Political Gladiators Research Articles

Political Gladiators and Max Weber’s Bureaucracy: A Study of Select Public Sectors in South-South States of Nigeria

The paper investigated the influence of political gladiators on Max Weber’s bureaucracy, a study of the selected public sector in the south-south states of Nigeria. The specific objectives are: examining the extent to which leadership influences work design in the public sector; assessing the decision-making process on promotion in the public sector and investigating the influence of organizational policies on the recruitment process in the public sector. The study used a sample of 200 respondents. A twenty-item, four-Likert scale questionnaire was administered to the respondents. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested using the correlation coefficient (2) of Karl Pearson. We used SPSS and LISREL software programs to analyze the data. The result of the hypothesis test showed that there is a significant relationship between leadership and work design: decision-making has a significant influence on promotion, and there is a significant relationship between policymakers and the recruitment process. Among other things, the following recommendations were made leadership should be based on expert knowledge and qualifications: Decisions should be broad-based and rational to allow for good policy formulation and implementation mechanisms. Keywords: Political gladiators, Bureaucracy, Public sector and Organizations

Youth, Political Parties, and Peace-Building Process in Nigeria

The Nigerian Youth cannot be ruled out in the study of active contribution to the Nigerian political system, national stability, cohesion, and development, due to their orientation, attitude, and reactions to national issues. Political parties are the avenue for electing representatives of the people and to this effect, the Nigerian Youth have been trying to take a meaningful hold of the Nigerian parties by trying to be major political gladiators. Premised on this background, this paper is set to discuss the conceptual meaning of youth, political parties, and peacebuilding. In the same vein, it will establish the connection and relationship between youth partisanship and peacebuilding in Nigeria. Moreover, the study seeks to examine the pivotal roles the Nigerian youth play in enhancing peacebuilding and national stability as members of political parties in Nigeria, whilst also attempting to determine to what extent the youth have been contributing to conflicts and peace-building in Nigeria. The data for this study were collected through primary and secondary sources. The primary data were collected through the Interview with Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), Direct Observation (DO), and participant observation. In addition, youth organizations, amongst others, were interviewed. The secondary sources include books, journal articles, periodicals, magazines, and other publications relevant to the study. The data were analyzed using a qualitative approach. The peace-building theory was adopted as the theoretical framework for the study. The findings of the study revealed that the Nigerian Youth, in these contemporary times, have been actively involved in partisan politics and that a significant correlation between Youth participation in politics and the peacebuilding process in Nigeria is well established. Now that the youth have been brought into political parties for more participation in the civic roles that they have been excluded from in the time past, there is a need for initiating programs and policies to better understand the roles of youth in political parties and the peace-building process. The study recommends that the Nigerian youth be properly enlightened and adequately equipped in peace and peace-building processes.

Between the Star Boy and the City Boy: Humour, Sarcasm and Rhetoric-Induced (De)Marketing in a Nigerian Presidential Primary Election

Beyond the political communication context, non-verbal communication cues are so potent that their interpretations may outweigh the intentionality of the interlocutors that produce the cues. This study analyses the communicative and rhetorical strategies in seven purposively selected political memes created by Nigerians before Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) held her presidential primary election ahead of the country’s 2023 Presidential Election. The study focused on how the memes marketed and de-marketed the candidacies of Nigeria’s Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (the star boy), and Former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (the city boy). Driven by the set-up-incongruity resolution theory of humour, rhetorical framing and socio-semiotic model for visual analysis, the study identified two general themes and five sub-themes from the memes. In the first theme— collective framing of political actors—, Tinubu and Osinbajo were framed as combating competitors. For the second general theme— individuated framing of political gladiators—, sub-themes such as Osinbajo as a kind politician, Tinubu as a kingmaker, Tinubu as a thug and Osinbajo as a betrayer dominated. The study recommends that to establish a better democratic atmosphere in Nigeria, political stakeholders should emphasise accurate civic education on the Nigerian public space and stress pertinent campaign issues instead of irrelevancies.

