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Humanities
- ISSN: 2155-7993
- Journal of Modern Education Review
Diversity in Democracy and Education: An African Perspective of Integrating Values
Muhammad Mann Shaaba
(Department of Educational Foundations and Management,Federal College of Education, Kontagora, Niger State, Nigeria)
Abstract: Democracy as a socio-political, system is so attractive that virtually every nation wants to be qualified as a democratic nation with democratic education. But, given the inevitable difference in nations’ values and experiences, democracy cannot be the same in all nations; there must be diversity. In that wise, Africa and indeed Nigeria should consider it important to integrate their culture and traditional values with modern democracy especially given the challenges and failures confronting many democracies in Africa. In view of the above, this paper discussed the concept of democracy and democratic practices in Nigeria. The paper stated that Nigerians are not enjoying the dividends of democracy as expected because many Nigerian leaders and politicians are not practicing democracy with the mindset of an ideal African personality; the mindset of collective living with Nigerians; the mindset of openness and availability to Nigerians and the mindset of family tie and family spirit with Nigerians. In order to ameliorate the situation, the paper integrated the values of an ideal African personality with Nigeria’s aspiration of building a democratic African nation and the liberal democratic values to conceptualize communal democracy as a custom fitted democracy for Nigeria. The paper highlighted the electoral implications of communal democracy and suggested educational measures to consolidate the democracy.
Key words: African personality, communal democracy
