Exploring the Power of Philosophy in Nation Building

This paper aims to critically explore the roles of philosophy in nation building. The unbiased, self-reflecting, objective, and critical nature of the mother of all disciplines namely, philosophy makes it a treasure chest for ethical principles which drive nation building. By its promotion of open mindedness and critical thinking, philosophy provides a balanced perspective which engenders reasoned discourses employed to challenge existing paradigms in order to enable the evolvement of development-oriented policies. Without the foregoing, nation building becomes a farce. This is because whenever the human element that takes up the challenges of nation building are not logically and ethically guided, society ends up building structures without men of reason and character that will sustain the structures and institutions. Our paper therefore suggests the promotion of critical consciousness and critical thinking as found in philosophy. This offers humanity with the framework for naturally evaluating human fundamental principles and beliefs. These principles and beliefs in turn constitute the necessary ingredients which place leaders and the led on a better pedestal to pursue social integration  as well as adopt patriotic life styles both of which combine to enhance nation building. We adopted the expository and content analysis methods of inquiry in this research.