Electoral Violence in Nigeria’s Fourth Democratic Experience: A Survey of South-South Geo-Political Zone

Incontestably, election constitutes the central process of instituting a government in any democratic system through the competitive vote of the electorate. This competition can either be peaceful as obtainable in most developed democracies, or it could be violent, as prevalent in most African States, including Nigeria. Since the return of civilian rule in 1999, the electoral process in Nigeria has been replete with violence as groups engage in the struggle to capture state power. This paper explored the prevalence of electoral violence in Nigeria between 1999 and 2019 with evidences from the South-South geo-political zone. Observably, the juiciness of political offices has raised the premium of politics such that competition for political power becomes ruthless and normless in Nigerian, thus making electoral contests akin to warfare in which lives and property are lost and destroyed. The paper ascribed the recurring and high level of political violence in the country to over-zealousness and desperation of political gladiators to win elections or remain in office at all cost. From the investigative and analytical outcome, the paper recommended, inter alia, a reduction in the financial attractiveness of political offices, handing down of stiffer penalties to perpetrators of electoral violence by the government so as to deter others from demonstrating such acts in the future as well as effectively educating the citizens on the dangers of electoral violence and its effects on democratic stability in the country.

The Context of Inconclusive Elections and the Implications for Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria

This paper examines the phenomenon of inconclusive elections witnessed in the polity since 2011 but with increased frequency since 2015, a development that has put the electoral management body on the spot light. Since the conclusion of the 2015 General elections, there have been seven off-cycle governorship elections, three of these elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Osun state were initially declared inconclusive. In the 2019 General Election, six governorship contest in Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Kano, Plateau and Sokoto were determined inconclusive, this is beside the stalemate in River state. Does the increase in inconclusive elections signal progress or regression in the electoral process? What role has the ‘margin of lead’ principle and other factors such as violence play in the increased number of inconclusive elections in 2019? What are the cost and implications of the widespread nature of inconclusive elections for democratic consolidation? This paper interrogates these questions against a backdrop of mercantilist politics and a rentier economy and contends that the root cause of increased inconclusive elections is traceable to the inordinate ambitions of political gladiators and their desperation to win at all cost that is fueled by the prebendal character of the Nigerian state. The paper concludes that impersonal application of the electoral law and guidelines can only enhance the integrity of the electoral process and strengthen democracy regardless of the associated social and financial cost of inconclusive elections. The methodology is qualitative in approach, data was analysed using the thematic and content analysis style.

COVID-19 Mutual Disabilities in Edo State Gubernatorial Electoral Process

The conduct of elections in Nigeria is generally associated with manipulation, which has often undermined the credibility and fairness of the process since the country gained its independence. COVID-19 poses a very serious challenge to the electoral process, considering the nature of the disease, which has led to the promotion of limited physical interaction as an approach to mitigate its transmission and safeguard the health of the people while at the same time impacting negatively on state's electoral justice. While elections remain a key factor to the attainment of political positions in a democratic setting globally, several scholars and media reports have made attempts to assess the political intrigues in the state of Edo as a result of the tense atmosphere created by political gladiators. The use of the pandemic and various forms of propaganda to destabilise the camp of perceived opponents with the aim of winning public support are notable strategies employed by the main contending political parties and their candidates as the election approaches. Therefore, this article evaluates the impediments and political manoeuvrings in the electoral process in the state of Edo, considering the increasing number of corona-virus infections, the country's frail electoral system, and the desire to maintain credible democratic consolidation in the country.

PEACE BY PEACEFUL MEANS? A POST-HOC ANALYSIS OF THE ‘ABUJA PEACE ACCORD’ ON ELECTION VIOLENCE PREVENTION IN NIGERIA

The signing on Wednesday, 14 January, 2015 of the celebrated Abuja Peace Accord by the presidential candidates of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and eleven others, including the major opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC) signaled for the first time a conscious effort by Nigerian political gladiators to give peace a chance. Although unique in the sense that two retired foremost international diplomats were deeply involved in drafting and moderating the signing of the Peace Accord, a critical-analytical dissection of the spirit and content as well as the practical benefits and weaknesses of the agreement reveal a thin success in a post-hoc mode. This paper teases out the forces and factors that were responsible for the semi-success and semi-failure of the stated goals of the Accord.

