The Human Condition in Nigeria: An Existentialist Discourse

Résumé

This paper is on the key ideas and perspectives of major existentialist philosophers like Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Beauvoir and a few others on the attitudinal dispositions and coping mechanisms for survival in a very disabling environment like Nigeria. The paper is coming on the heels of the negative narratives of hopelessness among majority of Nigerians in the instance of poor governance, consequent near statelessness, very biting economy and falling standard of living in Nigeria. The aim of the paper is to offer an alternative narrative of hope amidst hopelessness by showing Nigerians that, in the throes of the life choking-conditionsas it is in the country presently, one can wade through the difficult moment following the existentialists' paradigm for survival as outlined here. The paper adopts expository method of the frustrations and hopelessness in Nigeria viz-a-viz the basic doctrines of survival of major existentialist philosophers. The major thesis put forward here is that adopting the existentialists' philosophy of human existence in the world in the context of the current existential conditions in Nigeriawill offer life-enhancing insights on how to be psychologically moored for the moment.