SOCIAL COHESION THROUGH INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE: THE AFRICAN TRADITIONAL PERSPECTIVE.

Abstract

There is no doubt of the fact that Nigeria is a Multi-Religious cum Multi-Cultural society which portend that conflict or misunderstanding is inevitable due to the pluralistic nature of the nation. Thus, there is need to create a platform that will bring people together to strategize on possible ways to sensitize citizens on the need to tolerate each other irrespective of their divergent religious views and affiliations, thereby impressing the consciousness of tolerance and good interpersonal relationship. In a single phrase the main trust of this work is to sell the idea of living together in peace not minding our religious/cultural ties which can as well be called social cohesion. Dick (2003), assert that social cohesion is the “willingness of members of a society to cooperate with each other in order to survive and prosper”. This connotes the ability of people to freely work to achieve set goals that will lead to the development and well-being of the society. This further connotes that if members of the society are given proper orientation on the mechanism to impress on the hearts of individuals the willingness to share their risks and challenges together in order to build a peaceful society, there will be a high level of tolerance amongst the people. As this strategy if achieved, will go a long way to bring prosperity and development to the people. Social cohesion takes different dimensions ranging from Identity, Culture, Politics, Religion, etc. This paper shall be looking at the religious dimension with emphasis on the African Traditional Religious Perspective.