A Study of Online Hate Speeches: Legitimation Processes by Nigerian Political Actors

Online social media offers platforms for political gladiators to engage in hate speeches as a means to perpetual power contestation. This in turn demands total restructuring of political institutions, through different legitimation strategies. The current study highlights hate speeches’ legitimation process and its entrenchment as a contemporary societal cultural object. The paper extends Vaara’s et al (2006) and Johnson’s (2006) application of the theory of legitimacy in products marketing to the evaluation of political hate speeches’ legitimation process. Data comprising of twenty-five (25) excerpts on hate speeches from Politically Exposed Persons across Nigeria were purposively selected from online media sources. The study revealed that any particular hate speech of political gladiators is a cultural product marketed by the elites through the legitimisation processes of innovation, local validation, diffusion and generalalidation with its negative influence on Nigeria’s political institutionalisation processes.Key Terms: Evaluation, Discourse, Hate Speeches, Ideology, Context

African Intellectuals and Challenges of Nation Building: Tawfīq al-Hakīm’s <i>Masīrus-Sārsār</i> (The Fate of a Cockroach) as a Case Study

Intellectuals have been the conscience of different African nations most especially since the second half of last century when the continent started gaining independence from colonial rule in quick succession; they were very alive to moulding their different societies through their creative writings by which they were constantly putting the political leaders on their toes. This paper therefore aims to unravel reasons for the contemporary intellectuals taking the back seat and losing the awe and impacts the first generation writers made on their different young nations. After using judgement sampling technique to select Tawfīq al-Hakīm’s <i>Masīrus Sārsār</i> (The Fate of a Cockroach) and text-based ethnography to collect data, the study adopted a qualitative design that employed descriptive analytical method to analyse and interpret the chosen play. This study found out that the situation has considerably waned owing to very intolerant political climate and the intellectuals themselves flocking to manoeuvre ways at becoming political gladiators. This paper concludes that intellectuals can be more relevant in nation building only when they continue playing the role of being the conscience of their different nations and distance themselves from mad rush for political power.

Interrogating the Interface of Partisan Public Security Forces, Cynical Electorate, and the Hazards of Electioneering in Nigeria

ABSTRACTElections in Nigeria are usually ferociously contested. Thus the risks of violence are always high, particularly for the electorate. Violence becomes such a seeming permanent feature of political competition in the country that electioneering is seen as the equivalent of war and political gladiators as combatants. The intervention of public security forces to enforce sanity in the process appears counterproductive because of their level of partisanship. The voters become victims in such circumstances such that they are precariously hooked in between the choice of endangering their lives in a country riddled with impunity or exercising their voting rights for good governance and a better future. The essay argues that as much as the relevance of security forces in electioneering may not be underestimated, their presence often undermines the process, fueling an atmosphere of violence. The article submits that a more civil approach/strategy should be factored into their operations with a view to ensuring a level playing ground and safety for all stakeholders in the electoral process.

‘Political gladiators’ on Facebook in Zimbabwe: a discursive analysis of intra–Zimbabwe African National Union – PF cyber wars; Baba Jukwa versus Amai Jukwa

Social media have been hailed as liberative in contexts of political repression. In Zimbabwe, there are emergent debates on the possibilities of using Facebook to ‘democratise’ political space. But the use of Facebook to settle personal political scores or to relentlessly attack political opposition seemed to have escaped academic scrutiny. This study looks at the use of Facebook by opposing camps in Zimbabwe’s July 2013 election to attack each other, as well as the challenges posed by this scenario. It looks at Baba Jukwa and Amai Jukwa’s pages on Facebook. The study is grounded in the concepts of freedom of expression, the public sphere and democracy. Semiotic analysis and critical discourse analysis were used to analyse the posts by Baba Jukwa and Amai Jukwa. The study sought to explore how the Internet’s liberative potential enhanced by free entry and exit and the ability to remain anonymous impacts on Baba Jukwa and Amai Jukwa’s discourses on Facebook. It revealed that the two pages make use of personal attacks on ‘targets’, and the resultant polarisation is often mirrored in the mainstream media. The study concludes that even though Facebook provides an alternative public sphere, it can also be ‘pulverised’ by irrational debates.

