Lesson Note for Second Term SS1

WEEK 1 NATIONALISM (CONT’D)

WEEK 2 CHARACTERISTICS OF DEMOCRACY

WEEK 3 RULE OF LAW AND PRINCIPLES OF RULE OF LAW

WEEK 4 LIBERTY

WEEK 5 MINORITY AND MAJORITY INTEREST

WEEK 6 MAJOR PILLARS OF DEMOCRACY

WEEK 7 ARMS OF GOVERNMENT

WEEK 8 OTHER STRONG INSTITUTIONS OF GOVERNMENT

WEK 9 FREEDOM AS A PILLAR OF DEMOCRACY

WEEK 10 MEANING OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT AND THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT

WEEK 11 DEFINITION OF CITIZEN AND ALIEN

Lesson note on civic education for SS 1 Second Term

Below are the 2022 civic education lesson notes for SS 1 Second term

Week 1

Topic: Nationalism (Cont’d)

Content:

• Nationalistic Roles of Individuals
• Nationalistic Roles of Groups

NATIONALISTIC ROLES OF INDIVIDUALS

PAST NATIONALIST LEADERS

HERBERT MACAULAY (1864 – 1946)

i) He was regarded as the father of Nigerian Nationalism.

ii) He formed the first political party Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP) in1923.

iii) His party contested and won the three seats allocated to Lagos in 1923, 1928 and1933 into the legislative council.

iv) He became the first president of the NCNC National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon in 1944. To learn more, Click here

Week 2

Topic: Characteristics of Democracy

Content:

1. Meaning and Types of Democracy
2. Representative Democracy
3. Features of Representative Democracy
4. Merits and Demerits of Representative Democracy

Meaning of Democracy

According to Abraham Lincoln, democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people.

It is the system of government in which people exercise their political power through the periodic election of leaders by themselves or their representatives.

The word democracy was traceable to ancient Greek. The word DEMO and KRATIA which form democracy means people and government.

Types of Democracy

There are two types of Democracy, which are

1. Direct Democracy: This is the system of government where everybody is involved in governing the country. It is a system whereby all citizens meet together periodically for the purpose of governing the country.
2. Indirect Democracy: This is a system of government where citizens choose their representatives to rule on their behalf. This is also called representative democracy. This system of government is practised in Nigeria, Ghana, the U.S.A etc. To learn more, Click here

Week 3

Topic:  Rule of Law and Principles of Rule of Law

Content

1. Rule of Law and Principles of Rule of Law
   
2. Limitations of Rule of Law
3. Needs/Importance of Rule of Law in a State

RULE OF LAW

The rule of law simply means that every citizen must act in accordance with the law. It is the supremacy of the law over every citizen in the political system. It is the legal principle that law should govern a nation. It basically means that the law should apply to everyone in other words; no one is above the law.

The concept of the rule of law was made popular by professor A.V Dicey in his book “enspirit de law” in the year 1885.

Principles of the rule of law

1. Principle of impartiality: This principle states that the law should not be partial to anybody. This means that no one should be punished for any offence except if he/she has been found guilty by the court.
2. Principle of equality before the law: This principle states that all men must be equal before the law of the land.
3. Principle of fair hearing: This principle states that anyone arrested for an offence should be listened to through normal court processes before judgment is passed. To learn more, Click here

Week 4

Topic: Liberty

Content

• Definition of Liberty
• Types of Liberty
• Factors that safeguard the liberty of citizen

Definition of Liberty

The word “Liberty” stands derived from the Latin word ‘Liber” which means ‘free’. In this sense liberty means freedom from restraints and the freedom to act as one likes. However, in a civil society such a meaning of Liberty is taken to be negative and harmful.

It is only in a jungle that freedom from restraints is available to animals. In a civil society no person can be really permitted to act without restraints. Hence, Liberty is taken to mean the absence of not all restraints but only those restraints which are held to be irrational.

Liberty is usually defined in two ways: Negative Liberty & Positive Liberty:

(A) Negative Liberty:

In its negative sense, Liberty is taken to mean an absence of restraints. It means the freedom to act in any way. In this form, liberty becomes a license. Such a meaning of liberty can never be accepted in a civil society. In contemporary times, the Negative conception of liberty stands rejected. To learn more, Click here

Week 5

Topic: Minority and Majority Interest

Content:

1. Definition of Minority and Majority Interest with Examples
2. Reasons for protecting Minority Interest
3. Ways of Protection/Safeguard Minority Interest

Definition of Minority and Majority Interest

Majority rule is a way of organizing government where citizens freely make political decisions through voting for representatives. The representatives with the most votes then represent the will of the people through majority rule. Minority rights are rights that are guaranteed to everyone, even if they are not a part of the majority. These rights cannot be eliminated by a majority vote. Minorities must trust that the majority will keep in mind the wishes of the minority when making decisions that affect everyone. Minorities — whether as a result of ethnic background, religious belief, geographic location, income level, or simply as the losers in elections or political debate — enjoy guaranteed basic human rights that no government, and no majority, elected or not, should remove. To learn more, Click here

Week 6

Topic: Major Pillars of Democracy

Contents:

• Definition of constitution: sources and types
• Constitution as a major pillar of democracy
• Merits and Demerits of various types of constitution

Definition of Constitution

The constitution can be referred to as a book or document which contains the rules and principles by which a state is governed. It is the fundamental laws and principles that prescribe s the nature, functions and limits of a Government.

