Volume 2 Issue 1 | 2025 | View PDF
Paper Id:IJMSM-V2I1P101
doi: 10.71141/30485037/V2I1P101

The Good vis-à-vis Justice in Plato: A Panacea to Insecurity in Nigeria as based on Misconstrued Class Identity and Induced by Social MalFunctionality

Hilary Chimezie Ngwoke, Anayochukwu Kingsley Ugwu

Citation:
Hilary Chimezie Ngwoke, Anayochukwu Kingsley Ugwu , "The Good vis-à-vis Justice in Plato: A Panacea to Insecurity in Nigeria as based on Misconstrued Class Identity and Induced by Social MalFunctionality" International Journal of Multidisciplinary on Science and Management, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-17, 2025.

Abstract:
Amidst the reoccurring phenomenon of insecurity in Nigeria, thinkers in attempting resolutions have suggested inter alia, the restructuring of the polity to decentralize authority over security architecture and make state-policing possible; the partitioning of the country to reflect its tribal/ethnic identity-based differences; the fortification of Nigerian borders; or the provision of more military equipments. This study, in view of its purpose meant to identify a theoretical framework capable of providing an antidote to this problem, locates the deficiency in the aforementioned solutions as either being too reductionistic or overemphasizing on defensive-induced insecurity over and above offensive-based insecurity, which is the nucleus from where other forms emanate. Also, it in consonance with Plato’s position neither accepts the Sophist’s rendering of justice at the whims and caprices of the powerful nor agrees with the erroneous extant tribal/ethnic-based delineation of class in Nigeria. It therefore accepts Plato’s conception of justice as harmony from doing and appropriating in the measures proper to one’s status; hence adopts his categorization of class into three, namely; the Guardians, the Auxiliaries and the Economic, and argues that the problem of insecurity of food, life and property can be resolved via the enthronement of justice in the Platonic sense, in such a way that there is genuine identification with the true function of one’s class and nontoxic interference with the performance of social functions among the Guardian, the Auxiliary and the Economic class who are meant to efficiently and effectively guide, protect and produce for the polity respectively. To achieve this fit, this paper adopts the qualitative research design and the hermeneutical, analytical and evaluative methods.

Keywords: Plato, Ethics, Justice, Insecurity, Nigeria, Class-Identity, Social Mal-functionality.

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