Jean Stimmell, retired stone mason and psychotherapist, lives in Northwood and blogs at jeanstimmell.blogspot.com. Religious beliefs have varied enormously over the centuries around the world, including in the U.S. today, where articles of faith.
We would like to greet all our readers ‘‘compliments of the season.’’ Today’s comment completes our serial on federalism this year. The struggle for a truly federal state continues next year. As we open a new chapter in our journey through this life in Africa’s most populous nation tomorrow (01-01-2021), it is gratifying to note that at least there has emerged some consensus that all is not well with the Nigerian state. Those who revel in the fleeting gains of a skewed state structure are now being consumed by the contradictory dynamics of their ill-conceived and self-serving policies. Nevertheless, we still hope that the incumbent state minders may be able to save the country headed on the road to Mogadishu. Those who think that the overwhelming contradictions of the Nigeria state will go by without monumental consequences for the country probably live in a fool’s paradise. Survival is the first law of nature, ius naturale, and the root of emancipatory politics.