God-gods: Engaging African Cultural Realities in Tackling Security Challenge in Nigeria

Abstract:

Various existing studies have shown that the security of life and property is the sine qua non for rapid and sustainable development. However, with reference to Nigeria, insecurity of life and property has been a major challenge. This, therefore, made development seems to be a mirage in the country. Although various attempts to tackle the menace have been made, yet they do not produce the expected result. While the government could no longer guarantee the safety of its citizens citizens’ safetyvulnerable to security risk. This paper aims at harnessing and engaging the African (Yoruba) cultural realities to address the unabating security challenges in contemporary Nigerian society. The paper employs primary and secondary data collection methods and adopts historical and phenomenological approaches to achieve the aim. Findings reveal that development cannot emerge in a vacuum; it can only emerge within a secure, peaceful and harmonious environment. The paper is of the opinion that those realities, such as Gog-gods approach and allied realities grounded in African traditions used in pre-modern Nigeria to achieve peaceful co-existence, can still be relevant if applied to the security challenge of this country. Therefore, the paper recommends that indigenous African heritage should not be put aside as a result of modernity; rather, they should be appreciated and be utilized as the solutions that Nigerians are seeking to address the issue of insecurity can be found in them.