LOGIC AND THE TRAJECTORY OF INTER-GROUP RELATIONS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that the trajectory of intergroup relations in Nigeria is, for the most part, founded on the prevalent ontology of the West, which is dualistic and is also at the background of Western Two Valued Logic (TVL). This temper of intergroup relations holds that “if he is not one of us, then he is against us,” and hence, it has suspicion and distrust in its kernel. This paper found out that this orientation has constituted a clog in the wheel of every attempt at forging and advancing for a united nation while fanning the embers of inter-group conicts and crises in Nigeria at the same time. The methodology adopted in this paper is conceptual and contextual analysis. The approach involves the analysis of the trajectory of intergroup relations within the context of the varied crisis of attritions in Nigeria and the question of what logic of relations is best for Nigeria in view of the country's heterogeneity. To this end, this paper seeks to argue for intergroup relations that are based on African ontology and to which the complementary nature of reality, and by extension, interpersonal relations, is ubiquitous. Using the philosophical logic of Harmonious Monism (HM), which is three-valued and goes beyond the dualism of the West and the attendant two-valued logical relational orientation that bifurcates reality into two, we argue and hence, conclude that despite the diversity of ethnic groupings in Nigeria, each group can be understood to dovetail into the other in line with the fact that reality in Africa is cyclical and that equilibrium can only be maintained in the universe of things through this process.