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Civic Education – Political Apathy

SS 3 Civic Education First Term Week 2

Topic – Political Apathy

Contents:

  • Political Apathy
  • Reasons for Political Apathy
  • Effects of Political Apathy
  • Ways of Fighting Political Apathy

Political Apathy

Political apathy is the indifference on the part of any citizen of any country with regard to their attitude towards political activities. For example, politicians, elections, public opinions, civic responsibility, etc. Political Apathy has to do with a people’s lack of interest in the political affairs of the nation. An individual’s political apathy begins with a lack of understanding of politics or government to a certain degree, and that makes it more difficult for that individual to see the value in universal suffrage, and to see the benefits and/or costs of new policies that the government places. That makes the individual see it as irrational to gain the knowledge, since (supposedly) there would be no benefit (the individual would see this as rational ignorance). This creates a feedback loop

The following points below are the reasons why people fail to participate in political issues

  1. Bad Governance: The government of Nigeria for instance rules in a bad and carefree manner, their act does not motivate people thereby making people to ignore and nonchalant to political activities.
  2. Election Rigging: so many citizens belief that no matter the level of security election are going to be rigged either directly or indirectly thereby they see voting as a waste of time and energy.
  3. Past History of Political Occurrence: Due to the fact that some family members, friends and relatives have been victimized in the process of participating in political issues, because of this experience people decide not to participate in politics.
  4. Violent Campaign: Sometimes, the way political parties carry out their carry out their campaigns appears too violent and this can lead to lack of interest in politics.
  5. Military Invitation: people reflect on the past hijacked political activities through bloody coup d’état because of this people decide not to participate.
  6. Weak Security Measure: Most of the times, the security provided by the government during election or campaigns or any demonstration are always too weak to provide adequate security; this therefore creates fear in the heart of people and make them not want to participate.
  7. Chaotic Political Atmosphere: Sometimes political atmosphere appears unpeaceful, the political killings and all the rest is another reason for political apathy.

Dangers of Political Apathy

Political apathy will have negative effect on individual and government

  1. Political apathy will lead to bad government
  2. It will lead to emergence of thugs and greedy politician emerging as leaders
  3. It will lead to lack of communication between the government and the citizens
  4. It will lead to denial of political information and education
  5. Political apathy will cause the government to behave anyhow since people are not interested in their activities.

Ways of Fighting Political Apathy

The following ways are the means by which citizens can fight against political apathy

  1. By participating in election
  2. By knowing and defending our right
  3. By joining or belonging to popular organizations like the NLC (Nigeria Labor Congress) political party like APC, PDP,LP etc.

Test and Exercise

  1. All of these are the reasons why people do not participate in politics (a) bad governance (b) election rigging (c) weak security (d) good performance. ans (d)
  2. Political apathy will lead to (a) bad governance (b) good governance (c) reduction in corruption (d) development in politics. ans (a)
  3. How can citizens fight against political apathy in Nigeria (a) by gossiping about the government (b) by knowing and defending our right (c) by avoiding to vote during election (d) by participating in the rigging . ans (b)
  4. NLC stands for (a) National Labor Congress (b) Nigeria Lagos Congress (c) Nigeria Labor Congress (d) National Life Conference.
  5. Fight against political apathy will yield positive effect on Nigeria politics. True/ false. ans (true)

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