The Role of Jeremy Bentham’s Utilitarianism in the Quest for Socio-Economic Well Being of the Nigerian State
AKPAN Victor Edem
Department of Philosophy, Akwa Ibom State University
Abstract
Over the years, Nigeria has witnessed a lot of socio-political and economic challenges. Most of the problems are associated with lack of benevolent leadership and clear leadership ideology among the political class. Consequently, the Nigerian political space is bedeviled by selfish interests, where the political class amass wealth to enrich themselves, their families, and cronies, while the people suffer abject pain of lack. But how can the country overcome this vicious quagmire? Jeremy Bentham’s notion of utilitarian hedonism provides the answer. This is because the theory provides that greatest happiness is the ultimate good of the greatest number of people. By this, Nigerian leaders are expected to mitigate the people’s condition by shunning their political self-interests and offering policies and developmental structures that would avail collective happiness. Yet, this is not the case. Would it be that Nigerian political leaders are not familiar with Bentham’s political proviso? Or, could it be that Bentham theorized an ethical proviso that is too utopian to realistically apply, even in Nigerian polity? Adopting the analytical and critical methods of philosophical inquiry, the paper argues that if the Bentham’s principle is adequately understood and adapted in Nigeria as a leadership philosophy, there will be transformative change that would promote happiness and socio-political and economic well-being of citizens in the country.
Keywords: Happiness, utilitarianism, hedonism, hedonistic calculus, pain.