Omoluabi — from a phrase meaning the child of the one who possesses the essence of character — is the Yoruba ideal person, and the concept does a great deal of work in ordinary speech and in child-raising. Its components are enumerated in various lists but consistently include respect for elders, truthfulness, hard work, generosity, patience, humility, courage, and usefulness to the community. It is invoked constantly: telling someone their behaviour is not that of an omoluabi is a sharper rebuke in Yoruba than accusing them of a specific offence, because it addresses what they are rather than what they did. It has also become a subject of formal study and of policy rhetoric in Nigeria, invoked in discussions of education and public corruption. Its relation to iwa pele is close — omoluabi is what a person with good character amounts to in social terms — and both stand as the tradition's answer to its own emphasis on efficacy and results.