REFLECTING ON B.A.C OBIEFUNA’S PHILOSOPHIC MAXIM, “Í NÉÉ ÁNYĀ, NÈÉ ÁNYÀ, Ì NÉÉ ÁNYÀ”: BEYOND THE IMMEDIACY OF LIVING AND DECIDING

The work is a reflection on B.A.C. Obiefuna’s maxim, “Í néé ányā, nèé ányà, ì néé ányà,” casting a second three-fold look, a principled philosophy, for living and deciding. The method of hermeneutics is employed. The work premises Obiefuna’s principled philosophy on the understanding that the realization and fulfilment of being is the fruit of decision. Yet this realization is as mitsein, a being-with in which the other is considered an essential component of the individual's being. The metaphor comes to the writer as reflective of the dynamism that is in sync with the nature of being and existence, namely the dynamics of the self and the other, the interplay of life as ‘workfulness’ and life as playfulness, the dynamics of life and valued principles; the dynamics of immediacy and future reference; the dynamics of the historical and the transcendental; the dynamics of fragmented existence and comprehensiveness. The work argues for the imperative of its application. In doing this, it considers the onto-existential conditions of man who decides. In many cases, these can limit, distort, depreciate, and vitiate human decisions. Among these conditions are prejudice as conditioning the direction of decision and interpretation; the grasp of reality as perspectival; the possibility of Pyrrhic victory and its dangers; and the alluring nature of instinct of self-preservation, which disposes one to self-interest as dominant canon. A critical consideration of all these highlights the necessity of Obiefuna’s maxim for living and deciding. The work, while observing that the principled philosophy may come to some as simply ‘looking the other way’, insists that the principled philosophy in order not to degenerate to looking the other way in deceitful diplomacy, a consequence of obi aghụghọ (manipulative, deceitful mindset), must be grounded on mụọ eziokwu (truth-seeking) and obinwanne (vicarious fellow-feeling). In this way, the immediacy of living and deciding is framed within a totality that ensures ultimate and authentic legitimization.

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