Implications of Awolowo’s Dialectic Principle on Contemporary Nigeria

This paper examines the dialectic principle of Nigeria’s foremost thinker and sage, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, popularly known as Awo. It diagnoses the essential elements of the principle and examines its implications on contemporary Nigeria. It locates Awolowo’s dialectic within the class of discourse which aims at undressing the truth through methodical and well-thought out arguments. It also postulates that, in contemporary Nigeria, the values advocated by Awolowo are as fresh as primrose buds. Awolowo’s principle of the dialectic derives from his philosophy of democratic socialism, which purpose is to use democratic methods (legal, constitutional and governmental) for systematically and sustainably building an egalitarian society. The paper posits that Awolowo’s penchant for progressively advocating for improvement in the lives of the suffering masses and articulating their interests, relentlessly, unrelentingly and insistently, clearly shows his embrace of democratic socialism. There is also a strong link between his dialectic principle (with its intendment of change and progress) and his philosophy of democratic socialism. As much as Awolowo tries to justify his principle of dialectic, however, his work has been critiqued, mostly, for being equivocal. It is the intention of this paper, therefore, to simultaneously examine how well Awolowo has been able to defend his dialectic principle and the justification of the critique on his postulations. This is with a view to determining whether or not Awolowo’s principle of the dialectic has any heuristic value to Nigeria.