Building the Nigerian Commonwealth through the Perspective of Philosophy

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Date

2019-01-14

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(NASR) Nigerian Association of the study of Religions

Abstract

Nigeria had to battle with crippling institutional and value deficits that had crucially slowed its march towards greatness beyond what ought to have been since independence.The dream of national integration requires the capacity to redirect the people’s loyalties away from their ethnic enclaves to the civil public. The first stage of the Nigerian commonwealth building requires that the Nigerian State begins the process of making life comfortable. This involves making the civic public a space of equity and justice, where the public good is available to every citizen. Once the citizens are convinced of the good intent of the State, then the second phase of national integration begins.To get a citizen to act often arise from the personal belief that the State is worth serving and defending, or dying for. Nigeria needs a crop of followers who have enough faith in the capacity of the state to bring their hopes and aspirations to fruition. Immanuel Kant, the eighteenth century German philosopher, played a huge intellectual role in defining the Enlightenment age in European socio-philosophical history. For him, the slogan of the Enlightenment is sapere aude! (Dare to think!) We can equally say that nation building in Nigeria requires a serious form of political audacity. We can call it the audacity to dream and actualize. Nigeria requires a crop of intellectuals, politicians, statesmen and officials who have the fear of God at heart, bring about justice, patriotism, equity, progress and all the ideals of greatness befitting a nation like Nigeria. A nation is not built on the whims and caprices of fate; rather, it is built on courage fearplay and the strength to will political aspiration into existence through the force of conviction. From a philosophical stance, this paper critically examines Nigerian democracy and identifies corruption as a major leadership problem bedeviling Nigerian nation building. It proposes attitudinal-change-based orientation of leadership for good service and equality.

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Keywords

Commonwealth, Building Nigeria, The Role of Philosophy, Democracy, Leadership.

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