The constitution of a country dictates how power is shared among the arms of Government and the right and duties of citizens in the country.

Sources of Constitution

1. History of the people: This involves the past event or activities of the people in the country, the history of the people, therefore, need to be considered in the preparation of a constitution.
2. Decrees: These are the laws made by the federal military Government; the laws form part of the constitution in Nigeria.
3. Convention: These are the established ways of doing things. The convention does not have a legal implication if it is not carried out. To learn more, Click here

Week 7

Topic: Arms of Government

Contents:

1. Legislative – Types and Functions
2. Judiciary – Types and Functions
3. Executive – Types and Functions

There are three arms of government namely, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.

A. THE LEGISLATURE

This is the arm of government that is assigned the function of law-making. The legislature is given different names in different countries e.g. National or State Assembly in Nigeria, Parliament in Britain, and Congress in the United States.

The National Assembly in Nigeria comprises of Senate with 109 members and a House of Representatives with 360 members. The Senate is the upper house is headed by a senate president while the House of Representatives (the lower house) is headed by a speaker.

The symbols of authority for the legislative arm of government are the MACE and the GAVEL. To learn more, Click here

Week 8

Topic: Other Strong Institutions of a Democratic Government

Content:

• Other Strong Institutions of a Democratic Government
• Their Roles on Democratic Processes
• The roles of the police in a democratic system

Detailed below are some other institutions in a democratic society

ARMED FORCES

The armed forces include the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. They are to assist law enforcement agents to quell difficult internal crises like terrorist attack, riots or violent demonstrations. They are responsible for defending and protecting the territorial integrity of the state against any external attack or threat. They must also honour and respect the constitution and the military code of justice and accept orders from the civilian Commander-in-Chief. To learn more, Click here

Week 9

Topic: Freedom as a Pillar of Democracy

CONTENT:

• Definition and Reasons for Freedom as a Pillar of Democracy
• Features of Federalism
• Merits and Demerits of Federalism

Definition and Reasons for Freedom as a Pillar of Democracy

Freedom is the right and capacity of people to determine their own actions, in a community which is able to provide for the full development of human potentiality. This means that everyone has the same freedoms that are respected by all. There are different types of freedoms:

POLITICAL FREEDOMS

Political freedom (also known as political autonomy or political agency) as one of the pillars of democracy is described as freedom from oppression or coercion, the absence of disabling conditions for an individual and the fulfilment of enabling conditions, or the absence of life conditions of compulsion, e.g. economic compulsion, in a society. It can also refer to the positive exercise of rights, capacities and possibilities for action, and the exercise of social or group rights. To learn more, Click here

Week 10

Topic: Meaning of the State Government and the Local Government

CONTENT:

• Meaning of the State Government and the Local Government
• Functions of State and Local Government as Pillars of Democracy
• Problems of the three tiers of Government

The State Government

This is the second tier of the federalism system of Government, it is headed by the state governor, and currently, Nigeria has 36 states altogether. The legislative arm of the state government is called the state house of assembly.

Functions of the state government

1. They are charged with the duty of providing Education for its residents
   
2. They are to ensure that the roads at their jurisdiction are well maintained and build new roads at where necessary.
3. They implement federal mandate
4. They are charged with the duty of collecting and generating revenue.
5. They operate judicial system. To learn more, Click here

Week 11

Topic: Definition of Citizen and Alien

CONTENT:

• Definition of Citizen and Alien
• Duties of Citizen and Alien
• Functions and Responsibility of a citizen in fostering democracy

CITIZEN: A citizen is a person who is a legal member of and owe allegiance to a particular country he resides in which he enjoys full civil and political rights and will be ready to put his life at stake in defence of his territory when occasion calls for that.

The special status which is accorded to citizens by the state is called citizenship. It can rightly be said that not everybody that resides in a territory is a citizen.

DUTIES OF CITIZENS

The following are some of the duties of a citizen in a state, in return for most of the rights enjoyed.

1) Payment of Taxes: A citizen should pay his tax to provide the state with revenue for social services e.g. pipe-borne water, hospitals etc. To learn more, Click here