Social Injustice and Ethnic Crises in Nigeria: A Rawlsian Remedy

Abstract

One of the major problems plaguing the Nigerian society is that of social injustice and ethnic crises. This is due to challenges of inequitable allocation of national resources amongst her ethnic groups, consequently triggering social injustice and ethnic crises.These social injustice and ethnic crisescannot be ignored. It is, therefore, blatantly clear that realistic measures to solve these problems are needed. The aim of this paper is to use John Rawls' theory of social justice as a model for addressing the problems of social injusticeand ethnic crisescrises in Nigeria.Rawls' social justice is a conception he distinctively coined “justice as fairness” which significantly coveys the unquestionable truth that the principles of justice as the basic structure and pivot of society are determined in an original setting or situation of liberty and equality. Through his theory of justice, Rawls made thorough efforts to resolve the demanding challenges of distributive and social justice within which people desired, and argued for fair and equitable distribution of goods and services in the society. The method used in this paper is analytic; this is used to analyze theproblem of social injustice and ethnic crises in Nigeria while projecting Rawls' theory of justice as a remedy. The paper posits that Rawls' theory of social justice, through his overlapping consensus, which involves an agreement supported by all conflicting comprehensive doctrines, would guarantee and produce the conditions for a just and stable government, thereby effectively resolving the problem of social injustice and ethnic crises in Nigeria.