THE 'LOVE OF VARIETY' AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA.

The concept of the love of variety as propounded by Dopamu vis-a-vis sustainable development is a topical issue in the global community. The love of variety depicts love for diversity or plurality. This forecloses that followers of religions should pursue a multi-religious agenda where theologians are discovering a God who resists domestication into any single theory of how the universe is. The absence of this has adversely affected unity let alone sustainable development. This study adopts historical and hermeneutical methods, leading to the fact that the twenty-first century global community stands in dire need of inter-religious dialogue and co-existence. Therefore, this great and sustained conversation will offer a modest and continuous contribution to peaceful co-existence and sustainable development in Nigeria in particular and the entire global community in general. The paper concludes that the love of variety would help to sieve the incompatibles as evident among Christians and Muslims, and utilize the areas of common interest as model for overall sustainable development in contemporary Nigerian Society and the world in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]