Chapter 2: Background
2.7 Model Based Myoelectric Control Systems
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Every political party is made up of the youths and the elderly. The elderly are presumed, particularly in Africa, to be the voice of experience and morality considering the notion that they are presumed ‘on their way home’ and need to be more atuned to God and the heavenly ways. However, experience has disabused this notion. Many of the Nigeria veteran political elders are unrepentant manipulators and unabridged opportunists, morally bankrupt. Political parties in Nigeria, as a matter of urgency need reform, if they still want to exist. It is only democratic form of government that can entertain the existence of political parties. What they are doing presently in Nigeria will lead to the extinction of democracy and surely the parties.
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where the citizens who are the owners of the wealth are wallowing in abject poverty; no hope of a day’s meal, while their representatives, whom they gave the job of ensuring their common well being, is ensuring his ‘personal wealth being’; wallowing in stupendous wealth: fat bank accounts in various local and international banks, beautiful edifice in various countries, ‘state of the arts cars’ and various good things of life; flaunting them with ‘devil may care attitude’ and crowning these situations with the daily advertisement of the embezzlement of the common wealth, can have only one ending – anarchy and blood curdling revolt. Is this what we want? Remember, the mob is a senseless animal.
We must remember that the democratic system of government was developed to overthrow and flushout the dictatorship of the tyrannical forms of government, to accommodate the views of the people in their governance and to acceed to the will of the masses. Ironically, the democratically elected leadership of the country, manifest abject insensitivity to the cries of the masses. For instance, electric light may never be seen in a communnity for a long time, the citizens may have to trek many kilometers to get water or any other basic neccesities of life, which are supposed to be provided by government but who has not bothered to do so.
The so called leaders donot even care a hoot how the citizens fare. Some of our roads have become ‘death traps’, hence, thousands accidentally perish on a particular road and the leadership to manifest their insensitivity, may on the same day be flown to the airport by a helicopter, for a flight to America, for shoping; while the masses that gave them the job that brought the National or State ‘till’ within the reach of their unregulated clutches, are languishing in preventable mourning and sorrow. Not until one of their close relatives, is involved in a fatal accident along any of the death traps roads, will they realize that the deaths could have been prevented by putting the roads in order. Even then, only the one on which the accident and death occurred will be given attention;others may need to furnish their own fatal evidence, before being attended to. Not that the funds for the repair of the roads are not
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provided for in the budget. The tradition is thatthey likely, may have been embezzled or misapprioprated for the shoppings in America.
The kind of hell Nigerians go through in the event of fuel scarcity will propel any caring government to monitor and handle any problem from that sector with dispatch; but not the Nigeria government. PENGASSEN gave a warning strike in July 2016, the government was busy claiming that it has up to 30 days of fuel stock in its depots, instead of meeting with this senior petroleum workers body, to discuss and find a way out of another developing nightmare. When the ‘push comes to shove’, we may discover that government’s claim of
‘unfinishable’ fuel storage, amounts to ‘shooting from the hip,’ and mere bravado.What happens if PENGASSEN makes its strike indefinite?Has the Federal government anyanswer to that, in the form of altenative supply?Non, whatsoever.
Democracy is dependent on the sensitivity, honesty, and common sense of those in government, because democracy trive on the goodwill of the masses.Where this goodwill and their timely availability constantly generate peace; the constant patience and resilence of the people, should not be taken for granted, because one day, the patience will not surface and an angry mob will that day become, a time bomb.
The issue of majority rule and minority rights is still a challenge, as the ethnic minorities in the oil producing areas of the south-south geopolitical foreign exchange earners, have consistently cried out against overt and prolonged neglect of their region by the majority ruling the country over the years. Where this type of situation is still pronounced, as in Nigeria, it is an indication that the government is far from good. This might result in disloyalty to the government. Some disgruntled elements have even resorted to militancy, as a way to ventilate their grievances, thereby threatening the survival of Nigeria and it’s democracy.
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Democracy requires a stable political and economic environment to trive. Since the discovery of petroleum in commercial quantity in Nigeria in the ‘70s, the youths of the riverine areas mostly affected in the devastations following the explorations, have been restive, crying out for palliatives and infrastructural developments for the indigenes whose farm lands and sea life have been destroyed by the oil spillages, but no government paid them any attention.
Having run out patience, they went into their trenches to disrupt government’s economic
‘milk flow.’ It was not until the reign of Goodluck Jonathan, that they downed their arms and embraced peace. It was not because they love Jonathan. Rather, it was at this time that programmes were put in place to cushion their suffering and change their thought flow and mind set. General amnesty was granted them and generally accepted programmes put in place to rehabilitate them. The programme ensured peace around the ‘foreign earning pot’ of Nigeria.
The beffudling fact is that, it was the present government of Buhari that ‘woke the sleeping dog;’ that profusedly and infuriatingly went out of it’s way to lodge an ‘aggravating kick at the tail of the lion’, despite all advice to the contrary, by it’s pronouncements and actions.
The government proscribed the widely advised programme in place, being used to rehabilitate the highly restive youths of Ogoni land who, grudgingly downed their weapons recently and from whose parlours, bedrooms, backyards and farmlands, the foreign earnings and the only organized wealth of the country is being exploited, without any tangible payback. The highly tribalistic government of Buhari rather, wants to establish a similar programme for his own brothers. The Ogoni youths have gone back to their trenches, started blowing up the oil pipelines and sacking foreign explorers.Presently, the Nigeria wealth is confronted by the world wide economic recession, the looting of the treasury, the acute scarcity of food and the abyssmal collapse of the Naira against other currencies of the world.
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Can these blunderings entrench and consolidate our democracy? The problem is still deep leadership problem.
The militating problems in the democratic practice in Nigeria as exposed, when hermeneutically interpreted, show the level of the structural and foundational bereavement of our political leaders. This lacuna in the foundation of our leaders’ behavoural outlook and personality formation, affects all aspects of our political life. This is more so in the face of the economic emasculating situations. Poverty has a way of making a man appear senseless and incapable of reasoning. This is for the fact that he is fully concerned with bodily survival than with creating intellectual and environmental well being.
152 Endnotes
1. Ejovi Austin, et al, Corruption in Nigeria: A Historical Perspective, Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1719(paper)ISSN 2222-2863 online vol.3, N16, 2013
2. Ibid;
3. Ibid;
4. Ibid;
5. European Union Election Observer Mission (EU, EOM), led by Mr. Max Van de Berg, 2007
6. Ibid;
153 CHAPTER SIX
EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION
Having come this far, after indicating the essence of this study, reviewed related literatures, exposed the control concept- ‘Western democracy and its essence,’ in the face of this perculiar study- ‘Democracy in Nigeria, 1999 to 2018’ taken a look at other pertinent issues in the ensuing chapters, all in the presence of hermenuetic methodology, time has come to evaluate the whole work and for this study to make its own contribution for democratic growth.This study wants to point out here, that for the avoidance of repetition, any issue that has attracted the critical edge of this studyin the exposition,may nolonger attract such peculiar attention here.