I appreciate your summary of what I said. Your question "Might you please explain the mechanisms through which this "excessive freedom" theory works?"
In the case of Nigeria that I am very conversant with, freedom expression allows individual, individuals, groups etc to say what they think the leaders are doing wrong. The language they use to express their anger or fury can be very offensive. A bad leader will invariable want to stifle his people of this "excessive freedom" and use force to repress it.
The psychological impact of it is that you can repress the freedom of the people for a limited period of time. It cannot be repressed forever.
As Jean Paul Sartre says, "Man is freedom" and there seems not to be limit to this freedom. Without freedom there cannot be knowledge. It is from freedom of expression that we become knowledgeable about ourselves and the environment we live in. Take that natural gift from humans then they are not homo sapiens any more. What defines us as humans is fundamentally this freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom to make choices etc.
The mechanism through which it works, if I understand your question, is by creating the environment whereby people can say what they want. If you fail to do this, the day they have the slightest opportunity to protest, it will be like wild fire. And that is precisely what happened in North Africa which we called Arab Spring.
Arab political leaders thought that by giving their people the basic essentials of life there would be no reason for anyone to criticize them. They were wrong. See what is happening in Syria, Bahrain, Yemen etc where their people are denied the right to exercise their freedom. It is conflict and war all over the places.
Let President Jonathan attempt to suppress freedom of expression, freedom of association etc in Nigeria you will witness the "wild animal" in man. The state of nature will turn loose. It will be worse than the Arab Spring. Abacha tried it and what became of him? Buhari tried it and what became of him? Today, Buhari is still suffering from that mistake he made before he was removed as Head of State.
Education plays a vital role in this. You cannot silence intellectuals, academics, political elites from exercising their right to free speech or freedom of expression. Women are coming out in droves to say no to men domination. They can voice out today than ever before because of their access to western education.
Freedom! Freedom!! Freedom!!!
SO
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Dear Segun,If I understand your bucolic conjecture, the dysfunction in Nigeria is caused by the "excessive freedom" that its citizens have, else why would they "insult" the President or the First Lady for that matter, and not end up in prison? If they were to have curtailed/limited freedom, i.e. freedom of speech, no one would dare "insult" these esteemed leaders, which in turn will create such tension within the society that the only outlet will be an uprising - Yes? Alternatively, if any citizen had the audacity to "insult" these eminent personalities,then of course, they would end up in prison in their droves no doubt, which of course will precipitate an uprising. No?Might you please explain Thanks. the mechanisms through which this "excessive freedom" theory works?
Thanks.
ChichiOn Thu, Jul 4, 2013 at 2:37 PM, Segun Ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com> wrote:--I doubt if age expectancy is the issue. The case of Nigeria is "excessive" freedom which helps to diffuse tension. Anyone can say anything about our leaders without any consequences. Former President Obasanjo was, in my view, the most insulted President in Nigeria. In other climes such would not be tolerated.Of recent President Jonathan and our First lady have been insulted, abused and ridiculed and no arrests have been made. In those Arab countries such elastic freedom is not there. If suppression of freedom is held for too long the day the people revote it will be explosive. And that is what we are witnessing in Egypt and other Arab countries.What does life expectancy have to do with revolution in Egypt? You need to give us a scientific proof.SO
Sent from my iPhoneMy Theory is that not until Nigeria achieves a life expectancy of about 75 years would we have the kind of protests in Algeria, Libya,Syria,Egypt and Turkey. These countries suprisinly have better standards of living than Nigeria.In Turkey life expectancy is 73-9 years,Libya 77.88,Syria 75.84,Egypt 73.20 Algeria 73.0 Causes cited by the protestors in Algeria include unemployment, the lack of housing, food-price inflation, corruption, restrictions on freedom of speech and poor living conditions. We have all these and more in Nigeria where life expectancy is a mere 51.86 years. No Nigeria leader would love to be unseated by popular revolt and so what our leaders would do is keep life expectancy to a minimum. Thats my theory--
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