AFRICAN RELATIONAL METAPHYSICS AS A CATALYST FOR SUSTAINABLE PEACE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper seeks to argue thatAfrican relational metaphysics can serve as a catalyst to sustainable peace in Nigeria. Over the years, Nigeria has been confronted with a lot of hydra-headed problems ranging from violent conflicts to kidnappings, banditry, cultism, and insurgencies, etc, which have rendered Nigeria somewhat unsafe both for her citizens and foreigners; simply put, there is an absence of peace. Nigeria, like other African countries faced with a similar reality, has been in search of the means of recovering and establishing its own cultural- historical existence almost 70 years after colonial rule. This, however, is yet to yield the desired fruit. Therefore, for Nigeria to achieve sustainable peace, there is an urgent need to revisit her understanding and applicability of our African metaphysical preconditioning which influences our outlook on life, human person, and even the entire community, that enable our forebears to uphold high ethical values. This becomes germane because contemporary Nigeria is suffering from the concomitant effect of western colonial metaphysical orientation that is monistic, fixative, exclusive, antagonizing, and oppositional, which have created a bifurcated, dichotomized, and marginalized social ontology. The impact of all these is the precarious situation Nigerians have found themselves in. Therefore, using the analytical and expository method of philosophical research, the paper makes a case that Nigerians need to recover, critique, and apply African relational metaphysics as a catalyst for more sustainable peace in Nigeria. The import of this finding is that African relational metaphysics is inclusive, integrative, and complementary. It upholds the values of social solidarity, good relation, and the sacredness of life. These are what contemporary Nigeria needs to unify the various centrifugal elements that make its society. However, on a critical note, the paper suggests that Nigeria needs to find a way to combine the best lessons that African relational metaphysics has to offer, with progressive modern norms and standards (especially for the protection of human rights) to pursue sustainable peace in Nigeria.