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THEY ARE P   WERFUL




                            ONLY WHEN WE MAKE THEM














                                                   -  A M O S  S H I L L I M

             Introduction                                     patriotism of many Nigerians, and indirectly
                                                              when  we  sit  back  unconcerned  and
                      emocracy is a type of government in     unbothered while they display their excesses.
                      w h i c h   p o w e r   a n d   c i v i c
             Dresponsibilities  are  exercised  by  all       J ea n -J a cq u e s   R o u s s ea u ,   a   p o l i t i c a l
             adult citizens, directly or through their freely-  philosopher,  in  his  attempt  to  salvage  man
             elected  representatives.  Democracy  rests      from his lost state of natural liberty, proposed a
             upon  the  principles  of  majority  rule  and   theory  of  Social  Contract;  which  is  a  kind  of
             individual rights. The government in Nigeria     association  whereby  ever y  member
             has failed in this regard. Political leaders are   voluntarily  agrees  to  place  himself  and  his
             equivalent  to  demi¬gods,  as  they  possess    possession under the direction of a sovereign.
             extreme  power,  wealth,  influence  and  even    This simply means that all the members of the
             immunity to the law letting go of the fact that   association  constitute  the  sovereign.  Here,
             they are powerful only when the masses make      one and all pledges to submit to the “general
             them.  Thus,  aiming  at  this  backdrop  is  the   will”  –  where  “every  member  pledges  to
             main goal of this exercise. Politics is the way   submit  himself  to  the  direction  of  the
             that people living in groups make decisions.     sovereign, he is really pledging to submit to his
             Politics is about making agreements between      own direction, and when he promises to obey
             people so that they can live together in groups   the  sovereign,  he  promises  to  obey  himself
             such  as  tribes,  cities,  or  countries,  however,   since he is part of the sovereign; and inability
             other  political  systems  aside  democracy      to then adhere to this brings about chaos and
             include; totalitarian regimes, monarchies, and   disorder”.
             so on(web).
                                                              More to this, on the 18th day of October 2016,
             A politician is a person who has political power   the  Nigerian  popular  writer  Chimamanda
             in the government of a state; a person active in   Ngozi, in her article “Nigeria’s failed promises”
             party politics or a person holding or seeking an   spoke about the skyrocketed price of things
             elected office in government. It is so appalling   and  the  horrible  situation  in  the  country
             that  in  Nigeria,  politicians  see  politics  as  a   handled by a weak government stating that “it
             means to an end; the quickest way to make        would be unfair to blame Mr.Buhari for these
             money and gain authority. They go there with     killings, which are in part a result of complex
             so much prejudice, sentiment, bias, tribalism    interactions  between  climate  change  and
             and nepotism to mention but few. The fact is     land  use.  But  leadership  is  as  much  about
             that most of the extreme authority and power     perception as it is about action, and Mr.Buhari
             wielded by these leaders were bestowed on        has appeared disengaged” (web).
             them by the citizens who support them either
             directly by being unpatriotic or indirectly by   Ideal  governance  is  therefore  a  form  of
             being  apathetic.  Directly  in  the  sense  that   leadership  role  that  involves  the  exercise  of
             they  buy  the  consciences,  services  and      political, economic, and administrative power
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