Peace and Development in Nigeria
The Imperative of African Communal Values
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46422/jhss.v14i2.291Keywords:
Africa communalism, Communal values, African ethics, Nigeria, peace, developmentAbstract
Peace is very necessary for national development. Crises and social vices which are very common in Nigeria undermine developmental stride. This paper tends to investigate the major causes of this social decline and chaos in Nigerian society. It particularly probes into the link between the prevailing social and moral decline and the rise of a so-called modern capitalist society. The major research questions probed here include: what are the major factors that led to the overall social decline in contemporary Nigerian society? How far the modernization is responsible for this decline? What is the possible remedy in this regard? How far a return to the age old Nigerian communalistic values provides an answer to the question of social decline ultimately leading to peace and development in the country? And how those values can be re-inculcated in the society? The paper contends that for peace to reign in any society, citizens must imbibe certain moral values. African communalism provides us with these values requisite for peaceful existence necessary for national development. The purpose of this work is to identify and examine African communal values and their relevance to peace building and national development in Nigeria. The paper is a qualitative research using library materials as data with application of hermeneutic interpretation, analysis, deductive and inductive reasoning.
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