ISAIAH BERLIN’S VALUE PLURALISM: IMPLICATIONS FOR ETHNO-RELIGIUOS TOLERANCE IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This work discusses Isaiah Berlin’s insight on value pluralism and its implication for ethno-religious tolerance and respect in Nigeria. Nigeria’s ethno-religious diversity and plural nature has posed one of the greatest challenges to her development. The history of Nigeria has thus been a history of strife, crises and conflicts largely borne out of ethnic and religious differences. The crises facing Nigeria as visible in Jos Plateau crises therefore largely predicate on indigene-settler dialectic, minority question, ethnic hegemony, religious differences, religious fundamentalism and, ethnic and religious politics. These have become signs that Nigerians have failed to appreciate the multiplicity of human values, ends and incommensurable and incompatible nature people according to Berlin share with one another. It is against these backdrops, that this paper attempts to employ Berlin’s insight on value pluralism to promote a culture of ethno-religious tolerance. With expository method the paper espouses the meaning of relevant concepts such as tolerance, ethno-religious tolerance and multiculturalism. With the analytic method, this paper examines Berlin’s value pluralism and how it can be used to boost ethno-religious tolerance in Nigeria. This paper submits that the lack of a single metric with which to judge human values, and the fact that human cannot dependably evaluate the truth claims of competing moral standpoints, means that Nigerians must accept everyone as he is, tolerate and respect the beliefs and choices of others both at the social and private levels. This paper therefore concludes that no religion or tribe can dependably claim to be superior to others and so enforcing a single religion would backfire as belief cannot be compelled by force. As such, Nigerian institutions charged with the responsibility of promoting peace and tolerance in Nigeria should be strengthened and stiffer penalties imposed on perpetrators of religious and ethnic crises in order to curb the rise of religious crises in Nigeria.