The Catholic Church on the Common Good: A Panacea to Tribalism and Ethnicity in Nigeria’s Politics

Abstract

One major problem facing Nigeria politics from Nigeria’s political independence to date is ethnicity. This has been a serious clog on the wheel of national cohesion and development. This work identifies this factor as a great setback to the politics and governance of the country. This work made use of primary and secondary methods of data collection to generate information, while the impartial government theory was the background upon which the work holds that why Nigerians are still clamouring for their tribesmen in politics is because of lack of efforts to carry every ethnic group along in politics and decision making that affects the entire country, catering for general well-being of the people. As a solution to this, this work presents the principles of the common good as taught in the Catholic Social Teaching which emphasises the need to promote the general good instead of sectional good. By promoting the common good by those at the helms of political affairs of the state, the country would experience a decline in the tempo of ethnicity in Nigeria politics