KARL POPPER’S CRITICAL RATIONALISM AND ETHNO-RELIGIOUS POLITICS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Nigeria is a densely populated nation, blessed with myriad of material resources. The country also enjoys a huge diversity in ethnicity and religion. However, Nigeria’s diversity, rather than being a source of strength, is apparently a huge source of adversity. The three major tribes (Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba) are always openly in a struggle for power and domination. The two predominant religions in the country (Christianity and Islam) offer another unwanted dynamic in perpetuating the political crisis in the country as power is often decided and divided based on religious sentiments. Ethnic and religious sentiments are therefore paramount factors undermining political order in Nigeria. Nigeria is not the only multi-ethno-religious country in the world. Why then is her ethnic and religious diversity a huge setback to her political and economic prosperity? What is it about the average Nigerian psych and his disposition to nationhood that makes him more disposed to ethno-religious sentiments than national interests? Should it be concluded that Nigerians are naturally unpatriotic or is there some historical mental block or some artificial factors being engendered to keep Nigerians under the grip of uncouth religious and ethnic sentiments? These questions capture the concerns that amount to the problem studied in this article. The article addresses these problems with precepts inspired by Karl Popper’s doctrine on critical rationalism using the method of philosophical analysis. The work finds out that ethno-religious chauvism is the gravest challenge to the practice of democracy in Nigeria. This anti-nationalist tendency exists in Nigeria due to the inability of the average Nigerian to reason constructively and independently, free from the control and deception of unscrupulous political elites. The article therefore recommends the Popperian principle of critical rationalism as a panacea to help exorcise the Nigerian psych from the damages due to ethno-religious chauvinism.