Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development

This paper subscribes to Levinas’s theory of responsibility to reflect on hardship, suffering and preventable death in Nigeria. Levinas’s theory of responsibility makes a distinction between the I/subject and the Other. Whereas the I is the benefactor, the Other is the beneficiary that is vulnerable, weak and destitute. The theory recommends absolute, unlimited, unconditional and nonreciprocal responsibility and ends as a defense of the Other it because gives him full attention, prioritize him. Hardship, suffering and death have become endemic in Nigeria and has caused aphorism that being born in Nigeria and living in Nigeria the same as the notion of the Original Sin. For many, since Original Sin is that which man is guilty for being born human, similarly, one becomes susceptible to unwarranted hardship, useless suffering and preventable death for being a Nigerian and living in Nigeria. Hardship, suffering and death have become ‘normal’ culture partly because the leaders have almost disconnected themselves from the people whom they should serve and partly because they lack the political will to improve the conditions of the people that improve the livelihood of the masses. This paper refutes suffering and allied notions, like theodicy that justify suffering. It concludes with a reinterpretation of theodicy and a postulation of good leaders as the messiah that should prioritize the Other to ameliorate or end suffering in the land.

Open Full Text (PDF)