in everything that we do
10. It is against our value for men and women to be bathing together in a public pool as nudities are treated with respect.
11. Our culture respects marriage when it is properly consummated either traditionally or religiously.
12. It is against our value system for a maiden to get pregnant illegitimately
13. A child does not abuse an elder even when it seems that the elder may have erred.
14. A drunken man in our system who may have strayed due the illicit influence may be assisted home gently and reverently without molestation.
15. A child does not beat up either of the parents no matter the provocation for such is aberration.
16. Wife beating is abhorred in our system and husband beating too is not permissive.
17. Polyandry is abhorred in our value system because such is an abomination that a woman may be married to more than one husband at a stretch.
18. It is considered inhuman in our culture not to accommodate strangers with open arms nor does it permit a stranger in our midst to be exhibiting wanton attitude that may be incongruous to our common tenets as a people.
19. We do not shed blood either by poisoning one another or by direct murder of any sort.
20. Theft is completely abhorred and thieves are considered societal deviants and may be disgraced publicly which may become a stigma to their generations.
21. Idolatry is a no no to our value system.
22. The worship of deities is antithetical to our cooperate existence hence known previous deities suffered starvation because no one is ready to continue the offering of sacrifice.
23. Our value system recognizes Christianity as our common culture and that it a no euphemism to agree that God lives in Ozu.
24. Our core value is to be our brothers keeper
25. You cannot deliberately kill your neighbours pets such as goat, dogs, sheep etcetera, no matter the provocation for such reckless anger is abhorrent.
26. Our system abhors the marriage of one’s brother or sister in the same matrilineal setting or even your step-sibling.
27. We do not take advantage of a vulnerable person to exploit him or her.
28. Ozu is a culture semantics built on the platform of cooperate agenda by our forefathers and that this cooperate culture must be maintained without prejudice to any part, fraction or segment for that is our golden epithet.
29. It is inherent in us to harvest from our neighbours farm only when he or she must finished harvesting from the said farm and it is declared fallow. If leftover remains, it becomes a collective patrimony “Ndamigwo” that could be enjoyed by the rest members of the community especially the weak, helpless and vulnerable members of the society.
30. We believe that we exist for each other and must empathize with each other when troubled or celebrate with each when favoured by nature or providence.