![]() ![]() So, this paper employs violence and conflict inter-changeably as an unpalatable situation of turbulence, internally and externally, which is often expected to results in catastrophe.īased on this understanding of violence and given the spate of the phenomenon of violence in Nigeria, ranging from religious, ethnic to political, with magnitude far beyond any expectation and anticipation, and taking varied dimensions and configurations from domestic to public strikes and agitations and now terrorism, many would be fast to paint a gloomy picture for Nigeria’s future. ![]() It could stand for war, quarrel, debate, rivalry, contention, jealousy, etc. Heraclitus who is accredited with being the first to articulate this thought on violence as the basis of reality used the word eris which has many connotations to describe conflict and strife. Sometimes, protracted conflict escalates into violence (Wikipedia, Online). It differs from violence in magnitude, intensity and effect. Conflict, on the other hand, though not of ferocious nature like violence, is a serious disagreement or argument, typically protracted dispute, quarrel, squabble to come to collision or disagreement: be contradictory active disagreement between people with opposing opinions. The verb, “violent” means to be incompatible or at variance it is a clash, understood as an act of aggression, with the property of being wild or turbulent, a turbulent state resulting in injuries and destruction intentional use of physical force or power, to threaten or cause damage. The noun form means behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something with brutality, strength of emotion or of destructive natural force portraying its intensity and severity (Oxford Dictionary, Online). World Health Organization defines violence as behaviour or treatment in which physical force is exerted for the purpose of causing damage (Wikipedia, Online). ![]() It is within this understanding that violence that is usually regarded as an unpleasant phenomenon a state of affair with devastating consequences to the political, social, religious and economic life of a people and a nation, which is undeniably part and parcel of the world order is examined in this paper. Hegel, however, following his dialectic insists that “truth is multifaceted and each set of oppositions points to higher, more encompassing viewpoints” (Lawhead, 2002). Some would be fast to toe or emphasize either side of the divide as fundamental and absolute. Given this scenario, there is a tendency in nihilistic mind to see disaster in the world order. The Africans too believe in complementarity of opposites. This was the position of Heraclitus who saw “change” as the arche-type of reality and Hegel who believed that “contradictions, tensions, paradoxes, oppositions and reversals are at the heart of all thought and even realty itself” (Lawhead, 2002). Daily events in the world from time till today exhibit this complementary nature of existence to such an extent that some are inclined to think of complementarity as an ontology. The reality of the saying is so glaring that it has become an axiom. There is a famous saying among Nigerians that “life is full of ups and down” 1. However, this paper believes that the synthesis will only lead to a better state of affairs if premised on affective humanism as an ontology. But is life really meaningless? Can something positive come out of the negative events in the world like violence, conflict and war and so on? Could the myriads of violence in Nigeria, for instance, caused by Boko Haram in the North East, in the East by Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOS) and in South-South by Niger Delta Avengers be beneficial in the long run? In other words, could something positive be ensued from these obnoxious situations? These are the concern of this paper which examines the Hegelian dialectics that apparently accepts the co-existence of paradoxes and contradictions as complementary realities resulting in a synthesis. The logical implication of these positions would be the meaninglessness of life. ![]() This is implied in Heraclitian “flux”, the dialectic of Hegel, the “nothingness” of Sartre, etc. Indeed paradoxes and contradictions abound in every facet of life to an extent that some would be inclined to subscribe to nihilism, fatalism or catastrophism as the primordial reality. The mysteriousness of life consists, among other things, in its unpredictability despite efforts and developments in science and technology. “Life is a mystery” is a saying that most people are familiar with. ![]()
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