Tarka’s Political Ideas and The Relevance to the Contemporary Nigerian State

Abstract

This paper examined the political ideas of J.S Tarka and the relevance of his ideas to the contemporary Nigeria in general and Benue State in particular. Tarka himself wrote or said very little from which one can extract the trend of his political ideas. The only guide to such ideas is his pattern of living that scholars like Dent (1982) among others have observed rather closely over the years. The paper adopted John Locke’s Social Contract Theory as its framework of analysis. The substance of this theory is that the State is the result of an agreement entered into by men who originally had no governmental organization. The paper employed documentary research method, which entails that data were generated from books, journal articles; newspapers and web-based materials among others. Data collected for the paper were qualitatively analyzed. Tarka’s political ideas centre on pragmatism, socialism, Tarkanomics (prudent management of public resources), and politics of peace and harmony. From the analysis of Tarka’s political ideas, the paper found that Nigeria is yet to evolve a cohesive and integrated State, in which there is equity, fairness, freedom from tyrannical power, justice; enjoyment of the privileges of modern living by the citizens, and in which all ethnic nationalities both majority and minority would have a sense of belonging in a country which they can call their fatherland. The paper submits that the crises in the contemporary Nigerian State is as a result of its failure to apply the political ideas of J.S.Tarka. The paper therefore recommended the objective application of Tarka’s political ideas as a panacea to the crises of the State