THOREAU'S CONCEPT OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AS A PANECEA AGAINST UNJUST STATE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Thoreau's lecture on resistance to bad governance came as a means of creating awareness to the people so that they may understand their responsibility towards the ruling government. The exigencies of Thoreau's era made it possible for him to admonish the people on best way out of what he considered a bad government thus he proposed civil disobedience as the best way out. Civil disobedience is therefore the weapon of the down-trodden against a bad government. In some countries especially in Africa, military intervention, as an aberration, often comes into play. Henry David Thoreau in his address to his American audience favored civil disobedience, a non violent resistance to effect the desired objective to install a government that governed the least. The problem in America during the 19 and 20 centuries was that the government policies featured injustice putting just men into indefinite jails, enactment of unjust laws to undo the masses, morality was thrown overboard; moreover, the people's earnings and welfare remained unsatisfactory. The Americans remained in silence without reactions. There were no signs of change for a better future. Civil disobedience became the alternative. That was the time of Thoreau's address to his people. Based on the above, this work reviews and made suggestions towards justice, good governance and the issue of civil disobedience in Nigeria. The study employs the philosophical method of analysis.