Virtue Ethics in Politics: An Imperative for Good Governance in Nigeria

Abstract

Within the last century, many world nations have found themselves at a crossroad with bad governance. Politics is being operated without principles and values. Many people now are convinced that if good governance must be achieved, politics can no longer reject ethical principles. This makes the cultivation of virtue ethics in politics an imperative. Virtue ethics emphasizes on the character of the acting agent. Good society depends on the virtues of the citizens. When virtuous citizens are elected into the government, they promote good governance. For Aristotle, the virtue of every practice is found within its domain. This goodness is understood in relation to the telos (“end” or “purpose”) of that practice or “that for whose sake everything is done”. For instance, Aristotle treats medicine as a domain whose telos is “health” and military strategy as a domain whose telos is “victory. This paper uses the hermeneutic and conceptual analytic methods to argue that to achieve good governance in a given country like Nigeria, we must understand the telos (end) of politics as justice and common good which then guarantee eudaimonia – human flourishing/wellbeing.