Existentialist Education, Good Governance and Democratic Culture in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper interrogates the crisis of governance and democratic culture in Nigeria through the lens of existentialist philosophy and education. It argues that the present landscape of corruption, ethnic chauvinism, violence and weak democratic institutions reflects a deep disintegration of values that once linked personal freedom with social responsibility in indigenous African societies. While postcolonial discourse has rightly emphasized the recovery of African cultural identity, the paper contends that mere romanticisation of tradition or the addition of civic-education subjects is insufficient for genuine social reconstruction. Drawing on Sartre’s notion of freedom and bad faith, Kierkegaard’s emphasis on individual choice and responsibility, and Dewey’s conception of democracy as a way of life, the paper shows how existentialist education anchored in lived experience, authentic choice, critical reflection and commitment can undergird democratic values such as tolerance, reciprocity, accountability and respect for the common good. It further links these existentialist aims of education to the properties of good governance (authority, trust, reciprocity and accountability) and to Nigeria’s formal educational objectives. The paper concludes that rebuilding democratic culture in Nigeria requires a profound reorientation of curriculum, pedagogy, school governance and assessment practices so that learners are formed as free, self-responsible citizens whose everyday choices consciously “will into being” a more just, participatory and humane political order.