IGWEBUIKE: African Journal of Arts and Humanities

The concept of civil disobedience is becoming a widespread issue in most countries of the world today. It is such that real concerns as to the mode of implementation of acts of civil disobedience, their target goals, and the actual outcome for each of them pose serious philosophical questions, especially to their justification and their impacts on society. In Nigeria today, civil disobedience has been expressed in different ways through various means. It is therefore the aim of this paper to use John Rawls' thesis to make an adequate critique of civil disobedience in Nigeria. The relevance of this academic exercise is to explore a few notable cases of civil disobedience in the country so far to find out whether or not they can be reasonably justified as credible or not, using the Rawlsian model as a theoretical framework. Methodologically, one applies textual analysis with special reference to Rawls' work, the Theory of Justice, and goes on to make a philosophical critique of the applications of civil disobedience in Nigeria so far. The first task, therefore, is to explore the major arguments and themes in Rawls' thesis on civil disobedience, while the second is a systematic critique of Nigeria (with special reference to the EndSARS and End-BADGOVERNANCE protests) in light of Rawls to justify or refute the particular incidents of civil disobedience, and the impacts they have had on Nigeria’s socioeconomic life. Within the context of this work, one gathers that while civil disobedience is justifiable when it satisfies the right conditions and respects its legal boundaries, it also suffers particular challenges in less democratic spheres and developing countries.

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