Original
Research
Golden Rule and Its Impact on Resolving
the Conflict of Ethno-Religious Supremacy in Nigeria
Jonathan Ofornedu Odo
Nsukka Journal of Religion and Cultural
Studies | Vol 10, No 1 | © 2022 Jonathan
Ofornedu Odo | This work is licensed
under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 18 February 2022 | Published: 11
July 2022
About the author(s)
Jonathan Ofornedu Odo is a
Post Graduate Student in the Department of Religion and Cultural Studies,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
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Abstract
Golden Rule as a principle
of love sustains peace and orderliness in a society where it is applied,
especially a multi-cultural and religious society like Nigeria. This principle advocates for equal treatment
of humankind regardless of one’s ethnicity and religion. This minimises the usual
conflict of ethno-religious supremacy.
Ethnic and religious tussle for supremacy has introduced hatred among
adherents of many religions in Nigeria. Each adherent abuses another in one
way, partly driven by difference in belief, doctrine, worldviews and the likes.
This has been a cog in the wheel of peaceful co-existence in a multi-ethnic and
religious state like Nigeria because it accounts for political and religious
crisis in the country. The Golden Rule principle shows that loving your
neighbour like yourself without minding his appearance, language or mode of
worship enhances peaceful co-existence. Moreover, the golden rule is a clarion
call for selfless service and tolerance: A behavioural pattern will guarantee
living in harmony and being united regardless of our differences. The Golden Rule when properly internalised or
seen as a way of life can reduced the problem of ethno-religious supremacy to
insignificant in Nigeria. This is because, it is a moral obligation that
prohibits restriction of love within individual religion and ethnic group. The
aim of this study is to encourages the practice of golden rule in a
multi-ethnic and religious society. The paper applies the phenomenological
research design. Data was mostly gathered using secondary sources from
journals, newspaper, textbooks and online materials. It was analysed using
descriptive analysis. The researcher found that a multi-ethnic state that
practice golden rule experience less political and religious crises.
Keywords
Golden Rule, Conflict, and
Ethno-Religious Supremacy