The Rule of Law and Governance in Indigenous Yoruba Society: A Study in African Philosophy of Law: African Philosophy: Critical Perspectives and Global Dialogue

This book, The Rule of Law and Governance in Indigenous Yoruba Society, has two main goals. The first is to provide an exploration of aspects of indigenous Yoruba philosophy of law. The second is to relate this philosophy of law to the Yoruba indigenous traditions of governance, with a view to appreciating the relevance of the Yoruba traditions of law and governance to contemporary African experiments with imported Western democracy in the 21st century. This book is devoted to what can be described as a juridical forensic investigation of Nigeria s predicament of developmental deficit, leading to gross and unconscionable impoverishment of large segments of the population, in the midst of so much natural resources and abundant human capital, using Yoruba indigenous legal traditions as reflective template. The view urged in this book is that Africa has to take seriously the necessity of obedience, observance, enforcement and operation of law as no respecter of persons, groups, affiliations and pedigrees as was in the case in the societies founded by our ancestors, rather than the present scenario whereby the highest bidder procures semblances of justice from a crooked system of common law which was never designed to be fair, equitable and just to the disadvantaged in society. It is concluded that while Africa has much to offer humanity by way of its originary contribution to human civilization, the current situation where in most African countries, the burden of statehood, law enforcement and observance of the laws remain mainly that of poor, minorities or vulnerable segments of society cannot conduce to the renaissance which Africa seeks in the 21st Century or beyond. And it does not assist in the process to argue that since Rome was not built in a day, there is time enough in the future to enable the African people to realize the human dreams of happiness, protection of life and property and, even more significantly, human dignity to live a tolerable existence in an environment of so much wealth and resources."