Book Review on GST 121; Nigerian People and Culture
BOOK REVIEW
Authors: Mrs. Cordelia U. Udaba, Ph.D, Rev. Amunnadi C. Ani, Ph.D, and Rev. Fr. Christian O. Ele, Ph.D
Place of Publication:
Publishers:
Year of Publication:
Number of pages: 320
Price: Not Stated
Reviewer: (your name)
Introduction
GST121: Nigerian Peoples and Culture is a one-semester 2-credit unit course. It is made up of 14 units which treat the Nigerian’s perception of his world, culture areas of Nigeria and their characteristics, evolution of Nigeria as a political unit, concept of functional education, social justice, individual and national development, norms and values and moral obligations of citizens. There are no compulsory pre-requisites for this course.
The course guide tells you briefly what the course is all about, what you are expected to know in each unit, what course materials you will be using and how you can work your way through these materials. It also emphasizes the need for tutor-marked assignments. Detailed information on tutor-marked assignments is found in a separate file which will be sent to you later. There are periodic tutorial classes that are linked to the course.
ORGANIZATION OF THE CONTENTS
The text is divided into 16 chapters which is written by various authors.
CHAPTER BY CHAPTER REVIEW
This will be done based on the categories and placement of the registration number and I will be reviewing chapters 4 & 14.
Chapter 4
The chapter four of the text is written by Mrs. Cordelia U. Udaba, Ph.D and the central topic for this chapter was “norms and value”. The author started by defining view concept such as;
Norms
To maintain peace and order in any human society, there is need for behaviour in which members exert pressures upon one another to conform to some recognized standard. These standards, models or patterns are called norms and are usually used to determine proper or acceptable behaviours. It is therefore expedient to start our discussion on the concept of norms by explaining the term behaviour.
Behaviour
The term behaviour can simply be defined as the way in which one acts or conducts one self, especially towards others. It can also be conduct, deportment, comportment or one’s actions before or toward others, especially on a particular occasion, (Neph, 2007). Behaviour may be the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with themselves or their environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the (inanimate) physical environment.
Book Review on GST 121; Nigerian People and Culture
Deontic Norms
According to Bareks (010) orders and permissions express norms in sentences that do not describe how the world is; they rather prescribe how the world should be. Imperative sentences are the most obvious way to express norms, but declarative sentences also may be norms, as is the case with laws or ‘principles’. Generally, whether an expression is a norm depends on what the sentence intends to assert.
For instance, a sentence of the form “All Ravens – are Black” could on one account be taken as descriptive, in which case an instance of a white raven would contradict it, or alternatively “All Ravens are Black” could be interpreted as a norm, in which case it stands as a principle and definition, so a white raven would then not be a raven. Those norms purporting to create obligations (or duties) and permissions are called deontic norms. The concept of deontic norm is already an extension of a previous concept of norm, which would only include imperatives, that is forms purporting to create duties the understanding that permissions are norms in the same way was an important step in ethics and philosophy of law.
Constitutive Norms
In addition to deontic norms, many other varieties have been identified. For instance, some constitutions establish the national anthem. These norms do not directly create any duty or permission. They create a “national symbol”. Other norms create nations themselves or political and administrative regions within a nation. The action orientation of such norms is less obvious than in the case of command or permission, but is essential for understanding the relevance of issuing such norms. When a folk song becomes a “national anthem” the meaning of singing one and the same song changes, likewise, when a piece of land becomes an administrative region, this has legal consequences for many activities taking place on that territory, and without these consequences concerning action, the norms would be irrelevant.
Social Norm
Ricco (2005) defined social norm as an expectation shared by group members which specifies behaviour that is considered appropriate for a given situation, in this context, behaviour is broadly conceived to include not only overt behaviour but also verbal behaviour associated with an individual’s perceptions. Thoughts, or feeling. Small groups not only set up appropriate words, feelings and thoughts of members. For example, a child is apt to be censured by his parents not only for hitting his brother. But also for saying that he hates hire. Similarly, most groups censure expressions of disloyalty exhibited by their members.
As an illustration, norms typical of an age-grade may be described. An age-grade is likely to consider the following appropriate, being of good behaviour, morally stable with good personality traits, helping on age-grade projects, having feelings of disloyalty, refusing to cooperate on age-grade projects are likely to be regarded as inappropriate.
However, the author of this chapter further highlighted norm sending processes. Norm-sending has three essential components:
- Defining the attitudes or behaviour in question.
2 Monitoring the extent to which a person conforms to the norm and
- Applying sanctions, reward or punishment for conformity or nonconformity.
Transfer of Norms between Groups
The author further discuss on how norms are transferred between groups of people. Individuals may also import norms from a previous organization to their individual may also can get adopted over time. Without a clear indication of how to act, people typically rely on their past history to determine the best course forward; what was successful before may serve them well again. In a group, individuals may all import different histories or scripts about appropriate behaviours; common experience over time will lead the group to define as a whole its take on the right action, usually with the integration of several members’ schemas
. Under the importation paradigm, norm formation occurs subtly and swiftly whereas formal or informal development of norms may take longer. Groups internalize norms by accepting them as reasonable and proper standards for behaviour within the group. Once firmly established, a norm becomes a part of the group’s operational structure and hence more difficult to change.
