THE QUEST FOR RECOGNITION IN A MULTICULTURAL STATE: A STUDY OF WILL KYMLICKA’S VIEW AND THE NIGERIAN STATE

Abstract

The geographical enclave called Nigeria assumes a multicultural dimension which highlights diversity among nationals. This diversity over time has fostered marginalization and discrimination thus hindering the quest for national integration which represents the necessary ingredient for sustainable development. The efforts of Nigerian governments over-time to eradicate or ameliorate the damaging effects of this disintegration have practically yielded no result to the point that the continuous unity of Nigeria has been termed elusive on the account of this. This disintegration is basically triggered by perceived marginalization and the subsequent fight for identification and recognition in the politics of the day among the plural Nigerians, thus establishing a cat and rat relationship amidst Nigerians. It is on these findings that the paper implores the conception of normative multiculturalism by Will Kymlicka that explicitly ensures fairness, recognition and equality among people of multicultural societies, as a means of projecting unity in diversity through the explication and instrumentality of the good of culture as panacea to this problem.