ETHNICITY AND THE QUEST FOR PEACE AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: EXTRAPOLATING FROM THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPLEMENTARY REFLECTIONS

Abstract

Ethnicity, properly construed does not constitute a threat to peace and national development, what does is the negative employment of ethnicity for one’s gain and a corresponding display of negative attitudes towards other ethnic groups. This attitude is both divisive and counter-productive; it leads to crisis and conflicts of attrition and fuels separatist tendencies and movements which undermine the peace and development of any multi-ethnic state. This reflects the exactitude of the Nigerian situation. This paper recognizes and argues for the imperativeness of peace for Nigerian’s national development despite its multi-ethnic configuration; it is in this context that the philosophy of complimentary reflection which sees everything that exist as a missing link of reality that serves to complement one another finds relevance. This paper concludes that heterogeneous nature of the Nigerian state notwithstanding, peace, which is the requisite condition for national development can only be guaranteed when the concept of ethnicity is redefined and ethnic groups see each other as missing links of reality within the ambience of complementary reflections rather than competitors that should be outdone and enemies that should be degraded.