A Contemporary Adaptation of John Dewey’s Pragmatism (Instrumentalism) For Politics in Nigeria

Abstract

The essence of education is for its recipients to employ knowledge obtained there-from to solve practical problems of their society. Yet, it has become ironical in Nigeria that both the huge expense on education and the innumerable certified persons in governance have failed to satisfactorily solve our many socio-economic and political problems, chief among which is bad governance. This sad fate has been traced to the lack of a defined philosophy in the provisions of the 2004 Nigeria National Policy on Citizenship education. This educational policy is laden with the theoretical nature of our inherited colonial authoritarian education with its oratorial and certificate overemphasis. It has failed to impart critical and pragmatic skills and values requisite for nurturing and entrenchment of democratic values among the citizenry. The result is the near war experience, loss of human lives and wanton destruction of property experienced during every political transition time in Nigeria. This, then, is where Dewey’s instrumentalism comes in to fill the ideological lacuna. Our paper therefore considers the application of the implications of Dewey’s instrumentalism to education as a portent tool for inculcating critical consciousness necessary for the cultivation of pragmatic and democratic values in the citizenry such that, they will be enabled to confront the challenges of democracy in Nigeria politics.

Keywords

• Instrumentalism
• Pragmatism
• Education
• Democracy
• Politics