Book Review on GST 121; Nigerian People and Culture
Definition of Values
The term value has been defined and applied in many ways. Some of the definitions and applications of the term include;
- The regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth or usefulness of something;
- A person’s principles or standards of behaviour; one’s judgment of what is important in life. The numerical amount denoted by an algebraic term; a magnitude, quantity, or number; the relative duration of the sound signified by a note;
- The meaning of a word or other linguistic unit; the relative degree of lightness colour. Or darkness of a particular
- Estimate the monetary worth of (something) and
vii. Consider (someone or something) to be important or beneficial; have a high opinion of.
Ethical Value.
In ethics, value refers to the degree of importance of something or action, with the aim of determining what actions are best to do or what way is best to live (normative ethics), or to describe the significance different actions. It may be described as treating actions themselves as abstract objects, putting value to them. It deals with right conduct and living a good life, in the sense that a highly, or at least relatively highly, valuable action may be regarded as ethically “good” (adjective sense), and an action of Joy in value, or somewhat relatively low in value, may be regarded as “bad”.
The author also define other concepts such as; value judgment, criteria for valuations, the source of values, values and social roles, values and behavioural sanctions, classifications of values, functions of values, and references were properly cited at the end of the chapter
Chapter 14
This chapter was written by Rev. Fr. Christian O. Ele, (Ph.D) and the chapter is captured “social justices in Nigerian context”. The author stated thus “The virtue of justice has deep roots in the theogenic origin of the human person (Genesis 1:26-27). God, who created man in his own image and likeness, has justice as one of his attributes. He endowed man with justice as a natural right.
This esteemed right is meant to be expressed in all of man’s multi-variant anthropological realities such as personal, philosophical, social, political, moral, economic, religious and cultural spheres, et cetera. The idea of justice from the dawn of creation and civilization is formed in the thoughts of great thinkers and it is found in the languages of peoples in both biblical and exfra-biblical cultures; in other words, the nature and essentials of justice have been present in different religions and regions across centuries. Justice is an essential concept in human affairs and its significance and relevance inform its vast appreciation in multi-disciplinary scholarship”
Theories of Justices
The author went further to list some theories of justice as thus;
- The positive law theory
- The social good theory
- The natural rights theory
The Etymology of justices
Etymologically speaking justice is from the Greek word dikaiosune” white the Greek dikaion means a just person. The Latin equivalents are iustitia, tustus and ius, lustitia is righteousness or equity. As the Latin iustus means upright or just, tus simple means law (tura plural-laws) at one instance or justice in another and even the place where justice was sought. In Roman antiquity, a right to which a citizen (civis) has by virtue of his citizenship (civitas) also meant ius. M Hebraic lingual framework. One identifies the concepts tsedek and mishpat as the equivalent of the Greek dikatasune which could also mean righteousness, judgment or justice. In the words of Villafane (2010:2).”
Justice as isedek speaks generally about living in right relationship with someone, while justice as mishpat is somewhat more particular. We can speak of mishpat as deciding what is “just” when two people differ or disagree or when one has injured the other Dikaiosune can have both of these meanings”. In the Holy Bible, justice is understood too as faithfulness to the covenant and responsibilities of a relationship. Based on this understanding, God is faithful and just (Psalm 89:14, 11:7) and decrees Justice for his people, (Psalm 94:1-2, 75:7, 50:6, 76:8-9, Isaiah 33:22, 66:16, James 4:12. Hebrews 12:23). Ghai (n.d:2) links justice to the Latin word jungere.
The author further highlighted the various types of justice thus;
- Commutative justice
- Distributive justice
- Contributive justice
- Procedural justice
- Restorative justice
- Retributive justice
- Social justice
Book Review on GST 121; Nigerian People and Culture
The Nigerian Situation
Here the author highlighted that Nigeria is a country with diversities in more senses than one. She has diverse ethnic nationalities, plural religious expressions, multiple political affiliations, variegated cultural backgrounds, social choice advantages and vast economic opportunities enough to make her great if these blessings and values were harnessed with the principles of justice and fairness.
Social justice issues in Nigeria are consequences of the perception of distribution of resources and rewards. These manifest in two but co-defendent categories, namely Unequal government regulation (perceived as, favouritism) and Inter-social treatment (which involves social discriminations), Social justice is rooted in the very nature of the human person and therefore should be respected by all persons and societies. Social justice is not an artificial product of the society. It is a natural right; it is a divine gift to man t order to maintain societal equilibrium and cosmic order, there must be social justice in the world.
The United Nations marks the World Day for social justice annually on February 20th, In Nigeria, the impact of this celebration should be seen in the greater awareness of social justice and its necessary effects in structural justice, gender equality, support for social integration, employment, jus wages and poverty eradication, religious freedom, affordable education and the rule of law Nigeria is a great country which has social justice as one of her national values. The social justice in our constitution is meant to thrive and thus influence our thoughts and actions. The author added that with social justice, will be strengthen.
Conclusions
Nigerian Peoples and Culture is to introduce you to the history of traditional Nigerian peoples and culture. This course also attempts to trace the pre-colonial history and the culture areas of Nigeria and the evolution of the country as a political unit. This course will also teach you how to analyze and understand people’s cultures from a historical, sociological and anthropological angle. Thus, your understanding of Nigerian peoples and culture will equip you, not only to have a sound knowledge of Nigeria, but also to teach other people too.
