Abstract

Nigeria, within the fifty-five (55) years of existence as an independent nation has
experienced several internecine crises, conflicts and civil wars that have threatened and still
threaten her corporate existence and identity. The ferocity of Nigeria’s history of crisis has
become a grave concern to scholars, diplomats and politicians apiece, hence the quest to
finding a lasting solution. Among scholars of politics/political science and history,
colonialism is spotlighted as the main source of Nigerian crisis experience. These scholars
consider the amalgamation of 1914 as a mismatch and blame our political ordeals on it and
as such clamour for the dissolution of the country. Scholars with bias towards anthropology
and sociology blame ethnicity and unpatriotic leaders and nationalists. Here, they opine that
these groups of leaders, due to selfishness and corruption, could not build national
consciousness and inspire committed and patriotic followership. Notably, the source of the
Nigerian crisis cannot be hinged on a single factor as it has omnibus sources according to
other scholars and diplomats, and this makes it difficult to think of any plausible solution in
sight. However, those within the locus of cultural studies maintain that a critical study of
Nigerian traditional value system reveals a single source of the Nigeria crisis. This is
spotlighted as the vitiation of African traditional value of brotherhood
umunnabuike/ibuanyindanad, Ubuntu, Ujamaa principles of social/community living. This loss of
the value system indigenous to our people that elicited the sense of community,
humanity, and propriety among others, has been occasioned by slavery, colonialism and
modern globalization. These created in Africans particularly Nigeria, psycho-personality,
the sense of individualism which runs contrary to African social/community living. The work
concludes that for Africa?s problems to be resolved there is need for imbibing the traditional
Philosophy of Social Living. This will bring about peaceful and harmonious collaborations
amongst the various ethnic nationalities and communitie