Implication of Boko Haram Terrorism on Northern Nigeria

Terrorism has been a global menace which affects economic, political and social status of the country experiencing it. The political dimension of terrorism and insecurity have been examined in this study which moribund political regime of President Goodluck Jonathan in Nigeria. Many lives and properties have been destroyed in Northern Nigeria by the Boko Haram deadly attacks. It is evident from this study that Boko Haram terrorist insurgency invigorated as a result of pronouncement of Goodluck Jonathan as president of Federal Republic of Nigeria. Since the inception of this political regime, Boko Haram has been disrupting and destabilizing government activities mainly in Northern Nigeria. The political implication of terrorism has been deadly in Nigerian democratic governance. The study found that North-Eastern Nigeria witnessed a monumental influx of Boko Haram deadly attacks (115), followed by North-West with (13) attacks while North-Central experienced (12) attacks since last four years, consequently culminated into epileptic socio-political activities in these geo-political zones; many lives have been lost while the Nigerian political environment continue to produce social insecurity and enduring political diaphragm. The challenges of terrorism and insecurity have been traumatizing President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in Nigeria while many political gladiators hide under the siege of Boko Haram insurgency in terrorizing existing political regime in Nigeria which makes it difficult to actualize governmental policies and programmes in Nigeria. Boko Haram terrorism is an ethnic political tool aimed at causing political chaos by political elites in Nigeria; therefore this study makes a prognosis for reawakening of militancy in Niger-Delta if President Jonathan is denied second term presidential political contestation in Nigeria. Regardless of political affiliations, all the political stakeholders should rally round the Jonathan’s administration to proffer solution to the current security conundrum in Nigeria. The pull-down political syndrome should be shunned for the sake of general well-being of the citizenry which serves as a bedrock of statecraft. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3p371

Exploring Alternative Strategies for Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria: The Role of Political Parties

Democracy in Nigeria appears to be very unstable. Nigeria has no visible traces of substantial democratic credentials, yet there is so much of this democratic noise in the country. This made the. The practice of democracy is without code of conduct, hence defections of political gladiators from one parties to another is the order of the day. These practice potent danger for the nations democracy the basis for this position is that political parties have greater role to play in the nation’s democratic practice. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p1729

Religion! A Curse or a Blessing for National integration and Development in Nigeria: Boko Haram in Perspective

The principal duty of any government is the protection of its citizens. But it has become a herculean task for Nigerian government to protect the lives and properties of her citizen because of religious and ethnic violence orchestrated by the activities of Boko Haram which has variously been attributed to the Islamic religion. Bombing and killing of lives and the destruction of properties have become a very regular and frequent occurrence in Nigeria today. A lot of attacks have been made by these faceless terrorists in the country from churches, mosque, markets, schools and barracks killing well over 10,000 innocent and helpless citizens. This comparative study was therefore carried out to investigate if the two major religions in the country were actually responsible for the activities of Boko Haram. But our investigation and finding using Christianity and Islam has clearly shown that Boko Haram is not an activity of religion but rather a political activity on a mission to destroy the teaching of Allah and God who preaches peace and love. Granted that the two religions under discourse do not teach violence as a virtue to its adherents, why has Boko Haram been traced to Moslem? How can this violence perpetrated by Boko Haram work for national unity, integration and national development. This study therefore used a well structured questionnaire for data collection amongst both Christians and Moslems located within Adamawa, Kano, Kaduna and Bauchi states where the activities of Boko Haram is most pronounced in recent times. Using simple percentage to analyze respondents view, it was discovered that religion was not the reason behind Boko Haram; rather Boko Haram came for political reason as a result of the dissatisfaction in power shift among some disgruntled northern political gladiators who desperately wanted power at all cost not minding what it cost. It was also conspicuously discovered that the two major religions in Nigeria can collectively work together for national integration and development in the absence of Boko Haram. Recommendations were then made on how to tackle the insecurity situation in Nigeria like value reorientation, Nigerian school curriculum overhauling, employment creation and generation and poverty reduction amongst others. Keywords: Boko Haram, violence, national insecurity, national integration and development.

