AN APPRAISAL OF THE PLACE OF RELIGION IN AWOLOWO’S POLITICAL THEORY

Awolowo’s rejection of an African variant of socialism is informed by his belief that it (socialism) is a normative social science which cannot be localized or relativized. It, therefore, is a universal socio-political concept which enjoys global applicability or practicability. This said, Awolowo still goes on to attempt marriage between this normative social science and religion. The problem then is that such a marriage (between politics, in this case, socialism and religion) appears to negate the scientific pretensions of his theory. It is not argued that socialism must be anti-religion at all costs, but, one would expect that a truly scientific political theory should be separated (and of course, is separable) from religion which deals with the supernatural or transcendental reality.