JUSTICE IN JOHN RAWLS VIS-À-VIS NIGERIAN DEMOCRACY

JUSTICE IN JOHN RAWLS
VIS-À-VIS NIGERIAN DEMOCRACY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE…………………………………………………….i

CERTIFICATION………………………………………………ii

DEDICATION……………………………………….………….iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT………………………………………..iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………….v

CHAPTER
ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Statement of Problem………………………………………3

1.2           
Purpose of the Study………………………………….……5

1.3           
Scope of the Study………………………………………….6

1.4           
Methodology……………………………………………….7

1.5           
Literature Review …………………………………………8

CHAPTER
TWO

CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

2.1     General notion of justice………………………………….11

2.2     Justice in John Rawls……………………………………….14

2.2.1    The Background of John
Rawls  ……………………………14

2.2.2    Justice as Fairness………………………………………..…16

2.2.3  The two Principles of Justice……………………………….18

2.2.4  Fair Equality of Opportunity and Pure
Procedural Justice…21

2.2.5  Civil Disobedience………………………………………….23

CHAPTER THREE

NIGERIAN DEMOCRACY

1.1                                   
The concept of democracy …………………………………25

1.2                                   
Democracy in Nigeria  …………………………………….30

3.2.1  Major Features and Flaws of Nigerian Democracy………..34

3.2.2    Nigerian Leadership style………………………………….37

3.2.3    Fundamental Human Rights……………………………….39

3.2.4    Share of Resources…………………………………………43

CHAPTER
FOUR

NIGERIAN DEMOCRACY VIS-À-VIS RAWLS’ CONCEPT OF JUSTICE

4.1     Fairness……………………………………………………45

4.2     Individual’s Rights………………………………………..47

4.3           
Equitable distribution of Resources………………………52

CHAPTER
FIVE

CRITICAL EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION

5.1           
Critical Evaluation..………………………………….…..54

5.2           
Conclusion………………………………………………..58

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………60

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Man, says Aristotle, is by
nature a political animal.  This implies
that man is naturally inclined to live in a political society. Joseph Omoregbe aptly captures this
idea when he says that no one can rightly claim to be independent of the
society, because no man is an island. To buttress these points, Aristotle
maintained that:  “he who is unable to
live in a society or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must
be either a beast or a god.”[1]

This is to say that man is
a social being by nature. Thus, man identifies and associates with his fellow
man and the society in which he lives. More so, man as a member of the human
society has been endowed with some fundamental human rights.  Hence, it is the duty of justice to get their
rights protected and ensure a peaceful co-existence of man in the society he
lives.

Justice is something essential to
a society, for right is both the basis of the political association and the
criterion for deciding what is just. This is because where justice fails to
reign, man will face the difficulties in life; he cannot again attain the goal
of life.  The rich gets richer while the
poor gets poorer, power becomes might; and there will be a survival of the
fittest.  These above facts however, are
evident in the case of Nigeria.  Our
polity is devoid of justice, and as a result, we are living in a corrupt and
unjust society.  Those at the corridors
of power have completely lost the sense of justice in piloting the affairs of
the public. They pursue their selfish interest and make conflicting claims on
public resources, which most often lead to economic hardship and violation of
human rights.  This situation therefore,
calls for an urgent and lasting solution which could definitely assist in the
restoration of justice into Nigerian democratic government.

As it could be noticed right from
the ancient era, philosophers and social theorists equally uphold this view
that justice is a virtue, which is pertinent or dialectically related to moral
conduct. And in line with this thought, Rawls had to say this,

Justice
denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good shared
by others.  It does not allow that the
sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed by the larger sum of advantages
enjoyed by many. 2

 That is to say that end does not justify the
means. So, the investigation into the social significance of justice in Nigeria
democratic system is our guiding spirit.

1.1           
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

History indicates that right from
the ancient times to the contemporary period, justice has been regarded as one
of the cardinal virtues which man as a political animal makes quixotic effort
to establish in the society he lives. 
Thus, justice is the ultimate goal of political life, but experience has
shown us that it is injustice that dominates political debate.  The reason is that it is easier to identify
and deplore injustice than define precisely what is lacking in an unjust
political society or what an ideally just political society might be like.  This however, is the kind of predicament John
Rawls sees in modern period, where moral thought and the means of assessing
moral behaviour are dominated by utilitarianism. Those who set out, according
to him to criticize it often did so, on much narrower front.  They pointed out the obscurities of the
principle of utility and noted apparent incongruities between many of its
implications and our moral sentiments. 
But they failed to construct a workable and systematic moral conception
of justice to oppose it.  In reacting to
this, Rawls had to develop the concept of justice in which he wanted to work
out certain principles that will provide a reasonably systematic alternative to
utilitarian conception of justice.  The
principles he developed dwell strongly on the constant way of equal
distribution of wealth and division of benefits and burdens resulting from
social cooperation in well-ordered society. 
Similarly, in Nigerian democratic government today, I think it could be
an obligation if not indispensable task to seek social justice, where the political
elites in the country have completely lost the sense of justice in piloting
public affairs and engaged constantly in violation of human rights and
injustice.

And to do that however, the
Rawlsian concept of social justice should be our stepping stone through which
we shall endeavor to restore justice economically, socially and politically in
Nigeria.

1.2           
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

A nation as a political society
is fundamentally characterized by association of human beings working together
for common good and possessing adequate means for attaining it.  Nigeria is a typical political society but
seriously lacks the quality of a good political society.  The national peace is threatened by
self-interest at all levels of the society. 
Caught in the grip of Nigerian systems of government, leaders and
various sectors in government are led to pursue their particular aims and
ambitious of power, progress and wealth, without taking sufficiently into
account the necessity and duty of national solidarity and co-operation for
benefit of the common good of all people who make up the human society.

However, the fundamental task or
purpose of this research work is to expose the principles of justice as
fairness in Rawls and then to extract its relevance and apply it accordingly
for the restoration of justice in Nigerian democratic system.  Thus, the summit of our task is how best
could these principles of social justice in Rawls help in salvaging the
decadent, dilapidating and wounded Nigerian society.

1.3           
SCOPE OF THE STUDY

IT is believed that all humans as
social being cling to justice in some kinds or another, but the difference is
in the application of the concept of justice. 
But it is required that justice as a virtue should be interpreted in
terms of goodness in human society.  In line
with these thoughts, Rawls affirms that “injustice, then, is simply
inequalities that are not to the benefit of all.”3  Thus, our concentration in this work dwells
specifically on Rawls notion of justice as fairness and its relevance to Nigerian
democratic government.  We shall
therefore, rely so much on his famous work, A Theory of Justice as our primary source in this research work.

1.4           
METHODOLOGY

The method will be more of
analytical and expository in approach. 
Our primary and specific aim is to analyze critically the primary aim of
Rawls, why he decided to invent and develop the principles of justice as
fairness.  After that, we shall carefully
and adequately place them side by side with Nigerian democratic government, to
find out the difference and similarities between the principles, and then to
incorporate the good aspects of the principles into the Nigerian democratic
system.  In general, the work is to be
divided into five chapters. Chapter one will be the introduction,
methodological consideration and literature review.  The second chapter, will expose the general
notion of justice, and examine the background of Rawls and some key principles
of his notion of justice.  Consequently,
the analysis of the concept of democracy and Nigerian democracy should be taken
care of in chapter three.  In chapter
four, the exposition and examination of Rawls’ principles of justice and the
social implication of it to Nigerian democracy takes place.  Finally, the last chapter will be the
critical evaluation and conclusion.