Corruption, Governance and Political Instability in Nigeria

The Nigerian State is a victim of high-level corruption, bad governance, political instability and a cyclical legitimacy crisis. Consequently, national development is retarded, and the political environment uncertain. The country’s authoritarian leadership faced a legitimacy crisis, political intrigues, in an ethnically - differentiated polity, where ethnic competition for resources drove much of the pervasive corruption and profligacy. While the political gladiators constantly manipulated the people and the political processes to advance their own selfish agenda, the society remained pauperized, and the people wallowed in abject poverty. This invariably led to weak legitimacy, as the citizens lacked faith in their political leaders and by extension, the political system. Participation in government was low because citizens perceived it as irrelevant to their lives. In the absence of support from civil society, the effective power of government was eroded. Patron - client relationships took a prime role over the formal aspects of politics, such as the rule of law, well-functioning political parties, and a credible electoral system. In order to break this cycle and ensure good governance, accountability and transparency must be guaranteed. Key words: Corruption, legitimacy, patron – client relations, political stability, oil revenue, accountability, transparency.

Finding the Trolls Under Your Bridge: The New Case for Party Politics in Canadian Cities

Through the twentieth century, Canadian city politics has operated under the pretense of non-partisanship. Municipal governments have been a refuge for special interests who, garbed in antipartyism and common sense, were left alone to rule their local roosts. For instance, the Civic Non-Partisan Association, Vancouver's dominant political organization and living oxymoron, long espoused the Burkean notion that council not be a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests.1 With its recent and massive restructuring of urban government in Ontario however, the government of Premier Mike Harris has rendered Canadians a service: by focussing public attention on who does what at both levels of government, Harris inadvertently smoked out almost everyone with a priorized municipal agenda. In spite of its somewhat brutal methods, the Ontario provincial government has provoked a broad rethinking of how local political business should be transacted. Canadian city politics have yet to mature, either as they might or as their citizens have a right to expect. In the small debate about local democracy and citizen-centred government one obvious question is scarcely considered: should formal parties be introduced into civic elections in Canada's major cities?2 Over the years non-partisanship has veiled a conservative and incrementalist policy-making style that seems inappropriate for postmodern metropolises. That non-partisanship is a conservative force is really not all that surprising. Among the political gladiators in Vancouver, Canada's most overtly partisan city, the most conservative faction has seen the city as a business and somehow independent of politics.3 The Maud Commission in Great Britain found anti-party feeling strongest among rural, suburban and more conservative councillors generally. In Canada, voter turnout is very low municipally compared to other political levels, perhaps because the issues at stake are obscured by the lack of coherent policy positions. Debates and decisions of local councils are generally understood to be muddled not petty; this obscures partisan ties to other levels and to avoid quasi-ministerial accountability for the consequences of council actions. In addition to this general concern with appropriate representation, non-partisan local politics has not been benign but inefficient and wrong. When well-educated citizens are denied fundamental opportunities for reasonable democratic choice, as Henry Milner's comparative study has convincingly argued, municipal electoral participation is discouraged.4 There may well be a growing appreciation among the civic political elite of the importance of these issues in big city elections.5 But by the evidence from the playing fields, little partisanship is admitted to in Canadian city politics in the 1990s.6 Even where they have been most successful over the years, Canada's purely local city parties have been very small cadres, often no more than a few dozen activists in the gladiatorial roles. For example, in Edmonton, the Citizens' Committee that held all council seats between 1945 and 1959 was never a large group: when founded in 1936 it comprised 41 professionals and businessmen led by the president of the chamber of commerce, and at its nomination meeting in 1962 only 27 members were present, including candidates.7 Enough party-like activity, such as slate-making, has taken place during the twentieth century to inform a small debate as to whether such behaviours, or even open party politics are desirable.8 Across the Prairies, the hypocrisy of pretended non-partisanship prevailed in city elections in Regina and Saskatoon in October, 1988. These elections saw Saskatoon Mayor C. Wright retire after being given an Order-in-Council appointment by the provincial Conservatives, to be replaced by 12-year council veteran and New Democrat Henry Dayday. In Regina's march of the political toreadors, new Mayor D. …