Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development

Over the past century, one of the catalysts for the growth of liberal democracy is its efforts at allowing the bestriding influence of inclusive tendencies goad its principles and operations. As mots are attracted to honey combs, the West swum on all that vivifies liberalism and its promise of endless universal progress and peace. But a critical analysis of this trajectory recognizes an apparent paradox, namely – the existence of fundamental influence of exclusionist practices within states that pride themselves as having embraced liberal inclusive ideology. We found that since exclusion is required to buttress a sense of selfhood as defined by communal membership, to seek for its complete elimination is a melancholic attempt to sustain the possibility of an impossible object of desire. We also identified that the abuse of human rights, denigration of political opponents and the collapse of the populace into ethnic cleavages in Nigeria, which in turn have stunted her democratic progress, are among the dangers of stretching the ethics of exclusion beyond reasonable bounds.

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